East Hampshire

•SENCOs who are seeking to leave the role are citing workload as a primary reason. SENCOs are also lacking time to adequately reflect and evaluate the effectiveness of provision in their settings. The financial cost of these factors is high. Therefore, we recommend that senior leaders review the SENCO role in terms of time and support to encourage experienced SENCOs to remain in post.

•We recommend that senior leaders review the responsibilities of the SENCO role and share this with the governing body and wider staff to raise the profile, and understanding, of the SENCO role. A focus should be on the coordination nature of the role, with an emphasis on ‘every teacher is a teacher of learners with SEN’.

•Head teachers should structure and protect the SENCO role to afford the SENCO the necessary status and seniority to influence school policy at strategic level.

•Consideration should be given to how schools can work with their SENCO to build capacity, distribute responsibility and enable support. Where funding/resourcing allows, it is recommended that the development of a team around the SENCO, for example through department SEN champions, assistant SENCO support, administrative support and/orwider SEN teams, is given consideration as a way in which immediate additional support can be provided for the SENCO and, as a consequence, improve outcomes for children and young people with SEN.