Support for Dyslexic Pupils

Charlotte Cane Excerpts

Tuesday 11th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Charlotte Cane (Ely and East Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Yeovil (Adam Dance) and the hon. Member for Broxtowe (Juliet Campbell) on securing this debate. I thank them for their excellent speeches, and I echo their calls for a national dyslexia strategy.

Within six weeks of starting primary school, pupils are tested on their literacy, communication and maths ability, and they are pushed to meet the expected standard in phonics by the end of year 1. Those who fail are pushed in year 2 and re-tested at the end of that year. This pressure, and thoughtless comments by staff or pupils, can make a dyslexic child feel stupid or thick because they struggle to read and write, but they are not; they are different.

My constituent Neil contacted me earlier this year about improving SEND provision, giving the example of his dyslexic 15-year-old daughter, Lucy. He told me that Lucy will leave school with,

“low self-esteem and low expectations, because the world will judge her based on her grades. She will assume that there are just things that are not within her capability.”

That is shocking. Our education system must do better than that. If a child is not diagnosed at an early stage, support is not put in place and students struggle further—albeit we know from Lucy’s experience that even pupils who have been diagnosed with dyslexia do not always get the support they need. They then go on to sit their exams, often remaining undiagnosed, and as we have heard, only one in five dyslexic pupils achieves grade 5 or above in English and maths. As they move into sixth form, they are then further impeded in their sixth form studies because they have to resit English and/or maths.

Neil told me this morning that Lucy is sitting two mock exams today, and that she was extremely distressed at the mere thought of going through such a stressful process. I am sure colleagues will join me in wishing Lucy the best of luck today, and in all her exams. Does the Minister agree that more should be done to give dyslexic pupils a fair chance in the assessment process? Will she update us on the steps the Government will take to improve reasonable adjustments for pupils in exams? If we make early diagnosis the norm, we will not only give children more support in the classroom but boost their educational attainment.

Teachers too need support to be able to spot the signs of dyslexia from an early stage, and to support dyslexic pupils in their classroom. Neil told me that his wife spends a lot of time emailing Lucy’s teachers to give them constructive feedback on how a dyslexic student learns. No parent should be expected to bear that additional burden, nor should teachers for that matter. What will the Government do to support teachers and better equip them to support dyslexic pupils? I discovered that the Government do not publish data on levels of dyslexia among school-age children, so we do not actually know the full scale of the problem. Will the Minister commit today to exploring this option further?

We have heard that many dyslexic people lead successful lives—famously, Richard Branson, Jamie Oliver and Zoë Wanamaker, to name but three—but too many do not. Somewhere between three and five in 10 prisoners have dyslexia, compared with one in 10 in the population as a whole. We see from the many entrepreneurs and brilliant artists that dyslexic people have valuable skills to share. We need an education system that identifies dyslexic pupils early and supports their learning, so that they all have the chance to succeed in life.

International Baccalaureate: Funding in State Schools

Charlotte Cane Excerpts

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Westminster Hall

[Olly Glover]

I very much agree. The fact that there is a governor of this school in my hon. Friend’s constituency shows that these schools often have wide catchment areas, because of the fairly unusual and very popular offer that they make, which is attractive to many in the surrounding areas.

It is unclear what these schools should be saying to parents as they look to enrol their children for the next calendar year. This will be deeply damaging for those schools.

[Charlotte Cane (Ely and East Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate. Students in my constituency are served by Impington Village college for the IB. They are deeply unhappy that the college received a letter from the Department announcing the change with no warning or consultation. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government decision has caused an unacceptable amount of stress for pupils, parents and staff, and that how the Government are acting is the complete opposite—

[Sir Roger Gale (in the Chair)]

Order. This is an intervention, not a speech. The Chair deprecates scripted interventions; they are supposed to be spontaneous.

Children with SEND: Assessments and Support

Charlotte Cane Excerpts

Monday 15th September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Charlotte Cane (Ely and East Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank the petitioners and my hon. Friend the Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) for leading this important debate.

We all know from our inboxes that the system is not working and that change is necessary. It is incumbent on all of us to fix the situation for the sake of children and their families. According to data from the House of Commons Library, the total percentage of pupils in Ely and East Cambridgeshire’s mainstream schools with EHCPs is 4%, which is higher than the regional and national averages, at 3.4% and 3.3% respectively. That means that specialist units and schools in Ely and East Cambridgeshire face a difficult task, as they have more pupils with EHCPs to accommodate than the national average. The council has plans for more specialist schools, but it is still waiting for Government clearance to build them, so I would be grateful if the Minister could say when it can expect to get that clearance.

The wide distances across the constituency create a further challenge in transporting pupils to and from schools. In 2023-24, Cambridgeshire county council spent over £25 million just on school taxis. That is linked to the rising demand for the service, and the rising cost of fuel. I take this opportunity to thank the specialist schools in my constituency, including Spring Meadow infant school, Highfield Ely and Highfield Littleport academies, the Centre School Cottenham, and Cambridge Regional College for the tremendous work that they do every day to support SEND learners and help them fulfil their potential. I urge the Government to ensure that their voices are heard in any change process.

My constituents are worried about potential changes in the SEND system, so I hope that the Minister’s response will provide clarity to pupils, parents and councils that the changes will not lead to cuts or reduced support for SEND pupils. To put it bluntly, parents should not have to fight for their children’s rights. The Government must ensure high-quality, well-funded education for all pupils with special educational needs.

Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund

Charlotte Cane Excerpts

Thursday 4th September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Charlotte Cane (Ely and East Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Sussex (Alison Bennett) on securing this debate and for an excellent and heartfelt speech. I want to share the story of my constituent Lisa—I thank her for allowing me to do so—who adopted her children when they were four and six years old. After that, they were able to access what was then called the adoption support fund and specialist occupational therapy, which Lisa called a lifesaver for them.

Since then, Lisa’s eldest child has accessed various support options, but the situation has proven more complex with her younger child. In Lisa’s own words,

“She did her best to hold things together at school for many years—masking anxiety, struggling with sensory issues, and living in a near-constant state of hypervigilance. At home, however, we saw the cost: meltdowns, self-harming, substance abuse and social withdrawal. In her mid-teens, she was diagnosed with ADHD, complex PTSD, OCD, depression and anxiety. And yet, she has not had access to therapy for over four years.”

Recently, a tailored, long-term development approach was finally designed for their child, with plans to deliver it over a three-year period of careful and considered therapeutic intervention, but a few weeks ago Lisa received a devastating blow: the specialist provider, who in their experience was the only one who truly understood their daughter, would no longer be used by the local authority because of the cost. It is impossible not to link that decision to the fund’s cap being lowered by 40%. They are now waiting to hear about possible alternatives from the local authority—plunged back into uncertainty just as her daughter starts her A-level studies.

Lisa played her part. They have attended specialist training, driven hundreds of miles for therapy, reduced working hours and given everything to advocate for their children, but there is only so much they can do without Government action. The Government must do the right thing for Lisa, her daughter and families like hers across the UK by reversing the cuts to the individual funding and confirming long-term funding.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

Gender Self-identification

Charlotte Cane Excerpts

Monday 19th May 2025 Westminster Hall

[Charlotte Cane (Ely and East Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Mundell. I, too, thank the petitioners for bringing this petition forward, and my hon. Friend the Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) for moving the motion.

Since the Supreme Court decision, I have received a lot of emails from people in great distress, and even fear. I have talked to women who have transitioned who were very confident playing a strong role in their local community—in many cases, standing to be councillors and things like that—but even those confident women, whom I have known for years, are now frightened and worried about how they will manage under the guidelines put in place since the Supreme Court made its decision.

We all know that the NHS is in crisis, and that is also true of the services for transgender people. As we have heard, they can correct their gender on their passport and driving licence with just the support of their GP, but they cannot get that all-important gender recognition certificate, nor the medical treatment they need, such as hormones and so forth. As we have heard, they often have to wait up to seven years just to be seen, or they have to pay significant funds to see someone privately.

Once someone has paid for that diagnosis, there is no guarantee that their GP will prescribe the medication, so then they also have to pay for that privately. In the words of one woman navigating this system:

“It’s a system that lacks any dignity and has put me in real danger as I had to begin to live as a woman long before I had any hope of starting hormones to make doing so safer and easier to fit into society.”

For someone living in the gender they identify with, while not fully looking like that gender, the trauma is huge. They become a target for those who think they have the right to abuse and assault someone just for being different. We are requiring people to go through that for seven years before they can get any help. Then they have to live like that for a further two years before they can get their certificate. We simply must improve this situation.

The recent Supreme Court decision and the EHRC guidelines mean that, even when people have their gender recognition certificate and have fully transitioned, their problems are, sadly, far from over. The Supreme Court has been misreported as having stated that a woman is someone who was born a woman. In fact, it ruled that, for the purposes of part of the Equality Act, the term “woman” means someone who was born a woman. It went on to reaffirm that trans people’s rights must be respected.

However, the EHRC almost immediately issued guidance that was unworkable and did not respect the rights of trans people, and we all understand that it will be contested legally. If a trans woman cannot use women's toilets and should instead use other toilets, what is she supposed to do? If she uses the gents, she risks abuse and assault. If she uses the disabled toilet, she takes up a facility that others might need.

This is a major imposition on a person’s life. When they want to travel, go to the theatre or go to a sports venue, they face the challenge of what they are going to do if they need the toilet. How can we be doing this to people? It is outrageous. One woman facing this dilemma told me:

“Since the ruling, I have seen a flood of hate. I have lost friends to suicide, and I have friends struggling to survive. Public life brings social anxiety. For example, this Friday I am travelling to Manchester. This is my first long trip away from home since the ruling, and it scares me. If I use female toilets, I could be apprehended, I am sure I would not, could not use the men's toilets, and ‘disabled’ toilets also expose me, if they are available. During my transition, I had several ‘situations’ including assault, and I thought this was all behind me. Going back to a life of fear in public is something I will struggle with and would do everything to avoid.”

We cannot allow this to continue. It is not acceptable. One of our core functions as MPs is to ensure people’s safety, and we are not ensuring the safety of trans people. I therefore ask the Minister to talk to her colleagues in the Department of Health to ensure that people are seen promptly and supported through their transition. I also ask her to urge the Minister for Women and Equalities, the right hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson), to work with women’s groups and LGBTQ+ groups to provide guidance that is workable and that respects the rights of all vulnerable groups. I further ask her to work with colleagues to consider any necessary changes to the law.

Education, Health and Care Plans

Charlotte Cane Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Charlotte Cane (Ely and East Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman) on securing this debate.

Like many others, I am horrified by the amount of correspondence I get about this issue. Just this month I was contacted by a constituent with a child who was well supported in school and was looking to do well in their GCSEs, but the school can no longer provide for them and they now get only 11 hours of tuition. The school asked three times for them to get an EHCP assessment, and they were always refused. My constituent went to a tribunal, at which point the council finally said it would do the assessment. That was last September, and it has still not been done. That child is now unable to access the education they need to achieve their full potential.

Parents and other responsible adults spend time, energy and even money trying to get the support that their child needs. Local authorities deliver what they can, building up vast debts that are currently hidden from their accounts, and their staff feel under siege. The correspondence often lacks clarity and transparency, let alone empathy. Most importantly, children and young people are let down day in, day out by the very structures that are supposed to help them to achieve their potential.

[Several hon. Members rose—]