Council response

This petition has been rejected on the grounds that it is inaccurate and the justification is misleading because:

(i) There is no evidence from OFSTED reports, issues raised by parents generally with school and governing bodies, or matters raised with elected Members/MPs to suggest that “children are being put into environments that are unsuitable for their needs” or that “Children and young people are being placed in environments where a teacher or TA has been given twilight training which is not sufficient for the needs of the students in the class”.
(ii) There is already a training programme in place for teachers around various aspects of children with Special Educational Needs and there is already both specialist and more generic support from the teams in Special Education Support Service. There is a comprehensive ongoing training programme provided by the Educational Psychology Service and schools are welcome, through their planning meeting processes to request individual training regarding specific disabilities or individual children on request.
(iii) The Children and Young People’s Department is currently consulting on next year’s training offer to schools so if schools feel that their teachers need further training on teaching children with disabilities then this can be put in place as part of that process
(iv) The Department is not aware of (general) issues regarding children being put into environments that are unsuitable for their needs. As can be the case, there may be issues around a specific child which requires specific action.
(v)The Council is not in a position to ensure that all staff that come into contact with children in an education setting should be given training on disabilities. We cannot dictate to schools regarding their curriculum, deployment of staff or their training. This is especially the case now that an increasing number of secondary schools have become Academies and are independent of the Local Authority.