SEND white paper - Our official response.

Dyslexic children risk being "lost in the system" under SEND reforms.

In May, we submitted a formal response to the Government's SEND reform consultation, welcoming the ambition for a more inclusive education system but raising serious concerns that dyslexic children and young people remain largely invisible in the proposals.

The core concern
Dyslexia affects around 10% of the UK population, approximately one million school children, yet the Government's proposed reforms contain no meaningful mention of dyslexia, dyscalculia, or the literacy and numeracy difficulties that define these conditions. Most alarmingly, "cognition and learning" has been removed as a developmental area of need in the refreshed SEND Code of Practice. Without this category, teachers have no framework for linking a dyslexic child's difficulties to targeted interventions or an Individual Support Plan. The BDA believes this is the single biggest weakness of the entire reform package.

The scale of the problem
The attainment data makes for sobering reading:

• Only 52% of children on SEN support meet the phonics check standard in Year 1, compared to 80% of their peers
• Just 21% of dyslexic children meet expected standards in reading, writing and maths at Key Stage 2, versus 74% of their peers
• At GCSE, only 40% of dyslexic young people pass English and maths, compared to 72% of their peers, a gap of more than 30 percentage points
• 8 in 10 young people leave school without a formal dyslexia diagnosis, as no national assessment pathway exists through schools or the NHS
   

What needs to change

Data and visibility. Only 2 out of 151 local authorities can state how many dyslexic children are in their area. Without a specific marker on school census data, authorities cannot plan or recruit the specialist workforce these children need.

Teacher training. 73% of parents said they were not confident their child's teachers understood dyslexia. The BDA is calling for mandatory training on literacy and numeracy development so all teachers can recognise signs of dyslexia without waiting for a formal diagnosis.

Early identification. There is no national route to assessment for families who cannot afford a private diagnosis. Children from lower-income households are far less likely to be diagnosed and far less likely to receive good support as a result. A national screening pathway is urgently needed.

Accountability in individual support plans. We welcome statutory ISPs in principle, but 73% of parents said they would not feel confident challenging a school if agreed support was not delivered. ISPs must be backed by an independent appeals process, not just the school's internal complaints procedure.

Specialist provision. There is no proposed specialist provision package for children with complex cognitive or learning needs who cannot be supported in a mainstream setting. This gap must be addressed before the reforms proceed.
Curriculum flexibility. The current GCSE structure and Progress 8 measure make it harder for schools to meet dyslexic learners' needs. We're calling for broader qualification pathways, alternative assessment methods, and a revision to Progress 8.

The BDA's position
We support the vision of an inclusive mainstream and stronger support below EHCP level. But without reinstating cognition and learning as an area of need, making dyslexic children visible in data, and building genuine accountability into individual support plans, these reforms risk failing the children they are designed to help.