Select Education poll shows SEN training is on the rise
*Majority of teachers have had training in positive handling strategies for special needs children *
London, UK, 7th March 2007 – In a new poll carried out by education recruitment specialists Select Education, 62% of teachers said that either they, or other teachers at their school, have had training in positive handling strategies for Special Educational Needs (SEN) pupils.
Positive handling strategies, such as Team Teach, look at de-escalating techniques for challenging behaviour, with the aim of avoiding physical intervention and are becoming increasingly popular in SEN schools and units nationwide.
The poll results are especially encouraging in light of Education Secretary, Alan Johnson’s commitment to Special Needs staff training unveiled at the end of 2006. The number of children with special needs has clearly outstripped the teaching resources available for many years, so that it has fallen to the bodies such as Local Education Authority and teacher recruiters to bridge the skills gap and provide teachers with the necessary training. Both have recognised that Continued Professional Development training programmes devised to give teachers the necessary skills are crucial before putting a teacher into a SEN environment.
Scott Kelly, SEN Development Manager at Select Education says: “Positive handling strategies such as Team Teach can be really beneficial to SEN pupils as they take a holistic whole school approach, where all teachers and support staff are trained to deal with challenging behaviour in the same way. In addition, because the focus is on identifying potential challenging behaviour and using non-physical approaches including de-escalation and positive listening, there is less need for restrictive physical intervention methods.
“It is vitally important for specialist SEN schools and units attached to mainstream schools to take a consistent approach to handling challenging behaviour and implement positive handling strategies that involve teachers, parents and social workers if necessary so that everyone is on the same page. At Select Education, we currently offer all our SEN candidates Team Teach training, but are, I believe, the only recruitment specialist to offer this on a national basis. Whilst the results of this poll are encouraging, it would be good to see others follow suit to help encourage more adoption of positive handling strategies.”
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About Select Education
Select Education plc is a specialist division of Vedior, the world's third-largest staffing services group. It is the leading UK and global educational staffing specialist, providing quality, individual service to over 10,000 teachers and support staff and to the 15,000 schools who have used its service throughout the UK. Select Education Teachers, Assistants and Lecturers work alongside 120,000 young people per day across 2, 500 schools a week, positively shaping their lives at nurseries, schools, colleges and training organisations across the UK.
Established in 1993, Select Education plc has a network of over 35 offices throughout the UK with teams of education specialists, including dedicated Primary, Secondary, Special Needs and Early Years consultants.
Working closely with the DfES, Home Office and other government bodies, it also partners on ground-breaking education research with the Institute for Public Policy Research and Campaign for Learning. As a result the company has pioneered many aspects of educational staffing, from quality controls and systems through to introducing new services for SEN and Teaching Assistants.
Select Education plc is an accredited Investor in People (IIP) organisation, a member of the REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) and is accredited with the international quality standard BS EN ISO 9002.
About Team Teach
Team Teach ( training in positive handling strategies through a whole setting holistic approach, reducing risk related to difficult, disturbing and sometimes dangerous behaviours, for mainstream, special, child, and increasingly, adult services in the U.K.The organisationis the recommended preferred training strategy for the majority of Local Authorities in the U.K and is supported by a number of Teacher Associations.
Accredited by the British Institute of Learning Disabilities ( affiliated The General Services Association,the trainingaims to promote a continuum of gradual and graded techniques, with an emphasis and preference for the use of verbal, non-verbal de-escalation strategies being used and exhausted before positive handling strategies are utilised.
Most recently, Team Teach courses gained a DfES National Training Award, presented by the UK Skills Council (
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