Understanding and Challenging the SEND Code of Practice Book by Beate Hellawell

Offering a clear but critical overview and interrogation of the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice 2015, this book provides the context for understanding recent developments in SEND policy reform. It also considers implications for SEND professionalism and partnership working. The book also successfully links policy and theory to practice and has a focus on professional ethics. This book is aimed primarily at higher level students on Masters and professionals engaged in Continuing Professional Development (CPD), and is supported by chapter objectives, case studies, summaries of key concepts and annotated further reading suggestions.

This is a very welcome book that seeks to broaden and deepen understanding of the SEND Code of Practice as well as enabling readers to challenge it. It involves a novel in-depth historical and policy analysis and deserves a wide readership.

This book helps school leaders to understand their responsibilities as stated in the SEND Code of Practice, and also challenges them to think about the controversies they could face in its implementation.  Issues rarely focused on in books for practitioners, such as professionalism, ethics and moral dilemmas, are explored.

Beate uses the changes in the SEND Code of Practice to explore a range of topics in this book. It contains useful information about the history of SEND policy and legislation and its implications, the impact of changes to the policies for professional practice, and the dilemmas of partnership working with the family, the child and other professionals. This will be a good resource book for anyone who is interested in the relationship between policy development and professional practice. There are a number of signposts for further reading and resources which will be particularly helpful for students pursuing these topics.