The government is looking at how to make the teaching workforce more inclusive, including for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), the school standards minister Catherine McKinnell has said.
She was speaking at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool, on a panel about 11-16 curriculum and assessment.
In response to a question from an audience member about recruiting more teachers with SEND, Ms McKinnell said this was a “really important point about the inclusivity of the workforce”.
She said: “We’re very focused on creating an inclusive education system that ensures every child can thrive, and that educational needs and disabilities are nurtured.
“And I think we touch on a very important point, that we need to ensure that our workforce is the same.”
Ms McKinnell, whose ministerial brief includes SEND, confirmed this was something she was “looking at”, adding that a “vibrant, valued and professionalised teaching workforce” was key to breaking barriers to opportunities.
One of the Labour Party’s main manifesto pledges is to recruit 6,500 new teachers as part of its six “first steps for change” in government.
“I’m very keen that we do everything we can to break down the barriers to teaching, as much as break down the barriers to opportunity for every young person,” she said.
Ms McKinnell was on a panel alongside the former education secretary Charles Clarke, chief executive of the OCR exam board Jill Duffy, and Education South West’s multi-academy trust CEO Matthew Shanks.
Responding to the same question as Ms McKinnell, Mr Shanks agreed that it is important to “engage as much as we possibly can in trying to get everybody to come and be a teacher”.
However, he added that England’s assessment system “doesn’t necessarily help all types of children”.
The assessment system “might put barriers in the way for children therefore getting the necessary qualifications to become teachers”, he said.
Mr Shanks suggested that peer-to-peer support within classrooms would be a potential solution, as it would enable children to “engage with leadership opportunities”.
The panel also discussed OCR’s recent report into the 11-16 curriculum, which called for GCSE English to be “redesigned as a matter of urgency”.
Along with English, OCR’s review has called for an overhaul of GCSEs in general, including reducing the length and number of exams and the amount of content.
The Labour government earlier this year launched a curriculum and assessment review, led by Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation.
The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.
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