Scottish Government's response to Making Sense: Education for Children and Young People with Dyslexia in Scotland

RESPONSE TO THE RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendation 1

Teachers, support staff, learners and parents should have access to up-to-date practical advice and guidance on dyslexia:

1. Local authority websites, including guidance for parents, must contain information and contact details relating to provision for children and young people with additional support needs, including those with dyslexia, in line with responsibilities under section 26 of the Additional Support for Learning Act.

2. Local authorities should ensure that teachers have access to Dyslexia Practice Guidelines, linked to their literacy strategy.

3. Establishments should have a whole school approach to dyslexia as part of each school's literacy strategy and inclusive practices, linked to staff professional learning opportunities.

4. Dyslexia Scotland should work with local authorities and schools to encourage all teachers to be familiar with, and make appropriate use of, the Toolkit.

5. Education Scotland should produce national guidance for teachers on education for children and young people with dyslexia in the wider context of additional support needs.

The Scottish Government is generally supportive of this recommendation. However , it is also for the relevant organisations in this area to consider and act upon these issues themselves.

Recommendation 2

Teachers, support staff and local authority staff should have access to a wide range of high quality career-long professional learning opportunities at school, local and national level related to meeting the needs of children and young people with dyslexia.

1. Teachers should ensure that they develop their skills to be able to meet their responsibilities in relation to additional support needs in line with the GTCS standards and should consider applying for GTCS Professional Recognition for relevant continuing professional learning.

2. Local authorities should extend the range and quality of career-long professional learning related to meeting the needs of children and young people with dyslexia and make these available on a regular basis.

3. Education Scotland should work with Dyslexia Scotland and other relevant stakeholders to develop a comprehensive dyslexia professional learning package which can be used by local authorities to increase the capacity of teachers to meet learning needs.

4. Local authorities should record centrally information on teachers' specialist skills and qualifications in meeting the needs of learners with dyslexia.

The Scottish Government is generally supportive of this recommendation. However ,it is also for the relevant organisations in this area to consider and act upon these issues themselves.

Recommendation 3

Initial teacher education and postgraduate awards and courses should give a high priority to developing knowledge and skills in relation to dyslexia and additional support needs.

1. The Scottish Teacher Education Committee (STEC) should continue to work with the Scottish Government, GTCS, Education Scotland and all ITE institutions to ensure greater consistency of initial teacher education course content across Scotland in relation to dyslexia and additional support needs.

Part 1 of this recommendation was welcomed by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with STEC, and other partners, to ensure greater consistency of initial teacher education content across Scotland in relation to dyslexia and additional support needs. The Scottish Government have provided funding to STEC to refresh the National Framework for Inclusion and ensure it links directly with the revised GTCS standards.

2. STEC and GTCS should also work together to standardise the quality and content of postgraduate awards and courses relating to meeting additional support needs, where possible accrediting them with Professional Recognition.

The Scottish Government is generally supportive of part 2 of this recommendation. However ,it is also for the relevant organisations in this area to consider and act upon these issues themselves.

Recommendation 4

Schools, local authorities and national partners should take action to improve the quality of educational outcomes for children and young people with dyslexia.

1. Schools and local authorities should improve their practices in identifying, planning and the range of approaches used to meet the needs of children and young people with dyslexia with a high priority given to early intervention.

2. Parents, children and young people should be more involved in discussions and strategies related to dyslexia, in line with responsibilities under section 12 of the Additional Support for Learning Act and staff should seek and take account of their views.

3. HM Inspectors should continue, through inspections, to monitor the quality of provision and outcomes for children and young people with dyslexia.

The Scottish Government is generally supportive of parts 1-3 of this recommendation. However ,it is also for the relevant organisations in this area to consider and act upon these issues themselves.

4. The Scottish Government should work with Dyslexia Scotland to consider national accreditation schemes for Dyslexia Friendly Schools and Dyslexia Friendly Authorities.

Part 4 of this recommendation was accepted by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government will continue its work to identify the best ways to improve educational outcomes for children and young people with dyslexia. A part of this will be to give full consideration to national accreditation schemes for Dyslexia Friendly Schools and Dyslexia Friendly Authorities.

In addition, Education Scotland will continue to build and extend inclusive practices to further improve the outcomes for those with dyslexia.

Recommendation 5

The availability and use of reliable information on children and young people's needs, development and achievement should be improved.

1. In partnership with the Scottish Government, local authorities should improve the quality and use of data regarding the number of children and young people identified as having dyslexia.

2. The Scottish Government should review the data which it is intending to collect for the census and improve the clarity of instructions for school/pupil census submissions to improve the quality of data available regarding children and young people with dyslexia.

This recommendation was accepted by the Scottish Government.

In relation to both parts of this recommendation, the following action will be taken:

The Advisory Group for Additional Support for Learning considered the issue of data and outcomes in April 2014. The group considered a proposal to change the types of information recorded within the statistical collection and to consider other ways in which learning outcomes can be considered in relation to Additional Support for Learning.

The outcome of that consideration is that a fundamental review of the use of the statistical data collected will be undertaken, to clarify how the data is currently used and by whom. This information will inform the decision on how the statistical collection should be modified. Following this review, guidance will be developed to support those providing information to Management Information Systems and to improve consistency and accuracy of data collected and published. Any change to the data collection takes a significant period of time to effect and, therefore, will not change the system for a period of approximately 3 years.

It has, therefore, been agreed that a review of the current guidance to authorities and schools should be undertaken with a view to improving consistency of data. This will be undertaken and refreshed guidance will be produced by December 2014.