SENDCo or SENCO: which spelling is right?

Both are right, and they mean the same person. SENCO is Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator. SENDCo adds the D for Disabilities. If you want the short answer: the law uses SENCO, most schools now write SENDCo, and nobody will correct you for either. The longer answer is more interesting, and it tells you something about how the job has changed.

What do the two spellings actually stand for?

SENCO is Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator. It is the older form and it comes from the language of the Education Act 1996, which talked about special educational needs without mentioning disability. SENDCo is Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-ordinator. The extra D arrived with SEND as a term, which brought disability into the same frame as learning need. You will also see SENDCO in full capitals, and SENCo with a lowercase o. Those are typographic preferences rather than different roles.

Which spelling does the law use?

SENCO, consistently. I went and counted. The SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years uses SENCO seventy-one times and does not use SENDCO, SENDCo or SENCo once. The statutory guidance that governs the role has never adopted the D. Neither has the qualification. The award I hold is the National Award for SEN Co-ordination, NASENCo, and the qualification that has been mandatory for SENCOs since September 2024 is the NPQ for SENCOs. So every official document you are likely to be asked about uses the older spelling.

So why do most schools write SENDCo?

Because practice moved and the paperwork did not. Once SEND became the everyday term for the field, writing SENCO started to look like it was leaving something out. Schools adopted SENDCo to match the language they were already using with families and in policies. It spread from the bottom up rather than from statute down, which is why you now get the odd situation of a SENDCo holding a qualification that calls them a SENCO. I write SENDCo, for exactly that reason. The D is the part of the job that the older acronym leaves silent, and disability is not a footnote to special educational needs.

Does every school have to have one?

Mainstream schools do. The Code requires governing bodies of maintained mainstream schools, and the proprietors of mainstream academies including free schools, to make sure there is a qualified teacher designated as SENCO for the school. That is a duty, not a suggestion. The person has to be a qualified teacher working at the school, and someone newly appointed who has not done the job before for more than twelve months has three years to gain the national qualification. Independent schools and specialist settings sit outside that particular requirement, though most have an equivalent role.

Which should I use?

Whichever your setting already uses, and then use it consistently. Consistency matters more than the choice, because a policy that switches between SENCO, SENDCo and SENDCO in three paragraphs reads as though nobody proofread it, and SEND policies get read closely by exactly the people you would rather impress. If you are starting from scratch, SENDCo is the direction of travel. If you are quoting statute, a job description or the qualification itself, quote it as written, even if that means both spellings appear on the same page. That is not an inconsistency, it is a quotation.

Working with schools

I work with SENDCos and school leaders on SEND provision, from audits and annual review support to CPD and mentoring. There is more on the schools and training page.