Thank you for contacting me about Multi-Sensory Impairment (MSI) in education.
I am aware that the Department for Education is committed to ensuring that children with special education needs and disabilities, including those with visual impairments receive the support they need to achieve in their early years, at school and at college. As such, it is a legal requirement for qualified teachers of classes of pupils who have sensory impairments to hold the relevant mandatory qualification for sensory impairment (MQSI). To offer MQSIs, I understand that providers must be approved by the Secretary of State for Education.
The Department for Education intends to develop a new approval process to determine providers of MQSIs from the start of the 2022-23 academic year. This will mean that there will be a steady supply of teachers of children with visual, hearing, and multi-sensory impairment, in both specialist and mainstream settings.
More broadly, I am delighted that the Department for Education has continued to increase the high needs funding for children and young people with the most complex needs, with over £8 billion having been provided for the 2021-22 financial year. In the financial year 2022-23, this is increasing by £1 billion to over £9.1 billion.
The Spending Review 2021 announced £2.6 billion over the spending review period to create more than 30,000 new high-quality school places for children with SEND nationally, more than tripling current capital funding levels to over £900 million by 2024-25.
This funding will create high-quality new school places in mainstream and special schools, improve suitability and accessibility of existing buildings, and fund new special and alternative provision free schools to drive up standards for pupils across England, including in the North.
In addition, the Government is currently reviewing the current SEND system, having identified that it does not consistently deliver the outcomes we all want and expect for children and young people with SEND, their families, and the people and services who support them. As such, I welcomed the publication of the SEND Green Paper which outlines ambitious proposals to reform the system, to ensure that it delivers for all children and young people.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
