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All teaching staff in England will be eligible for SEND training as part of a £200 million new development package, government has announced.
As the sector awaits the government’s SEND white paper, the Department for Education (DfE) has announced new training courses on teaching pupils with special educational needs and disabilities will be made available “to all teaching staff”.
Announcing the news today, the government committed to investing £200 million in the scheme this Parliament – which runs until summer 2029 – to “upskill all staff in every school, college and nursery”.
The government’s SEND code of practice will also be updated with a new expectation that all staff “in every nursery, school and college” should receive training on SEND and inclusion.
Sector leaders have welcomed the move as “long overdue”, but describe it as “a huge undertaking” and say investment “must be sustained”.
The DfE says it is working with a “wide range of experts” to develop the training, which comes as the government strives to increase inclusion in mainstream schools in a bid to tackle the SEND crisis.
DfE says the training will help teachers “deepen knowledge of how to adapt their teaching to meet a wide range of needs”.
This will include adapting teaching for pupils with speech and language needs, and visual impairments.
‘Flexible’ training
The training will also include “building awareness of additional needs amongst all pupils”, and training teachers on how to improve access to education, such as using assistive technology.
It will also “promote practical skills” including “how to work effectively with parents” to boost inclusion.
The “comprehensive” scheme will be free to schools, and will launch next year, said the DfE. It is not yet clear if this means next academic year, or calendar year.
It will be “delivered flexibly to slot into teachers’ busy schedules”, with both online self-study sessions and live in-person lessons.
The DfE said high-quality training materials developed with experts will also be shared with every school and college, for in-house training.
DfE ‘working with wide range of experts’
The DfE said it is in the process of designing the course.
It is “working with a wide range of experts, including the Department’s Inclusion Expert Advisory Group and the Education Endowment Foundation, to identify what content will be most impactful in supporting schools and colleges to be more inclusive”, it said.
The DfE recently awarded a £15,800 contract to Greenshaw Learning Trust, to help write the content framework that will underpin the SEND training courses.
“The DfE said: “”We can confirm that a much wider group of stakeholders – both experts in research such as the Education Endowment Foundation, and practitioners – will also feed into this process,” said the DfE.
“Similarly we intend to engage a wide range of stakeholders on the package of materials.”
‘A clear gap in support’
A rapid evidence review commissioned by the DfE suggested in September that teachers can play a key role in early identification of SEND, but that teacher training in this is “limited” and “more evidence-based training programmes are needed to support ongoing professional development”.
In October, an Ofsted review of initial teacher training found SEND training was broadly “comprehensive”, some was “fragmented”, leaving trainees “not as well prepared to teach pupils with SEND”.
But the government said the new training will be aimed more towards experienced teachers and leaders, for whom it will be “a marked shift”.
The DfE said while current training provided through ITT and NPQs focuses on new trainees and those stepping up to leadership, there “is a clear gap in support for those in-post looking to build their skills”.
“The new training courses will help target this gap,” it said.
Announcing the new training scheme, the DfE said: “For too long, training on SEND has been inconsistent, with almost half of primary and secondary teachers saying that more training would help their confidence in supporting pupils with SEND.”
It said the package will help children “feel safe and welcome in school – promoting good attendance, attainment and wellbeing”.
It will also help children receive “the right support early on”.
The DfE says investment in training for teaching assistants will also form part of the package, but provided no further details.
‘Huge undertaking’
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of leaders’ union ASCL, said whether the £200m investment “is sufficient to deliver training of the depth and quality required at massive scale across a system in which there are around half-a-million teachers remains to be seen.”
The government’s aim that all nursery, school and college staff will be trained on SEND and inclusion “is good in principle” but “is a huge undertaking” and “will clearly take time to deliver in practice”, he said.
He said the investment “must be sustained”, saying SEND training “is too important to be a one-off block”, especially as practice and knowledge develops and is updated.
Matt Wrack
NASUWT general secretary Matt Wrack said while the £200m funding “is very welcome”, it is “also barely a drop in the bucket of the funding necessary to make sustained and significant change.”
“Teachers alone cannot avert the SEND crisis, no matter their levels of expertise…Schools need more funding, more staff and more external support if they are to offer SEND pupils the world class education that every child in this country deserves.”
Gareth Conyard
Gareth Conyard, CEO of the Teacher Development Trust, also welcomed the move but said he is concerned “we are still focusing on short-term pots of cash which we know are at risk of drying up when governments and priorities change.”
He highlighted the case of NPQ funding. NPQs were offered for free as part of a £184 million Covid recovery plan scheme, but funding was later massively scaled back by the Conservatives in 2024.
“I hope this money will be spent well, but we really need to start thinking differently about investing in professional development as a core expectation for every teacher throughout their career,” said Conyard. “Not just responding to immediate circumstances, no matter how important they may be.”
Gov ‘must use expertise of sector’
Nic Crossley, CEO of Liberty Academy Trust, which has expertise in SEND and autism, said the announcement is “welcome and long overdue”.
Melanie Renowden
She highlighted work Liberty has done to design an “evidence-based SEND training” programme. Liberty is “not the only specialist provider” to do this, she added, saying: “Organisations like ours should not be overlooked.”
She called on government to use the “deep expertise” of organisations like Liberty, in developing and delivering the new scheme. “It is essential that this expertise is listened to and used if teachers are to be properly equipped to deliver truly inclusive education.”
Melanie Renowden, chief executive of the National Institute of Teaching, also welcomed the step, saying teachers’ professional development “is integral to improving our education system”.
She also stressed the importance, “with an investment of this scale”, of “us[ing] research evidence on professional development to increase the efficacy and impact of the training on offer, to guarantee the greatest benefit to children.”