Dyslexia Screening and Teacher Training Bill

Matt Western Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 2nd December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

Let me start by saying how good it is to see the right hon. Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock) here in the flesh. He may have felt at home in the last few weeks among late-career pop stars and soap legends, but what he is hoping to do here is far more important. I thought he was very cool in channelling his inner Arnie, although I am not sure that he’ll be back—that may be one for the Government. In all seriousness, I know that the topic of this Bill is close to his heart. He has campaigned long and hard to raise awareness of dyslexia and neurodivergent conditions. As was made clear earlier, his campaign is as much a personal one as a political one. For that, I commend him.

The British Dyslexia Association, as the right hon. Gentleman said, estimates that between 10% to 15% of UK people are dyslexic, while around 6% suffer from dyscalculia. We are all committed to ensuring that neurodivergence should not hold children back from achieving their potential. With early intervention and the right support through their education, children with dyslexia can succeed at school. Yet, all too often, lack of access to diagnosis and support creates multiple problems. An estimated four in five young people leave school with dyslexia unidentified, thinking that they just find reading and writing hard. That can hold back pupils’ grades, particularly in exam-based assessment, and affect their confidence and mental health. We need to prioritise earlier intervention and quicker support, as the right hon. Member said.

Those with dyslexia clearly feel different from their peers. Many dyslexic children show strength in lateral thinking and creative skills. It is vital that those skills are nurtured and encouraged alongside the additional support that children need with their reading and writing. Steve Jobs, Stephen Hawking and Abraham Lincoln were all recorded as having dyslexia. Their individual contributions were immense, despite being outliers and often going it alone.

Teachers and school staff across the country work hard all year round to support their students, but a staggering 59% of teachers believe that there is no appropriate training in place for all teachers to support pupils with SEND. I understand the right hon. Gentleman’s efforts to try to change the statute book to address this glaring deficiency in our education system for neurodivergent children, but I wonder if additional legislation is necessary in this form. I sense that, perhaps with more engagement with Opposition Members and with the Department for Education, he could have sought to focus his energy on reforming the system as it stands, but more broadly.

Labour is just as committed to this agenda as the right hon. Gentleman is. Indeed, our national excellence programme, funded by ending the tax breaks for private schools, would provide a £210 million teacher development fund. It would ensure that teachers have access to appropriate ongoing training for SEND, including dyslexia, at every stage of their career, through existing channels. Although Labour supports the underlying thrust of this Bill and sympathises with its aims, we believe that this is better delivered through trainee teacher continuous professional development programmes. That will allow trainee teachers to develop an understanding and awareness of a range of neurodivergent conditions, not just limited to dyslexia. With that in mind, and without wishing to delay the House further, it is worth asking the Minister what steps she is taking to ensure that the principle behind the Bill is noted in the improvement plan for SEND Green Paper. As I am sure the right hon. Gentleman and other hon. Members will be aware, the Government had committed to publishing the improvement plan by the end of the year but have since delayed it until after the new year. So will the Minister indicate when she expects it to be published, given the stresses that many parents of SEND pupils have to cope with in the current SEND system?

Many of the harrowing cases I hear about in my constituency surgeries—this is weekly—involve people who are worried about the SEND system as it currently operates. We should all feel an imperative to break down the administrative hurdles making the lives of parents and neurodivergent children and pupils harder. For that reason, although I admire the right hon. Gentleman’s attempts to bring this legislation through—like him and so many others, my brother suffered greatly through a lack of early diagnosis—I do not believe this Bill is the answer in the way it currently sits. What is needed is better diagnosis across all education and all neurodivergent conditions. We believe that that can be done through continuous professional development. So along with my Labour colleagues, I look forward to seeing how the Bill develops and to hearing from the Minister.