The majority of children with autism are in mainstream schools and with an estimated autism prevalence rate of 1 in 100 children, all schools should expect to teach children with autism and have the understanding, training, resources and specialist support to do so.
However, teachers do not receive any mandatory training in special educational needs (SEN), despite having legal duties to adapt their teaching and approach to meet the needs of pupils with SEN. Over 70% of schools are dissatisfied with their teachers’ training in autism. Only 30% of parents of children with autism in mainstream education are satisfied with the level of understanding of autism across the school.
What we’re doing
Following our 'make school make sense' campaign, our demand for a resource pack for teachers was taken forward through the Department for Education's Inclusion Development Programme (2009) resource for schools.
Our lobbying on the role of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos) resulted in new regulations that set out that that all SENCos must be qualified teachers and all new SENCos must have training, including on autism.
We continue to demand mandatory training in SEN (including on autism) for all teachers.