Assistive Technology

Baroness Butler-Sloss Excerpts

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Earl is right that that research—which, to be fair, happened under the last Government—is an important basis on which we can now expand the ability to use, and improve the use of, assistive technology across schools and education. That research has identified the barriers in the system and the opportunities to address them. It is why, as I have already said, we will be able to expand workforce training, improve connectivity and facilitate better multiagency working. We will be publishing research on that later on, in the summer. I think those things will make a genuine difference to assistive technology users across the country.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

My Lords, some years ago, my granddaughter had to move school in order to be identified as having dyslexia. She was treated as stupid at the first school. She then had wonderful training from the school she went to—a brilliant primary school in Kentish Town. What sort of training are teachers getting to at least identify that dyslexia is there?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble and learned Baroness raises a really important point. We need to ensure that all teachers are, first of all, able to be special needs teachers, because that is their role. Secondly, we need to ensure the much earlier identification of those children with special needs. That needs to start, in many cases, before children even get to school. That is the reason why we have improved the guidance and training for those in early years settings and are improving the support available to schools to be able to identify children much earlier, including those with dyslexia, so that action can be taken. There is, of course, more that we need to do in this area, which is why special educational needs reform is a key priority for this Government and the Department for Education.