School Gate blog: why some children need specialist teachers

A third of secondary schools in England are not ready for tough new regulations on provision for children with special needs, heads have warned.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) says that a requirement for all special needs co-ordinators (Sencos) to have a formal teaching qualification should be put on hold until the completion of a major government review of provision.

Sencos play a crucial role in schools, overseeing provision and supporting pupils with disabilities and special needs. Their duties include assessing pupils and liaising with teachers, parents, local authorities and professionals such as educational psychologists. Often their most important role is to help to get vulnerable young people through the school day.

Last year the Government announced that all Sencos appointed from September 2009 will be required to be qualified teachers and to receive additional training. Those already in post who do not have qualified teacher status must qualify by 2011. The Government has allocated £10million to fund the training.

The ASCL argues that the new regulation is a backward step that contradicts government efforts over the past five years to reform the school workforce and allow teachers to focus on teaching while other staff take over other roles.

The ASCL's survey of 190 secondary schools found that, in 36 per cent, the Senco was not a qualified teacher.

Almost three quarters - 73 per cent - said that their Senco's role involved teaching, 38 per cent said that it involved managing teaching staff, 81 per cent said that their Senco carried out administrative work, and 91 per cent said that the role included assessment and identification of children with special needs.

John Dunford, the general secretary of the ASCL, said that secondary schools had transformed their workforce, as the Government had urged them to do, and they now employed a wide range of support staff.

“While the majority of schools choose to have a Senco with qualified teacher status, a significant minority do not and they should not be forced to dismantle a structure which is working well,” he said.

David Trace, chair of the ASCL inclusion committee and head of Ramsey Grammar School on the Isle of Man, said that many schools employed therapists, youth workers and higher-level teaching assistants. “In many cases their significant experiences with students have led to them being appointed as the Senco. The new regulation is not only a slight to their professional expertise but fails to recognise the major contribution they make,” he said.

The union is calling on the Government to postpone the new ruling pending the outcome of two official reviews. Ofsted is to look at special needs provision “across the piece”, while a review, headed by Brian Lamb, chair of the Special Educational Consortium, is looking at why parents of children with statements of special needs do not always receive the information to which they are entitled.

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