Our March meeting of the APPG for Dyslexia focused on the growing risk of NEET status among young people with disabilities and low qualifications.
Although there is no national data specifically on dyslexia and NEET outcomes, existing indicators are concerning. Department for Education destination data shows a 7% gap in sustained post-16 education, employment, or training outcomes between young people with no SEN and those whose primary need is recorded as a specific learning difficulty.
At GCSE level, only 40% of pupils with dyslexia achieved a pass in English and Maths in 2023/24, compared with 72% of pupils with without SEN – an attainment gap of over 30 percentage points. Given the strong link between low attainment and NEET risk, this represents a substantial and largely avoidable policy failure.
The discussion reflected on government policy and existing practice, asking what is working well, where the gaps are, and what more could be done to ensure that dyslexia is explicitly considered with solutions, including early identification, post-16 pathways, and better-supported transitions into work and training.