Executive Functioning in SEND Reform: The Part That Finally Makes Sense
Recent discussions around SEND reform and the education White Paper have introduced increasing reference to executive functioning as a central factor in learning, behaviour and participation in school.
There is much within current reform proposals that professionals and families are still working to understand, and many aspects will rightly continue to generate discussion across education.
However, one area stands out as making genuine developmental sense.
The recognition of executive functioning.
Moving Beyond Behaviour
For many years, education systems have understandably focused on observable outcomes — behaviour, attendance, engagement and attainment. When difficulties arise, schools respond with support plans, behaviour strategies, emotional literacy approaches or increasing levels of intervention.
These responses are logical when difficulties are viewed through behaviour alone.
Yet increasingly, professionals are recognising that behaviour is often the final expression of an underlying difficulty, rather than the starting point.
Executive functioning shifts the question from:
“Why is this child not complying?”
to:
“What skills make participation possible in the first place?”
What Executive Functioning Really Means
Executive functioning is often misunderstood as organisation, motivation or effort.
In reality, it refers to the brain-based skills that allow a child to:
hold information in mind,
manage attention,
control impulses,
adapt to change,
plan and sequence tasks,
regulate emotional responses,
and sustain effort over time.
These skills develop gradually throughout childhood and adolescence and are closely linked to neurological development and regulation.
When executive functioning is fragile, everyday classroom expectations — following instructions, transitioning between activities, coping with correction or managing frustration — can become overwhelming.
The difficulty is frequently invisible.
Adults see behaviour. The underlying developmental challenge remains unseen.
When Escalation Occurs
Across education, escalation often happens when support appears not to be working.
Expectations remain necessary. Systems respond reasonably. Consequences increase in an attempt to improve engagement or behaviour.
However, many children experience escalation at precisely the point their executive functioning capacity has already reduced.
When regulation decreases, access to thinking skills reduces. Working memory weakens, flexibility drops, emotional responses intensify and impulse control becomes harder to maintain.
At this stage, children may appear oppositional or disengaged, when in reality they are struggling to access the very skills required to meet expectations.
This distinction matters.
Because consequences alone cannot build executive functioning skills.
Regulation: The Missing Understanding
Policy increasingly references regulation, yet regulation is often interpreted as calming strategies delivered after behaviour occurs.
True regulation refers to a child’s ability to remain within a neurological state that allows thinking, learning and problem-solving to happen.
Without regulation, executive functioning cannot operate consistently.
Without executive functioning, learning becomes difficult to access — regardless of intelligence, motivation or intent.
Understanding this developmental relationship is essential if SEND reform is to translate into meaningful change within classrooms.
Why This Part of SEND Reform Makes Sense
There is much within current SEND reform that professionals and families are still trying to interpret, and many areas will continue to raise important debate.
However, the recognition of executive functioning within education policy represents an important step forward.
For the past five years, my work with families has focused on helping adults understand how regulation and executive functioning influence learning, behaviour and emotional wellbeing. Consistently, families reach support after escalation has already occurred — often when anxiety, school avoidance or emotional distress have become significant concerns.
What changes outcomes is not stronger behaviour management, but shared understanding between adults about how these developmental skills work and how they can be supported.
This is why this aspect of the White Paper makes sense.
Recognising executive functioning acknowledges that many difficulties seen in education are not rooted in unwillingness, but in how cognitive and regulatory skills develop.
From Recognition to Understanding
Naming executive functioning within policy is an important beginning.
But recognition alone will not change outcomes.
Meaningful change depends on professionals being supported to understand:
how executive functioning develops,
how regulation underpins learning,
how neurological and sensory differences affect participation,
and how early recognition can prevent escalation.
SEND reform presents an opportunity to move beyond managing behaviour towards understanding development.
If education systems are supported with the knowledge and confidence to recognise executive functioning differences earlier, there is real potential to reduce escalation, improve staff confidence and support children before difficulties reach a crisis point.
Executive functioning has now entered education policy.
The next step is ensuring the workforce is supported to understand what this means in practice.
