The SENCO's SEND Admin Health Check

Can you identify at-risk students within the first 4 weeks of term?

Do teachers have a simple way to flag concerns without writing essays?

Do you track “soft signs” (attendance dips, behaviour changes, friendship issues) alongside academic data?

Is there a clear escalation path from “teacher concern” to “SENCO review” — and does it actually get followed?

Could you pull a list of all students with emerging needs in under 5 minutes?

Do you know exactly how many hours per week you spend on EHCP admin? (If you don't know, guess — then track it for a week.)

Are EHCP review dates automatically flagged before they become overdue?

Can you generate a parent-friendly EHCP summary in under 10 minutes?

Do external agencies (SALT, OT, Ed Psych) have direct access to relevant student information — or do you email spreadsheets back and forth?

When a student transitions (KS2→3, primary→secondary, or school transfer), does their SEND history transfer seamlessly — or do you rebuild from scratch?

Can you see, at a glance, which interventions are running, who's delivering them, and which students are attending?

Do you measure intervention outcomes (progress data) — or just track that interventions happened?

Is your provision map updated in real-time — or is it a spreadsheet you update termly (and already know is out of date)?

Can you show your SLT or governors exactly how SEND budget is being spent and what return it's generating?

If Ofsted arrived tomorrow, could you produce evidence of graduated response and provision evaluation within 30 minutes?

Do classroom teachers know which students have SEND needs, what those needs are, and what strategies to use — without reading a 20-page file?

Do parents receive proactive updates about their child's support — or do they have to chase you?

Is there a single source of truth for SEND information — or is it scattered across spreadsheets, emails, and filing cabinets?

Can your teaching assistants access student strategies and targets independently — or do they rely on you to brief them?

If you were off sick for 2 weeks, would your SEND provision continue smoothly — or grind to a halt?