Matt Hancock struggles with dyslexia – so why does the government make things hard for children with special needs?

The key message that the health secretary wants people to hear is that ‘everyone can reach the top table’, but that’s not possible in the face of funding cuts for SEND students

Research by The Driver Trust exposed a national shortage of dyslexia teachers, leaving educators ill-equipped to help children with special educational needs like dyslexia (Getty/iStock)

In an interview with GQ magazine yesterday, Matt Hancock, the secretary of state for health and social care stated that he was dyslexic. It was clearly difficult for him to declare this in a public arena and for this, he must be applauded. However, there are some real concerns over the points he made, particularly when it came to his party’s approach to dealing with issues like these in our education system.

Dyslexia is a language issue which affects an individual’s ability to read, spell and get their ideas down on paper. Around 10 per cent of the population are thought to be affected. While Hancock stressed that his diagnosis was the “most important thing”, his government’s cuts to funding for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) students tell a different story, because many children around the country are not able to access a dyslexia assessment at school.

This leaves one option for many parents, which is to pay privately for an assessment, at a cost of around £500, an unaffordable fee for many. It is unacceptable that a child’s future can be so dependent on family economic circumstances.

We know that support and early diagnosis – which can be done at around the ages of 6-7 – are essential. According to the British Dyslexia Association, early diagnosis means that the effects of dyslexia can be lessened with the correct specialist support in place.

But the reality under our current government, is a lack of specialist dyslexia support for dyslexic students in schools as a result of funding cuts and the disbandment of Local Authority Specialist Teaching provisions.

Research by The Driver Trust for example, exposed a national shortage of dyslexia teachers, leaving educators ill-equipped to help children with special educational needs like dyslexia, which leads to many children struggling and underachieving.

In his interview, the health secretary also spoke about the importance of spell check and technology. He admitted that spelling, as with all dyslexics, is a real area of difficulty for him. Why then, is his government discriminating against dyslexic students by awarding 20 per cent of the marks in English Language GCSE examinations for spelling and grammar?

According to The Driver Trust, a dyslexic student using a scribe will automatically lose these marks – effectively preventing a student from achieving anything higher than grade 6. And yet the government is still preventing dyslexic students from following in the footsteps of Hancock, who was lucky enough to have studied at Oxford University.

The key message that Matt Hancock wants people to hear is that “everyone can reach the top table”. Under his government, I would say that this is becoming increasingly difficult due to the discrimination faced by dyslexic students in our education system.

Parents are frustrated at the lack of dyslexia assessments available in schools, of having to fight every day to get their children the support that they desperately need – often receiving nothing. The situation seems worse this year due to the cuts in SEND funding in real terms. Until the government ends discrimination against these students in our education system, few will have the opportunity to reach the “top table”.

Debbie Abraham is a specialist dyslexia teacher and owner of Dyslexia Deb, which aims to make learning less frustrating for dyslexic children. You can learn more about her at https://www.dyslexiadeb.co.uk or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/dyslexiadeb