Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the consequences for her policies of findings by the National Deaf Children's Society that (a) the number of teachers of the deaf in England has dropped by 19 per cent since 2011 and (b) deaf children achieve on average a grade less at GCSE than their hearing peers.

The department is firmly committed to ensuring that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including sensory impairment, receive the support needed to succeed in their education.

We have developed a new approval process for providers of the Mandatory Qualification for Sensory Impairment (MQSI) from the start of the 2023/2024 academic year. Our aim is to ensure a steady supply of teachers for children with visual, hearing, and multi-sensory impairments, in both specialist and mainstream settings.

The department has promoted the development of hearing impaired specialist units and also resourced provisions in mainstream schools so that more deaf children can be educated with all children. Co-operation between education and health professionals is also key. Programmes such as the new-born hearing screening, have been effective at early identification and ensuring that very young children receive the specialist support they need.

On 29 March 2022, the department published the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Green paper, which sets out our plans to improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people with SEND and those who need AP.  We are now carefully considering all of the feedback we received and will publish a full response in an Improvement Plan early this year.