The government has unveiled a major investment of £200 million to fund extensive training for teachers supporting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Announced on Friday 16 January 2026, the funding is designed to overhaul support systems and establish a new national expectation for SEND training across the entire education workforce.
A New National Expectation for All Staff
This substantial funding, allocated over the course of the current parliament, will be used to develop new, comprehensive training courses. Crucially, the Department for Education (DfE) has set a new benchmark: all staff in every school, college, and nursery will be expected to receive training on SEND and inclusion.
The programmes aim to equip educators with the skills to adapt their teaching for a wide spectrum of needs, from speech and language challenges to visual impairments. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson stated the move is central to the government's mission. "Every child, wherever they live and whatever their needs, should have the opportunity to go to a local school where they can achieve and thrive," she said.
Industry Reaction: Welcome but Cautious
While the investment has been welcomed, education leaders have urged caution, highlighting the scale of the challenge and the need for wider systemic reform. Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), warned that SEND training is "too important to be a one-off block of training".
He questioned whether the investment would be sufficient to deliver high-quality training at scale across a system with around half a million teachers. Paul Whiteman of the NAHT school leaders' union welcomed the funding but stressed that "training alone will not be enough". He called for better access to specialist staff and sufficient funding for additional adult support, criticising the "messy local authority postcode lottery" exacerbated by shortages of specialists like educational psychologists.
Part of a Broader SEND Reform Agenda
This training initiative forms a key part of the government's wider plan to reform the SEND system, with a delayed Schools White Paper expected to outline further reforms in the spring. The new expectation for teacher training will be formally set out in an updated SEND code of practice.
This announcement follows a previous commitment in December, where the DfE pledged £3 billion to create around 50,000 new school places for children with SEND, including places in mainstream local schools to reduce travel distances. The combined investments signal a concerted push towards the government's stated vision of a truly inclusive education system.
