Is every school required to have a SENCO?

No: every mainstream school and maintained nursery school in England must designate a qualified teacher (or the head) as SENCO under the Children and Families Act 2014, but special and independent schools are not.

Where the duty comes from

The duty sits in section 67 of the Children and Families Act 2014. It says the appropriate authority of a mainstream school or a maintained nursery school must designate a member of staff as the SEN co-ordinator, the person responsible for co-ordinating provision for pupils with special educational needs. The appropriate authority is the governing body for a maintained school, or the proprietor for an academy or free school, so academy trusts are bound by the same duty as council schools.

Which settings are caught, and which are not

This is the scope most guidance blurs. The duty is precise, not universal:

• In: mainstream primary and secondary schools, academies and free schools, and maintained nursery schools.
• Out: special schools and independent schools, which the section 67 duty does not bind. In practice most special schools do have SEN co-ordination staff, but they are not under this statutory requirement to designate a SENCO.

So the common shorthand that “every maintained school and academy must have a SENCO” is right about academies but quietly drops maintained nursery schools at one end and wrongly sweeps in special schools at the other.

Who can be the SENCO, and the qualification rule

The SEND Regulations 2014 require the designated SENCO to be a qualified teacher (or the head or acting head) working at the school. A newly appointed SENCO who has not previously done the role for 12 months or more must gain the prescribed SEN co-ordination qualification within three years of appointment. Since September 2024 that qualification is the National Professional Qualification for SENCOs (NPQ SENCO), which replaced the older National Award for SEN Co-ordination (NASENCO). The three-year window from appointment still applies.

What to do if a mainstream school has no SENCO

Because this is a duty on the appropriate authority, a gap is a governance issue, not just a staffing one. Governors and trustees are expected to ensure the post is filled and the holder is on track to gain the qualification, as the DfE guidance for school governing boards sets out. If your setting has a vacancy, record an interim co-ordination arrangement and a recruitment plan; a parent who finds no named SENCO can raise it with the governing body or trust through the school’s complaints procedure.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.