Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they will take to increase the employment of specialist teachers for deaf children by local authorities and schools.
The Department for Education has considered the report by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) setting out their research on the number of qualified Teachers of the Deaf and their request for a government funded bursary scheme. Officials are working with the NDCS and other organisations in the sensory impairment sector to identify wider solutions to support teachers wishing to train as Teachers of the Deaf, and qualified teachers of the sensory impaired more widely.
Local authorities should work closely with parents, young people and providers to keep the provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) under review. This includes its sufficiency for children and young people with hearing impairment. For 2020-21, we have announced more than £700 million of additional high needs funding, which funds children with more complex special educational needs and disabilities, including hearing impairment. This represents an increase of 11% compared to 2019-20, leading to a total of over £7 billion. This will help local authorities to manage the pressures that they will face next year. Every local authority will see a minimum increase of 8% per head of population aged 2-18. We will provide local authorities with provisional allocations in October.
The Whole School SEND consortium, led by nasen, are currently delivering a £3.9 million two-year programme of work to equip schools to identify and meet their training needs in relation to SEND and build the specialist workforce in mainstream and special schools, including support for pupils with hearing impairment. The National Sensory Impairment Partnership, the membership of which includes the NDCS, are key partners in the delivery of that programme of work.