Role of the SENCO

[Guest]

Hi,

 

Have any of you kind people in early years land have a written 'job description' for the role of the SENCO?

 

This is a role that I feel could be carried out more effectively, so my starting point would be to have a written description to work from!

 

Also, are any managers the SENCO??

 

Many thanks

[Cait]

Yes, I was Manager and SENCO for many years until my Deputy was ready for a new challenge! Now she will be both as I have retired. In some respects it's easier doing both roles as you don't have to go to somebody else for permission for bits and bobs, or worry about having authority to do things.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Cait

[Guest]

hi im manager and senco, dont have a seperate job description. it just states in my managers job description that i also have the role of senco.

it does however set out in our 'supporting children with sen' policy what the senco's role is and our procedures etc although you may have seen my other posts that i am currently needing to update this to bring it in line with the new code of practice. still not done it yet but i have set aside tomorrow for this as well as completing forms to become part of our local offer!!!!!

wish me luck!

[Joanne123]

I am manager and SENCO, however, from September we have decided to have 2 SENCO' to help spread the workload.

Joanne

[sunnyday]

This is quite 'old' - ah something else to look at.......but anyway hope it helps! :1b

SENCO Job description.docx

[Joanne123]

This is quite 'old' - ah something else to look at.......but anyway hope it helps! :

 

Thanks for sharing, but I cannot open it :-(

[sunnyday]

This is quite 'old' - ah something else to look at.......but anyway hope it helps! :

 

Thanks for sharing, but I cannot open it :-(

Oh no - sorry - hmmm - I tried it and it opened fine - is it because it's docx.........perhaps someone a lot more competent than me could change it to a pdf........

[sunnyday]

SENCO Job description

· The drawing up, in consultation with Manager and staff, of a policy for special educational needs and regular reviews of that policy

 

· The day to day organisation and administration of the SEN policy

 

· Liaising with fellow providers and support staff

 

· Advising and supporting colleagues

 

· Contributing to the in-service training of colleagues concerning SEN

 

· Liaising with parents

 

· Liaising with external agencies

 

· Co-ordinating provision for children with SEN

 

· Maintaining and monitoring the records of all children with SEN

 

· Co-ordinating reviews for all children with SEN

 

· Managing and purchasing resources to support SEN provision

 

:1b

[Guest]

Ah many thanks for your replies....it's definitely giving me some info to ponder over.

 

Keep the posts coming.....never too much information.

[Joanne123]

 

SENCO Job description

· The drawing up, in consultation with Manager and staff, of a policy for special educational needs and regular reviews of that policy

 

· The day to day organisation and administration of the SEN policy

 

· Liaising with fellow providers and support staff

 

· Advising and supporting colleagues

 

· Contributing to the in-service training of colleagues concerning SEN

 

· Liaising with parents

 

· Liaising with external agencies

 

· Co-ordinating provision for children with SEN

 

· Maintaining and monitoring the records of all children with SEN

 

· Co-ordinatineviews for all children with SEN

 

· Managing and purchasing resources to support SEN provision

 

:1b

Thankyou so much Sunnyday, it was very kind of you to write it out :-)

Joanne

[Cait]

Oh no - sorry - hmmm - I tried it and it opened fine - is it because it's docx.........perhaps someone a lot more competent than me could change it to a pdf........

If you just save it as the older format of 'word', so it's a .doc document, people can generally open it ok :rolleyes:

Edited August 11, 2014 by Cait

[calicojo]

Yes, I am Manager and SENCo which is fine most of the time, but when we have potentially 6 children with not exactly straightforward difficulties I can see it is going to be a big part of my workload this year...... time to offload something, I think!

I, too, am putting off looking at my policy and changing it to reflect the new code of practice but I really do have to do it this week!!

 

Jo x

[Guest]

Yes, I am Manager and SENCo which is fine most of the time, but when we have potentially 6 children with not exactly straightforward difficulties I can see it is going to be a big part of my workload this year...... time to offload something, I think!

I, too, am putting off looking at my policy and changing it to reflect the new code of practice but I really do have to do it this week!!

 

Jo x

yes jo i know exactly what you mean.....i tend to ensure everything is put in place from a management and senco point of view relating to legislation etc such as the policy, daily care plan, med forms, risk assessments etc then have a meeting with the child's keyperson to ensure they are aware of all the needs of the child allowing them to work on a daily basis with the child. (remembering to include the parents/carers and other proffesionals working with the child of course)

 

as far as the policy goes im attempting it tomorrow along with local offer forms as i said so if i get anywhere ill let you know :unsure:

[Cait]

Reading through the PDF of the code of practice, if you do a search for the words 'local offer' you will find that each time it is mentioned is comes as part of a sentence or paragraph about the local authority creating the local offer. I can't find anywhere where it says that settings must write their own. So why are we writing our own? The local offer seems to be what is on offer locally for all children in the area. (Can you tell I'm still puzzled?) There seems to be a huge diversity of tasks between areas once again, with some people linking to the council's offer on their website, and other settings reinventing the wheel. Why can't it be the same across the board? It would make much greater sense to have the county's offer first and say 'yes we do this bit' or 'no, we can't offer that here', which, reading through the document seems to have been the original intention. So why have different authorities chosen to interpret it in other ways? (Baffled, from Cumbria) l

[sunnyday]

Reading through the PDF of the code of practice, if you do a search for the words 'local offer' you will find that each time it is mentioned is comes as part of a sentence or paragraph about the local authority creating the local offer. I can't find anywhere where it says that settings must write their own. So why are we writing our own? The local offer seems to be what is on offer locally for all children in the area. (Can you tell I'm still puzzled?) There seems to be a huge diversity of tasks between areas once again, with some people linking to the council's offer on their website, and other settings reinventing the wheel. Why can't it be the same across the board? It would make much greater sense to have the county's offer first and say 'yes we do this bit' or 'no, we can't offer that here', which, reading through the document seems to have been the original intention. So why have different authorities chosen to interpret it in other ways? (Baffled, from Cumbria) l

Good point well made! :1b

Kent (thus far) haven't provided any sort of pro forma (I know that some other LAs have) - my deputy attended SENCO briefing the day before we broke up - I had sent her off with "make sure you take really good notes, we will have to write our own offer" ringing in her (poor) ears and she came back telling me that there was absolutely no mention of a 'local offer' :blink: so guess I am just 'holding fire' for now.........

[SueJ]

Whilst I agree with what you both say (Cait & Sunnyday) because I can't link to other threads (must be my inner muppet!) I have quoted myself (honestly do I have no shame) from the SEN COP thread

" B) as a proprietor I have to:

"proprietors must also publish information about the arrangements for the admission of disabled children, the steps taken to prevent disabled children being treated less favourably than others, the facilities provided to assist access of disabled children, and their accessibility plans." (P17)"

Whilst this is not a "Local Offer" it is pretty much what the LA have to do but on a smaller scale - we don't get our SEN briefing until the beginning of term so if I wait for them I definitely won't have stuff in place for 1/9/14!!

[Guest]

Reading through the PDF of the code of practice, if you do a search for the words 'local offer' you will find that each time it is mentioned is comes as part of a sentence or paragraph about the local authority creating the local offer. I can't find anywhere where it says that settings must write their own. So why are we writing our own? The local offer seems to be what is on offer locally for all children in the area. (Can you tell I'm still puzzled?) There seems to be a huge diversity of tasks between areas once again, with some people linking to the council's offer on their website, and other settings reinventing the wheel. Why can't it be the same across the board? It would make much greater sense to have the county's offer first and say 'yes we do this bit' or 'no, we can't offer that here', which, reading through the document seems to have been the original intention. So why have different authorities chosen to interpret it in other ways? (Baffled, from Cumbria) l

i agree its very puzzling but as far as i understand it now no one has to write their own ......it is the local authority writing the offer and settings/providers can be part of it by informing them (by completing forms they send you) what you offer at your setting. so its not a case of writing your own offer its about getting what you offer included in the la's offer of what is available locally

[finleysmaid]

i agree its very puzzling but as far as i understand it now no one has to write their own ......it is the local authority writing the offer and settings/providers can be part of it by informing them (by completing forms they send you) what you offer at your setting. so its not a case of writing your own offer its about getting what you offer included in the la's offer of what is available locally

interestingly we have been asked to write our own 'local offer'. The lea has given us a pro-forma and we have had to write it up. This is then sent back to them and fed into their website to create THE local offer (maybe our lea is just really lazy!)

We have also been asked to ensure it is on our websites if possible (i know schools have to do this)

My issue is really that we are a setting who has had many children with send...if it is now on my offer i suspect that we will get no funding or support for anything we already say we can do (IYSWIM). Why is it that schools get an send budget and we get nothing....do children under the age of 5 not have send then????? I can be expected to support children with complex difficulties for no extra funding only for them to start school and get full additional funding....somthing wrong there i feel we all know the earlier intervention is put in place the more impact it has....and if children's speech (for instance) is not sorted before they are 7 then they will continue to have issues for the rest of their life so if they've spent 5 years in early years and 2 in school why do the schools get the support and money and we get nothing....bonkers IMO!

[Guest]

We too have been told to write our own local offer! I have written a small paragraph about the nursery and what we offer, I have also written an 'question & answer' (about 12 questions) section . This seems to be similar to other settings in the area so presume it is fine.

[Cait]

We have been given a lot of prompts to write our own, but have been told that we aren't to send our completed one to them. So ......

[bubblejack]

Do you think you could give me some prompts please to get me started please Cait.

[Guest]

hhmmmm i think i need to look further into this then :mellow: ive got the forms here ready to complete then send back to them via the emarket place so maybe when ive looked at them properly (as i complete them) it will become more clear. i suppose if we're telling them what we offer to put in the 'local offer' it could be classed as being our own offer lol........gosh does that even make sense :huh:

as soon as ive finished my draft sen policy altering what i know needs altering thats my next job so i can mention/refer to the local offer in the policy before i finalize it.

and im supposed to be on holiday

[Cait]

Hi, I'm just on the iPad today, so apologies that I have screen shot the paperwork for you. On the iPad when I go to 'choose file' it doesn't give me the option to add anything but pictures.

 

 

 

[Wildflowers]

Hampshire has some samples of the Local Offer on their web site (second box on right side):

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/childcare/parents/parents-sen/send-localoffer.htm

[bubblejack]

Thankyou Wildflowers

[Guest]

thanx

[MarshaD]

I will be manager and SENCo. No separate job description - just referred to in my own job description. I went on training recently that said you should have a deputy safeguarding officer and it makes sense to have a deputy SENCo too, so that's something I'm giving consideration to.

With regards to the local offer, I too have filled out a form sent to me by the LEA which I guess they are using to compile for the borough. I am planning to adapt this and put on my website.

Thanks for all the links added so far - watching with interest...

[Guest]

Sue J, I think your quote from the Code of Practice is directed at the proprietors of academies` and free schools. At the beginning of the code there's a list of "Who must have regard to this guidance" and Early Years Providers are listed separately from Proprietors.

There is no statutory duty in the code for an early years setting to publish a Local Offer, it makes it clear this is the responsibility of the Local Authority. If you're receiving funding from the Local Authority then I suppose it could be said you have a "duty" to do as they ask. BUT, if this isn't on any paperwork you've signed and agreed then do you? :1b

As far as I can see, the only statutory duty comes from the Statutory Framework for the EYFS 2014 which on page 30 says:

"Providers must make the following information available to parents and/or their carers - how the setting supports children with special educational needs and disabilities."

I would interpret this as an informal, short leaflet that's easy for a parent to read and understand rather than the lengthy descriptions that some Local Authorities are asking for!

It's very interesting how different authorities are interpreting the code. It doesn't give me much confidence that children across England will have an equal access to services next term but we can hope!

[sunnyday]

Thanks kat - I can go make like an ostrich again then!

[SueJ]

Thanks Kat - as you say it seems to all be open to interpretation by individual authorities - I can only wait with baited breath to see what mine has to say at our "training" day.