Stephen Morris, Cathy Lewin, Peter Hick, Andrew Smith and Jordan Harrison

This is an evaluation protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate the Whole School SEND Review. Students with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) represent a significant and often vulnerable part of the secondary school population. The Whole School SEND Review was developed in response to the Department for Education (DfE) identifying a need for schools to access support for implementing 2014 Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) reforms. The Whole School Send Review aims to prioritise SEND provision in secondary schools by giving school leadership teams ownership of the process to support school development of SEND – ultimately with the aim of improving pupil outcomes. The protocol is for a two-armed parallel cluster randomised controlled trial with allocation at the school level. This is a revised protocol accounting for changes steming from school closures in response to Covid-19 pandemic.