It is good to see MPs talking passionately about the education needs of disabled children, as they did last week in Parliament.
Everyone agrees that special education provision has not kept pace with the growing numbers of children with complex needs such as autism.
They recognise a distinct problem with school exclusions of children with special needs. One in every 100 children has some form of autism, while a quarter of autistic children are excluded from school at some point in their school life.
However, a disappointing area of difference relates to SEN training. Sadly, the scope of the Government’s actions on training fall a long way short of its stated aims. Its plans to strengthen special needs training for new teachers and new special needs co-ordinators (Sencos) are welcome, but largely ignore training for those already in post.
The Prime Minister believes his Government is at its best when at its boldest, so why not transform the provision for all children by training all teachers in SEN?
Ian Wylie
Chief executive
TreeHouse, the national charity for autism education
London
