June 2026 | The Inclusion Index Edition 4
A national evidence base for Inclusion, Belonging and school experience
The GEC Inclusion Index
For Edition 4, we introduce three ranked leaderboards — Students, Staff and, for the first time, Parents and Carers — built from actionable insights across our national dataset.
Designed to help leaders track the issues most shaping Inclusion, Belonging and the experience of school — and turn insight into action.
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Introduction
We started by listening to previously unheard voices in our schools — over 26,000 of them.
In 2025 we released our 26,000 Voices report, capturing the lived experiences of students, staff and communities across education.
Since then, we have continued to build on this research term by term through the GEC Inclusion Index.
Edition 4 now represents more than 35,000 voices — offering one of the clearest pictures yet of how Inclusion, Belonging, Wellbeing and Pupil Engagement are being experienced across schools, trusts and local authorities.
We established three ranked leaderboards, one for students, one for staff and for the first time one for parents and carers, based on actionable metrics from our Kaleidoscopic Data.
We’re releasing the latest edition of the Inclusion Index to track the top 10 issues most affecting inclusion and belonging in schools.
Turn insight into action
Edition 4 draws on insights from more than 35,000 voices across education, captured through the award-winning GEC Platform. Through this research, we have identified the top 10 issues shaping Inclusion and Belonging in schools today.
Triangulated through surveys, interviews and research workshops, this live national dataset helps illuminate the space between policy intention and lived experience.
Using Kaleidoscopic Data — a framework developed through participatory doctoral research to surface nuanced, intersectional experiences across educational communities — the Index reveals where inclusion is becoming embedded into culture and practice, and where it remains conditional, inconsistent or unevenly experienced.
The result is practical intelligence for leaders: helping move beyond understanding what is happening to exploring why — and turning insight into meaningful action.
The Inclusion Index is designed to help leaders understand what is working, what is not, and where there is opportunity to build capacity for intentional, evidence-informed change.
From our Founder
Experience as Evidence
“This edition of the Inclusion Index arrives at a defining moment for education. As schools navigate SEND reform, workforce instability, widening attendance challenges and increasing pressure on family-school relationships, inclusion is becoming a central measure of organisational effectiveness rather than a parallel strategy.
Increasingly, leaders are expected to evidence not only what provision exists, but how inclusion is experienced across their communities — including whether students, staff and families feel safe, supported, represented and able to belong.
Drawing on over 35,000 student and workforce voices, alongside the first GEC Parent & Carer Inclusion Index, Edition 4 brings together one of the UK’s most detailed triangulated lived-experience datasets exploring inclusion, belonging and participation in education.
Developed through a participatory process involving charities, advocates and organisations connected to over 500,000 parents and carers, the Parent & Carer Index helps surface the relational conditions shaping trust, communication, advocacy fatigue and belonging across educational communities.
Through Kaleidoscopic Data, the Inclusion Index reveals how experiences differ across identity, role, need, working pattern and lived experience — surfacing where systems feel connected and consistent, and where fragmentation remains visible.
Across this Index, one message has become increasingly clear: inclusion is experienced relationally and sustained structurally.
Students describe inconsistency, masking and feeling misunderstood. Staff describe rising expectations without sustainable infrastructure. Parents and carers describe growing advocacy fatigue and declining trust where support depends on persistence rather than partnership.
The Inclusion Index is not designed to judge schools. It is designed to increase visibility.
Inclusion is not defined by intention alone, but by how consistently people experience safety, belonging and participation within everyday school life.
Dr Nicole Ponsford, Founding CEO of the GEC and Lead Researcher.
Students
Below are the 10 most significant conditions shaping student inclusion and belonging.
Top-ranked area:
Representation
One in three students struggle to see themselves meaningfully reflected across school life, curriculum and leadership opportunities.
“You start to feel like certain spaces just aren’t meant for people like you.” (Student, KS4)
Up seven places from the Inclusion Index Edition 3
Kaleidoscopic Data: Global Majority students, multilingual learners, neurominority students and those with invisible disabilities consistently report lower levels of representation across curriculum, staffing and leadership opportunities.
GEC View: Representation is increasingly understood through visibility, relatability and recognition. Students are less likely to feel included when they rarely see their identities, experiences or futures reflected across school life.
Download the full Index to see the most urgent inclusion issues for students, staff, parents and carers—identified from 35,000 voices this Summer Term and ranked using Kaleidoscopic Data.
See Edition 3, Edition 2 and Edition 1
Staff
Below are the top 10 areas affecting staff inclusion and belonging in schools.
Top-ranked area:
Flexible Working
62% of staff — parents/carers, neurodivergent staff and staff with disabilities — say flexible working directly affects whether they can sustain their role long term.
“Flexibility now decides whether I stay in education.” (Teacher, Secondary)
⬆ Up three places from the Inclusion Index Edition 3
Kaleidoscopic Data: Parents/carers, neurodivergent staff, staff with disabilities and those managing long-term health conditions consistently report lower confidence in sustaining roles without meaningful flexibility and workload adaptation.
GEC View: Flexible working is increasingly shaping workforce sustainability and retention. Staff are increasingly linking flexibility to retention, wellbeing, caregiving and long-term participation in education.
Download the full Index to see the most urgent inclusion issues for staff, students, parents and carers —identified from 35,000 voices this Summer Term and ranked using Kaleidoscopic Data.
Parents and Carers
New for Edition 4: The Top 10 Factors Shaping Parent and Carer Experience of School.
Top-ranked area:
Support
More than half of parents and carers report having to navigate support systems independently before help is offered.
“I had to figure everything out myself.” (SEND Parent, Secondary)
Kaleidoscopic Data: Parents and carers of children with SEND and non-visible disabilities report significantly higher support fatigue. Families navigating multiple systems describe inconsistent experiences across education and external services. Lower-income households report additional barriers accessing timely support.
GEC View: Support becomes inequitable when access depends on parental capacity, confidence or persistence.