Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that teaching staff receive appropriate training to support students with (a) autism and (b) sensory issues.

All teachers need to be equipped to teach pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). High quality teaching is the single most important in-school factor in improving outcomes for all pupils, including those with autism.

Training and development to support pupils with autism starts at the beginning of a teacher’s training through their Initial Teacher Training (ITT) course, which is then embedded through the Early Career Framework (ECF). Careful consideration has been given to the needs of trainee teachers in relation to supporting pupils with SEND, and the ECF builds on that training for early career teachers.

Once teachers qualify and are employed in schools, head teachers also use their professional judgement to identify any further training, including specific specialisms, for individual staff that is relevant to them, the school, and its pupils, for example, through the Universal Services Programme.

The programme offers online training, professional development groups, bespoke school and college improvement projects, sector led research, autism awareness training and a focus on preparation for adulthood, including employer led webinars. The programme commenced in May 2022 and will run until Spring 2025.

So far, 6,500 school and college staff have accessed free online training modules, and 81 schools and over 135 colleges have identified and led their own SEND focused school improvement project. These projects focused on SEND Governance, teaching assistant deployment, early identification of SEND and curriculum.