Ben Bryant

Ben specialises in developing approaches to support vulnerable young people. He has led major national research projects and local reviews to explore and strengthen support for vulnerable young people.

Ben has led significant national research projects into different aspects of support for vulnerable children and young people. He has led major research projects commissioned by the Department for Education into SEN funding and alternative provision, as well as work on characteristics of effective “local SEND systems”, the causes of financial pressures on the SEND system and disputes in the SEND system for the Local Government Association. In 2023, Ben co-led research commissioned by the Department for Education and the Cabinet Office into how academy trusts have narrowed and closed attainment gaps between pupils from different ethnic groups. Ben has undertaken a series of research projects looking at the evolution of the education system in England, going back to the 2014 “temperature check”, and including, most recently research into the role of local authorities in relation to vulnerable children and pupil place-planning.

Ben is currently leading a project to set out what a future SEND and inclusive education system in Engand could look like, commissioned by the Local Government Association and the County Councils Network. In parallel, Ben is currently part of the RISE (Research and Improvement for SEND Excellence) Consortium, led by the Council for Disabled Chidlren, which has been commissioned to develop a “What Works in SEND” programme, within which Ben is leading on the development and roll-out of a framework for capturing case studies of effective local practice.

Ben has led national research projects into how local education and children’s services systems responded to the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, into the enablers of and barriers to improvement in local children's services , into the use of different models of improvement support and into what enables the development of effective, partnership-based models of early help. Ben has presented at national conferences and facilitated regional workshops for elected lead members and senior children's services leaders to share the findings of this research and build local capacity for improvement. Ben has also led teams that have worked with individual local areas to review their improvement journey and activities to date and develop strategies for embedding and sustaining improvements in children's services. Through these projects, Ben has worked with around 60 local areas' children's services across England.

Ben has also supported numerous local areas across England on reviews of strategies, services and funding for support for vulnerable young people. This has included working with local areas, such as Wakefield and Rotherham, to develop new systems for fostering inclusion and the effective use of alternative provision, during the period of the coronavirus pandemic and cycles of lockdowns. Most recently, Ben has worked on projects relating to support for vulnerable young people in East Sussex, Essex, and Bath & North-East Somerset. As part of LocalEd 2025, he is currently facilitating a network of pilots that are exploring new ways of providing more holistic support for young people who are vulnerable and at risk at missing out on education.

Ben is an expert facilitator and has experience of facilitating high-profile summits, stakeholder consultations and strategy development events across the UK and internationally. Before joining Isos Partnership, Ben worked for the Department for Education, where he was one of the authors of the 2011 green paper on SEN and disability, and led reforms of the pupil premium and high-needs funding. Ben is currently a governor at a local primary school.