{"id":86784,"date":"2026-05-12T12:09:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=86784"},"modified":"2026-05-12T12:09:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:09:29","slug":"deafblind-children-growing-up-with-no-specialist-support-new-foi-research-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/press-releases\/send\/deafblind-children-growing-up-with-no-specialist-support-new-foi-research-reveals\/","title":{"rendered":"Deafblind children growing up with no specialist support new FOI research reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>New findings, obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests\u00a0by\u00a0the national disability charity Sense,\u00a0show\u00a0more than half of\u00a0local authorities don\u2019t\u00a0employ a single specialist multi-sensory impairment (MSI) teacher to support deafblind children.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>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\u00a0MSI\u00a0teachers has declined during the same period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Disabled children in the North of England and London are particularly likely to miss out on this vital support.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As the deadline to respond to government plans to reform the specialist educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system approaches, the charity warns a \u201ccritical shortage\u201d of specialist staff must be tackled or the reforms could become \u201canother missed opportunity\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>12 May 2026<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 More than half of England\u2019s 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 \u2013 and the situation has worsened in the past five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the government\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Data obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests*&nbsp;by Sense&nbsp;shows that 54 per cent of local authorities employ&nbsp;no&nbsp;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.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, demand is rapidly rising. The number of children with MSI needs in England increased&nbsp;by more than a fifth (21 per cent, from 3,829 in 2020\/21, to 4,630 in 2024\/25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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&nbsp;lack an MSI teacher,&nbsp;the figure rises sharply elsewhere: 65 per cent in the&nbsp;North West, 63 per cent in Greater London and 60 per cent in the North East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In five of England\u2019s nine regions \u2013 Greater London,&nbsp;the&nbsp;North East,&nbsp;South East,&nbsp;West Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber \u2013&nbsp;the percentage of local authorities not employing a single MSI teacher has increased since 2021**.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its Schools White Paper, the government has pledged to invest in more Speech and Language Therapists and Educational Psychologists \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MSI teachers normally work across schools and with other professionals to meet each child\u2019s health and education needs. There are an average of 32 deafblind children in each of England\u2019s 152 local authorities but with so few MSI teachers in post, thousands of children are being denied the best start in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sense is calling on the government to ensure its SEND reforms succeeds and that disabled children can learn \u2013 wherever they live \u2013 by putting a long-term workforce strategy in place and investing fully in the specialist roles, including MSI teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/get-involved\/campaign\/a-critical-moment-for-send-join-our-campaign-for-change\/\">sense.org.uk\/send-reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>James Watson-O\u2019Neill, Chief Executive of Sense, said:<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThousands 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWithout 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWithout urgent action, these reforms risk becoming another missed opportunity, and another generation of disabled children will be left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>CASE STUDY: \u201cPeople assume all special schools can meet every disabled child\u2019s needs \u2013 but when your child has MSI it\u2019s like a postcode lottery\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mum, Caroline Jones, 42, from North West England, fears her son, 10 year-old Thomas, is \u201cnot really learning anything meaningful\u201d at his SEN school because she believes it lacks the specialist teaching staff he requires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thomas has CHARGE syndrome and is deafblind. He has a designated MSI teacher \u2013 but she covers many schools and has a responsibility to monitor him at least once a term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 \u2013 for one hour a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Caroline and Thomas\u2019s dad, Anthony, 47, believe this level of provision is leaving Thomas isolated at school and he\u2019s missing out on learning. After learning BSL themselves, they have been trying to teach more of it to Thomas at home and he\u2019s now signing to tell them he\u2019s off to school, that he\u2019s hungry or wants a cuddle \u2013 and that he loves dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They believe Thomas\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the support of the Children\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Caroline said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThomas is happy at primary school and has fun playing in the sand. But I worry he\u2019s not really learning anything meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe children in his class are all hearing. They acknowledge him and wave and smile but they can\u2019t sign to him using BSL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor most of his time at school, there are no signers with him, who could teach him using BSL. He\u2019s in a special school and the teachers there are all amazing \u2013 but I fear that they can\u2019t meet his needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe 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, \u2018Wow! Phenomenal!\u2019 but in reality, the maximum level of support is almost nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMany people assume all special schools can meet every disabled child\u2019s needs, but really when your child has MSI it\u2019s like a postcode lottery. There\u2019s no requirement at all for a special school teacher to do any training in multi-sensory impairment or BSL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLots of teachers at Thomas\u2019s school have told me over the years that they would love to learn BSL, for example \u2013 but I think it\u2019s all about money. Even if the training was provided free, there wouldn\u2019t be any time or money to release that member of staff to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve 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\u2019s 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 \u2013 but trying to get him in there will be very, very difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd if Thomas doesn\u2019t get a place, it will have to be homeschooling when he gets to high school. Even though he\u2019s happy enough now, if his individual needs aren\u2019t met as he gets older, he will become even more isolated at school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-hs-snippet \">\n\n\t\n  <div class=\"wp-block  box    is-style-textured-grey-tint-10\">    <div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Contact Sense&#8217;s media team<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For more information, please get in touch with the Sense media team on <a href=\"mailto:mediaenquiries@sense.org.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mediaenquiries@sense.org.uk<\/a> or call 0203 833 0611.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n  <\/div>\n\n\n\n\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>12 May 2026 \u2013 More than half of England\u2019s 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 \u2013 and the situation has worsened in the past five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":416,"featured_media":86785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1399],"tags":[],"display_author":[],"class_list":["post-86784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-send"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86784"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=86784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}