SEND Practitioners and Best Practices in Education

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Contents

In the current system, those working with children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEN / SEND) often find themselves working under extreme pressure. Despite this, most SEND practitioners stay on. They are committed to making a meaningful and positive difference. A new book, “The SEN Practitioner: Status, skills and support”, focuses on the practitioners who are doing just that and aims to bring best practice to the fore.

The editor, Dr Tristan Middleton, is a former SENCo and Nurture Group practitioner himself, who now works as a Senior Lecturer in Inclusive Education at the University of Gloucestershire. He is Editor-In-Chief of the British Journal of Special Education and is author of several books, as well as academic journal articles all relating to education. Here, he gives us an insight into the main findings and motivations of the book. He’s offering a copy to giveaway (see form at the end)

“The SEN Practitioner: Status, skills and support” by Dr Tristan Middleton, Senior Lecturer at the University of Gloucestershire

This book began as an investigation and celebration of the range of practitioners who work to support learners identified with Special Educational Needs. As a former SENCo and Nurture Group practitioner, I understand how the SEN Practitioner can often feel isolated in their work where the educational approach is dominated by standardised outcomes and accountability. The inclusive, affirmative and wholistic approach to practice, taken by many can be misunderstood or neglected and I wanted to hold the good practice up to the light and make the case for this approach.

A lack of recognition by policy-makers

Those who choose to work with learners with SEN are motivated by a desire to make a positive difference and many go far beyond their professional and contractual requirements in the work they undertake with those they support. However, there is very little recognition by policy-makers of the role of SEN Practitioners in the way in which their everyday practice makes a positive difference to those they work with. I believe that those whose practice focusses on ‘mainstream’ learners (if there is really such a thing) have much to learn from SEN Practitioners and this book identifies some of these approaches, skills and attributes.

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How diversity amongst practitioners enhances outcomes

As I worked with the authors of individual chapters, the book also developed to discuss how diverse practitioners can bring further positive outcomes to our education settings. Chapters in the second part of the book explore how diversity amongst our practitioners can enhance our educational outcomes and also what may need to be put in place to develop a more inclusive workforce in our settings. These chapters make the argument that an inclusive approach to understanding learners and practitioners and developing a positive and affirmative approach, which has space for reflection and recognition of the strengths, needs and attributes of learners and SEN Practitioners, can facilitate successful outcomes for all.

Chapters in the first section of the book explore many of the different contexts of the SEN Practitioner, including Early Years, Teaching Assistants, Pastoral Support Assistants, Alternative Provision, Nurture Groups, Team Around The Child, the SENCo, and the class teacher as a teacher of SEN. There were other contexts which I had hoped to include, such as home educators, prison educators, hospital educators, Emotional Literacy Support Assistants, amongst others, but publishing constraints restricted the available chapters.

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A real need to learn from the positive practices taking place

I hope that this book will provide some recognition for SEN Practitioners but also be a resource for all education practitioners to understand the depth and complexity of some of the roles that SEN Practitioners undertake and to learn from the positive practice that is taking place every day in our education settings.

SEN Practitioners are the people who interpret and enact the vast range of policies and guidance that are introduced into education settings by governments and more local organisations. At a time where the government seems to be developing many new approaches, strategies and policies relevant to learners with SEN I hope that this book will also act as a prompt to fully consider the significant role of the SEN Practitioner and to consider their contributions and needs.

“The SEN Practitioner: Status, skills and support”, Edited by Dr Tristan Middleton was published by Routledge in the NASEN/Spotlight series on 22^nd June 2026.

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