Senflow wins a Tech4Good Award at Leeds Digital Festival

On Thursday 1 October 2026, Senflow won the Tech4Good Award (Small Company) at the Leeds Digital Festival Awards. The winners were announced on the night at The Wardrobe in Leeds, and the awards team shared the news the next morning.

Dom Newmarch, our co-founder, wrote:

“To be recognised for tech that does good, in our home city, means a huge amount.”

What the Tech4Good Award recognises

The organisers sum up the Tech4Good Award in one line: “For digital work that makes a meaningful difference.” Entries are judged against each category's criteria, and for Tech4Good they list three:

• “Delivers positive change for individuals, communities or charitable causes.”
• “Uses technology or digital innovation to drive impact.”
• “Includes sustainability or social value initiatives.”

There are two Tech4Good categories, one for small companies and one for large ones. We were on the small company shortlist with Body Image Coach, EO HealthHub Connect, Sessionly and Ukind XR. Congratulations to all of them, and to DTP Group, who won the large company category. We were also shortlisted for Start-up of the Year; congratulations to Avenue3, who won it.

The awards are run by Ward Hadaway and byProduct, in association with Leeds Digital Festival. CGI sponsors the Tech4Good category.

What it means for the schools we work with

Senflow is a SEND platform for UK primary schools and multi-academy trusts. It keeps EHCPs, annual reviews, interventions, provision mapping, statutory deadlines and reporting in one place.

Senflow came out of time spent inside schools. Our co-founder and Director of Education, Lucy Stephens, was a teacher before Senflow, and she saw first-hand how SEND coordination really works day to day. What she and Dom saw were committed SENCOs and teams held back by tools that were never designed for the job.

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The challenges were familiar. Many SENCOs are teaching a full timetable alongside the role, so EHCPs, annual reviews and interventions get done in the gaps. Information sits in different places: a spreadsheet here, a folder of documents there, notes in someone's head. Statutory deadlines are easy to miss when nothing brings them together. Reports for governors, trusts and inspectors take hours to pull together by hand. And in a trust, leaders often only hear about a problem once a school raises it.

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None of this comes from a lack of care. It comes from time and systems, which is what we set out to fix.

For us, tech that does good often comes down to small, practical fixes. In September, a teaching assistant in Wakefield told us she didn't have time to type up notes after every conversation. By 6pm that day, Senflow had a dictation button. That is the kind of change we mean.

Last school year we worked with schools from Newcastle to East Sussex: mainstream primaries and specialist provisions, small standalone schools and large multi-academy trusts. 

What a year of listening has taught us

The award comes after a year of talking to hundreds of SENCOs, headteachers and trust leaders. We wrote up what a year of working with SENCOs taught us in July. Here is what stood out.

Two things came up again and again. No two schools struggle in the same way: some have a large and growing cohort, some have a SENCO teaching a full timetable alongside the role, and some have a small cohort with very complex needs. And trust leaders asked how they can see what is happening in every school in the trust, not only the ones that raise a problem.

Dom's thanks were for the people behind those conversations:

“Thank you to the Leeds Digital Festival team and judges, and above all to the SENCOs and school leaders who've trusted us, given us honest feedback, and helped shape what Senflow is.”

Lucy had the following to say:

“This award belongs to the SENCOs and school leaders who've shaped Senflow with us. Every one of them wants more time with children and less time on admin, and winning Tech4Good tells us we're on the right track to make that happen.”

What schools say

Two of the SENCOs who use Senflow put it better than we can. Leanne Bibby, Deputy Head Teacher and SENCO at Cewe School, said Senflow has been “significantly reducing the administrative burden of managing EHCPs and SEND provision”. At Rothwell St. Mary's Catholic Primary School, Deputy Head Teacher and SENCO Seanna Reuben Sweeney said: “Paperwork has hugely reduced and creating reports is a job that is complete in a few clicks.” You can read more in what schools say about Senflow.

How Senflow helps through the school year

Senflow puts every EHCP, annual review and statutory timeline in one place, with automatic reminders and pre-populated templates. When Ofsted ask, the audit trail is already there. Pupil records, classes and staff sync from your MIS through Wonde, so you don't have to enter them again.

If you want the detail, our guides cover what SENCOs need to track and when in the EHCP annual review, what inspectors are looking for in SEND from September 2026 and the inclusion strategy every mainstream school in England must publish by 31 December 2026.

Thinking about changing system? Switching from Provision Map explains how migration works. Onboarding is free, and Senflow's team maps your existing plans for you.

What happens next

We'll keep building Senflow with the SENCOs, school leaders and trusts who use it.

If you're a SENCO, school leader or trust leader and want to see how Senflow works, get in touch to book a demo. You can also find more practical SEND guidance on our Latest News page.

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