The SENCO Bottleneck: Why the Role Is Becoming Impossible in Caring Schools

In many schools, the SENCO role has become the pressure point where everything ends up - SEND, SEMH, behaviour, parent concerns, paperwork and managing crises and pupil outbursts. And when that happens, how SEND and SEMH is supported across the school starts to break down. In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets , you’ll learn why the SENCO job has become increasingly difficult even in caring, well-intentioned schools - and why this isn’t about individual failure. You’ll see how a range of factors have unintentionally made the role of SENCO the single point of SEND failure in schools. And how this affects classroom practice, consistency of support and long-term sustainability for pupils with complex needs in school. Most importantly, you’ll come away with a clearer way of thinking about the role - and how we need to redefine it - so it’s fit for purpose moving forwards. All without adding additional stress to hard-working SENCOs or burning them out. If you care about inclusion and want SENCO support that’s sustainable, this episode is for you. Important links: Get our FREE SEND Behaviour Handbook: Download other FREE behaviour resources for use in school: School leaders: Join us at the National SEMH Conference (October 2026) It's a whole day focused on the real SEMH, behaviour and inclusion pressures facing schools - and what leaders can do next. Plus, right now you can get Super Early Bird tickets at £250 - find out more and book your place here.

You can listen to The SENCO Bottleneck: Why the Role Is Becoming Impossible in Caring Schools online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The SENCO Bottleneck: Why the Role Is Becoming Impossible in Caring Schools is an episode from School Behaviour Secrets with Simon Currigan and Emma Shackleton by Beacon School Support.

This episode is 26:38 long.

This episode was published on Feb 2, 2026.

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