Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of current Initial Teacher Training provision in preparing teachers to support children with speech and language needs.

The department is committed to improving support for all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including pupils with speech and language needs.

Courses must incorporate the minimum entitlement set out in the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework. It remains for individual providers to design courses that are appropriate to the needs of trainees and for the subject, phase and age range that the trainees will be teaching.

We have recently updated the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework, adding significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and improving inclusivity for pupils with SEND.

We have also committed to a full review of early career teacher training in 2027, which will include a focus on SEND.

In addition, we have announced a training package of over £200 million that will upskill staff in every school, college and nursery to better support pupils with SEND. Finally, we know the importance of ensuring children can speak and listen well from the earliest years, so we will develop a new oracy framework to sit alongside the revised national curriculum.