The UK is facing a Sendco retention crisis.

According to research from Bath Spa University and the National Association of Special Educational Needs (Nasen), around 60 per cent of special educational needs and disability coordinators (Sendcos) in primary schools and 69 per cent of those in secondary schools said, in 2020, that they didn’t intend to be in the role in five years’ time. 

That could pose major challenges for school leaders. After all, it is a legal requirement for schools to have a Sendco, and losing the wealth of knowledge that an experienced Sendco brings can be a huge blow to a school’s special educational needs and disability (SEND) provision.

So, why are so many Sendcos planning to leave? And what can school leaders do to make them more likely to stay?

Dr Helen Curran, a senior lecturer in special educational needs at Bath Spa University, says workload is a major problem for Sendcos.

“It’s such a broad role, and in primary schools it’s often just one person doing it. That’s a huge responsibility. If you have one day a week for Sendco responsibilities, and then you teach on the other days, as well as wearing multiple other hats, the workload can be huge,” she explains. 

The research echoes this: 27 per cent of primary Sendcos and 35 per cent of those in secondary say workload is the main reason they are considering leaving.

SEND support: Sendcos under increasing pressure

On top of that, around 75 per cent of primary Sendcos say they are routinely pulled away from their role to undertake other duties, and 79 per cent of those in secondary schools say they face the same problem.

“Even those Sendcos who are non-contact and don’t have a class of their own are often pulled in to cover for PPA or for staff shortages,” says Curran.

These issues are compounded by the lack of external support available for pupils, adds Dr Julie Wharton, senior lecturer and National Award for SEN Coordination (NasenCo) course leader at the University of Winchester.

“There’s frustration with external systems. Sendcos feel as though they have to take everything on, and become a hub of support,” she says.

“For the Sendcos who can remember Sure Start centres [a New Labour initiative designed to boost the life chances of disadvantaged children through providing play sessions, parenting advice and employment coaching] and other additional early help, that’s particularly frustrating because they know how it used to be when external support was in place.”

The result of this is that many Sendcos are feeling increasingly stretched. In fact, according to the Bath Spa research, just 29 per cent of those in primary and 23 per cent of those in secondary say they have sufficient time to meet the needs of children and young people with education, health and care plans (EHCPs). When it comes to pupils with SEN support, the figures are even worse: just 19 per cent of Sendcos in primary and 14 per cent in secondary feel they have adequate time to meet pupils’ needs. 

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However, there are steps that schools can take to ease some of this pressure on Sendcos, suggest Curran and Wharton, who outline four key actions for leaders.

1. Give Sendcos senior leadership team status 

All Sendcos should be on the senior leadership team, says Wharton. 

“This would give them the strength to influence inclusive practice,” she says. “A lot of Sendcos are stressed because they know what should be happening but they don’t have a say on the school’s policies, procedures or the culture.” 

Curran, who delivers NasenCo (the legally required qualification for all Sendcos) at Bath Spa, says this can be a frustration for many who complete the training.

“Often when they go back into schools after completing the award, they want to drive forward that excellent practice. But they aren’t necessarily given the status to do so, and they go back to firefighting, reactive work,” she says.

“There is a definite tension between what they would really love to do and what they’re able to do with the time and resources they currently have.” 

2. Ensure there’s high-quality, inclusive teaching

The SEND Code of Practice clearly states that individual teachers are responsible for SEND provision within their classrooms. However, says Wharton, there are currently some big gaps in knowledge, which Sendcos are being left to plug - and this pattern needs to be broken.

“Teachers should ask themselves, what should the ordinarily available provision be within your classroom? What would you expect as a minimum, before you even go to your Sendco? You’ve got to make sure that your teaching is right,” she says.

“Teachers need to see barriers to learning and participation as something they can address within the curriculum and, perhaps, with approaches towards inclusive education.”

Sendcos should support teachers in this, adds Curran, but often they don’t have the time. 

“It’s natural that the person who provides the SEND CPD in school is the Sendco. But if they are stretched for time because they are firefighting, then there’s a vicious circle of not increasing capacity because they’re firefighting and then the firefighting increasing because there’s no focus on capacity,” she says.

If the system encouraged high-quality inclusive teaching from the very start, it would give Sendcos more time to have reactive, thoughtful conversations with teachers who are struggling, rather than just quickly explaining some strategies, Curran adds.

“A conversation with more time and more space would allow the Sendco to ask things like: ‘What’s working?’ ‘What do you think could work?’ ‘Why do you think that’s important?’ ‘How could we try this?’ That builds the capacity of that teacher, and allows them to think broadly about what supports all children,” she says. 

3. Establish working relationships between Sendcos and teachers

The working relationships Sendcos have with teachers are key to driving forward this work, says Wharton. She suggests Sendcos spend time within a classroom to witness challenges, and then have joint planning sessions afterwards. This way of working, she adds, is ideal because teachers feel much more supported. 

“Sendcos could also sit down and plan regularly with a group of teachers and TAs to consider all the pupils across the classes and what inclusive teaching looks like for them,” she adds.

Of course, approaches like this can only be possible if Sendcos are available to work in this way, which makes it even more critical to free up their capacity.

4. Communicate to parents what excellent SEND provision looks like 

As well as having the chance to work with teachers, Sendcos need the opportunity to communicate to parents what excellent provision looks like in practice, says Wharton.

“Parents, understandably, may be thinking about education from their own experience. They may not have had an opportunity to fully explore what high-quality teaching means for their child,” she says.

“If schools and Sendcos were able to say to parents, ‘When we talk about SEN support in our school, this is what it means,’ it would make such a difference. It’s making sure that parents understand that being a Sendco is not all about one-to-one intervention for their child but actually working with a teacher to support high-quality teaching and learning,” she says.
 

Ultimately, while the research about Sendco retention is a cause for concern, Curran believes there is still plenty to be optimistic about.

“At the moment there is real thinking about Sendcos; how they feel about their roles and how they feel valued. We’re really digging deeper into the discussions about the ‘why’,” she says. 

“If we can think about how we see inclusion as a whole, and how we work together as teams, it could lead to big improvement.”