That this House has considered support for dyslexic pupils at school.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Butler. I start by thanking the Backbench Business Committee for granting this debate and hon. Members from across the House for supporting it. I thank all the young dyslexic pupils, their families and the campaigners for their tireless work to raise awareness. They are all such inspirations.
Dyslexia is a neurological difference that affects around one in 10 of us. That is more than 1 million children in classrooms across the UK. It presents in a range of ways and with different degrees of severity. For me, words float on the page—Members may be able to tell that they are doing so at the moment. I struggled with reading, writing and spelling, and I have the reading age of a 12-year-old, so I ask Members to bear with me through this speech.
Dyslexia is not a flaw or something to be ashamed of; that is the most important thing we can take away from the debate. It breaks my heart when I hear young dyslexics say, “I wish I never had it”, “I feel ashamed”, “I felt stupid” or “I will never achieve anything”. Intelligence and poor behaviour are not linked to dyslexia. Being dyslexic just means that one learns and expresses oneself differently. That comes with challenges, but it also often comes with strengths in problem solving, resilience, creativity or practical work. That is my message to all dyslexic young people: they can do anything in life, and it is the job of schools and the Government to help them achieve that.
Unfortunately, support for dyslexic pupils at school is still not where it should be. I have said this before, but in Somerset, chronic underfunding means that support has got worse since when I was at school, despite the hard work of educators. I left school in 2008, and I had more support in school then than there is now. We have gone backwards as a country, and it is not good enough.
The hon. Member is making an excellent speech on a very important subject. Early diagnosis is key for dyslexic students to access the necessary support and assistive technology, yet as the hon. Member pointed out, 80% of dyslexic children leave school without a formal diagnosis. Does he agree that a universal screening programme could help to ensure that all children, regardless of their background, have their needs recognised and talents nurtured by our education system?
I totally agree, and I will come to that later. The hon. Member has probably seen my ten-minute rule Bill about getting support, and I ask him to sign it.
The biggest problem is identifying dyslexia. Although three children in an average class likely have dyslexia, four in five dyslexic pupils leave school without having their needs properly identified. There is no NHS pathway to diagnosis for dyslexia as it is not a medical condition. That means diagnosis and support is based on a postcode lottery and family income. The average cost of diagnosis is £600, which is unaffordable for too many of my constituents and creates real inequality. Some 90% of dyslexic children in higher-income households are diagnosed compared with 43% in lower-income households. That is not good enough.
If we cannot identify needs, how can we support young dyslexics through education? For those whose needs are identified, it often comes far too late. Even then, the support they need may be unavailable. Our councils are in desperate need of financial support to keep up provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. Our brilliant teachers just do not have the appropriate training or proper resources to support all their pupils’ needs. Teachers should not have to learn about dyslexia and work out classroom adjustments in their spare time. They should be supported from day one.
Even simple things just are not available. In this day and age, getting access to assistive technologies such as word processors should not be a challenge, yet the British Dyslexia Association has found that only 18% of dyslexic people reported having access to assistive technology at school. Without support, the classroom becomes inaccessible for dyslexic people. The curriculum is too narrow and not developed with dyslexia properly in mind. Exams such as GSCEs test written ability and recall in timed environments, rather than testing knowledge. That ends up punishing dyslexic people who do not have enough alternative qualification pathways.
It is an incredibly important subject. I left school before I was 17, and that was the end of my education. I have had a fantastic business career, I have written lots of novels and I am now an MP. That is despite no help at all from the educational system, and society as a whole putting across the message that people such as me at school are not on the same level as more intellectual people. The subject is close to my heart. Does my hon. Friend agree that society should better recognise people such as him and me, to help people get on with their careers?
I agree with my hon. Friend. The impact is devastating on young dyslexic people’s education and their mental health. We know that 26% of 11-year-olds leave primary school below the expected reading standard. At GCSE, only one in five pupils with dyslexia achieve a grade 5 or above in English and maths, compared with over half of pupils without special educational needs.
The British Dyslexia Association’s most recent research found that 70% of young dyslexic people report feeling bad about themselves because of their dyslexia, and that 78% report having experienced people assuming that they are not as clever as others due to their dyslexia. That is not true—we have heard that today in the interventions.
I know that if I had not had the support I had at school, I might have ended up in prison or even taken my own life, like too many others who never get the help they need. Sadly, young people with dyslexia are three times as likely to be suspended from school and twice as likely to be repeatedly absent from school.
My son is dyslexic, and the statistic that shocked me is that 80% of people with dyslexia leave school without it being diagnosed, and that is the concern—that people will go through life not even realising why they struggle with certain things. Does the hon. Member agree that that needs to change?
I definitely agree and I thank the hon. Member for her comment.
Young people with dyslexia are also three times as likely to not be in employment, education or training by the age of 16 to 17. Research suggests that about half of people in prison may have dyslexia, compared with one in 10 in the general public. I have heard from people who have come out of prison and found out that they were dyslexic. They realised that had they had the right support, they may not have given up on school and ended up where they were. That tells us all we need to know about the dire consequences of not getting support for dyslexic people.
What can we do? Action is long overdue. We have to make dyslexia and other neurodiversities—such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism and dyscalculia—a priority by having a national dyslexic strategy, and a national body for SEND to oversee it. Any changes must start with early identification and teacher training. That is why I proposed my Bill on universal screening and teacher training. The idea is simple: that the Department for Education uses its expertise and resources to work with us all to create a universal screening programme for neurodiversity in primary school-aged children to identify their needs, and to provide statutory guidance on training on neurodiversity in initial teacher training and continuous professional development. The screener can be classroom based and the assessment done in a cost and time-effective way. That will allow teachers to better recognise the signs early.
With better training, teachers can make those all-important in-class adjustments, such as using more visual, auditory and physical aids, as well as offering tailored support. Teachers also need to be taught how to use assistive technologies throughout teaching and assessment. That targeted early intervention can move some children at risk of being adversely impacted by dyslexia to no or low risk. That is important.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship today, Ms Butler. I begin by thanking the hon. Member for Yeovil (Adam Dance), my co-sponsor of the debate, for his continued support and tireless campaigning on the issue of dyslexia. I rise not only as the Member of Parliament for Broxtowe but also as chair of the all-party parliamentary group for dyslexia, a group I have been a member of since 2016—some eight years before becoming an MP—and now have the pleasure of chairing.
After my son was diagnosed with dyslexia, I set up a not-for-profit organisation to raise awareness of dyslexia and to train educators in how to identify dyslexia in the classroom, and to offer support to dyslexic children and their parents, which is something that my family did not receive. Sadly, despite that being many years ago, in the UK we are still remiss at early identification of dyslexia. Many children and young people are still not being identified and are still struggling. Too many children go through their childhood feeling disempowered, confused and sad because they do not receive the support, the understanding or recognition of how hard they are working because dyslexia has not been identified.
In the UK, around 10% of the population is dyslexic, yet despite its prevalence, dyslexia remains underdiagnosed and parents often struggle to get their children the support they need. Dyslexic people often face barriers that affect their self-esteem and educational outcomes, result in a loss of the love of learning, reduce their earning potential and mean they are over-represented in the prison system.
We know that in our children and young people dyslexia frequently co-occurs with other special educational needs like ADHD or developmental language disorders. With fewer than half of education, health and care plans issued on time last year, too often families are left struggling to secure the support they desperately need for their children. Does my hon. Friend agree that giving dyslexic pupils the right support means ensuring access to EHCPs is absolutely essential?
I absolutely agree that the support that young people need is crucial, not just for their education but across and throughout their lives.
The challenges that dyslexic people face should not be an inevitable part of being dyslexic. The British Dyslexia Association’s recent report “Set up for somebody else” was a disheartening read. It identified that 70% of young people said their dyslexia makes them feel bad about themselves; 78% said people assume they are not clever because they are dyslexic; 59% had been bullied or teased about their dyslexia, and 65% hide their dyslexia. It does not stop there. Parental income makes a difference: 90% of young people in high income households are diagnosed, compared with only 43% in the lowest income households; and only 30% of young people in lower income households say the support they receive in school is good, compared with 86% of young people in higher income households.
Embracing the strengths of dyslexia is essential to changing the trajectory of the lives of the current and future generations. People with dyslexia often shine in creativity, problem solving and verbal reasoning, and have excellent entrepreneurial skills. During Dyslexia Awareness Week this year, I called on the Government to introduce a national dyslexia strategy to even the playing field for dyslexic people by reforming the teacher training curriculum so that educators are equipped to recognise and support dyslexic learners; standardising dyslexia identification and interventions across schools; and prioritising early identification and assessments so that tailored support can be given as early as possible in a child’s educational journey. Those steps would help create a more inclusive and effective education system that recognises that neurodiversity can also be a strength.
It is 130 years since Rudolf Berlin coined the term dyslexia, which means “difficulty with words”. In 1970, a report entitled “The Dyslexic Child” identified developmental dyslexia as an issue requiring urgent official attention. In 1972, another scholar argued:
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Butler, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Yeovil (Adam Dance) and the hon. Member for Broxtowe (Juliet Campbell) on securing this important debate.
On a conservative estimate, there are on average three children with dyslexia in every classroom, including in Bath. That is three children in every classroom, or perhaps even more, being let down by our education system, unable to receive the support that they need to learn and succeed.
People with dyslexia are often failed at the very first hurdle: 80% do not receive a diagnosis until after they have left school, and some never receive a diagnosis at all. I am freewheeling slightly here, but I have a suspicion that I am dyslexic. I was never diagnosed; I just always struggled with spelling. Once I had finished bluffing my way through spelling tests in German, which is my mother tongue, English came along and the same thing happened again. All I can say for all those who are dyslexic is that the feeling of being slightly at sea all the time will never go away. For those who manage to get a diagnosis, that is only the starting point. With increasing pressure on school budgets and a lack of teacher training about how best to support neurodiverse children, getting a diagnosis is just the first of many challenges.
Without proper support, children with dyslexia often find themselves falling behind in school, because they struggle to learn at a similar pace to their peers. I was a secondary school teacher, and because teachers have to rush through the curriculum, often there is little opportunity to support children who are struggling. Often all we do is to punish those who have a neurodiverse disposition, rather than supporting them. That absolutely must stop. We must stop punishing young people with dyslexia in the classroom simply because we—including me, when I was a teacher—do not know how to respond to their needs.
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More broadly, we need to rethink assessment design, so that assessments focus on measuring understanding, not memory recall or spelling accuracy—and I make many mistakes with spelling—except where essential. That has to start by looking at other forms of assessment beyond exams, and strengthening vocational education. I hope that V-levels will offer some of that. Access to assistive technology must be standard, and how to use it must be properly taught through key stage 2, to support independent learning.
I cannot end without addressing the elephant in the room—the now delayed SEND White Paper. I think the Minister and her team will have heard the fear and anxiety about the reports of cuts, and the real frustrations at the delay. Will the Minister address reports that dyslexic children may lose one-to-one support and extra teaching staff support? If that is the case, I urge the Government to think again. Cutting costs at the expense of young people’s futures is never worth it.
Ultimately, I think we all want the same thing—an inclusive and fair education system that gives young dyslexic people the chance to shine. With the changes I have set out, we can take a big step towards that future. I hope the Minister will take these ideas on board and work with us as the SEND White Paper is finalised. Without the changes, I fear this will be another missed opportunity and an entire generation of dyslexics will be failed by the Government.
“Preventive and supportive steps taken early are immeasurably more humane and fruitful than attempts to remedy a problem which becomes increasingly complex as the child grows older.”
That is still relevant today. Precise definitions of dyslexia have changed over time, but it is agreed that those with dyslexia struggle to break down words into their smallest constituent parts, making the use of phonics in school close to useless for dyslexic pupils.
It was the last Labour Government who set out how to understand and improve provision for dyslexic children. In 2008, they tasked Sir Jim Rose to lead a review to make recommendations on the identification and teaching of children with dyslexia. In 2009, the final report of the Rose review defined dyslexia as
“a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed.”
It is poignant that Sir Jim Rose provided that clear definition under the last Labour Government, and fitting that this Labour Government should produce the first national dyslexia strategy to take forward what he began back in 2008 and 2009.
Dyslexics face inherent societal inequalities, which fall into four categories: educational attainment, career progression, over-representation in the criminal justice system and proportionately higher use of mental health services. In education, children fare much worse. In the 2023-24 academic year, only 22% of pupils with specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia achieved grade 5 or above in English and maths, compared with 52% of their peers. A strategy would significantly upgrade the teacher training curriculum, in partnership with universities and unions, so that teachers are properly equipped to teach dyslexic children.
Turning to career progression, it is clear that the 15-year-old Equality Act 2010 has largely failed dyslexics in the workplace. A strategy would outline specific expectations of the public sector and other sectors in terms of what adjustments need to be made, and what difference those adjustments are expected to make, with the opportunity to review.
Our prison system fails to recognise and address the deeply troubling statistic that between 30% and 50% of our prison population are dyslexic, which is way higher than the 10% of the general population who are dyslexic. Dyslexia does not predispose people to crime, but a lack of early support can lead to educational failure, social exclusion and loss of confidence, all of which heighten vulnerability.
Finally, on mental health outcomes, many dyslexic people experience high anxiety and low self-esteem, with many of them also experiencing depression. These outcomes are preventable. With early identification, understanding, adjustments, support, and a culture that supports neurodiversity, we can prevent a lifetime of avoidable emotional, educational and workplace distress.
Those are the reasons why I am calling for a national dyslexia strategy. Such a strategy would call on the Government to set out how they can improve the life chances of dyslexic people, supporting schools and workplaces, and in that way also benefit our health system and our criminal justice system. It would focus on early identification, consistent standards in the classroom, and greater teacher training in kinaesthetic and adaptive teaching methods, and it would ensure that those born with a learning difference are not socially excluded.
This is about investing in our children and young people. I ask the Minister to commit to a national dyslexia strategy, so that we begin the process of changing so many people’s lives. Enabling people to have the best start in life is a key ambition of this Government and I hope the Minister includes dyslexic people in that ambition.
Only one in five pupils with dyslexia achieve a grade 5 or above in English and maths, compared with more than half their peers. That gap is unacceptable. Far from being a reflection of pupils’ academic ability, it demonstrates that our education system is failing those who need it most. Dyslexia often affects children’s ability to spell, read and write, which are fundamental parts of almost all examinations. As a result, many students struggle to navigate lessons and assessments that have not been adapted to their needs. Identifying dyslexia early in children and offering them support will help to close the attainment gap and ensure that dyslexia is never the reason that a child is prevented from learning.
Dyslexia’s wider impact on a child can be severe. It affects not only academic performance but mental health, which I think is the most important thing for us to concentrate on. For a lot of young people, the sense of humiliation and exclusion that they feel if they are dyslexic and not being properly supported has a severe impact on their mental health. Too many children begin to feel as though they are “stupid” or “dumb” as they fall behind in school. Over time, those difficulties may contribute to more serious mental health issues, including depression and anxiety.
Jamie Oliver is one of many remarkable campaigners who have highlighted the struggles that many dyslexic children face in the education system by powerfully sharing their own experience. For someone to see an experienced, strong, successful businessman almost shuddering as he remembers his time at school, when he faced such humiliation, is so moving. I am proud to have supported him in his campaign and will continue to do so. If anyone is yet to watch his documentary “Jamie’s Dyslexia Revolution”, I strongly advise them to do so. It is a powerful testimony.
To truly support children with dyslexia, the Government must reduce the steps required for an official NHS diagnosis while increasing funding to reduce waiting lists. Both measures would allow dyslexia to be diagnosed earlier. We Liberal Democrats are also pushing for increased training for teachers—as I mentioned, it is essential that classroom practitioners understand where to go with support—so that they can confidently identify and know how best to support all neurodiverse individuals, including those with dyslexia. These steps would ensure that we support every dyslexic child to realise their full potential and stop punishing them.