Learner support software for tutors and assessors

Tutors and assessors turn a support plan into what actually happens in a room, a workshop or a workplace visit. You are closest to the learner and often the first to notice that something is or is not working. This page describes what Inclusion Studio is designed to show you and ask of you.

What does a tutor’s or assessor’s day look like?

A tutor may teach several groups with many learners, each with different needs. An assessor may travel between employers, with limited time on each visit. Both are asked to apply adjustments they may not have seen in writing, remember who needs what, and record it afterwards. Common frustrations are plans that arrive late, long documents with no clear action, and no easy way to say “this is not working”.

What do tutors and assessors need from learner support software?

• A short, clear view of the adjustments that apply to each learner before a session or visit.
• Language you can act on, such as “provide slides 24 hours before”, rather than a diagnosis label.
• A fast way to record that support happened, did not happen, or was changed.
• A route to raise a concern or ask for a review without chasing.
• Confidence that you are not being asked to hold or share more personal information than you need.

What do you see in Inclusion Studio?

For learners linked to you, you see the agreed adjustments and the practical detail needed to deliver them. See support plans. You can record support as delivered or missed, with a short note and what happens next, using delivery tracking. If a session was missed, the missed support recovery step records how it is put right. You can see the next review date and raise a request for earlier review.

Plans are written to be usable. Good practice for these is in the guide to how to write a learner support plan, and teaching materials are covered in accessible teaching materials.

What can you not see?

Access is based on your organisation, your relationship to the learner and the specific fields in the record. Permissions are enforced on the server, so a hidden button is never the safeguard. As a tutor or assessor you would not normally see:

• learners you do not teach or assess;
• sensitive background, such as detailed health information or safeguarding material, unless your role needs it;
• other staff’s confidential notes;
• organisation-wide settings or exports.

See permissions and roles and safeguarding boundaries. Inclusion Studio is not a safeguarding system. Safeguarding concerns follow your organisation’s own procedures.

What about apprentices and employers?

Assessors often talk to employers. In an apprenticeship the employer sees only workplace adjustments and their own actions, never the learner’s full history. So you can discuss workplace adjustments openly with the employer without worrying that more has been shared than intended. For the funding side, DfE guidance notes that apprenticeship support needs reviewing at least every three months, which fits the review step. See employers and reasonable adjustments for apprentices.

How does it help your practice?

Recording delivered and missed support gives your inclusion lead evidence about what the learner actually received, and gives you a record that you did your part. It also gives the learner a chance to say whether support helped. Optional AI can help tidy a note into a draft, but it is labelled and you review it before saving. It never decides anything. See AI drafts.

Your legal context is the duty to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 and, for learners with SEND, the SEND code of practice. The provider holds the duty. You help carry it out. See reasonable adjustments in further education.

What might a fictional example look like?

This is a fictional example, not a real learner. Before a Tuesday workshop, a tutor opens the list of learners in the group and sees three adjustments: slides in advance for one learner, a seat near the door for another, and instructions given in writing and aloud for a third. During the session the slides were not sent. The tutor records that as missed with a note, sends them that evening, and records the recovery. Two weeks later the learner says on review that advance slides help a lot. Nothing the tutor did needed a diagnosis, and the tutor never saw one.

What is the current status?

Inclusion Studio is pre-pilot. A clickable prototype with fictional learners shows the tutor flow. The production application is being built on synthetic data. The pilot starts with FE colleges and apprenticeship providers in England. If you would like to give feedback on what a tutor or assessor view should include, contact us or read about the pilot. For the person who manages your plans, see inclusion leads, or compare all views on the roles page.