Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what minimum standard of dyslexia support his Department requires local authorities to provide.

Local authorities, working with schools and other partners, are required by the Children and Families Act (2014) to set out a local offer of the support normally available to children and families affected by a disability and special educational needs (SEN).

Schools are also required under the act and the accompanying Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice to identify and address the SEN of the pupils or students they support. We expect schools to be monitoring closely the progress of all pupils. The first response when any child is falling behind is good quality teaching. When this does not produce expected progress, the school should consider whether the child has a learning difficulty. The school should assess the child, plan an intervention if a learning difficulty is identified, implement the intervention and then review the outcome and progressively repeat this cycle until the child’s learning difficulty is properly supported. This is called SEN support and the cyclical process is referred to as a ‘graduated approach’ to meeting children’s needs. Where children and young people have needs that can’t be met through this process, they could get support through an Education, Health and Care plan.

We have in place training and specific resources designed to provide teachers with the necessary skills to identify and support children with dyslexia.