SEN funding must support deaf students

Campaigners have called for an end to the current ‘funding crisis’ in deaf education, urging the government to make more money available for specialist support teachers.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently announced a £700 million funding pot for children with special educational needs, but the the National Deaf Children's Society have warned that this money must get to frontline services that directly support children with SEND, particularly specialist teachers.

Analysis by the charity last month found that deaf children across England fall an entire grade behind at GCSE, with 38 per cent of deaf students achieving a good level of development in key areas like literacy, maths and communication by the time they start school, compared to 77 per cent of hearing children.

The National Deaf Children's Society also reports that there has been a 15 per cent cut to specialist teachers for deaf children since 2011, despite the government's own data showing there has been a 15 per cent rise in the number of deaf children requiring support since 2015.

Ian Noon, chief policy adviser at the NDCS, said: “Deaf children across the country are enduring huge cuts to their education support, and today's petition shows just how angry families are. From our perspective, the funding will all have been a pointless PR exercise unless it delivers actual tangible benefits to deaf children, with funding being channelled to local authority specialist education services for deaf children.”