Cognassist

For further education colleges and college groups

Whole-provider inclusion, built for FE colleges, at scale

Cognassist is the inclusion platform for FE colleges and college groups: one consistent process across every department and campus, producing audit-grade evidence you can defend at inspection.

Book a demoFind the right starting point
10 Nov 2025
Inclusion became its own graded, whole-provider Ofsted judgement
£83m a year
Inclusive Mainstream Fund for 16 to 19 providers
Two further education college colleagues greeting each other warmly in a bright, modern college building

Trusted by colleges across the country

  • Bedford College Group
  • Lincoln College
  • South Hampshire College Group
  • Eastern Education Group

The pressure

Three forces are converging on inclusion in FE, and they land on you

Read the three top to bottom. Individually they differ; together they put whole-provider inclusion at the centre of your accountability, to be shown and defended in your self-assessment report (SAR) and quality improvement plan (QIP).

The standalone Ofsted inclusion judgement

Live now
  • The renewed Ofsted framework has been in use since 10 November 2025.
  • Inclusion is now its own graded evaluation area for further education and skills, judged at whole-provider level.
  • There is no single overall grade. Each area gets its own grade on a five-point scale, from Urgent improvement to Exceptional.
  • It is inspected at two levels at once: how inclusion is delivered on the ground, and how leaders oversee, evaluate and improve it. A strong department will not carry a weak one.
  • Inspectors weight evidenced impact on learners over activity, so you have to show inclusion works and defend it in your SAR and QIP.
  • Source: Ofsted, the education inspection framework in use from November 2025, on gov.uk.

SEND reform

Direction of travel
  • Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reform is set out in the May 2026 Schools White Paper, 'Every Child Achieving and Thriving'.
  • It proposes a four-tier support model, a duty to create an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for every learner with SEND, and a duty to train staff to adapt teaching.
  • These are proposed, not yet law. The direction is clear enough to get ready now.
  • Source: Department for Education, the Schools White Paper 'Every Child Achieving and Thriving', May 2026, on gov.uk.

The Inclusive Mainstream Fund (IMF)

£83m a year
  • The Inclusive Mainstream Fund (IMF) is £83m a year for 16 to 19 providers, within more than £500m a year for inclusion overall.
  • It is allocated on low prior attainment, arrives automatically with no application, and is paid as one lump sum around July 2026.
  • You set out how you use it in an accountability statement, reviewed in your annual strategic conversation.
  • Source: Department for Education, the inclusive mainstream fund for 16 to 19 providers methodology 2026 to 2027, on gov.uk.

The fit

One inclusion process, every department and every campus

A college does not run on a handful of specialists and a bolt-on spreadsheet. Cognassist gives you one consistent inclusion process, the graduated approach of assess, plan, do, review, run by confident non-specialists across every tutor, department and site. This is inclusion at scale.

  • One cycle and one evidence standard everywhere, so good support does not depend on who a learner happens to sit with.
  • Confident non-specialists deliver good, evidenced support; your specialists are amplified, not consumed, and reserved for the most complex needs.
  • No parallel systems, and no consistency gap between your strongest department and the rest.

See how support scales across your provider

What that process actually is, at college scale

The graduated approach, run across a whole college rather than a caseload. The point of each stage below is the same: it has to work when the person doing it is an ordinary tutor with a full timetable, not a specialist with time to spare.

Step 01 of 04

Assess

Every learner, at enrolment, without a specialist in the room

  • Computer-led and self-guided, so a whole cohort can be assessed without a member of staff sitting with each learner
  • Existing identifications and known barriers are folded into the same workflow, so prior knowledge is not lost
  • Learners who join late, or who are not ready at enrolment, complete it afterwards

See the platform end to end

What we are optimising for

Reduce learning barriers while increasing time spent with the learner

Every design decision above is pointed at one outcome. Inclusion work has a habit of turning into administration, and administration is time taken from the learner. A system that identifies need but costs your tutors their teaching time has moved the problem rather than solved it.

  • The assessment runs without a specialist in the room, so identifying need across a whole cohort does not consume your staff's week.
  • The plan is drafted from the assessed need, so a tutor's time goes into the conversation with the learner rather than into authoring a document.
  • Guidance arrives at the moment of delivery, so working out how to adjust does not become an evening job.
  • Records are coached to standard as they are written, so evidence is a by-product of doing the work rather than a second job before an inspection.

The fit

Inclusion you can defend in your SAR and QIP

Inspection and governance reward evidenced impact, not description. Cognassist turns everyday support into a traceable evidence chain, the golden thread, so your inclusion story rests on what you can show. Admin-only Insights gives leadership whole-provider line of sight, so you can act on gaps before they become findings.

  • Already run a management information system (MIS) or e-portfolio? Cognassist adds the inclusion evidence layer on top, the part a system of record does not do.
  • Real-time coaching checks record quality at the point of entry, so evidence is audit-grade as it is written, not reconstructed before an inspection.
  • Admin-only oversight shows leadership where evidence quality is strong across the provision and where it needs attention.

See how the evidence is built and overseen

Peer proof · Bedford College Group

Whole-provider inclusion, proven across a college group

Bedford College Group piloted the full assess, plan, do, review cycle across four curriculum areas and three colleges, then committed to rolling it out across the whole provision from September 2026. The pilot showed tutors could deliver expert-grade, personalised support without depending on specialists. The alternative would have been to grow specialist resource fivefold.

Read the Bedford College Group story

  • 4curriculum areas in the pilot
  • 3colleges across the group
  • Sept 2026provision-wide rollout

Getting it running

We know a college is large, complex, and already busy

The question that decides this is not whether the platform works. It is whether it lands across a big organisation with a full timetable and an enrolment process that has no spare room in it. We would rather set that out plainly before you buy than discover it together at kick-off.

  • Staff training is delivered in-app and role-specific, so people complete it when their timetable allows rather than being taken off timetable for a session.
  • Champions carry it internally: a small number of people who know the system well, support colleagues and quality-assure how it is being used across their area.
  • On systems, be straight with us early. Native connectors are configuration; anything else goes through the public API, which is development work. Most colleges are on the API route, and that is worth scoping at the start rather than mid-term.
  • Start where you can see the result. Bedford College Group piloted across four curriculum areas and three colleges before committing group-wide.

See what implementation actually takes

Peer proof

Colleges already evidencing inclusion at scale

Real figures and words from FE colleges using Cognassist, drawn from our published case studies.

1,600+
learners assessed at Lincoln College
93%
learner engagement at Lincoln College
Overall, our success rates for apprenticeships have improved and there is higher retention and progression. Using Cognassist, we can quickly see engagement reports, measure learner progress and provide a whole package of support for the apprentice.
Asa GordonAssistant Principal Employer Responsiveness, Bradford College
3,000
learners assessed across Bradford College's provision
Assessment, tracking and monitoring of progress is thorough and effective... They make good use of electronic systems to monitor learners' progress and intervene quickly and effectively when difficulties arise.
Chesterfield CollegeOfsted report, graded Good

Where to go next

Find the right starting point for your college

This page is the who and the why. Each next step routes you to the how.

FAQ

The questions college leaders actually ask

  • Is Cognassist right for our college or college group?
    Yes. Cognassist is the inclusion platform for FE colleges and college groups, from a single site to a large multi-site group. One consistent inclusion process, run by confident non-specialists, produces the whole-provider evidence you are now accountable for. It is proven at group scale with Bedford College Group.
  • How does Cognassist help with the standalone Ofsted inclusion judgement?
    It helps you evidence inclusion and its impact, and defend it in your SAR and QIP. Under Ofsted's framework, in use from November 2025, inclusion is a graded, whole-provider area judged on evidenced impact, and Cognassist makes that evidence a by-product of everyday practice. It does not make you compliant or guarantee a grade; the inspection outcome is yours. Our Ofsted inclusion readiness solution page shows how.
  • We already have a SENDCo and our own processes. Are we not already covered?
    Those processes see the learners who disclose, who are referred, or who arrive with an existing identification. They do not see the whole cohort, because they cannot: a specialist team can only reach the learners who reach it. SEND reform points the same way, with your specialists more in demand rather than less, which is an argument for protecting their time for the most complex cases while every other learner still gets a consistent, evidenced plan from a non-specialist. This amplifies your specialists rather than replacing them, and they are typically the deepest users of the platform.
  • We are not due an inspection for another two years. Why now?
    Because the grade assesses the system you are already running, not a project you started six weeks before. Inspectors look at whether inclusion is consistent and evidenced across the provider over time, and an evidence trail built retrospectively looks exactly like what it is. The other reason is that the changes are landing now regardless of your inspection window: the framework has been in use since November 2025, and the Inclusive Mainstream Fund arrives automatically from around July 2026.
  • More identified need means more support to deliver. Does this not just create cost?
    It is a fair question, and the answer is in how the cycle is designed. Support is delivered largely by the staff you already have rather than by growing your specialist team, which is the expensive path: Bedford College Group's alternative was growing specialist resource fivefold. Support is also designed to end, with learners stepping off on the evidence that it worked rather than staying on a caseload indefinitely. And the support you plan, deliver and evidence well may attract funding your college is already eligible for, though how you allocate and claim that is your decision, not ours.
  • We already run an MIS or e-portfolio. What does Cognassist add?
    A system of record stores what a tutor wrote. Cognassist adds the inclusion evidence layer alongside it: real-time coaching that checks record quality at the point of entry, and admin-only oversight of evidence quality across your whole provision. Those are the things a system of record does not do.
  • Can we use the Inclusive Mainstream Fund for this?
    The Inclusive Mainstream Fund is £83m a year for 16 to 19 providers, allocated on low prior attainment and arriving automatically from around July 2026. It pays you to plan, deliver and evidence an inclusive core offer and account for it in an accountability statement, and Cognassist helps you do and evidence exactly that. How you allocate and spend the fund is your decision. The Department for Education sets out the mechanism in its inclusive mainstream fund methodology for 2026 to 2027, on gov.uk.
  • How does Cognassist prepare us for SEND reform?
    SEND reform is direction of travel, set out in the May 2026 Schools White Paper 'Every Child Achieving and Thriving', and not yet law. You can get ready now with what is live: Plan360 already produces the kind of digital support plan the proposed Individual Support Plan duty points to, and Cognassist Training builds the staff capability the proposed training duty expects. Our SEND reform readiness solution page has the detail.
  • Do we get a one-click Ofsted-ready report?
    No. Audit-grade evidence is a by-product of everyday practice, not a button. You can export a support-record PDF per learner and bulk Evidence CSVs whenever you need them.
  • Is the cognitive assessment a diagnosis?
    No. It produces a cognitive profile that informs a tutor's professional judgement. It is not a clinical diagnosis and does not by itself establish disability under the Equality Act 2010.
  • Who can see the leadership oversight dashboard?
    Admins. Insights is an admin-only view that gives leadership whole-provider line of sight on inclusion. It is not a tutor-facing dashboard.

Whole-provider inclusion, inspection-ready and defensible, at scale

See how Cognassist helps your college evidence inclusion and defend it in your SAR and QIP, across every department and campus. Book a demo, or explore the results from colleges like yours.

Book a demoSee customer results