Every Thursday in The Sweary SENCo Facebook group, I ask: What has made you become a Sweary SENCO this week Around a year ago, the responses became the first What Makes a Sweary SENCO? blog post.
In previous years, I considered giving the Thursday post a break. After all, schools were closed. SENCOs are on holiday. I didn’t want to encroach on that time with my Thursday post. But… Do we actually switch off? I was checking my emails from my two schools periodically and I expect most of you were as well. The out of office reply is a start but sometimes things appear we can’t ignore (maybe we should have never looked…), and sometimes it’ easier to deal with key things rather than have a tsunami of emails the first week of September.
So the post stayed and throughout the summer, SENCOs continued to report consultations arriving, EHC needs assessment paperwork, parents seeking meetings, decisions from local authorities, children being named at schools, requests for information and unfinished processes from the previous academic year.
Some SENCOs had barely stopped working. One commented:
“I haven’t actually stopped working yet despite it being three weeks into the holidays – EHCNAs, consultations, parents, planning for September…”
Another described:
“I am the only one on emails in the hols. Yet earning less than many of those not checking. And yes, I know I shouldn’t.”
This role is overwhelming and even the 6 week break does very little to reset our fraying nervous systems. We are soon back in thick of it and by day 2 of the new term, we have forgotten that there was a summer holiday.
The consultation arrives…
Consultations featured repeatedly in the responses. One SENCO simply wrote:
“Consult has come in… paperwork is vague.”
Another had received:
“Three consultations in one day, from two separate LAs, so they require different paperwork to be completed.”
Another had been:
“Named over objections during the summer break.”
Of course, children and young people do not cease to require placements because schools have broken up for the summer. Local authorities also have statutory processes and timescales to work within. However, there is an obvious practical problem when consultation paperwork is sent to an educational setting at a point when the people who would normally consider it are not actually working, which is where the legal position becomes interesting.
What does SEND law actually say about the summer holidays?
There is no general rule saying that local authorities must stop all EHCP activity during school holidays. The statutory SEND process continues throughout the year, and the overall EHC needs assessment and plan process is ordinarily subject to the well-known statutory timescales.
However, the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 specifically recognise school closure of four weeks or more in relation to some of those timescales.
For example, there are circumstances in which a local authority does not have to comply with a particular statutory time limit where it would be impractical to do so because it has requested advice from a school during a period connected with a continuous closure of at least four weeks.
An educational institution being closed for at least four weeks may delay the submission of information from that institution.
That matters.
The legislation itself recognises the rather obvious fact that a school which is closed cannot necessarily operate as though it were fully staffed throughout the summer. This does not mean every EHCP deadline simply stops for the holidays, and the exemptions do not apply indiscriminately to every part of the process. Nor does it mean local authorities are prohibited from sending correspondence or consultations during August.
But it does challenge the idea that somebody from school should automatically be available simply because paperwork has arrived.
There is also a separate issue around placement consultations. The SEND Code of Practice states that an educational institution should respond to a consultation within 15 calendar days. Again, those are calendar days rather than school days. Consequently, an LA consultation can arrive during a school holiday and the expected response period can overlap substantially (or entirely) with the period in which the school is closed.
This creates a very real tension between the statutory SEND system, which continues operating throughout the year, and the practical reality that schools do not. Some local authorities explicitly acknowledge this in their own procedures. Approaches vary, with some allowing additional time or recognising that schools may not be able to respond until September. Others don’t really care…
Perhaps this is an area where greater national clarity would be helpful.
A closed school should not mean an on-call SENCO
The important distinction here is between an email being sent and a SENCO being expected to read it.
Parents may email during the summer. Professionals may email. Local authorities may email. There is nothing unreasonable about an email arriving while somebody is away. The problem begins when the SEND system becomes dependent upon individual SENCOs checking their inboxes during their holidays. We also contribute to this culture – usually for entirely understandable reasons. We look.
We think: I’ll just check there’s nothing urgent... and then we find the consultation.
Or the parent email.
Or the decision about an EHC needs assessment.
Or a new pupil.
Or the message which immediately makes us think about September.
Suddenly, we are mentally back at work.
Several SENCOs in the group admitted checking emails while actually away on holiday. Once you have seen the problem sitting in your inbox, it is remarkably difficult to forget about it and return to your book, your family, your sightseeing or your drink by the pool.
This is exactly why an out-of-office response is so important, as well as attempting to override the urge to check. Not because parents or professionals have done something wrong by contacting school, but because a boundary needs to exist somewhere.
It’s catch 22. The message can technically wait, but we all know that the educational lives of children are at the bottom of this issue. We are altruistic beings and want to support our children in our schools.
EHC needs assessments refused for children with significant needs
Another SENCO reported:
“EHC needs assessments turned down for incredibly high needs kids.”
One colleague described being heartbroken while supporting a parent who was crying on the phone following an LA decision. During the summer holiday. When we have excellent relationships with the parents we support and also are actively wanting to improve relationships, we want to be there for our school families. It a challenging boundary to navigate when are hearts are so big. But we need to recharge as well. Uninterrupted.
But if that’s the case, where do our families get emotional support from? That emotional weight does not disappear because it is August.
The emails from worried parents
Several SENCOs mentioned parental emails arriving before the beginning of term.
There were parents wanting meetings on the first day back and parents wanting confirmation of the support that would be available before pupils had returned to school. Again, there is an important balance here.
From a parent’s perspective, September can be incredibly anxiety-provoking. If a child has significant additional needs, parents understandably want reassurance that arrangements are in place, especially when needs are complex. We often spend lot of time managing parental anxiety.
The local authority – a recurring theme
Some answers required very little elaboration:
“Local authority as always!”
Others gave rather more detail. One SENCO was still waiting for an updated EHCP following an annual review meeting held in May. They were leaving their post and desperately wanted the paperwork completed before their role ended.
Another described receiving a plan containing significant provision but no clarity about the associated funding. Others were dealing with consultations, refusals to assess and placement decisions. None of these issues exists in isolation. They form part of the cumulative administrative load of the SENCO role.
One request may take ten minutes. Another may take an hour. One consultation may be manageable. Three arriving together may not be. One person received 66 consultations over the holiday.
And then there is September…
Not all of the summer anxiety related to external agencies.
One SENCO’s answer was simply:
“Seeing my teaching timetable!”
Another reported that SEND had been given virtually no space across two INSET days or the first term’s planned CPD, despite the school needing to improve its inclusive practice.
This is perhaps a useful reminder as schools begin a new academic year.
Perhaps one of the most useful things we can do as SENCOs is acknowledge our own part in this.
There can be a strong temptation to check. Sometimes it comes from professional responsibility. Sometimes from wanting to make September easier. Sometimes because we know an important decision is due. Sometimes because we worry that something will happen while we are away.
But there is a cost. You may only spend five minutes checking your emails. Then you see something difficult. You think about it over lunch. You mentally construct the response while walking around a museum. You discuss it with your partner in the evening. You wake up remembering something you need to check.
The email took five minutes.
The mental load took half a day.
That is why switching off matters.
Protecting the SENCO summer holiday
I have written separately about the importance of protecting SENCO holidays and creating systems that allow SENCOs genuinely to disconnect from work.
The SEND system cannot stop functioning for six weeks every summer. Children still need placements. Families still need decisions. Statutory processes still exist.
But neither should that system depend upon SENCOs quietly sacrificing their annual break to keep everything moving. The SENCo summer workload is a massive issue for us.
But… perhaps my favourite response to the entire summer thread was also the shortest:
“Nothing. I’m on holiday. Sweariness can wait!”
There is something important in that. The email will still be there. The consultation can be picked up through the school’s agreed systems. The parent can receive an out-of-office response explaining when someone will reply.
Sometimes the most professionally responsible thing a SENCO can do during their holiday is exactly what everyone else is supposed to be doing:
Have a holiday.
This will allow you to function more effectively next term.
Thanks for reading!
Lynn 🙂
PS…
I have recently been working with a company called Early Signals by Learnella, which supports a student’s journey from early intervention to SEND register and beyond. This human led AI tool is designed to cut through the bureaucracy and support issues like this by ensuring a clear trail of what has been tried and suitable ideas for next steps.
