I am delighted that the Boxall Profile® Online has won the Inclusive Technology Award at the nasen Awards 2026. The award recognises technology that gives strong support to all pupils, including those with SEND. I couldn't be prouder of the team who made it happen.
This award is for every child who has been shut out of learning. As our Senior Digital Product Manager, Jo Davies, put it: "this recognition belongs to our whole team." For me, it also says something bigger: about where inclusion is heading, and why nurture belongs at the heart of it.
Arti Sharma CEO | nurtureuk
We started talking about inclusion over 50 years ago
Long before inclusion was a policy priority, we were making the case for it. Nurtureuk is the charity behind the movement to put nurture at the heart of education.
For many years we have helped schools remove the social and emotional barriers that stop children learning and limit their life chances. We do this through a whole-school approach that makes sure every child can access education.
The Boxall Profile® has always been central to that work. It helps staff understand what sits behind a child's behaviour, so support is built on evidence rather than guesswork. Taking it online nearly 10 years ago, means more schools can use it, consistently, for more children.
The need has never been greater
Amid a school attendance crisis, rising exclusion and widely misunderstood behaviour, more children than ever are being shut out of education before they have had a fair chance. We exist to change that at scale.
Many of these children have no diagnosis. They have experienced trauma, disrupted attachment or difficult early experiences. When their social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs go unmet, the result is too often suspension, exclusion, absence and escalation to an EHCP.
Through the Boxall Profile® and a growing range of tools, training and support, we give schools the evidence and methods to understand every child and help them flourish.
Taking the case to Parliament
On 21 October, days after the award, I joined an APPG roundtable in the House of Commons, chaired by Sarah Hall MP. We were there to shape the Government's new National Inclusion Standards, a key part of the SEND reforms set out in the Every Child Achieving and Thriving White Paper. The Standards will set out what every child and family should expect from their school, backed by a digital library of identification tools and provision.
Around the table were leaders from schools and multi-academy trusts across England: trust CEOs, deputy and assistant headteachers, directors of inclusion, SEND leads, and attendance and safeguarding leads. They were joined by local authority education leaders, a child and maternal health organisation, Agenda Alliance, and officials from the Department for Education. The APPG will share its recommendations with the Secretary of State to help inform the Standards.
I was asked what role social and emotional development should play in an inclusive school. My answer was simple: children can't learn if they don't feel safe, settled and connected. Social and emotional development isn't an add-on to inclusion – it's the foundation.
Standards that cover identification, adaptive teaching and environments, but not social and emotional development, miss the thing that decides whether a child can benefit from any of it. This is early intervention: meeting needs before they escalate to statutory processes. And a relational, predictable culture benefits every child, not just those with identified needs.
In practice, that means a whole-school relational culture where behaviour is understood as communication, short-term targeted support, and assessment first, using tools like the Boxall Profile® to identify needs and track progress.
I put five asks to the roundtable
- Name social and emotional development explicitly as a core strand – not folded into "behaviour" or "wellbeing"
- Include validated SEMH identification tools in the digital library – held to the same standard as tools for literacy or speech and language
- Set expectations at both levels: a whole-school relational culture, plus access to targeted, time-limited support
- Build in workforce development, so every adult understands child development and attachment, not just the SENCo
- Measure what matters: track social and emotional progress, not just attendance and attainment
This is why the nasen award matters beyond our team. It recognises exactly the kind of validated, accessible SEMH tool the Standards' digital library needs.
What comes next
Get this right in the Standards and every school has the means to keep children in class, learning and thriving which is exactly the Government's vision. We will keep making that case, in Parliament and in classrooms.
Thank you to our brilliant team, to nasen, and to every school that uses the Boxall Profile® to understand the children in front of them. This award is yours too.
If you want to see how the Boxall Profile® Online could support your school, find out more here.
Arti Sharma, CEO, nurtureuk