Dyslexia
Education

Gareth Johnson (Dartford, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much funding his Department provided to improve teachers' skills and knowledge in supporting dyslexic students in each of the last five years.

Sarah Teather (Minister of State (Children and Families), Education; Brent Central, Liberal Democrat)

Over the last five years the Department has provided funding to support teachers develop their skills and knowledge to support children with a broad range of special educational needs, including dyslexic students.

In relation to specific training for teachers on dyslexia, in 2009-10 we funded the British Dyslexia Association nearly £700,000 to train over 600 teachers.

In 2010-11 we provided over £5.7 million in funding to enable over 2,400 teachers to participate in specialist dyslexia training approved by the British Dyslexia Association across the country.

We have also funded professional development to improve teachers' skills and knowledge on SEN more widely. This has included development of the Inclusion Development Programme CPD materials which include a focus on dyslexia.

Since 2009 we have also provided over £28 million to train nearly 9,000 teachers on the masters-level award in SEN Co-ordination (SENCO).

We have allocated approximately £750,000 to develop new advanced level training materials for teachers on the most common types of SEN which include modules on dyslexia. These will have been reviewed by the Dyslexia Trust and will shortly be made available on the Department's website.