A wonderful email from Matthew Hancock MP while I was in rehab

In November 2021 I was invited to the Roundtable Report (CJS) at their offices in London.  We have been working with this company for the last six years and our added information from our front-line charity helped us to gain 5 million viewers who watched the ‘WriteOffs’. We gained so much feedback from our website, texts, and WhatsApp messages, giving us continuous updates on how the lockdown had affected people who were on the poverty line.

I received a text from Adrian Crossley and an Invitation for us to be a part of the ‘Dyslexia in the Education and Criminal Justice Systems’ Roundtable Report December 2021.  The Cascade Foundation has been a part of the criminal justice service for the last 15 years, within probation services, prisons, secure units, and young offenders.  We set up our first residential home and a place of safety from within the first Cascade Health and Learning Hub.  Our ethos has always been to understand the DNA of each person, so to be able to inform others about our work and journey of Cascade.  The chairperson on this meeting was The Rt Hon Matthew Hancock MP.  He told us of the time he spelt the word Untied instead United for a 50,000-leaflet drop for a candidate, resulting in the candidate not being voted in.  This is a very dyslexic trait, all the letters are there, just in the wrong order.

 In December 2012, Rebecca Harris, MP for Castle Point stood in front of the House of Commons and spoke about her dyslexia.  Now we have more ministers bringing the attention of Dyslexia to the forefront.  Matthew Hancock is calling for more support for people living with dyslexia and advocates for wider screening at transitionary stages in childhood.

I forwarded the email with the invitation to Rebecca’s office and was pleasantly surprised to hear from the assistant of Matthew, that Rebecca had sent a text telling them to listen to ‘this amazing Jackie Hewitt-Main and her goals of changing the world’.

Watching Matthew take the meeting, and listening to our expertise, you could see how he was using his dyslexic way of thinking and how those with the same ideas or concepts could work together.  Since 2005 I had used a software called Lexion which came from Sweden and my assessments have shown at the time that 53% of prisoners had dyslexia.  I felt there was no other assessment that was better than this to use within the prison system.  Novus, the education provider, was using the hidden disability questionnaire written by Dr John Rack, which to me was a tutor’s check list, and did not give a true evaluation of an understanding for the learner with the disability.

Could we all agree on a system that was to work for everybody?  The British Dyslexic Association was still convinced that phonics is the only way that a child can learn to read.  There were many differences of opinion for what suited them.  I have always taken full consideration of the individual and helping them to understand their own way of learning, giving them empowerment of their own difficulties.

Matthew Hancock MP has been on the trail to make people aware of his difficulties and how this would help every child.

While in Rehab I received a wonderful email from Matthew telling me to get well soon as he wants to work with The Cascade Foundation.

I met some wonderful people who I felt I could work with collectively.  I believe that Matthew saw this during our meeting and how the value of sharing our ideas could make a positive change to the future of the dyslexic child and adult!