§ Mrs. LaingTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the special schools in each county in England and the numbers of children with special needs attending each school in(a) 2001, (b) 1996 and (c) 1991. [37420]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisTables containing the available information have been placed in the Library. These relate to information published in performance tables for 1996 and 2001. Performance tables were not produced in 1991.
§ Dr. LadymanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what targets she sets for(a) measuring and (b) improving teaching standards in schools for children with special needs, with particular regard to children with autistic spectrum disorders. [51200]
(2) what steps she is taking to improve the collation of data in respect of children with autistic spectrum disorders; what she is doing to increase resources for their education; and if she will make a statement. [51201]
(3) what steps are being taken to improve autism awareness among teachers. [51202]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisOur target is for all children with special educational needs (SEN) to receive excellent provision which meets their needs. Maintained schools are under a duty to use their best endeavours to make the special educational provision children's learning difficulties call for, including children with autistic spectrum disorders. Teachers have a crucial role in412W meeting this duty. As part of the continuous improvement we seek in teaching standards, we want to see the support given by teachers to children with special educational needs (SEN), including those with autistic spectrum disorder, brought up to the standards of the best throughout the country and in all schools. Ofsted has a regular cycle of inspection of maintained schools, non-maintained special schools and independent schools which cater wholly or mainly for children with SEN, including schools which make provision for children with autistic spectrum disorders. In determining their judgments Ofsted inspectors have to consider the extent to which pupils with SEN are making progress and how well the teaching meets pupils' diverse needs.
As part of their initial teacher training, all student teachers must show that they understand their responsibilities under the SEN Code of Practice, and know how to seek advice. During induction teachers must demonstrate that they can plan effectively to meet the needs of pupils with SEN. £91 million of supported expenditure is available under the SEN category of the Department's Standards Fund. Training is an important sub-head under this category and training in autism is specifically mentioned in guidance on the SEN category as something which local education authorities (LEAs) may wish to support. Grant support has also been made available to voluntary organisations and higher education training providers to create new training opportunities and, again, autistic spectrum disorders are mentioned in the bidding criteria.
The forthcoming publication of guidance from the Department's Autism Working Group will further raise teachers' awareness of the disorder. The guidance will emphasise the benefits of staff who come into contact with children with autistic spectrum disorders having an understanding of the condition. The guidance will help schools and LEAs to make best use of the increasing resources available annually for the education of school children when making provision for children with autistic spectrum disorders. Currently more than £23 billion is available for the education of children in school of which over £1 billion is used by LEAs to provide additional support for children with SEN and some £1.9 billion is identified by LEAs as notionally allocated in schools' budgets towards meeting children's SEN. The guidance will emphasise the benefits of LEAs collecting data on the numbers of children with autistic spectrum disorders. The Department is also examining whether data on different types of SEN could be collected, probably from January 2004. At present there are 12 commonly used categories of SEN. These categories include pupils with autistic spectrum disorders and this would be one of the categories we are likely to collect.