Setting up your SENCo and resolving Query 6550Q for the Workforce Census

The Department for Education (DfE) requires each school to have a designated Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo), whose details and contract must be recorded accurately for the Workforce Census. This article explains how to set up your SENCo in Arbor and resolve Query 6550Q.

If you have an assigned SENCo at your school, follow the instructions below:

Step 1 - Check your SENCo is set up

First, check you’ve added your SENCo’s staff profile to your Arbor site: Adding a New Staff Member and creating a new staff profile

Step 2 - Check for and resolve duplicates

Check for duplicate staff from the Data Quality Dashboard (found in School > Data > Data Quality > Dashboard > Suspected Duplicates (left side)> Staff (unresolved tab) and merge them (or delete a duplicate from the Admin section at the bottom of the duplicate’s staff profile): Resolve duplicates or delete staff profiles

Step 3 - Make sure you've added their position

Add the SENCo position in School > All Staff > HR Admin > Positions: Setting Positions, Position Categories and Census Business Roles for the Workforce Census

Be sure to set the:

• Position Category as Classroom Teacher
• Census Business Role as SEN Co-ordinator

Step 4 - Record their SENCo contract

Add the staff member’s SENCo contract to their staff profile. If they already have a separate position (such as a teacher), they’ll need two contracts.

You’ll need to decide what to put as the salary breakdown between the two positions, but the contracts should add up to the equivalent of one full-time member of staff: Managing Staff Contracts

This will also apply to the salary - you should split the salary between the two contracts.

SENCo contract:

Other contract:

Step 5 - Add their qualifications

You need to log that the SENCO has a NASENCO qualification unless they had been in that role for at least a year before September 2009. This will clear Query 6260Q.

Click +Add in the Qualifications & Checks section of their staff profile to add the NASENCO qualification.

The Qualification type should be Masters Degree or Any other qualification at NQF level 4 or equivalent if taken as a stand-alone qualification.

Select the qualification by typing Z201 in the First Subject box to select it. Then click Create to add the qualification to their profile.

Resolving Query 6550Q

The DFE requires each school to have a designated SENCO, whose contract must be recorded in their staff profile. Schools without a SENCO can still submit the census but must provide an explanation. For schools with a SENCO, the contract should be added to their profile following specific instructions.

The DFE expects each school to have one staff member working as a SENCO. This means they will need to have this contract recorded on their staff profile.

• If your school doesn’t have a SENCO you can still submit the census as this is only a query. You will need to provide an explanation to COLLECT to support this when submitting your census.
• If you do have a SENCO working at the school all you have to do is add the contract to their profile. Follow the instructions from Step 3 - Make sure you've added their position above.