“Why should I worry…the SENCO will do it all”: Recognising the importance of the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO)in our schools in readiness for a post-Covid-19 world.

This chapter presents a critical commentary on the role and status of Special Educational Needs Coordinators in English schools in the light of the current COVID-19 climate and uncertainty for the future of schools. The SENCO role is unpicked and interrogated using an attempt to create a generic (or composite) SENCO model which aims to capture the key characteristics of the role; this composite being based on data provided by forty primary and secondary school SENCOs from the East Midlands region. In order to provide a more detailed and unique personal account to complement this composite, one SENCO (Caz), presents her ‘Day-in-the-Life-Of’ diary which describes (‘warts and all’) the relentless experience of managing the day-to-day provision for special educational needs in her small primary school.