Thank you for contacting me about support for children with multi-sensory impairment in education.
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 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.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Craig Whittaker MP
April 2022