Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve the provision of education services for visually impaired children.

In April 2018, the Department for Education announced £3.4 million funding over 2018-2020 to equip the school workforce to deliver high quality teaching across all types of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including for children and young people with vision impairment. The SEND schools’ workforce contract, which will be delivered by the whole school SEND consortium and led by the National Association for Special Educational Needs (Nasen), will help schools identify and meet their training needs in relation to SEND, as well as building the specialist workforce.

We are also reviewing the learning outcomes of specialist SEND qualifications, including the mandatory qualifications for teachers of classes with visual impairment, to ensure they reflect the changing needs of the education system.