Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage more qualified teachers to pursue training in special needs education in order to teach at special schools.

Schools are best placed to determine the professional development needs of their staff and it is for them to include the quality of special educational needs (SEN) support within their approach to school improvement and professional development.

For our part, the Department for Education is committed to supporting the development of teachers’ skills in meeting SEN. The Department provides support through the National Scholarship Fund for teachers and support staff, which provides funding to undertake postgraduate qualifications and training in supporting children with SEN and disabilities. This year, 556 teachers were part-funded to undertake a wide variety of different SEN and disability courses, mainly at master’s level.

The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) has commissioned 10 teaching schools and their initial teacher training (ITT) partnerships, to initiate, develop and implement innovative additions to their training programmes, to enhance the skills and knowledge of SEN for prospective teachers. The outcomes of these trials will be reported on at the end of next year.

In response to the publication of Sir Andrew Carter Review of ITT on 19 January, the Secretary of State for Education will be appointing an independent working group composed of expert representatives from the sector to develop a framework of core ITT content. We expect the group to consider SEN as part of this.

The Department is funding the National Association for Special Educational Needs (Nasen) to deliver leadership and implementation conferences and produce ‘how to’ materials supporting assessment, pupil progress, use of teaching assistants, working with 12 Outstanding schools. The Department has also provided funding to Nasen to set up a new SEND Gateway[1] which was launched in May 2014. This is an online portal offering education professionals free, easy access to high-quality information, resources and training for meeting the needs of children with SEN and disabilities.

Furthermore, all ITT programmes train teachers to teach both mainstream pupils and those with SEN. In order to be awarded Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), trainees must satisfy the Teachers’ Standards (‘the Standards’) which include a requirement that they have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs, and are able to use and evaluate distinctive teaching approaches to engage and support them. The Standards apply to all qualified teachers and can be used to underpin teacher training and guide teachers’ ongoing professional development.

[1] www.sendgateway.org.uk/