Every school needs a SENCO with genuine strategic influence to ensure inclusion is embedded across school leadership, teaching and decision-making, says Lisa Pinkerton, Head of Education at Widgit Software.
Inclusion has never been more important for schools, as the number of children identified with special educational needs in England has never been higher.
The latest Department for Education (DfE) figures show that more than 1.8 million pupils in England have special educational needs (Department for Education, 2026). That’s around one in five pupils in England.
In January 2026, more than 1.8 million pupils (20.8%) were identified as having special educational needs (SEN). Of these, around 1.3 million pupils were receiving SEN Support, while around 0.5 million had an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan (House of Commons Library, 2026).
The number of pupils with EHC plans has continued to rise significantly in recent years, placing increasing pressure on the SEND system and local authority finances.
Most pupils with an EHC plan in 2026 are educated in mainstream schools.
This means SEND is no longer a specialist issue.
It is a mainstream school issue and a leadership issue.
That is why I believe every school should have a SENCO with genuine strategic influence, ideally as part of its Senior Leadership Team. But having a seat at the table is only part of the picture. To influence whole-school inclusion effectively SENCOs need a combination of factors.
Expertise, empathy and influence
Expertise means understanding SEND and using evidence-informed practice.
Empathy means appreciating the lived experiences of children and families and recognising that behind every referral, report or EHCP is a child and a family navigating challenges.
I think most SENCOs have those first two qualities in bucketloads.
But the third is crucial: influence.
A SENCO needs to be able to shape systems, culture and decision-making across the school.
Expertise without influence has limited reach. Influence without expertise lacks direction. To build a truly inclusive school, SENCOs need both.
The SENCO cannot deliver inclusion alone
The SENCO's role should not be to personally hold responsibility for every child with SEND. It should be to lead, coach, influence, build capacity and develop others.
If an inclusion strategy depends entirely on one SENCO, it isn't sustainable.
Inclusion is the responsibility of everyone in a school, from teachers and teaching assistants to middle leaders, senior leaders and governors. This is why one of the activities I use as Lead Facilitator on the NPQ SENCO programme at Best Practice Network is the “circle of influence” exercise.
Imagine all the people and groups who influence life in a school: pupils, parents, teachers, teaching assistants, governors, external agencies, middle leaders and senior leaders. Now imagine drawing a circle around each one to represent their influence.
Usually, the headteacher's circle is the largest. That makes sense. Their decisions affect almost every aspect of school life.
So the question is: How large is the SENCO's circle of influence?
Not because influence is about status, but because a SENCO’s influence determines the overall impact of what they do.
A SENCO working with individual pupils can transform individual lives. A SENCO who has strategic influence over a school’s inclusion plan can help transform the experience of every child in the school.
Why SLT membership for SENCOs matters
Having a SENCO on your senior leadership team can help to ensure inclusion has a voice when strategic decisions are made.
SENCOs should be involved in decisions about curriculum, behaviour, staffing, professional development, school improvement priorities, budgets and resource allocation.
Procurement is an example we perhaps don't talk about enough. Schools make decisions every day about communication tools, assistive technology, sensory resources, staff training and digital accessibility. Those decisions can have a significant impact on how inclusive a school is in practice.
Universal education provision should not be viewed as an optional extra. It should be part of what a school ordinarily provides.
If decisions about finance and resources are made without considering accessibility and inclusion, schools can inadvertently create barriers before children even come through the classroom door.
The most inclusive schools don't retrofit inclusion. They build it in from the beginning and the expertise of a SENCO….[need a link here to what we’re talking about].
The evidence points to a SEN leadership gap
There is still work to do to ensure SENCOs have the influence their role requires.
The National SENCO Workforce Survey found in 2021 that 66% of SENCOs reported that they were not members of their school's Senior Leadership Team. While the picture has improved, the most recent 2026 SENsible SENCO survey still found that 46.3% of respondents were not in a senior leadership role.
The precise structure of leadership and involvement of SENCOs in decision-making can vary from school to school. But the underlying question remains important:
Does the SENCO have enough leadership status and influence to shape whole-school improvement?
That question is particularly relevant because Ofsted's current inspection toolkit says inspectors consider whether a qualified SENCO is empowered, through their leadership status within the school, to lead whole-school improvement for pupils with SEND.
The message is clear: this is not simply an administrative or case-management role.
Inclusion is becoming a whole-school expectation
The direction of national policy is increasingly clear. The DfE's SEND reforms put greater emphasis on a Universal Offer of high-quality teaching and support, alongside earlier targeted help and access to specialist expertise.
In addition to this, schools are now being asked to develop and publish Inclusion Strategies and to use the Inclusive Mainstream Fund to strengthen their inclusive offer. This creates an important opportunity.
Rather than seeing inclusion as something that sits alongside school improvement, schools can start to build it into the way they think about improvement from the outset.
But that will only happen if inclusion is owned collectively by all staff.
The SENCO cannot be the only person who understands the strategy, just as they cannot be the only person responsible for delivering it.
The SENCO's role should be to bring expertise into the leadership conversation, build the capacity of colleagues and help turn the school's ambitions for inclusion into everyday practice.
The strategy belongs to the whole school. But the SENCO needs to be at the table where that strategy is shaped.
Universal provision benefits everyone
One of the most important messages about inclusion is that good SEND practice is often simply good teaching.
Clear communication. Predictable routines. Visual supports. Explicit instruction. Adaptive teaching.
These approaches can benefit pupils with SEND, but they can also support EAL learners, anxious learners, pupils experiencing disadvantage and many others. I have seen this personally.
My daughter is neurotypical, but we chose a primary school with a significant SEND population because I believed a school that meets children where they are would meet her needs too. It did. She benefited from empathy, respect, strong relationships and an understanding of difference. Inclusive schools benefit every child, not just those with SEND.
We need to support teachers too
When I trained to teach, SEND featured for around one day on the entire PGCE programme. One day!
Things have moved on. Teacher development now includes a much stronger focus on inclusive practice, alongside frameworks and qualifications such as Initial Teacher Training reforms and the Early Career Framework.
But is this enough?
Teachers are managing increasing complexity alongside attendance, curriculum and accountability pressures. What they need is time, training, support and leadership. The SENCO should help build whole-school confidence and capability, not become the person who “owns” SEND.
Inclusion and school improvement are the same conversation
I have experienced being both SENCO and Acting Headteacher, which gave me a real appreciation of the competing pressures school leaders face — from outcomes and attendance to staffing, budgets and accountability.
Most headteachers care deeply about inclusion. The challenge is balancing it alongside competing demands.
That is why SENCOs need to be strategic partners, connecting SEND with:
We need to move beyond paperwork, referrals and EHC processes and focus on systems, culture and capacity because inclusion is school improvement.
If inclusion is truly part of school improvement, we need to rethink how we approach the needs of every child, moving from responding to individual challenges to creating a school where all children can thrive.
Rather than asking: “Can we accommodate these children?”
We need to ask: “How do we become a school where all children thrive?”
That requires SENCOs to work alongside headteachers as strategic partners, helping shape the direction and culture of the whole school.
A truly inclusive school doesn't just ask, “How do we support this child?”
It asks: “How do we create a school where every child belongs?”
Inclusion isn't separate from excellence. It is part of excellence.
References:
(Department for Education (2026) Special educational needs in England: Academic year 2025/26. Explore education statistics. Available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england/2025-26 Accessed: 25 September 2026)
House of Commons Library (2026) Special Educational Needs: support in England. Research Briefing SN07020. London: UK Parliament. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn07020 (Accessed: 27 September 2026).