草莓传媒

APPG for Dyslexia 鈥� Monday 12 January 2026
The case for a National Dyslexia Strategy

Speakers:

• Juliet Campbell, MP 鈥� Chair, APPG for Dyslexia
• Ellen Broom茅, CEO, 草莓传媒
• Professor Julia Carroll, University of Birmingham
• Caroline Holden, Specialist Teacher Assessor
• Lynn Greenwold, Chair, SpLD Assessment Standards Committee (SASC)

Meeting Minutes

The meeting was chaired by Juliet Campbell MP, who opened the meeting and welcomed the speakers, MPs and invited guests.

The first speaker was Ellen Broom茅 who began by introducing two case studies to illustrate the lived experience of dyslexic individuals.

Jo, a 16-year-old student with dyslexia has excellent practical and verbal understanding in science but struggles with written reports and SPaG-based exam marks. Despite high potential, Jo only narrowly passes core subjects, limiting future study and career options. With targeted support and assistive technology, they could reach their true potential.

Alex, an adult with dyslexia excels in problem-solving and team leadership but repeatedly loses opportunities for promotion due to written reports that contain minor spelling or grammar errors. With reasonable adjustments and awareness training for managers, Alex鈥檚 strengths could be fully recognised.

Ellen went on to present the case for why a national strategy for dyslexia is needed.

10% of the UK population is dyslexic.听Which suggests that there are:

• 1 million children in education - roughly three in every classroom.
• 6.9 million dyslexic adults
• 3.4 million adults in the workplace

But these figures are based on estimates from population data as there are no reliable statistics.

The BDA believe that the majority are undiagnosed 鈥� perhaps as high as 80% living with dyslexia without the understanding and support they need in education or the workplace.

Supported dyslexic individuals do well 鈥� there are plenty of examples of successful dyslexic individuals in all professions.

• But support is dependent on advocacy and the ability to pay privately for the assessment needed as 鈥減roof鈥� for education and workplace to meet their Equality Act duties.
• Public awareness of the impact dyslexia has in education, work and life is low.

听

Our education system does not meet the needs of dyslexic learners

• Missed opportunities for early identification
• Educators lack knowledge and resources to spot dyslexia early.
• Inconsistent use of assistive technology, which could enable independence and access to the curriculum.
• A lack of alternative qualification pathways, meaning those unable to access GCSEs are left with few options.
• Dyslexic learners cannot demonstrate their true ability.

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This has consequences. Dyslexia impacts educational attainment

• GCSE assessment over-emphasises spelling, punctuation and grammar even in non-language subjects
• Only 40% of pupils with dyslexia pass (grade 4) GCSE English and Maths, versus 72% of their peers. 30 percentage point gap 鈥� but not a lack of ability.

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Poor attainment narrows life choices

• GCSE maths and English required to progress to A level/T level/V level) or Level 3 apprenticeships
• Routinely asked for by employers.

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Too many (undiagnosed) individuals not doing well

• 18% adults live with low literacy levels impacting daily life
• Approaching 1million 16鈥�24-year-olds are NEET
• Youth justice figures suggest 30 鈥� 50% are dyslexic
• Criminal justice and youth justice suspected rates up to 50% dyslexic 鈥� MOJ reports 57% literacy below level of 11-year-old
• Successful rehabilitation dependent upon access to education programmes.

A national strategy for dyslexia would aim to build a society that understands and includes all dyslexic people, focusing on improving public awareness and acceptance of impact of dyslexia in education, work and life as well as education access and support, and employment access and support.听

The second speaker was Professor Julia Carroll who spoke about the Dyslexia Delphi study.听 Professor Carroll explained that the main aims of the study were to establish a consensus definition of dyslexia among a wide range of experts, to reduce public confusion and misinformation about dyslexia and to develop an agreed framework to be used for dyslexia assessment and diagnosis.

The study used the Delphi method, a structured process for gathering expert opinions anonymously over several rounds, at each stage removing statements which had less than 80% agreement among the experts. In order to propose a new, universally agreed-upon definition of dyslexia that reflects current scientific understanding and is applicable across all languages and age groups.

Ultimately, the goal was to improve the consistency of diagnosis and ensure that appropriate, evidence-based support is available to all individuals struggling with literacy difficulties, regardless of a formal diagnosis.听

The third speaker was Caroline Holden who began by explaining her former role as part of the SpLD Assessment Standards Committee (SASC) Board, and the Delphi study. Caroline went on to talk about how the new definition is being used in practice to identify dyslexia, suggesting that there are four key stages that schools should use to identify children:

1. Ruling out environmental differences such as English as an additional language, sight or hearing difficulties which may impact the acquisition of literacy skills. This should be covered in routine testing of all children in early years.
2. Gathering information and planning intervention by classroom teaching using screening tools, in classroom assessment. Critically this should happen between 5 鈥� 9 years which are the key years for successful literacy interventions, and this information needs to be transferred between classes and schools as the child moves on.
3. Allowing 6 -12 months use of and reflection on the success of interventions being used.
4. A statutory right to a specialist assessment for a suspected specific learning difficulty (SpLD). This is the point that children currently slip through the net, because there is no statutory pathway to a diagnostic assessment.

Caroline concluded by saying that some children may need a further assessment before moving on to secondary school, and further consideration might be needed for school leavers moving into the workplace.

The final speaker was Lynn Greenwold who spoke about the role of SASC as a collaborative standards body, creating guidance and standards for specialist teachers. SASC hold the register of those with an Assessment Practising Certificate (APC) and are currently working on a Teaching practice certificate for those in specialist teaching.听 They aim to have this active by the end of the year.听听

Juliet Campbell thanked the speakers and agreed that good dyslexia support in schools is ad-hoc.听There are examples of best practice inclusive provision and other schools where there is very little support. A national dyslexia strategy would address this, and all schools would have to follow the guidance.

Questions

Is there a trend between undiagnosed dyslexia and the increase in home schooling, and/or school exclusions?

BDA reported that the helpline is seeing an increase in the number of families choosing to home school their children and asking for guidance on suitable support strategies.

What could be done without additional funding?

SASC believe that the early collection and recording of school data does not require any additional funding in schools.

How separated or integrated should a dyslexia strategy be from other SpLD such as dyspraxia, dyscalculia and ADHD?

There was a general consensus that we should be working together for a strategy for all SpLD, and a suggestion that we should hold a collaborative meeting with APPGs that represent other SpLD.

A draft strategy document was circulated for discussion which Juliet Campbell will use in her discussions with Ministers to put the case for a national dyslexia strategy.

The Chair thanked the speakers and closed the meeting at 17:15