Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to improve training for teaching staff when supporting children with speech, language and communication needs.

We are committed to supporting children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). The Government has increased local authorities’ high needs funding by £780 million in 2020-21, boosting the budget by 12% and bringing the total spent on supporting those with the most complex needs to over £7 billion for 2020-21.

We know that the quality of teaching is the most important in-school factor for improving the outcomes for all children and that this is particularly important for pupils with additional needs.

The Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework has been designed around how to support all pupils to succeed and seeks to widen access for all, including those pupils identified within the four areas of need set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice.

To support this, there are a series of online training materials for teachers with a focus on the most prevalent forms of SEND. This includes a module on SLCN. These materials can be found on the SEND Gateway at:
https://www.sendgateway.org.uk/resources.advanced-training-materials-for-autism-dyslexia-speech-language-and-communication-emotional-social-and-behavioural-difficulties-moderate-learning-difficulties_1.html.