Grow your own SEND qualified staff

Currently within schools there is a Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) crisis. This is one of the most pressing issues that schools face today with the numbers of Special Education Needs (SEN) pupils rising each year and a lack of qualified staff to support them. By taking on an apprentice with Inspire ATA your school could be taking the steps to resolving the crisis and growing your SEND qualified staff from within your organisation.

The SEND crisis

The SEND crisis is caused by two main factors: the rise in SEN pupils and lack of qualified staff within schools.

Rising numbers of SEN pupils

Currently there are over 1 million pupils with SEN support in England. This number has continued to increase each year since 2016. According to the Special Education needs in England report there has been an increase of 101,000 pupils from 2023. The percentage of pupils with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) has increased from 4.3% in 2023 to 4.8% in 2024.

Lack of qualified staff

Working with SEN pupils requires a different set of knowledge and skills. While some of this can be learned on the job, in order for pupils with SEN to receive the best support and education, having teachers and support staff that are specifically qualified to work with pupils with SEND is vital.

SEND Teaching Assistant Apprenticeship

Inspire ATA offers a unique Teaching Assistant SEND pathway apprenticeship programme which provides learners with an in depth understanding of SEND and how to better support SEN pupils. This programme contributes towards the DfE's recommendations that all schools have SEND responsibilities or specialism in their setting. Once completed, learners on this programme can progress on to a Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant apprenticeship programme, also provided by Inspire ATA.

By investing in apprentices your school will be helping to develop the next generation of educators, ones that are focused on helping to resolve the SEND crisis. You will also be benefiting from dedicated and qualified staff that you can hire full time once their apprenticeship programme has completed with no extra charge or finders fee from Inspire ATA.

Through Inspire ATA’s flexi-job model, you will be hosting the apprentice while Inspire ATA will be acting as the employer. This way you can hire without impacting your headcounts or budgets and you will be benefiting from additional peace of mind as all paperwork, holidays, sick pay, safeguarding and grievances will be handled by the Inspire team.

Are you ready to invest in SEND? Book a discovery call with the Inspire ATA team.