Teachers: Training

(asked on 7th December 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a pilot scheme of mandatory autism training in education settings.


Answered by
David Johnston Portrait
David Johnston
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This question was answered on 15th December 2023

The department considers all teachers as teachers of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). All teachers need to be equipped to teach pupils with SEND. High quality teaching is the single most important in-school factor in improving outcomes for all pupils.

Training and development to support children with SEND begins at the start of a teacher’s career journey, through their Initial Teacher Training (ITT), and is embedded throughout the Early Career Framework (ECF) once qualified. ITT courses must be designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level.

The Teachers’ Standards already set clear expectations that teachers must understand the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND. To identify opportunities to build teacher expertise, the department is undertaking a review of the ITT Core Content Framework (CCF) and ECF. The review, due to be published in early 2024, has an aim to support trainees and Early Career Teachers to be more confident in meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND, through engaging with the most up to date evidence to inform their practice and applying this in the contexts in which they work as new teachers.

To support teachers and leaders at any stage in their career, the department’s Universal Services programme, backed by almost £12 million, provides SEND-specific training for education professionals. Universal Services includes autism-specific training and resources led by the Autism Education Trust, with over 100,000 professionals undertaking autism awareness training since 2022.

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