SEN Practioner versus Learning Support Assistant

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Do these two job titles do the same thing? One of our local schools has both, but the other only has LSAs.

I would imagine one is teacher and one is support (TA) but I’m not in the UK

I think they are mostly the same thing.

I wouldn't assume they are the same at all.

I've seen SEN practitioner as a job title for SENCO (post grad qualified teacher) and also as 1 to 1 teaching assistant so I'd def clarify the role, but surely the person specification should give you a steer?

I would imagine the SEN practitioner is similar to an HLTA so would be either an experienced member of support staff or a teacher who has stepped back from teaching.
Or perhaps the SEN Practitioner is based largely in the SEN department doing case works and interventions and possibly assisting the SENCo.

If they have the 2 different titles in the same school, then it would suggest to me they must be different roles.
But if a job has been advertised, then it will presumably be explained in the job spec. If, for any reason it isn't, then you could phone the school and ask ?

I'd personally assume that Learning support assistant is a general TA, not necessarily SEN. The other I'd assume is specifically for SEN.
However, it's very rare to have general TA roles now due to funding so it's most probably all SEN.

I think you'd need to find out exactly what SEN practitioner means at this school. It's a perfectly sensible question to ask them. The LSA role is implemented differently at different schools too. It could specific to a child, or a subject, or a particular need, or more general. Different set ups suit different children better.

I would expect most SEN depts to have a seniority level between LSAs and SENCo, a kind of middle management. If they have a specialist intervention person I would say that is much rarer, and valuable.