Argumentos a favor del Departamento de Antioquia: mediante el oficio

A common theme raised in literature, questionnaires and interviews was the amount of administration that the SENCO role generates. A number of SENCOs commented that even with additional release time to complete SEN related tasks, administration regularly had to be completed outside of the typical working week, at the weekend or in holiday time. As a SENCO in a secondary school commented on the questionnaire, “there is not enough time to do anything but administration in SENCO release time.” The SEN Code of Practice (DfES, 2001b) defines key areas for the role quite clearly, but as Garner (2001) and Rose (2003) highlight, the document is only guidance, and although schools are expected to have regard

128 for the guidance, they are free to implement this in ways that they consider to be most suitable for their setting. Thus, whilst schools are keen for SENCOs to develop all aspects of the role, including the non-administrative elements, this will not in itself reduce the amount of paperwork needed for certain elements of SEN provision, such as Annual Reviews and referrals to external agencies. As a secondary SENCO stated “the necessary paperwork has to be completed.”

The amount of administration related to the role of SENCO is not a surprising finding as it is often debated on SENCO forums and at LA SENCO meetings. However, some SENCOs have managed to address this issue to some extent. Two SENCOs, J and P, both of whom participated in the interviews, made direct reference to approaching the role of SENCO in such a way as to encourage all members of staff, both teaching and support, to be actively involved with the administrative elements as well as the working with the pupils in their lessons. Others, both primary and secondary based, repeatedly mentioned this as an on-going issue.

Secondary based SENCOs approached this element of the role in different ways. J noted that whilst she hears a lot of SENCOs discussing the problems of the amount of administration related to the role, she had addressed this and no longer saw the administrative element as one of the challenges of the role, although J acknowledged that there was too much of it. Due to the size of the school, J stated that she deliberately tried to move away from being actively involved in the everyday detail of the SEN department as soon as she took the role of SENCO. However, she did retain a small number of management roles which she considered essential for the SENCO to complete, such as liaising with external agencies and periodically reviewing pupil progress with other staff members. J stated that initially this was not very

129 popular with staff, as they felt that many of the tasks they were being asked to do were the responsibility of the SENCO. She suggests that this was often due to “staff believing that they lacked the skills needed to complete tasks such as setting IEP targets.” By developing support systems in school, such as a SEN database, staff were enabled to take responsibility for children with SEN in their classes, rather than J, as SENCO, doing these. Furthermore, J stressed the importance of retaining an “open door” approach to SEN management issues, in that she explicitly encouraged staff to see her as a supportive colleague, who was willing to support them with any difficulties or challenges they encountered. This approach reflects the principles of a knowledgeable guide, in that it encourages the SENCO role to focus on strategic, leadership issues within SEN, but also maintains the relational aspects of it, between the SENCO, the pupils and staff.

The two other secondary based SENCOs mentioned paperwork as a time consuming element of the post. L noted that although she does spend a great deal of time on paperwork at the moment, this is more manageable because she does not have qualified teacher status (QTS), so her teaching role is limited to six sessions per week and the administrative element of the role can be given more time. L pointed out that if she follows the latest government requirements and gains a teaching qualification, her role as SENCO is likely to become much more demanding because her teaching commitment would have to increase but the amount of administration related to the role would remain.

Experiences of primary based SENCOs varied in relation to administration. P openly acknowledged that she had to develop the role so that she could oversee the paperwork but without doing all elements of it, because as head teacher as well as SENCO, it would have been almost impossible to take on sole responsibility for all of administration within that area

130 of the school. P stated that the administration was not onerous because she handed over the vast majority of administration tasks to various members of teaching and support staff. P outlined a similar approach to SEN as J, in that she also deliberately involved every member of staff in SEN management and this meant that “the role was not unmanageable because I handed the detail over to others….but was still available to support staff when they needed it.” Like J, the support element for staff remained but the SENCO did not complete every SEN related task, again reflecting principles of a knowledgeable guide.

H commented on the amount of paperwork, but she linked this to her lack of experience in the post. Furthermore, the staff team work collaboratively on SEN issues so she did not feel responsible for every aspect. H stated that this meant that everyday paperwork, such as IEP writing and reviews was shared between staff, usually being completed by a child’s key worker and only involving H if there was a problem or if provision was going to be changed. These factors meant that H identified one evening per week as SENCO time which was enough, although this was fluid. This type of approach reflects one of the underlying principles of the SEN Code of Practice (DfES, 2001b), which states that every teacher is a teacher of children with special educational needs. The revised Code of Practice (DfES, 2001b) was meant to clarify the SENCO role as exactly that; one of co-ordination across a school, and not as the person with sole responsibility for all aspects of SEN within a school.