Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the School Workforce Census to record neurodivergence.

The department recognises the importance of understanding the diversity of the school workforce, including the experiences of neurodivergent staff. The School Workforce Census (SWC) already collects information on disability, which may include some neurodivergent conditions where individuals choose to declare them. However, the disability data collected does not enable the department to identify or extract information specifically on neurodivergent staff.

The department keeps the content of the SWC under regular review to ensure it meets user needs while minimising administrative burdens on schools. The department has not made a specific assessment of the merits of introducing a separate data field for neurodivergence. Any proposal to do so would require careful consideration of data quality, staff disclosure rates and the impact on schools and employers.

The department will continue to consider opportunities to improve its understanding of workforce diversity.