Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the adequacy of (a) testing and (b) support for children at school with symptoms for (i) dyslexia and (ii) dyspraxia.

Schools are required under the Children and Families Act 2014 to identify and address the special educational needs (SEN) of the pupils or students they support, and guidance is set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice. This includes arranging for appropriate tests where the school’s own assessments indicate that this is necessary. Schools receive funding through the notional SEN budget and would normally be expected to pay for tests such as an assessment for dyslexia or dyspraxia from this allocation.

We have invested heavily in practical and financial support for SEND including funding projects with the British Dyslexia Association to address issues around early identification and effective provision; and the Dyslexia SpLD Trust to provide expert advice, information and training to schools and parents.

We provide extensive support to schools to help them support pupils’ needs, for example through the Whole School SEND consortium, which has been funded £3.4 million for 2 years (2018-2020) to deliver a programme of work to embed SEND within approaches to school improvement. As part of this contract, the University College London have engaged with the education sector to explore the supply, demand and drivers for SEND continuing professional development, including looking at dyslexia. This will provide an analysis of where gaps exist to inform our strategy going forward. This work is due to report shortly.