Listen to this story Members can listen to an AI-generated audio version of this article. 1.0x Audio narration uses an AI-generated voice. 0:00 0:00 Become a member to listen to this article Subscribe Ministers have been accused of “ignoring” special school teachers in workforce projections, despite the key role they are expected to play in planned SEND reforms. The Department for Education recently published annual workforce forecasts, predicting how primary and secondary teacher demand will change up to 2027-28 and how many new trainees will be needed. But the ongoing absence of such forecasts for special schools has sparked concern from sector leaders. They say the government must establish a clear picture of how many special school teachers are needed to ensure SEND reforms can be delivered successfully. “Ministers must get a grip on the real cost of special school staffing and the level of funding these reforms genuinely require,” said Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union. “Only then can there be any confidence that their ambitions for mainstream inclusion will be matched by a special sector properly staffed to support it.” The government wants more pupils’ needs met in mainstream settings. But special schools will remain responsible for educating children with the most profound needs. Meanwhile, special school teachers, with other experts, will be expected to provide support to mainstream schools through a new experts at hand scheme. Rob Williams, a senior policy adviser at the school leaders’ union NAHT, said this made it especially important that ministers have their “eye on the ball” for teacher supply in special schools – and ensuring it is sufficient. It seemed an “anomaly” that this data was not published. “For the government’s SEND reforms to work, it’s crucial that every part of the school eco-system works cohesively together, but that will only happen if the right support is in place and schools can access the staff and funding they need.” Annual targets Teacher forecasts result in annual targets for primary and secondary trainee recruitment, with the annual initial teacher training census publishing whether these are met. There is no separate training route for special school teachers, so their recruitment to ITT cannot be specifically measured. But leaders said there should still be forecasts about how many were needed in specialist settings. Warren Carratt Warren Carratt, the chief executive of Nexus MAT, which has a number of special schools, said: “The deliberate decision to ignore this essential part of the state schools workforce is mind-boggling at a time when special schools are so overstretched and under-resourced.” He said he feared the wider sector “will suffer without a realistic and resourced strategy”. The absence of any specific workforce forecasts for special schools reflected how the DfE did not value the sector, “as they don’t care to understand it or its issues. It seems it’s fine to just ignore it completely.” Meanwhile, Kebede said special schools were “at breaking point”. DfE data shows that as of last May, they were over-capacity by about 11,000 pupils, with average pupil-teacher ratios growing from 6:1 in 2015-16 to 6.5:1 in 2023-24. Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the leaders’ union ASCL, said teacher shortages were particularly keenly felt in special schools because of their higher staff to pupil ratios. “It’s therefore vitally important there are accurate projections about how many special school teachers are required, so strategies can be put in place to address any shortages.” The school workforce census shows about 29,200 FTE teachers were working in state special schools or pupil referral units in 2024-25 – about 6 per cent of the teaching workforce. Numbers will rise National Foundation for Educational Research () analysis of DfE pupil projections and ONS population projections suggests the number of pupils in state special schools and alternative provision (AP) will rise by 8.2 per cent by 2027-28. The NFER’s recent annual report said that would require about 2,300 extra FTE teachers. “However, the health of teacher supply into special schools and AP is not currently measured directly by DfE in the same way it is for primary and secondary teachers,” it said. The inclusion of special school teachers in the government’s target to boost the workforce by 6,500 does, however, suggest ministers acknowledge numbers must increase. When the decision was made not to include primary teachers because of falling primary rolls, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said the government was “focusing our efforts where they are needed”. Williams said leaders have long told the NAHT about difficulties recruiting special school teachers, “with many finding the initial teacher training route has not prepared their new teachers sufficiently for a specialist role”. “As well as the right training, addressing recruitment and retention challenges in special schools will likely require bolder action on the same issues driving staff shortages in mainstream settings – from unsustainable workload and harmful high-stakes inspections, to flexible working and restoring the value of pay”. Simon Dilkes, the chief executive of the Forward Education Trust, said he also recognised difficulties in the supply of specialist teachers and “good-quality” agency staff. There was “an obvious issue” about the lack of depth around SEND in initial teacher training. But primary teachers could help to plug the gap, as primary rolls continued to fall. “If good, basic primary teaching skills exist, we can train the specialist bit in-house,” he said. “We just need to convince more teachers that in special schools … it’s just slightly different. More challenging, but more rewarding.”