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Autumn 2024 – Introducing the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) NPQ

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Background

The National Award for SENCO (NASENCO) was a mandatory qualification for those who wanted to become a SENCO in a mainstream school. This qualification has since been discontinued, and the new SENCO NPQ has been introduced as a replacement.

From September 2024, all SENCOs and aspiring SENCOs will need to:

  • take the NPQ if they have not completed or started the NASENCO

  • complete training within 3 years of appointment - schools and SENCOs must make sure they enrol on training that will meet this requirement

SENCOs appointed before 1 September 2009 or those who completed the previous NASENCO qualification are not required to take the NPQ. But aspiring or current SENCOs who were appointed after this date and without the NASENCO will be expected to, to ensure compliance with the regulations.

Changes we made

Guidance page

With input from our policy team and Digi-comms, we drafted and published a new guidance page which introduced the new SENCO course. This was published alongside the other NPQs on the gov.uk website.

During this time, a review of our funding policy was in progress which meant that we were unable to fully explain the funding eligibility for this course. Whilst the funding decision was imminent, we decided to run user testing sessions to test whether the SENCO guidance page is accessible and effective.

NPQ Registration service flow

We next needed to give the opportunity for our users to register for the SENCO NPQ.

Within the registration flow we introduced new SENCO-specific questions to give policy extra information on those registering for the course. This helps DfE understand the number of people registering for the SENCO NPQ who have a statutory need to do the course (the course needs to be completed within 3 years of starting a SENCO role). This ultimately provides data to inform budget conversations.

There were other, non-SENCO specific, changes made during this time which were also part of our usability testing. Such as the partially closed service and capping funded spaces.

List of changes:

  1. Created a new SENCO guidance page on gov.uk

  2. SENCO course added to the ‘choose an NPQ’ question

  3. SENCO-specific questions added to the registration flow:

    • ‘Do you work as a special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO)?’. There were two variations of one of the answer options to this question: “No, but I plan to become one” or “No, but I plan to become one within 18 months”. We tested these answers and found that users preferred the former option.

    • ‘When did you become a SENCO?’

  4. General question added to the registration flow:

    • “Do you want to start a course before November 2024?” [will change depending on time of year]

  5. Closed service page and expression of interest changes:

    • Users can get an identity or sign in to their DfE Identity account to request email updates to tell them when registration opens.

    • Also asked ‘Do you want to complete the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) NPQ when registration reopens?’

Usability study findings

A usability study of the SENCO guidance page and changes to the registration flow demonstrated a few high-level findings:

Check out the slide deck for more findings.

Screenshots

NPQ for SENCOs guidance page

Screenshot of the SENCO guidance page on GOV.UK. This explains who the course is for, funding available, who it is mandatory for, the providers of the course and what is involved in the course.

Application guidance page

Screenshot of the apply for an NPQ guidance page on GOV.UK. This explains the steps a participant needs to go through to apply, including choosing an NPQ, checking if they can get funding, finding a course provider, registering with DfE, applying with the provider and starting the course.

Course start date question

Screenshot of the course start date question. This reads: "NPQ start dates are usually every April and October. Early headship coaching offer start dates vary by provider and are throughout the year. Registrations are currently open for courses starting before November 2024. Do you want to start a course before November 2024? Yes. You can also select this option if you have already started. No, I want to start later"

SENCO course selection

Screenshot of the 'choose an NPQ' page. This has a list of radio buttons, for the NPQs available to take. It now includes an option for 'Special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO)'.

Additional SENCO questions

Screenshot of the question "Do you work as a special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO)?" which has the radio answer options of "Yes", "No, but I plan to become one" and "No, I do not plan to be a SENCO"
Screenshot of the question "When did you become a SENCO?" with the answer fields of "Month" and "Year".

SENCO check answers

Screenshot of the "check your answers and submit" page. This lists all the answers the user has given and has "change" links to edit any of them. There is now a row for "Special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO)" which is only shown when the SENCO NPQ is chosen. This row shows the answers to all the SENCO specific questions the user answers.

SENCO NPQ registration submission

Screenshot of the registration details page, which is shown after the user submits their registration. Now updated to show answers to the SENCO questions.

Closed registration page

The partial closed service start page. Content tells users that registrations are closed. They can sign up to receive email updates about reopening. Or, they can sign in to view past registrations.

Expression of interest question and confirmation

Screenshot of question asked when a user requests email updates about registration opening. The question is "Do you want to register for the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) NPQ when registration opens?" which radio button options of "Yes" or "No, I want to do a different NPQ".
Screenshot of the confirmation page, shown after a user sets up email updates about registration opening. It reads "Your email request has been set up".