Who Waypaths benefits
For people coordinating support
Use time and energy to meet learner needs, not for paperwork
For people providing support
Improve visibility and receive clearer, more relevant referral requests
For families and guardians
A clearer view of needs, support and agreed next steps
What could change in practice?
Local Authorities
Explainable records behind provision and budget decisions
View and compare support available locally
Identify gaps in provision in your areas based on unmet needs
Keep relevant evidence and review status visible
Reduce repeated information gathering across commissioning workflows
Schools
Map internal support available and identify gaps
View and compare support available locally
Ensure provision and adjustment history are not lost in transition
Prepare access/referral requests with clearer information
Record why external support is being explored and keep relevant feasibility information visible
Multi-Academy Trusts
Improve trust-wide inclusion visibility
Share specialist support across schools
Identify common unmet needs
Keep relevant evidence and review status visible
Reduce repeated information gathering across commissioning workflows
Alternative Provision
Improve your visibility
Clarify distinct services and the needs they meet
Receive clearer referral requests with less repeated clarification
Keep service evidence and review status connected
Specialists
Improve your visibility
Clarify distinct services and the needs they meet
Receive clearer referral requests and timelines
Keep service evidence and review status connected
Guardians
See a clearer picture of needs and unmet needs
Ensure provision and adjustment history are not lost in transition
Track agreed support and timelines for review status (Where an organisation uses Waypaths and access is permitted)
Clearer information. Human decisions.
Waypaths structures information, surfaces gaps and shows why a service may or may not be relevant. The people and organisations responsible for the decision remain responsible for it.
Starting with learner needs and the support already in place, it then makes individual service information easier to compare. The result is a clearer basis for an access referral, human decision, agreement and review.
Information extracted from documents must be checked and confirmed by a person before it is used for matching.
Built from inside education.
Waypaths is being built by educators with lived and professional experience across mainstream, special and alternative education.
It comes from repeated experience of partial referrals, scattered information, repeated paperwork, unclear needs and good professionals trying to make difficult decisions without a shared picture.
We are gathering research input, sector feedback and pilot learning before making strong claims about time, cost or outcomes.
Choose the next step that fits.
Understand the approach
See the full needs-to-services matching process, including current support, hard requirements, suitability, feasibility, evidence status, access requests and review.
Stay informed
Tell us what you are interested in and receive relevant Waypaths updates. Registering interest does not commit you to a pilot or paid service.
Contribute to the research
Share what finding, coordinating, providing or understanding support currently looks like from your perspective.
Map your services
For schools, LAs, alternative provision and specialist providers that want to describe individual services, limits, access routes and evidence more clearly.
Please do not include identifiable learner information. The research route is not monitored as a safeguarding reporting route.