Deafblind children growing up with no specialist support new FOI research reveals

• New findings, obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests by the national disability charity Sense, show more than half of local authorities don’t employ a single specialist multi-sensory impairment (MSI) teacher to support deafblind children.

• While the number of children requiring support for multi-sensory impairment, also known as deafblindness, has increased by more than a fifth over the past five years, the number of local authorities employing specialist MSI teachers has declined during the same period.

• Disabled children in the North of England and London are particularly likely to miss out on this vital support.

• As the deadline to respond to government plans to reform the specialist educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system approaches, the charity warns a “critical shortage” of specialist staff must be tackled or the reforms could become “another missed opportunity”.

12 May 2026 – More than half of England’s local authorities do not employ a single specialist teacher to support deafblind children to learn and communicate, new research from the national disability charity Sense has revealed – and the situation has worsened in the past five years.

With the government’s consultation on its once-in-a-generation plans on reforming the specialist educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system entering its final week, Sense is warning disabled children with the most complex needs risk being left behind unless a credible workforce plan is rapidly put in place.

Data obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests* by Sense shows that 54 per cent of local authorities employ no multi-sensory impairment (MSI) teachers, who are specially trained to support deafblind children. This is an increase of two percentage points since equivalent data was last collected by Sense, in 2021. 

At the same time, demand is rapidly rising. The number of children with MSI needs in England increased by more than a fifth (21 per cent, from 3,829 in 2020/21, to 4,630 in 2024/25).

The findings collected by Sense, a charity that supports disabled people with complex needs, including deafblind children, shows an uneven patchwork of support across the country. While only 20 per cent of local authorities in the East of England lack an MSI teacher, the figure rises sharply elsewhere: 65 per cent in the North West, 63 per cent in Greater London and 60 per cent in the North East.

In five of England’s nine regions – Greater London, the North East, South East, West Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber – the percentage of local authorities not employing a single MSI teacher has increased since 2021**. 

In its Schools White Paper, the government has pledged to invest in more Speech and Language Therapists and Educational Psychologists – but there is no mention of other, equally vital, specialist teachers, care and health professionals who make it possible for disabled children with complex needs to learn, including MSI teachers.

MSI teachers normally work across schools and with other professionals to meet each child’s health and education needs. There are an average of 32 deafblind children in each of England’s 152 local authorities but with so few MSI teachers in post, thousands of children are being denied the best start in life.

Sense is calling on the government to ensure its SEND reforms succeeds and that disabled children can learn – wherever they live – by putting a long-term workforce strategy in place and investing fully in the specialist roles, including MSI teachers.

People who want to support this call can still take part in the SEND consultation, which ends at 23:59 on Monday 18 May 2026. A tool to make responding easier can be found on the Sense website at sense.org.uk/send-reform.

 James Watson-O’Neill, Chief Executive of Sense, said:

“Thousands of deafblind children in England are growing up with no specialist support, with more than half of local authorities failing to employ a single specialist MSI teacher, and the situation is getting worse.

“Without access to MSI teachers, or with only limited support from overstretched schools and teachers, deafblind children are being denied their basic right to learn and get the best start in life. Too many are falling through the cracks.

“This is part of a wider failure. Disabled children across the country are being let down by a broken SEND system. Every year, Sense supports over 9,000 disabled children with complex needs, and we hear daily about the barriers they face in accessing education.

“If the government is serious about SEND reform, it must tackle the critical shortage of specialist staff in the specialist education and health workforce, including MSI teachers. That means a credible, fully funded workforce plan so all disabled children can learn, no matter where they live.

“Without urgent action, these reforms risk becoming another missed opportunity, and another generation of disabled children will be left behind.”

CASE STUDY: “People assume all special schools can meet every disabled child’s needs – but when your child has MSI it’s like a postcode lottery”

Mum, Caroline Jones, 42, from North West England, fears her son, 10 year-old Thomas, is “not really learning anything meaningful” at his SEN school because she believes it lacks the specialist teaching staff he requires.

Thomas has CHARGE syndrome and is deafblind. He has a designated MSI teacher – but she covers many schools and has a responsibility to monitor him at least once a term.

Thomas, who uses some British Sign Language (BSL) to communicate, also has a specialist teaching assistant with BSL Level 2, who teaches him one-to-one – for one hour a week.

Caroline and Thomas’s dad, Anthony, 47, believe this level of provision is leaving Thomas isolated at school and he’s missing out on learning. After learning BSL themselves, they have been trying to teach more of it to Thomas at home and he’s now signing to tell them he’s off to school, that he’s hungry or wants a cuddle – and that he loves dogs.

They believe Thomas’s communication would progress faster if he was given full-time one-to-one support at school from a suitably qualified BSL user with deafblind awareness training, but their requests have been refused.

With the support of the Children’s MSI team at Sense, the family are now hoping to move Thomas to another specialist school. This would mean long daily journeys but the independent school specialises in MSI teaching, which Thomas needs access to. However, places are limited, and Caroline and Anthony worry they could eventually be forced to homeschool Thomas, further increasing his social isolation.

Caroline said:

“Thomas is happy at primary school and has fun playing in the sand. But I worry he’s not really learning anything meaningful.

“The children in his class are all hearing. They acknowledge him and wave and smile but they can’t sign to him using BSL.

“For most of his time at school, there are no signers with him, who could teach him using BSL. He’s in a special school and the teachers there are all amazing – but I fear that they can’t meet his needs.

“The problem is the existing system is completely flawed. When Thomas is assessed, he qualifies for the maximum level of sensory service and MSI support within his local authority and that sounds like, ‘Wow! Phenomenal!’ but in reality, the maximum level of support is almost nothing.

“Many people assume all special schools can meet every disabled child’s needs, but really when your child has MSI it’s like a postcode lottery. There’s no requirement at all for a special school teacher to do any training in multi-sensory impairment or BSL.

“Lots of teachers at Thomas’s school have told me over the years that they would love to learn BSL, for example – but I think it’s all about money. Even if the training was provided free, there wouldn’t be any time or money to release that member of staff to do it.

“I’ve tried and failed to get Thomas more one-to-one support at school so he can progress more, to the point I felt it was hopeless. Laura from the Children’s MSI team at Sense, who has known Thomas for years, has now helped us contact another special school that would have everything for Thomas. They specialise in MSI, he would have a peer group – but trying to get him in there will be very, very difficult.

“And if Thomas doesn’t get a place, it will have to be homeschooling when he gets to high school. Even though he’s happy enough now, if his individual needs aren’t met as he gets older, he will become even more isolated at school.”