Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that (a) deaf children and (b) their families receive support from specialist teachers of the deaf in (i) education and (ii) early years settings.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has developed a Sensory Impairment apprenticeship. The apprenticeship is expected to be available from September 2025 and will open up a paid, work-based route into teaching children and young people with sensory impairments. This will improve the supply of those qualified to teach this important cohort and further help to improve their outcomes.

It is also important that early years practitioners are able to identify and support children with SEND, including children with hearing impairment and deafness. The department wants deaf children to be able to thrive in their early years, which might sometimes mean that settings access specialist teachers for the deaf.

The Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure every child has the best start in life, including those with SEND. It stipulates that providers must have arrangements in place to support children with SEND. Maintained schools, maintained nursery schools and all providers who are funded by the local authority to deliver early education places must have regard for the SEND Code of Practice.

In November, the department published the updated early years foundation stage profile handbook, which includes a change to allow a child’s established or preferred mode of communication (including British Sign Language) to be used for all of the early learning goals, including speaking. The handbook can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-handbook.