Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

This is the opening barrage of a campaign to get the idea of more screening into this legislation. As the noble Lord said, screening will help to identify hidden disabilities. He is right to concentrate on language and basic speaking communications problems. To put it bluntly, if that is not right, it is very difficult to even explain what the other problems are, and they feed off each other. Much good computer software is rapidly removing many of the problems around dyslexia but, unless you can speak, you cannot use it, because it is voice operated. These things feed off each other, so they have to be addressed. One thing that you have to know is what is there. We have moved on so far in the past few years and there is now a much greater recognition that these problems can be dealt with, or at least mitigated in some way, if only they can be identified. There are various fault lines in areas where you have the greatest amount of educational failure. Later, we will debate issues concerning those who go into the prison system. At all points where you have a new type of education, there is a good opportunity to put in a screening process. When the Minister responds, I would welcome an idea of how far the Government are going to take this. It would be interesting to find out what problems they have with the principle of screening. I hope that we do not hear that we do not have the perfect test. There is no such thing. There will always be people whom you miss. If you have defence in depth, you will be able to pick them up later. If you deal with most people who have a problem, you will probably identify those who stand out as having something that is unidentified in the classroom. When you get large masses of people who are not succeeding and not achieving, it is much easier to hide. From my work with dyslexics, I know that the easy thing is to disrupt the classroom or to be at the back in a large group. You are safe: you will not get identified or placed under pressure. The survival method of people who find themselves in trouble is either to hide, smile sweetly in the middle of a group or disrupt. If the Minister introduces screening that works for the majority, that small group will no longer have this opportunity. As the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, said, this is a probing amendment. I would welcome the Minister giving us at least an idea of the Government’s attitude on this question. We should remember that getting 90 per cent identification would still be a massive leap forward. It really would be something good and it would give us a chance to pick up people later. There is no perfect answer here; there is merely a better answer. I look forward to the Minister giving a positive reply.