Start with the SENCO’s report to the board
Have the SENCO report to your governing or trust board at least once a year on SEND numbers, provision and outcomes. There is no set statutory format or frequency; the SEN information report is a separate, annual duty. The internal update is the practical thing a board needs to do its oversight job, and the standing question Ofsted or a SEND audit asks is simply: where is the evidence the board oversees SEND? A regular SENCO report is that evidence.
Because the law sets no template, you decide the shape with the board. In practice the SENCO presents to the full board, or to a committee that reports up, and the SEND link governor follows up between meetings. Most schools settle on at least once a year, with a lighter update each term; that is good practice, not a legal minimum.
The two things to put in the report
First, the numbers and the picture they paint: how many pupils are on SEN Support and how many have an EHCP (an education, health and care plan), the spread of primary needs, and how those figures compare with last year and the national average. Second, the part that turns data into oversight: what the provision is achieving — progress and attendance for SEND pupils, the impact of the school’s notional SEN budget, exclusions and any disproportionality, and the priorities for the year. Give the board enough to ask a hard question, not a spreadsheet to rubber-stamp.
Keep it separate from the published SEN information report
Do not confuse the internal update with the school’s SEN information report, which is the statutory one. The governing body or academy proprietor must publish a report containing the information set out in law Children and Families Act 2014, s.69; what it must contain is listed in Schedule 1 to the regulations SEND Regulations 2014, reg 51. It goes on the school website and must be updated at least every year, and sooner whenever something changes (SEND Code of Practice 2015, para 6.79). The board’s underlying duty is oversight: using its best endeavours to secure the right provision s.66 and making sure the SENCO can carry the strategic role with the head and governors (Code para 6.87). The internal report is how the board sees whether that is happening; the published report is how parents see it.
One reform note for forward planning: the 2026 Schools White Paper and the Education for All Bill propose a statutory Individual Support Plan duty on schools, with no changes expected before 2030. The s.69 SEN information report duty and the board’s oversight role are unchanged for now; board-level reporting expectations may broaden if that becomes law.
Where the law comes from
Related
This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.