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<p>The department wants all children and young people, no matter what their Special
Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to receive the right support to reach their
full potential.</p><p>Under the Children and Families Act 2014, mainstream schools
and colleges must use their best endeavours to ensure that a child or young person
who has Special Educational Needs (SEN) gets the special educational provision they
need. The SEND Code of Practice is clear that meeting the needs of a child with SEN
does not require a diagnostic label or test. Instead, the department expects teachers
to monitor the progress of all children and young people and provide support where
it is needed, including arranging diagnostic tests where appropriate.</p><p>To support
all teachers in meeting these expectations, the department is implementing teacher
training reforms. These reforms are designed to ensure that teachers have the skills
to support all pupils to succeed, including those with SEND. Since 2020, the Initial
Teacher Training Core Content Framework (CCF) has included content on adapting teaching
to the strengths and needs of all pupils. The department is conducting a review of
the CCF and Early Career Framework, which will consider further opportunities to improve
how the frameworks support new teachers to meet the needs of pupils with SEND.</p><p>The
department’s Universal Services (US) contract brings together SEND-specific continuous
professional development and support for the teaching workforce to improve outcomes
for children and young people. This includes autism awareness training and resources.
Over 100,000 professionals have undertaken autism awareness training since the US
programme launched.</p><p>The 2023 SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan
outlines the department’s vision to improve mainstream education by setting standards
for the early and accurate identification of need, and timely access to support to
meet those needs. The standards will clarify the types of support that should be ordinarily
available in mainstream settings and practitioner standards will be developed to support
frontline professionals. The first three practitioner standards will be published
by the end of 2025 and will include one on autism. To inform this, analysts and policy
officials keep under review all evidence-based good practice, including international
evidence.</p><p>The 2021 Autism Strategy sets out the government’s ambition to make
significant progress on improving early identification, reducing diagnosis waiting
times and improving diagnostic pathways for all people, including children and young
people. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is taking steps to improve
access to assessments for autism. In 2023/24, DHSC allocated £4.2 million to improve
services for autistic children and young people including assessments, pre- and post-diagnostic
support, and the continuation of the Autism in Schools programme. Additionally, in
April 2023, NHS England published a national framework to support the local NHS to
commission and deliver autism assessment services for children, young people, and
adults.</p><p>The department has not undertaken an assessment of the effectiveness
of universal screening for neurodivergent conditions. However, from 2019, the department’s
Opportunity Area programme invested £600,000 in a pilot to deliver earlier identification
and faster assessment of autism, by connecting teachers and health professionals in
schools. The pilot began in Bradford and was subsequently adopted by four other Opportunity
Areas. The University of Manchester has been commissioned to evaluate the Early Identification
of Autism Projects, and their report is due by the end of November 2023. Bradford’s
Centre for Applied Education Research is drawing on the learning from the pilot to
build and test a new digital tool to help Key Stage 1 teachers to identify and respond
to learning and support needs of neurodivergent children in the classroom.</p>
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