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Education and Inspections Bill

I welcome the amendment and I do not perceive the need to include it in any future review. It is practical and can be implemented now, and that is important. When I read the report of the Select Committee on Education and Skills, I was surprised to find that SENCOs were not fully qualified teachers—that change had passed me by. The Select Committee recommends that a SENCO, as well as being a fully qualified teacher with additional special educational needs qualifications, should hold a senior management position in the school. I would like the Minister to comment on that because he did not do so in his opening remarks. Let me explain why it is important. The National Autistic Society campaign, ““Make School Make Sense””, shows that it is important that every teacher in a school understands autism. That knowledge and the techniques associated with it must emanate from the special educational needs co-ordinator. If the SENCO is not of sufficiently high status in the school, it is difficult to engage other teachers in understanding the special needs. There are so many complex conditions that the SENCO has to be senior to other classroom teachers.