Visual Impairment: Children and Young People

(asked on 28th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support children and young people with vision impairment.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 8th March 2022

The Department for Education is firmly committed to ensuring that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with visual impairments, receive the support they need to achieve in their early years, at school and at college.

Local authorities in England are required to publish information on the support commissioned and provided for children and young people with a visual impairment in a local offer, and on the availability of specialist services. To ensure local needs are met, they must work with children, young people, and their families to develop this.

It is a legal requirement for qualified teachers of classes of pupils who have sensory impairments to hold the relevant mandatory qualification. Providers must be approved by the Secretary of State for Education to offer these qualifications.

High needs funding, which is specifically for supporting children with more complex SEND, including those with vision impairment, will be increasing by £1 billion in financial year 2022/23, bringing the overall total of funding for high needs to £9.1 billion. This unprecedented increase of 13% comes on top of the £1.5 billion increase over the last two years.

The government recognises that the current SEND system, established through the Children and Families Act 2014, does not consistently deliver the outcomes we want and expect for children and young people with SEND, their families, or the people and services who support them. A key priority of the SEND Review is to improve the outcomes and experience of all children and young people with SEND, within a financially sustainable system. The review will be published as a green paper for full public consultation in the first 3 months of this year.

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