Education and Skills Bill

My Lords, I am not sure about that. But I support the forceful points that my noble friend Lord Elton made both today and in Committee. Far too many children with learning difficulties are undiagnosed, and it has a major effect on their ability to participate in school, to keep up with their peers and to engage with their education. From personal experience I know the difficulties that a child can face when he suffers from a learning difficulty. Without diagnosis, the problems can only multiply. I was encouraged by the brief exchange that we had on this topic on Report, in which the Minister indicated that a review of dyslexia is being undertaken. I hope that she will be able to expand on that. I know that she had a fruitful meeting with Members of your Lordships' House. I believe that a diagnostic reading test at the age of six, or after the first year at school—this is one of the Conservative education policies—is vital in preventing children with learning difficulties slipping through the net into underachievement and disillusionment. This issue goes right to the heart of so many of our discussions on the Bill. One of the key elements in keeping children fully engaged with their education—and more, to inculcate them with a love of learning that will benefit them so much in later years—is to identify their individual needs and to ensure that they are catered for. My noble friend is right to say that identifying specific learning difficulties must be a priority. To do anything else would be to fail some of the most vulnerable children in our schools.