What does a SENCO actually do?

What a SENCO is

A SENCO is the qualified teacher who runs your child's school's SEN policy day-to-day and coordinates support, working with teachers, families and outside specialists. Every mainstream school in England must have one. SENCO stands for Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (you may also see SENDCo, with the “D” for disability).

The job is set out in the SEND Code of Practice (the statutory guidance schools must follow, 2015). Under it, the SENCO has day-to-day responsibility for how the school identifies and supports children with special educational needs (paragraphs 6.84–6.94). In practice that usually means:

• overseeing the school's SEN policy and keeping its records up to date;
• advising teachers on the graduated approach, the assess, plan, do, review cycle the school uses to work out what helps your child;
• coordinating the support your child gets, whether that is SEN support or provision named in an EHC plan;
• liaising with you, and bringing in outside specialists such as educational psychologists, speech and language therapists or health services.

Two things are legally required of the person in the role. They must be a qualified teacher (or the headteacher) working at the school, and the Code says the SENCO is most effective when they sit on the school's leadership team (paragraph 6.87, and the SEND Regulations 2014).

What a SENCO does not do, and who is still responsible

This is the part most explanations skip, and it is the part that matters when a request for help has stalled. A SENCO coordinates and advises; they are not the only person legally responsible for your child. Under the same Code, every class and subject teacher remains responsible for the progress of the pupils they teach, including pupils with SEN (paragraph 6.36). And the legal duty to actually make the provision sits with the school and its governing body as a whole, not the SENCO alone. So “the SENCO is dealing with it” is the start of the school's accountability, not the end of it.

Two UK-current details are worth knowing. First, the legal requirement to name a SENCO applies to mainstream schools, including academies and free schools. It does not apply to nurseries or post-16 colleges, which organise SEN support differently. Second, the mandatory qualification changed: since 1 September 2024 a new SENCO must complete the National Professional Qualification for SENCOs (NPQ SENCO) within three years of appointment. This replaced the older National Award (NASENCO), which stays valid for those who already hold it. If you see a page still calling NASENCO the current qualification, it is out of date.

Why this matters for you

Knowing the boundary helps you keep accountability in the right place. If support is not happening, the answer is not only “chase the SENCO”. You can ask the SENCO to coordinate, ask the class teacher what they are doing day to day, and, if it still does not move, raise it with the headteacher or governors, whose duty it is. A proposed reform may add to this over time: the 2026 Schools White Paper and Education for All Bill suggest a new Individual Support Plan duty on every school, which would widen the planning role schools and SENCOs carry. That is a proposal, not law, and current rules are unchanged.

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