Special Educational Needs: Dyscalculia

Baroness Bull Excerpts

Tuesday 10th March 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Bull]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to (1) raise awareness of dyscalculia among educators, including Special Educational Needs Coordinators, and (2) ensure dyscalculic pupils have specialist support.

[Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Blake of Leeds) (Lab)]

My Lords, we know that some children face real challenges in maths, particularly those with dyscalculia and other special educational needs. That is why we are supporting schools through our national maths hubs as well as improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools. Our core professional development offer, including the initial teacher training and early-year framework, and leadership and SENCO NPQs, provides evidence-based training which supports the workforce to meet the needs of all pupils.

[Baroness Bull (CB)]

My Lords, dyscalculia is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that manifests as severe difficulties with numerical processing. I hope the Minister will agree that with an incidence of one in 20, it is one of the commonly occurring conditions that the SEND reforms promise that every school will recognise and address. However, can she explain how we will get there, when the reforms are silent on numerical processing as a key development area and a full 58% of educators have no more than a rough idea of what dyscalculia is? Given this low awareness, will the Government make increasing dyscalculia knowledge a priority for the £200 million training budget? If so, is the Minister aware that even a modest target—just one level 7-trained assessor educator in each of the 317 councils—would require a doubling of the current capacity in the training system?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I pay tribute to the noble Baroness for her consistent support across the piece, and often repeated in this Chamber, in highlighting the situation and spelling out clearly what dyscalculia is in the discussions she has had. I recognise that those involved in this have been getting organised and raising the profile, but the approach within schools is that access should not be dependent on a diagnosis. The national inclusion standard, with five core areas of development, should lead to evidence-based support. We need to have a holistic view of the strengths and needs of a child, which should determine that support. Raising awareness is of course an important issue, but this is the approach we are taking at present.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Bull (CB)]

My Lords, if I am within time—I look to the Lord Speaker—I wonder whether I could probe the noble Baroness on two of her answers. She said that the national inclusion standards would include numerical processing, but the key organising principles—the key areas of development—do not include numerical processing. Can she also help me understand this question of labelling? I do not think children want labels, but they do want diagnosis. There is no other area in life in which we would attempt to address a problem without having a full diagnosis of what that problem is.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I am very happy to come back to the noble Baroness on the first part of her question. We are at risk of going down the route of semantics on this. We are saying that we want a whole- system approach that recognises the range of needs that children and young people face, and that makes sure we get early diagnosis and intervention so we can address them.