Tony Lingard is special educational needs co‐ordinator (SENCo) in a large comprehensive secondary school. He believes that the requirements of the Code of Practice detract from his capacity to support pupils with special educational needs. Anticipating the introduction of a revised, but still significant, bureaucratic burden in the new Code, he reports his use of a questionnaire to gather the views of other secondary SENCos in his LEA. The results are challenging but compelling. Do individual education plans (IEPs) help subject teachers to address individual pupils’ special educational needs? Do targets help pupils and parents to engage with priorities for learning? Would whole‐school strategies for meeting special educational needs be more effective, efficient and inclusive than the current individualised system? Tony Lingard’s article will prompt reflection in schools around the country as SENCos await the launch of the revised Code.