Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con) I beg to move, That this
House has considered autism and learning disability training for
education staff. It is a great pleasure to speak under your
chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I am grateful to have been allocated
parliamentary time to discuss the very important issue of autism
and learning disability training for education staff. The debate
arises in response to three e-petitions: petition 639050, which
calls for education...Request free
trial
Dame (Gosport) (Con)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered autism and learning disability
training for education staff.
It is a great pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mr
Vickers. I am grateful to have been allocated parliamentary time
to discuss the very important issue of autism and learning
disability training for education staff. The debate arises in
response to three e-petitions: petition 639050, which calls for
education staff to be required to have trained in learning
disability and autism and which has received over 69,000
signatories; petition 638530, which calls for mandatory training
for teachers in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and
autism and which has 1,500 signatories; and petition 634354,
which calls for training on neurodiversity for university staff
and which has over 16,000 signatories.
I thank everyone who took time to sign the petitions, which
clearly relate to issues that are of huge concern to people
across the country. I also thank the nearly 3,000 people who
contributed to the Commons engagement team survey and gave their
views on more education staff training. Some of the stories which
they have shared with us have been exceptionally troubling. I am
grateful for the time and effort that has gone into communicating
those stories, which in some cases involved sharing very painful
experiences.
There are around 200,000 autistic pupils in England and nearly
75% of them are in mainstream schools. According to research by
the National Autistic Society, only a tiny proportion—just 26%—of
autistic pupils feel happy at school. Three in four parents or
carers—74%—said that their child’s school place did not fully
meet their needs, and more than one in four parents, or 26%,
waited over three years to receive support for their child.
Autistic children often speak of feeling misunderstood and of
school being a place where there is bullying and loneliness. Such
experiences lead to issues with mental wellbeing, sometimes to
self-harm, and to a lack of self-esteem and self-confidence. The
responses to the engagement survey starkly support the claim that
autistic children do not always have a positive experience at
school. In fact, in cases in which things go badly wrong,
autistic children not only miss out on their education, but have
experiences that can haunt them throughout their lives—stealing
their future prospects, leaving them struggling to get into or
stay in the workplace, and driving very distressing health
impacts. Those detrimental effects can continue well into
adulthood.
Deborah, the mother of one autistic child, said:
“After nine years of experiencing the school system…she removed
her son completely and started home education so that they could
mend his mental health and school-caused trauma.”
One mother told us of the
“Huge emotional impact”
that had
“led to serious mental health issues and withdrawal from
education and society as a whole.”
She stated that her child’s experience had
“led to isolation, complete withdrawal from any form of education
and reluctance to interact across all levels of society.”
The National Autistic Society’s education rights helpline has
seen a huge spike in calls related to college and university
education.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I commend the hon. Lady for bringing forward the debate. All of
us have an interest in autism, and I know that others have a
personal interest in it, but we are here to support the hon.
Lady. Back in 2020, the former Education Minister in Northern
Ireland—now Lord Weir in the other place—published an enhanced
autism training programme. The hon. Lady referred to
universities, and it is important to note that it is not only
children who are affected by autism. Does she agree that the same
considerations from that report must apply to colleges and
universities across the UK, so that older students who suffer
from autism have the same support as those in schools? I think
the hon. Lady’s answer will be yes, but I am curious about her
response.
Dame
The hon. Gentleman anticipates correctly and, as ever, makes an
important contribution to the debate. That is why we are
discussing a petition, which over 16,000 people signed and which
calls for university students to be included and for the
education to go up as far as university lecturers and other
university staff.
Before I go any further, I want to say that this is not a problem
with teachers per se. This debate is not about attacking the
teaching profession nor is it meant in any way to undermine or
criticise teachers and other education professionals. We know
that teachers up and down the country do a remarkable and very
important job, in many cases in increasingly challenging
circumstances. Teachers are passionate about supporting their
pupils. They want to give them the very best possible educational
experience and the best life chances, but they need the right
support to do that. This debate is about ensuring that teachers
are given the best tools and advice they need to give autistic
and neurodivergent children, children with a learning disability
and, in fact, all the students they care for the best possible
support and the best possible chance to have a happy, healthy and
safe learning environment.
Sir (South Swindon) (Con)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing this debate to
Westminster Hall and bringing together these petitions. Does she
agree that we already have a precedent in the Health and Care Act
2022, which finally mandated training for health and social care
professionals using the Oliver McGowan training programme? With
the Autism Education Trust, we have a potential model that could
be strategically rolled out to replicate the approach we are
taking in health and social care in all fields of education.
Dame
It is almost as if my right hon. and learned Friend read my mind.
I will come on in a bit to talk about the Oliver McGowan
training, which I am glad he endorses. As the chair of the
all-party parliamentary group on autism, he speaks with enormous
experience and passion on this subject, and I am grateful for his
endorsement.
As we have heard, there is already training in this area, which I
am sure the Minister will reiterate. However, a report by the
National Autistic Society showed that just one in seven—14%—of
schoolteachers have received any form of autism training. Rachel,
a SEND learning support assistant, said, in her words, that she
had
“not really received much training”,
and that when she started, she
“was thrown into the deep end.”
Everything Rachel knows is mainly based on her experience of
working with SEN children, not her training, yet the survey
responses show that where teaching and support are right, they
can have a game-changing and enduring impact on the education and
life chances of neurodivergent pupils, in some cases supporting
them all the way through university and building them up for
their adult lives and careers ahead.
What concerns me deeply, however, is the fact that further
research from the National Autistic Society showed that while 87%
of teachers surveyed said that they felt confident or very
confident supporting autistic pupils in the classroom, findings
from a 2021 report showed that seven in 10 autistic children and
young people said that school would be better if more teachers
understood autism, while 54% of autistic students said that
having teachers who did not understand them was the worst thing
about school. That is a problem. There is a clear and sizeable
gap between how teachers think it is going and how autistic
children and children with a learning disability actually feel.
It is vital that we bridge that gap. It is simply not fair on
either party if we do not. All children deserve to have the very
best possible experience in the classroom and the best
opportunities to learn and fulfil their potential.
(Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)
The hon. Lady is making excellent points to which I give my very
strong support. Does she recognise the experience of many of my
constituents, with young people waiting perhaps two years for an
education, health and care plan and a diagnosis? Something that
has become obvious to me only recently is that 50% of the young
people on the books of child and adolescent mental health
services in my part of Cumbria have autism and ADHD. It turns out
that through the NHS, via the local integrated care board, there
is literally zero funding for that service to support any of
those young people, which delays their getting the care and
support that they need in the classroom, but also affects all
young people—some with neurological issues and some without—who
need support for eating disorders, anxiety and so on. Is it not
time that the NHS funded CAMHS sufficiently so that young people
with neurological issues can get the treatment and diagnosis that
they need?
Dame
The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point. There will not be a
single Member of Parliament who has not had some issues with
local CAMHS, sadly. Of course, early intervention and recognition
is key to this and can stave off many problems that come further
down the line. I would not be doing teachers or pupils justice if
I did not refer to wider issues surrounding SEND provision and
support for autistic children more broadly. We know that there
are simply not enough specialist SEND school places or trained
professionals to cope with the increased need.
Schools are required under the Equality Act 2010 to make
adjustments, but there is only so much they can do with current
provision. As we have heard, it takes an inordinate amount of
time to secure an EHCP and then for the associated funding to
filter through to the educational establishment concerned.
Meanwhile, schools are left to pick up the tab and in many cases
to pick up the pieces involved in offering incredibly intensive
support to children with very complex needs.
(Upper Bann) (DUP)
I commend the hon. Lady on securing this debate, which is very
fitting and certainly much needed in relation to our schools.
Does she agree that this issue is not only important in primary
and post-primary education but in nursery and playgroup settings,
where it is absolutely vital, because ultimately children
affected by these issues need support measures in place as soon
as they reach primary school? Nursery and pre-school provision is
where the core of this work needs to sit.
Dame
The hon. Lady must be Mystic Meg. I say that because that issue
is exactly what I will come on to next.
Early years settings are a crucial place to start this work; the
hon. Lady has hit the nail on the head. Early diagnosis and
putting in place the building blocks of support from the outset
can have a lifelong impact on a child’s attitude to education
settings, and on their interaction and support from those
settings; in fact, it can have a lifelong impact on their
wellbeing.
If all education and care staff, particularly in early years
settings, successfully underwent the right training, children who
require extra support and assistance would be identified sooner,
which would prevent some of the issues that we have heard about
from developing. We heard from a teacher called Helen, who said
that during her time in teacher training, which took four years,
half a day was spent covering special educational needs. Such
training leaves teachers ill-equipped to support a growing
percentage of pupils in their classes.
I am sure that the Minister will tell me about the training that
is provided. I expect that he will also tell me that the
Government have published their strategy on special educational
needs and disabilities and alternative provision improvement—not
that I am trying to interpret his speech for him—and about all
the increased investment in SEND, which is over £10.5 billion by
2024-25, and the universal services programme, which will receive
£12 million in funding, and that £1.4 million is available for
the strategic priorities grant to support students at risk of
discontinuing higher education studies. Those numbers have very
little meaning to those caught in the cyclone of the system if
they do not filter through to create meaningful improvements on
the ground. I will therefore set out what I would like to know
from the brilliant Minister.
What assessment has the Minister’s Department made of the full
picture of both learning disability training and autism training
for education professionals? What level of understanding does he
have about training—not only the quantity of training, but the
quality of training? What conversations has he had with some of
the excellent charities in this space and with the teachers,
parents and children who actually live these things and therefore
are experts by experience? To what level can he confidently tell
me that all education professionals have the confidence to teach
neurodivergent children and children with learning disabilities,
so that their needs are met and their potential is realised? To
what extent is the experience of students and their carers taken
into consideration?
Mr Vickers, you have already heard about what I am about to say
next. During my time as Minister of State for care, in the
Department of Health and Social Care, I started work on
introducing the Oliver McGowan mandatory training for all health
and social care staff. That became law in the Health and Care Act
2022, and it is now the Government’s preferred and recommended
training for health and social care staff.
The training is named after Oliver McGowan. Oliver was a
remarkable young man whose tragic and completely avoidable death,
at the age of just 17, shone a light on the need for health and
social care staff to have better skills, better knowledge and
better understanding of the needs of autistic people. It came
about because of a meeting I had with Paula McGowan, Oliver’s
incredible mum, who courageously shared her family’s unimaginable
experiences with me and who has been a relentless advocate for
the change that needed to happen. It is an honour to have Paula
here today after she travelled all the way from Australia just to
attend this debate.
Since November 2022, when the initial roll-out of the Oliver
McGowan training began, over 1 million people have completed the
first part. The training has received significant international
interest in Canada, Australia and the Republic of Ireland, and as
a result it has been made available on an e-learning platform.
The initial feedback is incredibly exciting and shows a
significant increase in participants’ knowledge, confidence and
skill, with 88% of participants saying that they felt confident
they could communicate with people with a learning disability and
with autistic people, and with 84% of participants saying they
felt more confident in their work.
The most significant thing about the training is that it is
co-delivered with trainers who are autistic or learning disabled,
and they are paid for their time. They are experts by experience
and are able to give health and care professionals first-hand
insight into how to listen, how to act and how to get this
right.
(East Kilbride, Strathaven
and Lesmahagow) (Con)
My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech, and I thank her for
highlighting the wonderful training that is being rolled out. I
wanted to bring to the attention of the House, through my role as
chair of the all-party parliamentary group for disability, some
work that we were doing with Caudwell Children and its national
children’s centre, and to highlight their hope that they can
augment some of the work that is being undertaken in the UK to
provide timely diagnosis and holistic assessment for children
with autistic spectrum disorder. I put on record our thanks to
Trudi Beswick for leading that wonderful centre and taking that
work forward.
Dame
First of all, I am very pleased to see my hon. Friend on this
side of the House. She does a brilliant job as the chair of the
APPG for disability, and I am very grateful to her for taking the
time to make that commendation.
I will conclude very quickly. Following the success of the Oliver
McGowan mandatory training, Paula has started a petition for all
staff in educational settings to have similar mandatory training
on learning disabilities and autism. As I said, that training
needs to start with professionals in early years settings and go
all the way through to colleges and universities: teachers,
lecturers and education staff must know how to adapt to their
environment, how to listen to what young people are saying, how
to understand, how to manage a sensory overload and crisis and
how to adapt communication to meet individual needs. George, a
teacher, said:
“Training is often focused on the symptoms rather than the
sensory issues and the understanding behind it. Whilst dealing
with symptomatic behaviour is important it can be difficult to
understand some causes.”
(Skipton and Ripon) (Con)
On the point about sensory overload, demands and anxiety, does my
hon. Friend agree that, with the discrepancy between what kids
see and what teachers feel they are doing, part of the challenge
is in fully understanding what an autistic child or adult
actually sees and has to deal with? Does she agree that that is
quite difficult and that it requires significant time to fully
understand the major challenges that lots of these kids go
through and often succeed in pushing through, despite the
challenges they face?
Dame
That is an excellent point. It is worth pointing out that
sometimes the behaviours that autistic children in particular can
demonstrate can be very different. Autistic boys in the classroom
behave very differently from autistic girls who might just sit at
the back very quietly, mirroring others’ behaviour, while
struggling inside and not having the support that they need. That
point is really important.
Finally, has the Minister’s Department considered the brilliant
Oliver McGowan model of mandatory training? What assessments has
the Minister made for how that would benefit education
professionals? By making the training mandatory, as it is for
health and care staff, no teacher will miss out, which means that
every child has an equal opportunity to gain support.
I ask the Minister to reflect on the stories that I have shared
today and on those that we heard from other Members. While his
Department is no doubt bolstering financial support, I ask him to
consider the positive impact that mandatory training will have on
the education of professionals and students. The success in
health and care has been immediate and game changing, and I know
that it has similar potential for children and young people’s
education.
Several hon. Members rose—
(in the Chair)
I received prior notice that two Members wanted to speak in this
debate. I will call the Front Benchers from 5.7 pm, if Members
would bear that in mind.
4.48pm
(Worsley and Eccles South)
(Lab)
I am very pleased to speak in this important debate with you in
the Chair, Mr Vickers. I congratulate the hon. Member for Gosport
(Dame ) on securing the debate
and on the way in which she opened it.
I would like to pay tribute to Paula McGowan for her persistence
in campaigning for this debate, for all her work to get the
original debate that we held on this issue in 2018 and for all
the campaigning work she has done since then. Paula has
campaigned to secure around 70,000 signatures on the petition, so
it is very good that we can discuss the Oliver McGowan mandatory
training programme again. Her work has been instrumental in
raising awareness of how we treat autistic people and people with
learning disabilities in our health and care services. I pay
tribute to her for that work.
In the debate which Paula helped to secure five years ago, I
called for the Government to treat the introduction of mandatory
training as an urgent priority. The Oliver McGowan mandatory
training on learning disability and autism programme has now been
delivered to around 750,000 healthcare staff—I think the hon.
Lady said it was more than that, but that is the figure I
have—and 200 people with a learning disability or autism have
been trained to deliver parts of the programme. As we have heard,
that is a very important part of it. Those are significant steps
forward, but there is much more still to do.
Oliver’s case illustrates the degree to which people with
learning disabilities or autism do not get the healthcare
treatment they should expect from a civilised, compassionate
society. Oliver was a young man with a full life expectancy who
had overcome many challenges to excel as a footballer, as an
athlete and in his exams. He was let down repeatedly because
clinicians simply did not understand the nature of his autism.
With better awareness and care adjustments, his death could have
been avoided.
The petition on mandatory training that we are discussing
recognises the role of teachers and schools in offering support
to children and young people with a learning disability or
autism. The rolling out of training on learning disabilities and
autism is likely to significantly benefit the raising of
awareness of learning disabilities and autism in the education
sector.
The Government’s response to the petition states that
headteachers should
“use their professional judgement to identify any further
training”
for teachers. But the roll out of further training for education
staff is clearly needed. Research by the National Autistic
Society showed that 86% of secondary school teachers had received
just half a day’s training on autism, and that three in four
parents or carers of autistic children feel that their child’s
school does not meet their needs.
One of my constituents—the parent of a boy aged nearly five who
is showing traits of autism—told me about the struggle to get him
support. She was told that he is “too naughty”, and he is limited
to two hours of school a day. She said that her child
“is treated so differently, and he is more aware of it now. This
makes him want to act out, as he thinks it’s what is expected of
him. He cries every day when he has to leave so many hours
earlier than the other children. I think this is another reason
he acts out, because every day he knows he will only get a couple
of hours of play with everything. He is overstimulated, and his
behaviour is a lot worse during that time. If he had time to
settle down, and a proper routine at school, he would be calmer
and his behaviour would be a lot better, as it is at home. I
worry that if he doesn’t receive the support he needs now, school
may be a lot more difficult for him in the long run.”
Mandatory training on learning disabilities and autism for
education staff could help to improve the situation for children
and young people, as it undoubtably has been doing for health and
care staff since it was rolled out.
One of the challenges for autistic kids seems to be that many
people they interact with in the school system have not received
the training that the hon. Lady has been talking about, and they
are being treated in a behavioural context. Does she agree that
we should persuade teachers, or people who interact with kids,
that the reason why these children act in the way they do is
nothing to do with behaviour?
It is very much like the case I have just given: the parent of
that five-year-old boy is told that he is “too naughty” to have
more than two hours of school a day, and that is absolutely
disgraceful. It is not a behavioural problem if it is autism.
Education, health and care plans are another important source of
support. As we have heard, there are 200,000 school-age autistic
pupils in England, but just 55% have an education, health and
care plan. The Government’s investment plan for children with
special educational needs and disabilities claims that this is a
priority area, but the National Autistic Society said there is
“little substance” in the Government’s plan for reducing waits
for a child’s education, health and care plan.
Concerningly, there have also been reports that the Government
have signed a deal with a consultancy aiming to reduce targets
for education, health and care plans by 20% for 55 local
authorities, as part of a delivering better value in SEND
programme. The consultancy firm was tasked with reducing cost
pressures on local authorities by targeting a 20% reduction in
the number of new education, health and care plans issued. It is
painfully ironic that the design of this so-called
value-for-money programme seems to have to cost the Government
nearly £20 million in consultancy fees to Newton Europe. It is
also painful to understand that the Government see education,
health and care plans as cost pressures to be managed down, and
not as vital documents that set out the education provision that
children with significant needs must receive by law.
I thank the hon. Lady for making such a valid point and for being
so generous in giving way. It seems to me that even if we did not
put an extra penny of funding into supporting young people with
autism spectrum disorders—although we should—if we spent the
money more intelligently and more fairly, we would do more good.
We have a situation in which schools that do the right thing and
accept young people with autism, and indeed other learning
difficulties, are funded only once they get past the £7,000
threshold. Schools that do the right thing are having to spend
out of their own coffers to support children, whereas schools
that somehow dodge the bullet, so to speak, end up being
financially rewarded. Is it not wiser that we spend money to
support the schools that actually support the children?
Indeed. Local authorities must be supported to fulfil their
statutory duties to children and young people, just as schools
and colleges, as a continuation, must access the training
necessary to become genuinely inclusive. That is what we want to
see.
As an MP, I raise many cases of parents and carers of children
who have or are seeking a diagnosis of autism and are being
failed by the schools they attend, yet it is such a fight to get
an education, health and care plan for them. One of my
constituents is the parent of a girl with complex special
educational needs and disabilities who had to battle with the
local authority to get an education, health and care plan for her
daughter. My constituent told me about the battle she has had,
saying that her daughter
“only has access to large mainstream secondary schools which is
unacceptable for a child with such complex needs. I have provided
all evidence, co-operated fully and repeated and repeated medical
evidence and wrote lengthy information. They have all the
information and now I am going to mediation and appeal. This
process has taken over a year. I am exhausted. This is not good
for anyone. I am not being heard and I am fighting to safeguard
my daughter. I have a child with complex additional needs. My
time, care and attention should be only focused on her but again
I have to prepare now for mediation.”
I supported my constituent to get the plan for her daughter, but
it took a long time and she ended up missing the first six months
of secondary school.
It is crucial that we have better support for autistic pupils and
pupils with learning disabilities. The Oliver McGowan mandatory
training programme and education, health and care plans are both
important elements in that respect. The Government must do more
to ensure that autistic people and people with learning
disabilities can receive the education they need, and that they
are able to live long and independent lives in the community.
Sadly, for far too many people that is a distant dream.
4.07pm
(Darlington) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Dame ) on leading this
petitions debate. I put on the record my congratulations to the
Minister, this being is my first opportunity to do so.
I thank the 171 members of the public from Darlington who signed
the petition that led to today’s debate. Every single week in my
surgery, it is almost guaranteed that at least one family will
come to see me with concerns related to neurodiverse conditions.
It could be that they are awaiting an assessment or there are
difficulties with the relationship with the school, or it could
be that there are challenges with accessing medications. Each and
every one of those families is trying to do the best for their
children, and seemingly having to battle for the best for their
children.
The day after I was elected, I was stopped in the street by three
mothers in Darlington town centre. One of them asked me what I
was going to do to help their families with autistic children. I
must confess to having known very little about autism at that
time, so I resolved to find out more and do all I could to
support them. That learning continues, and only last week I was
pleased to attend the understanding autism training for
parliamentarians organised by the National Autistic Society.
I established the Darlington autism forum for parents of autistic
children, and have organised multiple roundtable meetings with
our local mental health trust and parents. I have visited Daisy
Chain, a local charity that provides help and support to families
who face these challenges, as well as places such as the
Mackenzie Thorpe Centre in Redcar, which is operated by the North
East Autism Society, to see the amazing work that they do with
children.
I congratulate my hon. Friend on the work he is doing with
families in his constituency. Does he agree that standing up for
families who have autistic or neurodiverse kids—amazing kids they
are supporting—can be really challenging? The parents are often
judged by others on how they are handling very difficult
situations, and they themselves need significant support.
My right hon. Friend makes an incredibly important point. We in
this place are sent here to stand up for our constituents. In my
view, there could be nobody more important than those families
facing the battles of looking after an autistic child.
As a constituency MP, I have visited almost every school in
Darlington; I have two left to go. My visits almost always
involve a discussion about children with special educational
needs and autism. It is clear that there are growing numbers in
every single one of our schools, putting pressure on the staff,
some of whom are not necessarily specialists in the conditions. I
must single out Red Hall School in Darlington, which secured
funding to expand and provide a social, emotional and mental
health specialist centre called Strive. Red Hall and others are
doing fantastic work in Darlington.
I was disappointed to learn through written parliamentary
questions that the Department for Education holds no national
records of the training that teachers undertake on the relevant
conditions. I welcome the Government’s recent announcement of
additional funding, particularly for the new 40-place school in
Darlington, which will deliver special educational needs places.
However, my primary concern is for the pupils who are already in
our mainstream schools and the support that they need.
The assessment backlog is frankly a scandal, with families
sometimes having to wait up to three years to be seen. I
acknowledge that there is a range of help and support available
while they are awaiting assessment, but getting children into the
right school place, with the necessary specialists, is part of
the solution. Staff need to be properly trained. The key has to
be clearing the backlog of assessments. Today’s important debate
provides an opportunity to put on the record my support for
improved and expanded training on neurodiverse conditions for our
hard-working teachers. I look forward to the Minister’s
response.
5.01pm
(Motherwell and Wishaw)
(SNP)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I
congratulate the hon. Member for Gosport (Dame ) on securing this
important debate.
I have a personal interest in this subject. Many years ago, as a
reasonably experienced further education lecturer, I was faced
with a young man who was severely autistic, and I did not know
what to do. Things have changed a bit since those days. Like the
hon. Member for Darlington (), I have undertaken autism
training. It is important that we get an awareness of autism into
the general public as well as schools. It was difficult to listen
to some of the stories told by the hon. Member for Worsley and
Eccles South (), because we all know that
it happens, although none of us want it to happen anywhere.
In their recent programme for government, the Scottish Government
have outlined their commitment to work with teachers to provide
additional professional learning opportunities while seeking to
build on the additional support for learning plan. I was a member
of the Education Committee when I first came here, and I often
think that it is easier to make big changes in a small country
such as Scotland, with one main type of school—local authority
schools—than it is to make them in England, which has many
varieties of schools and a number of local authorities
involved.
The Scottish Government are proud—as am I—of their investment in
education. It is important that every pupil gets the best
education possible for them. That is why in Scotland there is a
national neurodevelopment specification for children and young
people. It is based on the Scottish Government’s “Getting it
right for every child”—GIRFEC—approach, which I have talked about
in this place before. It is important that the same kind of
education is given across the piece. The neurodevelopment
specification makes it clear that support should be in place to
meet the child or young person’s requirements when they need it,
rather than depending on a formal diagnosis. That is particularly
important. Parents often know what is best for their child, no
matter which part of the United Kingdom they live in.
The Scottish Government’s additional support for learning
legislation clearly places education authorities under duties to
identify, provide for and review the support needs of their
pupils. In 2021, the Scottish Government published the Autism in
Schools action plan, and the majority of its actions are
complete. Several of the actions, such as the funding of
professional learning resources like the autism toolbox, are
intended to be ongoing, to reflect best practice and current
research in the area. The Scottish Government have outlined their
commitment to work with teachers to provide additional
professional learning opportunities while seeking to build on the
additional support plan for learning.
It is really important that autistic pupils and those with other
learning difficulties are treated equitably with others in their
class. It is also important that not just teachers are involved
in training when it comes to autism. In Scotland, a pupil support
staff working group listens to pupil support workers in schools,
who are often the staff who deal the most with autistic children.
It is important that they have the training as well.
Does the hon. Lady agree that it is about not just teaching
support but dinner and food providers, janitors and other staff?
Everybody who interacts with a child at a school should be able
to deal with whatever part of the spectrum the child is on.
I absolutely agree with the right hon. Gentleman. Raising autism
awareness is so important across the spectrum, but especially in
a school, where there should be a nurturing and welcoming
environment for all pupils. The teaching standards in Scotland
are set by the General Teaching Council, which requires teachers
to be able to identify and respond appropriately to pupils with
difficulties in or barriers to learning. In 2021, professional
standards included a specific recognition of additional support
needs, which is really important. Teachers cannot now be
registered without that.
I referred earlier to my experience, which was really difficult,
because I was presented with a young autistic man who was
accompanied by a care worker, and I had no idea what to do.
Things have changed in the intervening years. One thing worth
mentioning is that the other students in my class really
benefited after a year of this young man being with them. They
became much more aware and supportive of him. It is important
that all autistic children are allowed in the mainstream, where
appropriate. Mainstream pupils and students learn as much as the
autistic person.
On the point of different children in mainstream education and
how to deal with autistic children, along with the challenges
that many autistic children face, they also have a huge
opportunity, through the many aspects of neurodiversity that
provide them with the ability to excel. Does the hon. Lady agree
that it is critical to stress the positives as well as the
challenges they face?
Yes. I find it strange to be so much in agreement with a Member
from the Government side, but in this instance I am absolutely in
agreement. I was in a school on Friday talking to fifth and
sixth-year pupils. At the very end, a young lady came up and
said, “I am autistic and want to know what you are going to do
about this. Do you know about this particular society?” I had
never heard of it, but I took that on board. I felt real pride
and pleasure in the fact that she was able to use her autism as a
way to approach her MP and was very proud of the fact that she
was autistic. She knew more about the subject than I
did—[Interruption.] Mr Vickers, I acknowledge your hand signal; I
am going to wind up my speech.
It is really important that money is spent in schools to good
effect, which is why I am proud that Scotland spends more per
pupil than anywhere else in the UK. The Government need to look
at training for teachers in England—that is what this debate is
about—and support workers. Perhaps they should look at what they
can learn from the Scottish example.
5.10pm
(Dulwich and West Norwood)
(Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I
congratulate the hon. Member for Gosport (Dame ) on securing this
important debate, and I thank everybody who has signed petitions
to push this issue forward.
I welcome Paula McGowan to Parliament today, and I thank her for
all the work she has done in the name of her son, Oliver, to
campaign for better training for staff in the NHS and social care
who work with autistic people and people with learning
disabilities. Oliver’s Campaign has made so much progress, and
the way Paula has turned her unimaginable pain into action on
behalf of other families is inspirational.
I thank all Members who have spoken in this very consensual
debate. My hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South
() drew on her great
experience and her long commitment to improving the lives of
autistic people and people with learning disabilities. She
highlighted clearly some of the concerns about current Government
policy, expressed in the SEND and alternative provision
improvement plan—in particular, the explicit objective of
reducing the number of EHCPs.
The hon. Member for Darlington () spoke about the important
work he is doing to support his constituents. He also spoke about
the backlog of assessments, which is an issue in many parts of
the country, and the lack of support for such children in
mainstream schools.
The need for better training for education staff working with
children and young people who are autistic or have a learning
disability is clear. The presentation of children with autism
doubled between 2015-16 and 2022-23, and the number of children
with an education, health and care plan more than doubled for
autistic children and was up by more than a third for other SEND
diagnoses in the same period.
When my oldest daughter was in primary school, she had a friend I
will call Paul. Paul was autistic and high functioning: he could
do really well at school if his social and emotional needs were
properly met. What I witnessed over the seven years of Paul’s
primary school journey was the extremely high extent to which his
whole experience at school was determined by his teacher’s
understanding of his social and emotional needs. In a school year
when the teacher understood that Paul would become extremely
anxious if there was a change in routine or if things had not
been properly explained to him and took steps to avoid that
happening, Paul flourished at school. But in a school year when
the teacher did not understand Paul’s needs as an autistic person
and treated him simply as a badly behaved child, his mum could be
called to the school multiple times in the same week to collect
him early. He became more and more anxious about going to school,
and the whole year became a disaster.
Many schools and colleges work really hard to ensure their staff
are well equipped to work with children and young people who are
autistic or have a learning disability, and there is a lot of
really good practice. I pay tribute to the incredibly dedicated
workforce that provides specialist support to children and young
people with autism and learning disabilities, and helps to make
school a place where they feel safe and understood. In the
absence of leadership and resources from the Government, parents
all too often face a postcode lottery.
Paul’s story is being repeated in education settings across the
country, and that is borne out in the persistent absence figures.
Persistent absence from school is shockingly high across the
board at present—22.5% of children missed 10% or more days of
school in 2021-22—but it is significantly higher for autistic
children, at 32%, and even higher for children with a SEND
statement or EHCP, at 36.9%. That is a shocking and completely
unacceptable situation. Day to day, it means that thousands of
pupils are not having their needs met by mainstream schools, but
that is little wonder given that the teacher training and
continuous professional development curriculum has not developed
to keep pace with the rising presentation of autism and SEND
needs. We are simply not equipping teachers to meet the needs of
every child in their classrooms. Although some teacher training
courses offer the opportunity for students to develop further
skills for working with pupils with SEND and autism, this is not
consistent, and it is entirely possible to qualify as a teacher
and start work in a school with only the most cursory knowledge,
which is not supplemented or reinforced by further training or
CPD.
Schools across the country are struggling to recruit special
educational needs co-ordinators and SEND teachers, and there is a
national shortage of educational psychologists working in the
state sector. We cannot debate the need for autism and learning
disability training for education staff without mentioning the
wider context of the system of SEND support, which is almost
completely broken. Parents across the country have to battle for
the support their children need, and the resourcing pressures on
local authorities are causing councils to refuse to fund EHCPs
and forcing parents to go to tribunal, where 96% of them win.
The neglect of the SEND system over the past 13 years has been a
shocking failure of successive Conservative-led Governments. A
Labour Government would act to address the problems. Equipping
education staff to understand and meet the needs of autistic
children and children with learning disabilities is an essential
step towards building an inclusive mainstream.
I am interested in hearing what the Labour party would do were it
in government. Could the hon. Lady outline what it would do
differently to tackle the challenges of recruitment that the
sector faces?
I am just about to move on to exactly that. We would ensure that
more children can have their needs met and be part of a school
community close to where they live. Labour would use the funding
from ending the tax breaks currently enjoyed by private schools
to recruit 6,500 new teachers, including SEND specialists,
thereby alleviating the current pressures on teaching staff and
ensuring that teachers have time for the pupils in their
classrooms. We would introduce a teacher training entitlement—an
annual entitlement to CPD that could be used to increase
expertise in autism and SEND. We would ensure that there is
mental health support in every school across the country, and we
would change the wider context in which schools are setting their
priorities by reforming the Ofsted inspection framework to make
inclusion part of our vision for what it means to be a good
school. Inclusion would be part of the report card for schools,
which, under Labour, would replace the single-word Ofsted
judgment.
Will the hon. Lady give way?
I will not. I need to finish so that the Minister can come in and
there is time for the hon. Member for Gosport to wind up
afterwards.
We want to see an increased focus on SEND within initial teacher
training and the early career framework, and we will work with
leading academic institutions, Teach First and others to ensure
that all trainee teachers are routinely equipped to work with
children with autism and special educational needs and
disabilities. Establishing an inclusive mainstream where as many
children as possible can thrive is the first step in reforming
the system of SEND support, which has become broken and
adversarial on the Government’s watch. A Labour Government will
deliver the support that is so urgently needed.
The hon. Member for Darlington mentioned the recruitment and
retention crisis. We recruit and retain staff in any part of the
public sector when we work from the centre of Government to make
their working environment tolerable and to relieve the day-to-day
pressures they are under. The measures I have outlined
today—there is more to talk about—will start the work of
repairing this part of our public services, which is so important
and so vital for some of the most vulnerable children, but also
for some of the most special and talented children across our
country.
5.18pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education ()
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers,
and I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Dame
) for securing a debate on
such an important subject. She has played an instrumental role in
mandating learning disability and autism training across the
health and care sector, and in rolling out the Oliver McGowan
mandatory training. I know that my colleague the Secretary of
State for Education, who championed that as a Minister in the
Department of Health and Social Care, is an equally strong
advocate for the training.
I thank Oliver’s family for their tireless dedication to this
issue. They went through what no family should have to go
through, and I share their passion for ensuring that dedicated
and hardworking professionals have the knowledge, skills and
expertise to provide the right support and try to ensure that no
family experiences the same. I hope I might get the opportunity
to meet Paula in a moment.
My hon. Friend the Member for Gosport predicted some—not all—of
my answers to her questions on the picture of learning disability
and autism training for education professionals. Teachers in
schools focus on SEND at each stage of their training. To be
recommended by an accredited provider for qualified teacher
status, trainees must demonstrate that they meet the teacher
standards at the appropriate level. Both the initial teacher
training core content framework and the early career framework
outline what trainee and new teachers should learn, including
content on adaptive teaching for students with special
educational needs.
The universal services programme, which my hon. Friend touched
on, provides SEND-specific training for the school and college
workforce. So far, 6,600 school and college staff have accessed
free online training modules, and 81 schools and 135 colleges
have identified and led their own SEND-focused school improvement
projects. Since the programme was launched in 2022, over 100,000
education professionals have undertaken autism awareness training
through the Autism Education Trust’s “train the trainer” model.
My hon. Friend may not know this, but the largest take-up of the
programme’s range of online units has been within her own local
authority of Hampshire. I assume that is in part due to her
advocacy on this issue.
Our SEND and alternative provision practitioner standards, which
will focus on supporting frontline practitioners in mainstream
settings, will include a practitioner standard on autism. We will
publish the first three practitioner standards by the end of
2025. Regarding the Department’s understanding of not only the
quantity of training, but the quality, in the summer Ofsted
carried out full inspections on all six lead providers of the
early career framework that I referred to. All got a positive
Ofsted judgment, with four of the six being awarded an
“outstanding” judgment. Surveys from the universal services
programme have consistently highlighted the positive impact of
it, with 2,300 participants surveyed three to six months later
finding that 98% had an improved confidence in identifying and
meeting needs. Perhaps even more importantly, 93% had reported
making changes to their practice as a result of accessing the
activities.
I was asked about conversations I have personally had with
teachers, parents and some of the excellent charities in this
area. I have had a wide range of conversations as a constituency
MP, because I visit a school in my own area pretty much every
week. The issue of parents in Oxfordshire not getting the support
they should for their children with special educational needs has
been one of the top two issues I have been written to about in
the last 18 months, so I had lots of conversations with parents,
teachers and charities before I got to this role. In this role, I
have made a number of visits around the country and had lots of
meetings with different charities on this issue. The voice of
parents has been incredibly important in elevating the status of
this issue, more so even than the voice of schools or Government
or local authorities. It is parents who very articulately
describe what feels like a war of attrition to try to get the
support they need for their children. It is a war that any parent
would wage but no parent should have to.
On the confidence of professionals to teach neurodivergent
children and children with learning disabilities so that their
needs are met, our school and college panel survey indicated that
just over half of schools agreed that they were able to
effectively support pupils with special educational needs. The
February 2023 parent, pupil and learner survey found that about
60% of all parents were confident in the school being able to
meet their child’s needs.
My hon. Friend touched on the fact that the National Autistic
Society and Ambitious about Autism reported that 87% of teachers
surveyed felt confident supporting autistic children in the
classroom. That is a very high figure, but I accept that, as she
said, teachers’ confidence may not always reflect the experiences
of children and their families. We are exploring opportunities to
build teacher expertise by reviewing the initial teacher training
framework and the early career framework, which we will conclude
by the end of this year. In early 2024, we intend to publish what
more we will do to support trainees and early career teachers to
be more confident and have the most up-to-date evidence that
should inform their practice.
SENCOs play a vital role in setting the direction of their
schools and co-ordinating the support required by children with
special educational needs. We want to invest in their training.
That is why we have developed the new national professional
qualification for SENCOs, which will come into force in autumn
next year. We hope that will play a key role in improving
outcomes for children with special educational needs in schools.
We have also committed to funding 7,000 early years staff to gain
an accredited level 3 SENCO qualification because, as we all
know, the earlier we can identify need the better. That programme
for the early years workforce has been hugely popular with the
sector.
Turning to the point made by the hon. Member for Worsley and
Eccles South (), we are not targeting a 20%
reduction in EHCPs or the growth of EHCPs. We have no target of
that nature whatever. We want children to get the support they
need at an early enough stage and without them needing an EHCP to
get that support. I refer the hon. Lady to my letter to the
Education Committee for further clarification.
Will the Minister give way?
I am not sure I have time because I need to stop at 5.28 pm, but
I am happy to write to her.
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington () on all his work, which
includes setting up a forum for the families of those with
autism. That is typical of his work as a local champion. Like my
right hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (), he brought the voice of
families to this debate, which is the most important voice when
we are discussing these issues.
More broadly, the Department for Education has worked closely
with the Department of Health and Social Care to develop a
refreshed cross-Government autism strategy, which was published
in 2021 and backed by more than £74 million. This year the
Department of Health and Social Care has allocated £4.2 million
to improve services for autistic children and young people,
including assessment services through the autism in schools
programme.
There is a lot happening as part of the £2.6 billion special
educational needs and AP reform programme. Of course there is
more to do. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport for
bringing us this debate and all of those professionals and
parents who are working so hard to support children with these
conditions. I look forward to working with Members present on how
we can ensure that these children get the support they need at an
early enough stage.
5.28pm
Dame
It is very kind of you to call me to say a few words at the end,
Mr Vickers. I am grateful to the Minister for his response. It is
clear that he cares passionately about this. He set out a few
details that will go some way to offering an element of
reassurance.
This debate was not about knocking the Government or scoring any
cheap party political points, and it certainly was not about
undermining our education professionals. I know the Minister
cares deeply about this and that education staff up and down the
country care passionately about getting this right, but they need
the right support, tools and knowledge to do that.
We do not need to reinvent the wheel to provide that. The Oliver
McGowan training is already there and making a difference. It
trains all health and care staff. We heard earlier of the
importance of ensuring that it is not just those who are high up
the academic food chain who receive the training. In health and
care, it is based on how likely someone is to interact with
patients, not their seniority. That is the same with children and
young people. I draw the Minister’s attention to that disparity
between how teachers think it is going and how children and their
parents think it is going.
There is so much at stake for our young people: their education,
wellbeing and futures. The Oliver McGowan training was one of the
most important things I was involved in when I was a Minister. I
encourage the Minister to meet Paula to talk about this further
because it is an outstanding model.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered autism and learning disability
training for education staff.
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