Special Educational Needs: Staff
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will set out the steps the Government are taking to invest in the specialist SEND workforce, including QTVIs and habilitation specialists.
Answered by Department for Education
The government is investing around £1.8 billion over three years to develop Experts at Hand, giving mainstream education settings access to specialist support from professionals including speech and language therapists (SaLTs), occupational therapists, educational psychologists and assistants, and specialists such as Qualified Teachers of Children and Young People with Vision Impairments. We will help settings access wider specialist support where appropriate, including for sensory impairment and habilitation.
Experts at Hand will support mainstream settings better identify and meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) through dedicated professional expertise delivered alongside setting staff. It will support earlier identification of need, strengthen workforce confidence and capability, and provide timely, evidence-based support within everyday learning environments.
We are investing over £40 million in the specialist workforce over the next three years, including £26 million to train educational psychologists, £15 million to enable SaLTs to work in education settings, and will invest in upskilling speech and language support workers.
We are supporting the wider education workforce through a new inclusion training package, backed by over £200 million of investment over three years, helping teachers and leaders build skills and confidence to support children and young people with SEND in mainstream settings.
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