[senco-forum] NASUWT advice on SEN

Hello everyone
  The reason for enquiring about SENCOs not being teachers is that a colleague gave me a copy of an NASUWT booklet of advice about SEN yesterday.  I found time to read it - a three hour Year 8 parents' evening during which I saw six sets of parents!  I was really annoyed to read the words 'If the SENCO is a teacher ...'  
  Part of the aim of the booklet, it seemed to me, was to persuade Heads that SENCOs need admin help for routine clerical tasks - hear hear.  And the writers may have meant 'If the SENCO is a teacher and not the Head ...' as it is in all but one of my feeder primary schools.  I've spoken to my colleague, who is a part time Union rep and sent him this statement so he can take the matter further.

  I am very concerned that the recently issued leaflet 'Special Educational Needs advice for teachers and school leaders' contains the phrase 'If the SENCO is a teacher ...'  on page 7.  This implies that the SENCO role can be taken by a non-teacher, even a completely unqualified person, and that the NASUWT condones this.  The uncorrected transcript of oral evidence to the House of Commons Select Committe for Education and Skills includes the following responses from Lord Adonis given on March 22nd 2006:
"I think it would need to be a highly exceptional case where a school felt it appropriate not to appoint a qualified teacher to be a SENCO"
and
"The issue for us of course is whether you would actually ban any capacity for schools to engage any others than qualified teachers to be SENCOs. I can understand the judgment call on that but if the flexibility is being used to engage people who are professionally qualified in this area then I do not know that we would think that that was a bad thing for a school to do."
There is much evidence that the SENCO role is increasingly being given to non-teachers and non-specialist staff, becoming an administrative role only.  As a long-standing SENCO, I am concerned that the wording of this leaflet implies that this is acceptable practice.  No-one knows better than me the necessity of having administrative assistance to carry out this complex role but we must not allow our need for clerical and administrative assistance to override the need for the SENCO role to be carried out by a teacher.
Amanda Hipkiss
SENCO and AST
MA (SEN / Inclusive Education)

  Does anyone know of the position of other Unions on this?  My NUT rep in school is off sick.

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall