Ten years on: to what extent has the 2015 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice influenced professionals' practice within post-16 education?

Last, Grace and Su, Feng (2025) Ten years on: to what extent has the 2015 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice influenced professionals' practice within post-16 education? PRACTICE: Contemporary Issues in Practitioner Education. ISSN 2578-3858

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Abstract

The 2015 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice (CoP) was a significant reformation of provision for children and young people with additional and complex learning needs in England. This paper explores the influence the 2015 SEND CoP has had on professionals working within post-16 education in England. The study was empirically grounded and qualitative in methodological orientation. Eighteen participants from an English special education college took part in the study [n = 18]. The study has found that barriers to implementation of the SEND guidance continue to exist. Recurring themes relate to a lack of training, time, funding and responsibility held by professionals. There also continues to be a lack of evidence of the graduated approach being applied to practice. However, findings do suggest that some professionals have begun to recognise the positive influence of the SEND CoP and have altered their practice accordingly, placing the learner needs at the centre. The authors conclude that there is currently a gap between policy and practice. Thus, education professionals cannot successfully apply the guidance within the SEND policy to their practice until the adequate special educational support is put in place. The authors argue that more must be done to unite both policy and practice together in the interest of young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	© 2025 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Keywords:	special educational needs and disabilities (SEND); code of practice; post-16 education; professional practice
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Education
Depositing User:	Frank Su
Date Deposited:	20 Feb 2025 10:32
Last Modified:	05 Mar 2025 14:07
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4622

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