The way special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) registers are used to identify and support pupils with additional needs is a “mystery” that needs clarifying before schools can be judged on inclusion, experts have warned.

Sendcos say schools are given no guidance on how the registers should be used, meaning different standards and approaches are applied.

There are fears that some schools are identifying too many - or too few - pupils, that SEND registers can be “grossly neglected” and that staff lack information on how to use them.

This means national data on SEND is entirely based on variable school decision-making, risking “perverse incentives” in government efforts to bolster inclusion, according to one national leader.

The concern comes as a national report today highlights major differences in the distribution of pupils with SEND in state schools in England.

Today Tes also reveals Teacher Tapp research showing significant variations in how SEND registers are used by staff, with more than one in 10 primary teachers not checking them at all in the first month of term.

The SEND register is a ‘mystery area’

Schools are responsible for identifying pupils who receive special educational provision that is “additional to or different from the universal education offer in mainstream schools”, according to the SEND Code of Practice.

But, beyond this, the way schools approach SEND registers is a “mystery area”, one secondary school Sendco, based in the South East, told Tes.

“The challenge for the system now is that there can be an awful lot of students in a school who will need some form of additional support, whether it is because of multiple anxieties, mental health issues or other challenges,” said the Sendco, who wished to remain anonymous.

“Using that definition could mean a school’s SEND register becomes enormous.

“There is no guidance for this and so it is completely school-led, with teachers using their judgement and experience. There will be schools that over-identify and schools that under-identify.”

Year 7 pupils who were on the SEND register at primary school remain on the list during the first year of secondary, “but we do see students who we decide didn’t need to be on it and where high-quality teaching can meet their needs”, the Sendco said.

Uneven spread of pupils identified with SEND

Pupils in mainstream schools with SEND will either have an education, health and care plan (EHCP) or receive SEN support.

Today’s report from the National Foundation for Educational Research shows huge variations in the proportion of pupils with SEND across different schools, and highlights concerns that this gap is being partly driven by different approaches to identifying SEND need.

One local authority told the NFER that in its area “the proportion of pupils receiving SEN support ranged from over 50 per cent in some primaries to as low as 5 per cent in others”. 

An interviewee from that council added: “That is not because the cohorts are that different. It’s because if you had the same child in the school with 50 per cent, and placed them in the other school, they wouldn’t be on the SEN support register.”

‘There is no line’

Nicole Dempsey, director of SEND and safeguarding at Dixons Academies Trust, said: “The difficulty drawing the line between who is and isn’t on that SEND register is always going to be really challenging, because there is no line.

“So you’re going to get different interpretations and differences of opinion and contextual differences.”

Despite these challenges, she highlighted the importance of SEND registers and said that, when supporting a school for the first time, “the starting point for all of our work is getting the SEND register to a point that it’s usable”.

She warned that it “can be grossly neglected or it’s split into a separate monitoring list of other students, or it has become a huge, elaborate document that’s got every piece of information about a child and has just become unusable”.

“Like all aspects of the SEND system, it’s not ideal, but you can certainly make it work. You can make it make sense,” Ms Dempsey said.

“We always ensure everything we do responds to the child meeting their needs,” she added.

How often are teachers checking the register?

Teacher Tapp research shared with Tes looked at how SEND registers are used by schools.

In a survey in September, 34 per cent of primary school teachers said they had not looked at the register in the past week and 11 per cent had not looked at it at all that term. Only 15 per cent had looked at it that day.

In secondary schools, teachers were slightly more likely to have looked at the register recently. A fifth of teachers had looked at it that day and another 45 per cent had done so in the past week.

Teacher Tapp also asked almost 200 Sendcos about how they used the register, with free text responses highlighting a range of approaches.

In some instances, registers are used for all pupils who are one or more years below their expected stage, or any child requiring support with “an additional cost in time or resources”, the responses show.

But other Sendcos indicated that, in the latter scenario, these pupils would not be kept on the register  - or would be added to a separate monitoring list

One response simply said: “I have inherited a disaster,” adding that they were pushing for their school’s register to be used for students who receive “support that is different from and additional to our universal offer.”

Mixed messages

Another Sendco based in Essex, who asked to remain anonymous, told Tes that Ofsted and local authorities can send mixed messages about how to use SEND registers.

“We had an Ofsted inspection where the HMI was particularly interested in SEND... An area we were repeatedly asked about was which children were on the SEND register and why. And the impression we got was that the Ofsted inspector thought that more of our children should have been on there,” they said.

As an “inclusive school”, it tries to meet the needs of as many of the children as possible through high-quality teaching and ordinarily available provision, the Sendco added.

“We also worked very closely with our inclusion partner at the local authority, who has told us we are getting our SEND register right. But it’s then very difficult when an Ofsted inspector seems to be suggesting there should be more children on there.”

Some schools keep two separate records.

The secondary school Sendco based in the South East said they keep a separate record of all students who are “pre-additional needs”, including those who might have a diagnosis but do not currently need additional support.

She added: “Having these students recorded reassures parents that we are aware of their need, and makes teachers aware of it, too, and then we can move them on to the SEND register if we decide at a later point that this is needed.”

Both anonymous Sendcos told Tes that more guidance would help schools to navigate conversations with parents who might want their child placed on the register or object to them being placed on it.

Policy implications

James Bowen, assistant general secretary at the NAHT school leaders’ union, who is a former Sendco, said there can be “quite significant variation” in determining whether a child should be placed on the SEND register.

The national criteria for school support - that the pupil requires different or additional help to what is provided for others - “can obviously be subject to a great deal of local interpretation”, he added.

Mr Bowen warned that the reliance on school-level decisions means that SEND data on pupil numbers could not be used as part of any accountability measure to judge schools on inclusion.

“Doing so could even inject a whole set of unhelpful perverse incentives into the system,” he said.

While it would be “interesting to explore whether more detailed national definitions and criteria would be helpful”, the priority should always be “supporting each child based on their unique set of individual needs”, Mr Bowen told Tes.

Ms Dempsey also highlighted the importance of the school’s context and approach.

She said: “Senior leaders who’ve got less confidence in the SEND space might ask: ‘Well, should they be on the SEND register or not? Where’s the line?’ And the answer is: ‘Well, the line is where we draw it based on following the Code of Practice, understanding our students and understanding our provision offer well.’”

Does the Code of Practice need to change?

The current code of practice was brought in alongside the 2014 reforms that introduced EHCPs.

It contains “far more information” about what schools should do for pupils with EHCPs than it does for the greater number of pupils who have SEND without an EHCP, Ms Dempsey said.

She suggested an update is needed, asking: “Where is our information about what a great universal offer looks like, and what a great inclusive, targeted offer looks like?”

She added: “I think if we had some more clarity around SEN support for pupils in mainstream schools without EHCPs, where most of the children are, then it’d be easier for schools to get on the same page about where that line is when identifying pupils.”

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