"Working together...it doesn't go far enough actually for what the relationship becomes" - An IPA study exploring the experiences of primary school SENCOs working with parents/carers through the EHCP process

September 2015 marked the start of a system-wide change to the SEND system. The Children and Families Act 2014 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years (CoP) (2015) have given greater emphasis to parental involvement in the decisions that involve their children and on the expectations of schools. Government research has predominately focussed on the experiences of parents, but the experiences of Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) in the new process has not yet been greatly explored. Therefore my research has aimed to explore the experiences of primary school SENCOs working with parents/carers through the new Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) process. The purpose of this research was to provide knowledge of the SENCO experience to a relatively new research area in order to increase the awareness and understanding of those who work with and support SENCOs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five, purposefully selected, primary SENCOs. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse the data. Superordinate themes for each of the five SENCOs emerged from the interpretative analysis which led to four overarching themes across the whole sample. Three overarching themes were shared by all five SENCOs: ‘Inner turmoil of the SENCO’, ‘Feeling adrift, in need for an anchor’, and ‘Differing roles, intimacy and professionalism’, and the fourth over-arching theme was shared by three of the SENCOs: ‘Varying expectations of the SENCO role’. Potential implications of these findings for professionals working with SENCOs, such as Educational Psychologists (EPs) could be: offering supervision for SENCOs: personal and/or peer to provide support and guidance for SENCOs, psychological training to provide SENCOs with greater understanding of the reasons behind parents actions/behaviours and their own emotional responses, and EPs approach towards working with SENCOs on a day-to-day basis to reduce SENCOs’ feelings of isolation.