Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve support for children with special educational needs in schools.

The Department for Education (DfE) has funded the Autism Education Trust (AET) since 2011 to deliver autism awareness training for early years, school and post-16 education staff. To date, the AET has provided training for more than 150,000 education staff. The training is available for all those who work in schools, not just teachers. The AET has also published national autism standards for educational settings and a competency framework for those working with children and young people with autism. We have recently confirmed a two-year extension to the contract with the AET worth £1.45 million.

In addition to our work with the AET, DfE also works to ensure that all schools meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with autism. To be awarded qualified teacher status, trainees must satisfy the Teachers’ Standards, which include a requirement that they have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND, and are able to use and evaluate distinctive teaching approaches to engage and support them. The framework of content for Initial Teacher Training also now requires training providers to include modules on specific types of SEND, including autism, to ensure that all new teachers understand the needs of such pupils and are well equipped to support them.

It is the responsibility of schools to determine the needs of their staff to meet the needs of children with SEND within their approach to school improvement, professional development and performance management. The performance of all teachers in maintained schools must be assessed every year against the Teachers' Standards. Each school (including academies and free schools) must also have a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) who must hold qualified teacher status, and usually they must undertake the Masters level National Award in SEN co-ordination within three years of being appointed.

We have provided funding to a range of organisations leading on different kinds of SEND to develop resources and training to equip the school workforce, including on autism. A SEND review tool to help schools identify priorities and build school-to-school approaches to improvement is now available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/commissioning-a-send-review. This is supported by a number of tools to address any weaknesses identified by a review, available at www.sendgateway.org.uk. We will also shortly be awarding a two-year contract to provide strategic support to the workforce in mainstream and special schools, from foundation stage to sixth form, in delivering high quality teaching across all types of SEND.