| Abstract: | The year 2014 marks an important milestone for the SENCo role. It is the 20‐year anniversary of the requirement for schools to have a named person as lead for special educational needs. This article, by Catherine Tissot from the University of Reading, explores the vision of the role as seen in Government guidance and documents and compares this with the views of those in post who are undertaking a required training programme to become a qualified SENCo. An optional questionnaire was distributed to all SENCos at Induction (Time 1) and repeated upon completion of the course (Time 2), and ten semi‐structured follow‐up interviews were conducted with volunteers to explore emerging themes. Differences were seen in the sample between those that were part of the senior leadership team in terms of their views on their ability to lead and direct practice, resource management and the strategic goals of the role. |
