SENCO workload statistics: what the surveys say and how to protect time

The headline numbers

• Over 1.8 million pupils in England have special educational needs; 538,547 (6.0%) have an education, health and care (EHC) plan and 1,319,780 (14.8%) are on SEN support (DfE school census 2025/26, published June 2026).
• 718,800 EHC plans were in place in January 2026, up 12.5% on the 638,745 recorded in January 2025. 110,700 new plans were issued in 2025, and 46.1% of them within the 20-week limit (DfE, June 2026).
• The SEND Tribunal registered 25,002 appeals in 2024/25, an 18% rise; 61% concerned the content of plans and 24% a refusal to assess (Ministry of Justice).
• In 2018, 43% of primary and 71% of secondary SENCOs reported working more than nine additional hours a week on SENCO duties (Bath Spa University and nasen national survey).
• In 2020, 74% of SENCOs said administration takes up the majority of their allocated SENCO time, and only 15% had administrative support (Bath Spa and nasen).
• In 2021, 55% of primary and 70% of secondary SENCOs said they were not allocated enough time for the role (nasen and Bath Spa workforce survey, more than 1,900 responses).
• In January 2026, 51.5% of 423 SENCOs surveyed said the role is unsustainable and 82.5% had considered leaving (SENsible SENCO).

None of these surveys is a national census of SENCOs, and the samples are self-selecting. But the direction is consistent across eight years and several organisations: the caseload has grown faster than the time allocated to manage it. The term SENDCo is common in job titles; the Code of Practice uses SENCO, and so does this guide.

What the Code of Practice says about time

Section 67 of the Children and Families Act 2014 requires the governing body of a maintained school or academy to designate a SENCO, and paragraphs 6.84 to 6.94 of the SEND Code of Practice describe the role. The SENCO must be a qualified teacher working at the school, has day-to-day responsibility for the operation of the SEN policy and for coordinating provision, and will be most effective if part of the school leadership team.

Paragraphs 6.90 and 6.91 are the ones to quote in a conversation with a head teacher. The Code lists the SENCO’s key responsibilities and then says the school should ensure the SENCO has sufficient time and resources to carry them out, including sufficient administrative support and time away from teaching, in a similar way to other important strategic roles within a school. The Code does not set hours, which is why the surveys matter: they are the benchmark the Code lacks.

Where the hours go

Ask any SENCO to keep a time log for a fortnight and the administrative load falls into a few categories:

• Writing and collating evidence for EHC needs assessment requests and the school’s advice.
• Preparing annual reviews: invitations, gathering views, reports, chasing decisions.
• Chasing the local authority on timescales, caseworker changes and unanswered emails.
• Maintaining the register, the provision map and SEN support plans across the year.
• Collecting information from teaching staff, often repeatedly and in inconsistent formats.
• Responding to parents, external agencies and inspection or monitoring requests.

Most of these tasks are statutory or close to it and cannot be removed. But a large share of the time spent on them goes on finding, reformatting and re-sending information that already exists somewhere in the school, and that share can be cut.

Changes a school can make this term

Protect time in the timetable, in writing

Agree a weekly allocation with the head teacher that reflects the number of plans and SEN support pupils, record it, and revisit it each year as the numbers change. An allocation that exists only as goodwill disappears in a staffing crisis.

Fix the information flows

Use one staff feedback form, sent at the same points each term, so teacher views arrive in a format that goes straight into plans and reviews. Do the same for parent views. The 2020 finding that 15% of SENCOs have administrative support will not change quickly; forms and templates are the administrative support most SENCOs can give themselves.

Run the year from dates, not from memory

Set every annual review date in September using the annual review planner. Record the request date of every EHC needs assessment and diarise the 6, 16 and 20-week points with the EHCP timeline calculator. Chasing an authority on a date you can quote takes one email; chasing a vague delay takes a term.

Keep one log of local authority contact

A dated record of every call and email, per pupil, saves hours when a caseworker changes and makes a complaint or an appeal straightforward for the family. See logging local authority communication.

Delegate what the Code already expects

The SENCO coordinates provision; class and subject teachers remain responsible and accountable for the progress of pupils with SEN in their classes, including when those pupils work with teaching assistants or specialists (Code of Practice 6.36 and 6.52). Teachers drafting a pupil’s SEN support targets, and teaching assistants logging delivered sessions, is the Code working as intended, not the SENCO shirking. The graduated approach guide shows how to split the recording.

The policy context

The Schools White Paper of February 2026 proposes digital Individual Support Plans and reform of the EHCP system no earlier than September 2030, and Ofsted’s framework from November 2025 grades inclusion as a standalone area. Both point towards schools being asked to show their SEN support provision more clearly, so the record-keeping that protects a SENCO’s time now is also the record-keeping that reform is likely to expect.

Making the case to the head teacher

If the allocation is not enough, make the case on one page: the school’s number of plans and SEN support pupils and how they have changed over three years; a fortnight’s time log in the categories above; the wording of paragraph 6.91; and the 2021 finding that 55% of primary and 70% of secondary SENCOs say they do not have enough time. Then propose two or three specific changes from the list above with the hours each would save. Software does not reduce the statutory work, but it can remove the retyping, chasing and searching; Sendiphany was built for that part of the role, with the register, deadlines, communication log, forms and targets in one place.