SEND ITT Special Schools and ITAP guidance update (15th June 2026)
2 July 2026
The DfE has today updated both the Intensive Training and Practice (ITAP) and special schools guidance, to further support accredited providers to ensure that their programmes are offering trainee teachers the best possible training in meeting the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
High quality teaching is the most important in-school factor for improving outcomes for all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and those with additional needs. High quality ITT is the fundamental first step in ensuring high quality teaching.
The practices that are particularly effective for pupils with SEND are effective for the teaching of all pupils. SEND should not be positioned as something fundamentally separate from core teaching practices and approaches.
Strong ITT provision in SEND and adaptive teaching is intentionally designed and embedded into the ITT curriculum from the outset, including ensuring effective alignment between school-based and centre-led experiences. While elements of this approach are reflected across existing ITT provision, opportunities to develop or enhance SEND practice within ITT curriculum design include:
• School placements and experiences - learning in specialist settings is valuable for all trainees, not only those with a specific interest in teaching in specialist settings.
• Mentor training and support aligned to curriculum design and ITAP.
• ITAP development and delivery – The intensive nature of ITAP offers an opportunity to deepen trainees’ understanding and practice of pivotal elements of teaching and consider how these can be used successfully with pupils, including pupils with SEND. Focusing on certain pupils in particular, ITAP may allow trainees to develop greater depth of understanding at key moments in teaching practice, rather than the focus on the whole-class, which may be more common in other areas of training.
There are 2 ways to deliver ITAP on SEND:
• A lens of SEND and adaptive teaching being woven throughout ITAP. This includes considering how approaches to SEND are part of ITAP focus areas such as classroom routines, questioning or scaffolding. This would allow trainees to consider pupils with SEND at each step of the ITAP cycle from reviewing the evidence, and seeing it modelled to critically evaluating, practicing and gaining feedback.
• ITAP on specific SEND-related teaching elements on areas such as working with pupils who have challenges in executive function.
ITAP can also provide an opportunity to be more granular in trainee disposition and self-efficacy, especially in relation to pupils who need extra support at times.
To support accredited providers to ensure that their programmes offer trainee teachers the best possible training in supporting pupils with SEND, DfE has updated two key pieces of guidance:
• The ITAP guidance has been updated to support accredited providers to consider how ITAP can support trainees to develop their practice around SEND as part of a well-integrated curriculum.
• The special school guidance has been updated to support accredited providers to consider how they could offer placements in specialist settings.
Ofsted will flag these updates as part of their routine inspector training for 2026/27.
ITT Grant Funding
Thank you for your patience whilst we have been working to confirm the funding available for 2026/27 academic year. Despite a tight fiscal envelope, we have been able to continue some of the grant funding for ITT providers and placement schools to help providers further embed the Quality Requirements for ITT. We can now confirm the following grant funding rates.
It is important to note that all this funding is for the 2026/27 academic year only. Funding beyond this year is not yet confirmed.
General Mentor Grant
We know the importance that mentors play in delivering high quality training and are pleased to confirm that DfE will continue to provide a contribution towards the high-quality mentor training that is an essential part of enabling effective mentor support.
Placement schools will be able to claim up to a maximum of 16 hours of initial general mentor training, and 6 hours of refresher training. The requirements for ITT mentoring and support are set out in the ITT Criteria.
Please could all accredited providers share the information on general mentor funding with the placement schools you work with. This funding will continue to be administered through the Claim funding for mentor training service.
Intensive training and practice grant
ITAP funding for 2026/27 will be available to accredited providers to support them in reviewing and adapting their ITAP to ensure that this element of ITT supports trainees in adaptive teaching and meeting the needs of pupils with SEND. This can be done in either of the 2 ways set out in the ITAP guidance. We expect that this focus could be applied across most current ITAP topics. This will not be a requirement of the ITT criteria for 2026/27 but is a condition of this grant funding. To qualify for ITAP funding in 2026/27 ITT providers must ensure that the majority of their ITAP meets this requirement.
ITAP grant rates will remain the same as the 2025/26 academic year: £204 per trainee for postgraduates, £298 per trainee for undergraduates.
Providers who wish to claim this grant funding will be asked to provide existing documentation that covers the guidance for the ITAP and demonstrates the SEND focus. Further information will be outlined in updated funding guidance which will be published in July.
Lead Mentor Grant
Last year, we informed ITT providers that we had secured funding for academic year 2025/26 to support the transition of the lead mentor role into the practice of ITT providers. As this role should now be part of accredited providers’ standard offer to trainee teachers, lead mentor funding will be discontinued from the 2026/27 academic year.
The requirements of this role as set out in the ITT Criteria will continue.
Over the next month, we will work to update the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Delivery Funding Guidance to reflect these changes.
If you have any questions around this funding, please email: ittreform.funding@education.gov.uk.