ISP COMPASS: helping schools navigate Individual Support Plan (ISP) duties with confidence - 3rd Jul 2026
We're excited to announce a brand-new tool joining STEPS this September: ISP COMPASS, built to help SENCOs, teachers and school leaders navigate their Individual Support Plan (ISP) duties with confidence.
Why ISP COMPASS, why now?
Under SEND reform, schools will be expected to hold an Individual Support Plan for every child with SEND: a clear baseline, a genuinely SMART target, the right provision, and a regular review. That's 40 to 60 live plans in a typical primary, and upwards of 200 in a typical secondary. Staff are already stretched thin getting there.
ISP COMPASS gives that time back. It guides staff through each plan step by step, identifying the underlying need, setting a properly SMART target, and matching it to the right support. This means the staff who know each child best can write high-quality, statutory-aligned plans faster, with quality and oversight built in.
Designed by educational psychologists, not a generic AI tool bolted onto a template, the questions it asks and the support it suggests are psychologically informed and aligned to schools' statutory SEND duties.
Quick facts: the Inclusive Mainstream Fund
- Worth over £500 million a year, including £400 million a year for schools, across a three-year spending period from 2026–27.
- Paid automatically via a national funding formula, no application needed.
- Every mainstream primary, secondary, middle and all-through school (maintained or academy) is eligible.
- Schools must publish an inclusion strategy statement by 31 December 2026, on their website and available to Ofsted, showing how they're identifying and meeting need.
Where ISP COMPASS fits
The IMF is designed to help schools become inclusive by design, identifying and supporting need earlier, without always requiring a formal diagnosis. ISP COMPASS fits squarely within that direction: helping staff identify need earlier, set evidence-informed targets, and evidence the impact of their support, exactly what schools will need for their inclusion strategy statement.
It works alongside STEPS, our whole-staff SEND training platform, with a dashboard leaders can use as evidence for the same reporting.
What's next
OLT’s ISP COMPASS launches in September. We'll be sharing more over the coming weeks. To be the first to hear the latest news register your interest using the form below.