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The special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) was established through the first in 1994, with largely operational duties of ‘gathering information and for coordinating the child’s special educational provision’ (DfES, 1994, p.14). As we begin the process of further SEND reforms (DfE, 2026), I make the case in this blog post that this is as an opportunity to reform the SENCO role by upscaling what has become a progressively more challenging position within inclusive mainstream practice.

Mainstream realities

Inclusive practices and new SEND policies have continued to increase the duties of mainstream SENCOs. Their central co-ordination role has been firmly extended to their reestablishment as SEND specialists, particularly where external agencies have become restricted in their capacities for growing pupil caseloads. The pressure ‘to deliver a generational change for a more inclusive system’ (DfE, 2023a, p. 3) now resides primarily with undertrained mainstream professionals (Hornby & Kauffman, 2023).

‘The pressure “to deliver a generational change for a more inclusive system” now resides primarily with undertrained mainstream professionals’

Specific training for the SENCO role began in 2009, changing to a national professional qualification (NPQ) in 2024 (DfE, 2023b). Guidance for the NPQ embraced new narratives of strategic leadership to develop the directionality of schools towards ‘ambitious standards for all pupils, including those with SEND’ (DfE, 2023b, p. 12). In addition, new SEN ‘leaders’ must develop a widening knowledge of effective approaches, through critically evaluated evidence, enabling both pupils and staff to thrive (DfE, 2023b). No mean feat for SENCOs often found in solitary positions within their settings.

As Kay et al. (2022) pointedly identified, internal tensions for SENCOs in maintaining their identities as co-ordinators, rather than specialist advisors, has created an ambiguity of the role that is yet to be resolved. For instance, despite ‘expectations’ for SENCOs to become part of leadership teams (DfE, 2015), this non-statutory guidance has generated huge discrepancies across mainstream schools (Osuki, 2026). Further, in spite of a wealth of leadership duties, SENCOs often remain within teacher, rather than leadership, pay scales.

While the reform consultation paper (DfE, 2026) concedes that less than 40 per cent of SENCOs recognise their current role as manageable, due to ‘excessive bureaucracy and administrative burdens’ (p. 44), it continues to outline plans for increasing workloads. Suggestions of streamlined systems of digitisation belie pressures upon SENCOs of duties carried out within environments already strained by pupils with increasingly more diverse and complex needs. In addition, reform plans for ‘Inclusion Bases’ of bespoke mainstream support, excessive management of agencies through the ‘Experts at Hand’ model, and the introduction of ‘Family Hubs’ will all require a co-ordination of SEND provision far beyond the scope of the SENCO role envisioned in 1994.

A way forward

This blog post does not aim to debate the inclusion of pupils with SEND in mainstream settings. It is instead an invitation for government to reconsider the SENCO position as lived today. First, to redefine the role, recognising SENCOs as key to effectively driving the ‘improved high-quality practice’ we all want our children to have access to (DfE, 2026, p. 44). And second, to raise the status of the role, enabling SENCOs to be truly valued as crucial strategic leaders within mainstream management teams and on equivalent leadership pay scales.

As the call to respond to the white paper consultation provides the prospect of truly reforming SEND education, let us also demand this as an opportunity to review and reform the SEND co-ordinator.

References

Department for Education and Skills [DfES]. (1994). The code of practice on the identification and assessment of special educational needs.

Department for Education [DfE]. (2015). Special educational needs and disabilities code of practice.

Department for Education [DfE]. (2023a). Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP): Right support, right place, right time.

Department for Education [DfE]. (2023b). National professional qualification for special educational needs co-ordinators (NPQ for SENCOs).

Department for Education [DfE]. (2026). SEND reform: Putting children and young people first.

Hornby, G., & Kauffman, J. M. (2023). Special education’s zombies and their consequences. Support for Learning, 38(3), 135–145.

Kay, V., Chrostowska, M., Henshall, A., Mcloughlin, A., & Hallett, F. (2022). Intrinsic and extrinsic tensions in the SENCo role: Navigating the maze of ‘becoming’. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 22(4).

Osuki, A. J. (2026). SENCOs’ perceptions of the impact of leadership status on the enactment of their role in England. British Journal of Special Education, 53(2), 224–233.