Driving Change in SEND and Safeguarding: Exclusive Interview with a Director of SEND
02 Oct, 20241-2 minutes
In this blog, you will learn:
- About the responsibilities of a Director of SEND and Safeguarding at a multi academy trust of schools.
- What can be done to better support the needs of children and young people with SEND.
- How to find and apply for the latest local authority SEND jobs.
There are several roles and departments within the SEND sector concerning the safety, values, education and wellbeing of children and young people with SEND.
Nicole Dempsey is a Deputy Regional SEND Lead for Whole School SEND and the Director of SEND and Safeguarding of a multi academy trust of schools. As the Director of SEND and Safeguarding Nicole is responsible for providing high quality education and ensuring inclusivity for every student, not just the majority. Working in her dual leadership role and with 15 years experience in the SEND sector, Nicole has a passion for equality in education and believes in the principles of true inclusion.
We spoke to Nicole who shared how and why she believes the whole SEND sector - from teaching practices in the classrooms to responsiveness in local authority - could benefit from being reviewed.
Tell us about your career journey so far
I became a Teacher because I wanted to be a SENCO, and I wanted to be a SENCO because I wanted to challenge what I saw as injustice in the education sector. Before training to be a Teacher, most of my work experience was with children and adults with more complex needs and I was working as a Teaching Assistant in a special school when I made that decision.
From what I could see, children with SEND attending mainstream schools were not getting the education they deserved. I became an Assistant SENCO in my second year of teaching, and a SENCO the year after that. The aim was always to find opportunities to challenge the status quo, try new things, and share my views and ideas.
Safeguarding is something I picked up along the way, but a central feature of my own philosophy on inclusion in education is multi-disciplinary work and providing holistic responses to children’s needs. Creating connections between how different areas of vulnerability are managed is key.
Leading in two different areas makes it easier, but also means working collaboratively with leaders in other areas, particularly behaviour, attendance, teaching and learning. Community and civic responsibility completes the picture and brings a broader range of expertise and ideas into the mix.
What does your role as Director of SEND and Safeguarding consist of?
My role is very diverse and responsive, which can make it quite hard to explain! I lead my Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) networks - we call them cross-cutting teams - for SENCOs and for Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL).
These hubs provide opportunities to meet online or in person to share best practice, discuss opportunities and challenges, respond to local and national changes, and identify next steps.
From there, I’m able to write policies and other guidance for the MAT, create resources, support alignment where it’s useful and identify specific schools to spend more time with or sub-groups to meet with more regularly.
What does a typical work day look like for you?
I think I have two types of day and, usually, I can plan ahead for a half or full term and get a balance between the two. I might spend a period of time based in a specific school for part of each week, working directly with colleagues to develop a particular aspect of their practice, supporting meetings and staff training, or providing audits or quality assurance.
On days when I’m not doing this, it is a mixture of meetings or delivering training particularly for our own Centre for Growth, our staff training and development centre. Or I’m in my home office, working on whatever policy, project or resource is the current priority.
How do you keep up-to-date with changes in the SEND industry?
I think in my role it would be difficult not to! The SEND system is flawed, stretched and often misinterpreted, so it isn’t enough just to know the law or the SEND Code of Practice inside out; you have to understand what that looks like in reality and how it is experienced by children and families, school staff and how it differs between Local Authorities.
I feel like my job is one big, ongoing conversation with lots of different people, all trying to reconcile the rights of the child, the limitation of resources, and the letter of the law.
I’m also lucky that I have a secondment with Whole School SEND, an organisation that holds part of the Department for Education’s ‘universal services’ contract. Working to make schools more inclusive for students with SEND, gives me amazing opportunities to work with colleagues from across the sector. It’s where I get most of my updates and hear about innovation from around the country.
What’s the most valuable lesson that you’ve learned in your career?
It is just one big learning curve, so it is difficult to single out one thing in particular, but there have been two occasions in my career when colleagues - who have been fighting for inclusive education far longer than I have – have given me a piece of advice that has stayed with me and shaped my thinking from that point on.
The first was my National SENCO Award course tutor, who said ‘a good SENCO works their way out of a job’, which is probably the single most influential thing that has been said to me in my career. Everything I do is underpinned by the belief that the way forward is to create an education system that not only doesn’t need SENCOs, but does not need a separate SEND system at all; a fully inclusive and high quality experience for every single student.
The second was a retired SENCO from one of my MAT’s schools, who wrote me a note containing many words of wisdom and ending with this; ‘there’s no use banging your head against a brick wall, but we can all chip away at it and eventually the wall will fall.
Achieving real inclusivity in education might seem like an overwhelming task, but when we see it as a team effort and a long term commitment, it keeps me motivated to keep going.
What challenges or obstacles have you faced in your career?
I actually feel like I’ve been very lucky in my career. In my first teaching job I was able to start working alongside a very experienced SENCO from the outset and then, when I became the SENCO, she stayed on the senior team and was my line manager.
That school was also in a Local Authority that had an excellent SENCO induction programme, network and were generally very supportive. The school got shut down, and I spent the final year there making sure every child that needed an EHCP had one - and had a place at a school that was going to be just right for them and their needs. It was an intensive crash course in statutory SEND, working with parents, the Local Authority and other agencies, and using the system to get what the children needed.
After that, I became a SENCO in a school that had only just opened and was able to set up from scratch, again line managed by someone who had been a SENCO themselves and with the support and enthusiasm of the wider staff team, and we were able to create something quite unique and special, and this then evolved into my current role.
What this has done is given me an appreciation of some of the things that really enable a SENCO to be successful. Being line managed by someone who understands the SENCO role, being in a Local Authority that prioritises SENCO support, and being in a school where all staff understand and share in your vision for inclusivity, are all game changing, but far from guaranteed.
Reform in the SEND sector continues to be a huge topic of discussion. How have things changed or progressed in the SEND sector since the start of your career?
I think there has been significant positive change in the last decade, but it is easy to lose sight of that because there is so much more that needs to be done. Change on the scale that is needed does take time, upskilling and building confidence in the workforce.
There are lots of complexities and moving parts to consider, working closely with social care and the NHS, both with their own challenges, being just one example.
Something I think is important to remember is that our current frustrations are due, at least in part, to having a better understanding and unwillingness to accept a lesser deal for any of our students.
The work of the EEF, the updates to the NPQs, the move away from differentiation in favour of adaptive teaching, and the ongoing SEND reforms, are all examples of how the sector has moved on since the SEND Code of Practice was issued, and it now feels like it is urgently due an update.
Schools are more informed and more aware than they have ever been about the rights of students with SEND and what works for them in education, and I hope that this understanding of what should be happening is what gives us the momentum to pick up the pace of change going forward.
What is the most challenging part of your job?
One of the most challenging parts of my job is reconciling the amount of work that needs to be done with the amount of work that is possible, not just in terms of time but what we are ready to accommodate.
There’s always plenty of scope to be ambitious, but often it’s just about getting the basics right first. For a school to be able to innovate and challenge the status quo, they first need to have general stability.
Inclusion can’t come from within a SEND department, it has to be something that is supported at every level, in every department and every space, so it is often better to start small and give yourself a foundation to build from in the future.
Another challenge is combatting the quantity of misinformation and bad habit practice that is prevalent in the SEND system. Much of what has become embedded such as differentiation has now got strong evidence against it, but has become so normalised in education that it can be difficult for schools to feel able to move away from it. Even advice coming from the local authorities and reputable third sector organisations can be outdated and unhelpful.
What do you feel can be done to better support the needs of children and young people with SEND?
I think part of the challenge is that there isn’t one single thing, or even a few things, that we could change that would have the impact that is needed. Every aspect of what we do in the classroom, in our schools, at MAT level, the Local Authority and education as a whole, needs to be reviewed in light of inclusivity and for there to be a collective understanding and will to change in order to improve.
When we consider something like a behaviour policy, it might be difficult to justify rewriting it to make it inclusive for a minority of students when it works for the majority of students. The same can be said of classroom practice, whole school routines, school trips, our schools’ student voice opportunities… everything. But, for me, that is what needs to happen.
The high expectations, quality and rigour that we naturally apply to our students who attain highest and follow our systems most easily, is the right of every student. The individualisation, responsiveness and care we often reserve for only our students with SEND is the right of every student too. Students can thrive where rigour and relationships, high expectations and individual responsiveness, all have equal status.
What would you say has been your biggest achievement or most the most rewarding part of your career?
The times I feel most reassured that I’m doing the right thing are still the times when individual children take a step forward in their personal progress journey, get the results they need, into the college or university that they wanted, or into a job that they love.
Where I work when I’m working from home is decorated with various thank you notes and gifts from over the years - they are all reminders of those moments to keep me motivated.
Do you have any tips or advice for anyone considering a career in SEND provision?
My biggest piece of advice, for those considering a career in SEND but also for all working in education, would be to speak to more experienced practitioners and read the SEND Code of Practice and local policies, books, guidance reports and any research that is available.
I would also say to take a step back and ask yourself these questions – What is it that we actually want for our students with SEND? What do we know definitely works for children in education? And what are we willing to do to get those things for our students with SEND too?
The most inclusive schools are the ones that understand and meet their statutory requirements as a platform and respond to the needs of the children they have. They look critically at what is common across the sector and then apply their own common sense, context and experience to provide what is needed.
What are your career plans for the future?
I only have one rule for myself in my work and career, and that’s that I need to be able to sleep when my head hits the pillow. For me that means knowing that the things I’m spending my time on aligns with my values and the reasons I originally trained to be a Teacher, and that I can see that the work that I’m doing is having a positive impact. I don’t know specifically what it will look like, but I know I will always be chasing that goal.
SEND jobs
If you’re searching for your next local authority SEND job, why not take a look at the latest vacancies, or simply upload your CV to be notified when a relevant position becomes available.
If you found this blog insightful, why not check out more interviews with local authority SEND professionals.
- The role of a SENCO should have the word hero in front of it: interview with a director for SEND
- Dual role perspectives from a SEN consultant and managing director
- Every teacher is a teacher of SEND: interview with a director of SEND
Local authority recruitment services
As specialist local authority SEND recruiters, we support local authorities nationwide with their temporary, interim and permanent staffing needs.
We can supply SEND staff for service redesign, tackling annual review backlogs and SEND/EHC Case workers to amend plans or hold annual review meetings.
If you’re struggling to fill a vacancy, why not get in touch with one of our team to see how we can help?
- South of the UK - Richard Shorrock
- Midlands & North of the UK - Adam Zyda
Share your experience
Every individual brings a unique set of experiences, thoughts, and insights to the table. We believe in giving a voice to a community of professionals to inspire positive change and champion reform in the healthcare sector.
If you work in the healthcare sector and would like to share your own personal and professional experiences, we’d love to hear from you. Perhaps you have a different perspective, could offer a fresh angle, or want to challenge assumptions.
Simply reach out to our Head of Content, Nicole Sherwood, to discuss a collaboration which makes your voice count.
Who is Spencer Clarke Group?
Established in 2017, we’re a vibrant and progressive recruitment agency based in the heart of the North West.
We continually reimagine the recruitment process to challenge convention and defy expectations; from creating a better recruitment experience to remodelling employee engagement, we thrive off doing things differently and turning heads along the way.
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