Teacher training has been a “huge issue” in talks about government special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms, schools minister Georgia Gould has said, as she admitted there was more to do in this area.
She made the comments during the Department for Education’s most recent online public engagement event about the government’s planned reforms.
The issue of teacher expertise in SEND was raised by Jane Harris, CEO of charity Speech and Language UK, who was part of the panel at last night’s DfE webinar.
She highlighted the recent government announcement that £3 billion was to be invested over four years, creating more specialist places. The government announced this last week with a focus on creating more provision in mainstream schools.
Ms Harris said: “Certainly there are some children with speech and language challenges who could really benefit from those kinds of units…they could benefit from that, but not if they’re just buildings. They can only benefit from that if there are speech and language therapists in there and specialist teachers as well.”
‘More to do’ in teacher training
During the event, Ms Gould was also asked by members of the public who submitted questions whether the announcements about a drive to create more specialist places in mainstream schools indicated that big decisions about SEND reform had already been taken.
Ms Gould said that the £3 billion announcement was about capital funding.
She explained: “We know that the need is there for specialist places right now. I hear it every single day, children who are out of school, who could be in school, schools who are desperate to provide spaces, but literally don’t have a space and want to expand. So we wanted to put that capital in up front, because it takes some time to build.
“But we also recognise that [there are] wider changes needed and teacher training comes up as a huge issue in almost every conversation that we’ve had, we made some changes to that already, [there is] definitely more to do in that area.”
The government is expected to publish a White Paper early next year, which will set out its plans for SEND reform.
Specialist places in mainstream
Sector leaders have also raised concerns about the need for teacher development to support a drive for more specialist places in mainstream schools.
James Bowen, assistant general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “Given the growing level of need we are seeing in schools and the government’s direction of travel on SEND, creating more resourced provision or specialist units in mainstream schools makes a lot of sense.
“However, in one sense, the buildings and spaces are the easy part. Given the current recruitment and retention crisis in schools, the much bigger challenge will be ensuring there are enough staff with the appropriate specialist training to work there.”
Writing for Tes today, Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, has explored the challenges of improving SEND content in initial teacher training.
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