Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps she has taken to improve special educational needs support services for dyslexia in English schools.

As part of our Plan for Change, the department is determined to fix the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system and restore the trust of parents. We will do this by ensuring schools have the tools to better identify and support children before issues escalate.

The department know that effective early identification and intervention is critical in improving the outcomes of children and young people with SEND. In an inclusive education system, settings should be confident in accurately assessing children and young people’s learning and development and meeting any educational needs with evidence-based responses.

A range of measures have been introduced, which aim to support the effective teaching of reading, including for those with SEND or at risk of falling behind. This includes the English Hubs programme, publication of the reading framework and writing frameworks and the publication of an updated list of high quality phonics programmes which have been validated by the department.

The department also launched ‘Reading Ambition for All’, a new continuous professional development programme for primary school teachers. Following this pilot year, we are working with the British Dyslexia Association to refine the programme to further support children with dyslexia.