Teach Secondary -Issue 15.1

These kinds of pressures can often push SENCos away from their primary strategic focus, compelling them to instead spend much of their time responding to daily operational demands – urgent behaviour issues, parent concerns, last-minute meeting requests, external agency queries and so forth. Without appropriate support and boundaries in place, this reactive way of working can quickly become exhausting. In 2025, a National Education Union study reported that 74% of secondary SENCos and 66% of primary SENCos struggle to manage their workloads. When firefighting becomes the norm, vital proactive work – developing staff expertise, embedding long-term improvements – can slip inexorably down the priority list. Role creep Another challenge has been steady expansion of the SENCo’s remit. While they rightly play a central role in shaping a school’s inclusive practice, SENCos are increasingly becoming the point of contact for issues that ought to sit outside of their core responsibilities. Behaviour incidents, pastoral needs and safeguarding concerns may all intersect with SEND, but none are solely ‘SEND matters’. To this ‘role creep’ we can add a growing administrative burden that encompasses managing Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), organising annual reviews, communicating with various professional bodies and co-ordinating medical or therapeutic input, all of which can consume significant time. Consequently, SENCos can become something closer to case managers, rather than the leaders of teaching and learning that they should be, diminishing their influence on school improvement in the process. Inconsistent authority There are also inconsistencies in how the SENCo role is positioned across different schools. In some settings, the SENCo will sit as a member of the SLT, contributing directly to big decisions on matters such as curriculum design, resource allocation, and professional development priorities. In these schools, SEND will be woven into strategic thinking. In other settings the SENCo role may be closer to that of a middle leader, with limited access to senior forums. If the role isn’t embedded in leadership structures, that’s when SEND risks becoming a reactive service, rather than a driver of improvement. There can also be an over- emphasis on the medical model of SEND, where focus is more on diagnoses and individual deficits, rather than a systemic approach where teaching, environment and the curriculum are adapted to meet diverse needs. These challenges are then compounded by wider national issues. The ongoing SEND funding crisis has meant that mainstream schools now often lack the resources required to support rising levels of need. Cuts, delays and stretched local services all add to this growing pressure. At the same time, a severe shortage of special school places has resulted in more children with complex needs remaining in settings that can’t fully meet those needs. This in turn creates longer waits for families and increases strain on staff, all while too many pupils are continuing to go without receiving the support that they need. Anon-viable role? These challenges have combined to leave the SENCo role at a critical point. Between limited funding, an often isolated position within school structures, unrealistic workloads and enduring misconceptions over who is meant to responsible for SEND, many SENCos have come to feel that the role itself is no longer viable. The government has acknowledged some of these issues by launching a ‘national conversation on SEND’, which will take the form of nine face-to-face events and five online events aimed at families and sector professionals (see tinyurl. com/ts151-S1). The NEU meanwhile pointedly stated in a July 2025 report that the current system ‘ Is broken and is failing SEND young people and the professionals working with them ’ (see tinyurl.com/ts151-S2) . Yet there is hope. While many of the current issues do stem fromnational policy, there’s still much that individual leaders, schools and trusts can do to build a more sustainable, effective approach. In the second part of this article, we’ll explore what evidence-based strategies can be used to alleviate SENCos’ workloads, strengthen whole-school ownership of SEND and restore the role to its originally intended purpose – that of leading an inclusive culture in which every child can thrive. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Professor Geoff Baker is CEO ofTrue Learning Partnership (truelearning.org . uk); Craig Lomas is a senior lecturer in education at the University of Greater Manchester; Angela Scott is national lead for SEND at Eastern Leadership (easternpartnership.co.uk ) 23 teachwire.net/secondary S E N D