My Lords, I draw my attention and that of the Committee to the subject of apprenticeships and dyslexia and special educational needs generally. In doing so, I return to a subject which I feel I have imposed on Members of this House rather too often over the past few years. Although I suspect that one or two noble Lords present will have heard everything about it, most have heard some of it and some have heard most, so I apologise for going over the ground again. However, it all goes back to the 2009 Act, brought in by the previous Government, and the principle that people should be able to pass a qualification in English and maths. At the time, I said that that requirement would make things extremely difficult for those in the dyslexic spectrum, and received a degree of assurance that it would not be used as a barrier.
I then said, “Oh, that’s done” and forgot about it. Just over a year later, I received the first of a series of communications from Lynn McCann about her son David, who had passed all the components of a carpentry course, except for the English requirement because he was dyslexic. The normal way of getting through an exam if you have a problem with dyslexia is—we touched on this earlier with my assistive technology amendment—to dictate the exam to someone. It is nice and simple; it is easy for a person to programme. This cannot be done for this qualification for the simple reason that you have to pass it yourself.
The logic behind it seemed quite overwhelming at the time. The big employers had said that they wanted people who were good at certain things, such as basic skills in English and maths. When you think about that for a few seconds it starts to fall apart because employers also want people who do not get sick, who do not have children who get sick and who do not ask for pay rises. These are all attractive things to employers.
So far, we have a situation where people cannot take the exam. When I first raised this—it was more than three years ago so I apologise for the brief history lesson—I was told, “Let’s go and meet the Minister”. The Minister said, “That’s ridiculous, let’s sort it out”. I then went to my first big meeting, where I was told that there was a problem, and then to another meeting
where I was told that the legislation states that the candidate has to pass the exam, we cannot do anything about it and assistive technology cannot be used because it is a test of their skills. I have since discovered that that is rubbish. It can be done and the main area of concern is apparently the formatting of the exam; that is, the way that it is written down in the computer language is not compatible with assistive technology. Therefore, it does not read it back properly and the types of communication get into trouble.
In the course of this debate I may hear that this has changed. If I hear that it has all changed, is all wonderful and tomorrow we can go away and forget about this, nobody will be quicker out of the door than me. However, I suspect that that will not be the case. We ask ourselves: why is this important? I have heard some pretty dreadful things from officials in this case. One which I played for a laugh last time—I do not think I will do it again—was somebody who said, “Well, nobody’s complained about it so it can’t be a big problem”. I said, “You mean nobody has written to you or sent you a long e-mail”. It is good; it still works. At the time, his face went through an interesting change of colour as he realised what he had said. Before that, I had heard that nobody would lose their job. To go back to David McCann, no, he would not lose his job because he works for his father. I suggest that changing his job without this qualification is like stamping “NEET” across his forehead and sending him out there.
I realise that I have done the classic thing that everyone with dyslexia, or on any disability spectrum, does and used myself as too much of an example. Many dyslexics might get by with support, even taking a written, or in this case a keyboard-based, examination. However, my Amendments 190 and 194 suggest that support should be provided for apprenticeships within the college structure. At the moment, there is not much teaching done by qualified teachers, and there is no desire or embracement. As the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, said, the culture for providing assistance is not there. The amendment makes it explicit.
Amendment 192A makes it explicit that the technical support should be included. I am sorry to jump around a bit—we dyslexics do that—but the argument against technical support is an interesting one. I have subsequently heard that to reformat and include it would be against the security of the examination. You would think this was so serious that a nuclear launch code was intrinsic to this English assessment exam. A dyslexic who could memorise and do the exact test for this examination is not a dyslexic. Spellings cannot be restored and sequential thought in the areas of the brain that handle language do not work well enough for that. So that is one group who could not cheat at this, and I suspect that there are a few others who could not do the English language test either. The maths test is also a problem, especially as I have it on good authority that anyone who uses strange language to describe the information and, if it is written down, does not understand the words, cannot work with it.
All I am saying is that for apprenticeships, a system for saying that you have acquired a practical skill should be accessible to those who have disabilities.
I started with dyslexia, but I discovered that that is not the only group affected. The Alliance for Inclusive Education, known as ALLFIE, a group that I do not always agree with, says that it has found similar problems for those with learning disabilities. We have a system that is not sensitive to special educational needs. To include these amendments would start to encourage it to become so.
We are in Grand Committee. I regard this as the first round in the end game. I have been going on at Members of this House for far too long on this matter. I should not have had to in the first place. I accept that the cock-up school of history has got in there somewhere. I do not think that anyone seriously intended this to happen. But we should surely take the opportunity in this Bill to change it. To go back to the first meeting I had when an official told me that it was in the legislation, my reply was, “We change legislation in Parliament, don’t we? We do it all the time”. I did not think I would have to wait this long and I thought it was a stalling action at the time. Can we have some final action?
If I am offered a meeting, may I draw on another fact? The British Dyslexia Association has had a series of 60 meetings on this. I have come to the conclusion that the lead negotiator, the person who has taken on the role of saint and poor bloody infantry in this, one Sue Flohr, probably has a secret admirer in one of the departments who wants to keep on meeting her. If you have had 60 meetings, something is very wrong. With one you accept that there is a problem but two means you have not come up with an answer. I suggest that somebody somewhere has to start making sure that a practical change is made. This has gone on for too long and has affected too many people, and I have not even gone on about all those who have failed. Lots of people have failed; what has happened to them? There may be a case for that later in the Bill. Something has to happen.
I leave with one example. The British Dyslexia Association has a series of examples through its helpline. You have to be pretty lucky or desperate to find your way to the helpline of that small charity on this subject. A girl called Sophie was doing a visual merchandising apprenticeship. I will not go into the details, but her college basically said, “You ain’t going to pass, so we ain’t entering you”. That is the worst condemnation of this situation that I have come across: “You ain’t going to pass, so we're not interested”. I suggest that colleges are probably getting wise to the fact that if you are dyslexic you will have a problem, but “We ain’t going to take you” is only one step away from that background knowledge. To go back to the culture and experience raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, we must do something that makes this explicit now. It must be something that has an end game attached to it. I beg to move.
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