DfEE Green Paper (22/10/1997) - Continuing professional development

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6 Developing skills

Continuing professional development

7. We will encourage all teachers to develop further skills in curriculum planning, teaching and assessing pupils with SEN. Some LEAs are well placed to oversee a general staff development policy for SEN - identifying the training needs of generalist and specialist teachers in schools in the area and co-ordinating training and development programmes. But smaller authorities and those which do not have a support service infrastructure for delivering SEN training may have a more limited capacity for this. All authorities will benefit from drawing on the widest possible range of expertise.

8. We will therefore encourage partnerships in teacher training. Chapter 5 suggests that regional planning arrangements might help LEAs and higher education institutions work together, to identify training needs and provide qualified staff, particularly for low-incidence needs. LEAs should collaborate with higher education institutions in providing programmes of training for serving teachers. Health authorities, too, will have a part to play. We intend, as resources permit, to expand the current programme for SEN teacher training. We expect to encourage regional planning and co-operation by channelling funding preferentially to collaborative schemes.

QUESTION: How can we promote partnerships in in-service teacher training to raise the level of teachers' expertise in meeting special educational needs?

Headteachers
9. The TTA has produced national standards for headteachers, covering such aspects of strategic leadership and accountability as:

monitoring and evaluating the quality of teaching, standards of learning and achievement of all pupils, including those with special educational needs;
setting and meeting targets for improvement; and
motivating and enabling teachers, including SENCOs, to develop their expertise through continuing professional development.

These standards are reflected in the National Professional Qualification for Headship recently launched by the TTA, and in the programme for serving headteachers currently being developed.

Special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs)
10. We welcome the TTA's consultation on national standards for SENCOs, which will set clear expectations and provide a focus for training. All SENCOs, with the support of their senior management and governing body, will be expected to work towards the standards, once these have been agreed. In principle it would be possible to develop the standards further, as the basis for a qualification.

QUESTION: Should the Teacher Training Agency's work on national standards be taken forward as the basis for a qualification for SEN co-ordinators?

SEN specialists
11. The skills of SEN specialists - staff in special schools, units in mainstream schools, pupil referral units, and LEA support services - need to be developed to meet the increasingly complex range of children's needs and the variety of settings in which they are educated. We ar e keen to review the arrangements for specialist training for these teachers. Over time, this might lead to a qualification which could replace the current mandatory and other qualifications in SEN. This could combine generic elements with components focused on more specific areas of SEN, and would give recognition to teachers who have acquired the professional skills to meet particular types of special needs. Above all, linked to clear expectations of the skills needed in different settings, it would promote high standards of provision for children with complex SEN.

QUESTION: Should there be national standards and/or a qualification for other SEN specialists?

31/08/2000