This is an interesting case concerning the criteria for determining which children or young persons require a Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP). Section 2 of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 sets out the criteria as follows: For the purposes of this Act, a child or young person requires a plan (referred to in this Act as a “co-ordinated support plan”) for the provision of additional support if- (a) an education authority are responsible for the school education of the child or young person, (b) the child or young person has additional support needs arising fro ..read more

Response to Consultation on Prescribing the minimum annual number of learning hours The Scottish Government are seeking views on the prescribed minimum learning hours for primary and secondary pupils in local authority schools in Scotland. Sadly, for many pupils the number of hours prescribed will be largely irrelevant as the statutory exemptions provided will allow education authorities to provide reduced learning hours based on broad criteria at their say-so alone. The concerns outlined below were discussed with Scottish Government officials over a period from the passing of the Education (S ..read more

The Education, Children and Young People Committee is the lead committee for the Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill, a private member’s Bill, introduced by Pam Duncan-Glancy MSP. The period for interested parties to submit their views on the Bill to the Committee has recently ended. Here is a summary of my submissions. The aims of the Bill are to improve both the process and outcomes of post-school transition for disabled children and young people. This is much needed, and does require serious and considered attention. The Bill, as set out covers thre ..read more

Recently, the Scottish Government issued a consultation on national school uniform guidance that they are planning to issue. The main stated aims of the new guidance will be to reduce the costs for families, and to comply with equalities obligations. The guidance is to apply to all schools in Scotland, whether local authority schools, independent schools, or grant-aided schools. For a consultation document, it already has some very clear ideas about what the proposed guidance will, and will not contain. So, we know that the guidance will not: require the adoption of specific school uniform it ..read more

Yesterday, the report by Prof. Ken Muir CBE “Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education” was published, alongside the Scottish Government’s response to the report and its recommendations. The recommendations are all either fully accepted, broadly accepted or accepted in principle. The headlines, of course, are on what is to become of Scotland’s national agencies. In summary: The Scottish Qualifications Authority is to be replaced by a new body with the same role, provisionally called “Qualifications Scotland” – which will have a governance structure which a ..read more

At the end of November, the short-life working group on Co-ordinated Support Plans (CSPs) released its Final Report. The purpose of the report was to identify barriers to the effective implementation of the CSP legislation and to make recommendations to support progress. The report begins, as these things often do, with a statement of principles. In this case, we are reminded that “Scottish education is based on the belief that education is a human right and that all children and young people should be supported to reach their full potential.” The Scottish Government’s intention to incorporate ..read more

The Summary Statistics For Schools In Scotland 2021 have been released, with the more detailed stats being available as of March 2022. These statistics are based on the annual pupil census (conducted in September 2021) and the attendance, absence and exclusion returns for the 2020 to 2021 school year. As always, I am particularly interested in the exclusion statistics. As you may be aware, exclusion statistics are collected only every other year, so the previous data is from 2018/19. Since then there has been a 44% drop in the number of exclusions – with education authorities noting that Covid ..read more

So, I came across an article on Special Needs Jungle on the new Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018, which came into force on 1 September 2021. This seems to represent a sweeping change in the special educational needs framework (now to be known as additional learning needs). You can read about the changes here: The new “rights-based” Additional Learning Needs system in Wales Welsh Government Factsheet Based on what I have read, there are some interesting and welcome features in this new legislation: Covers ages 0 to 25, as opposed to 3-18 (roughly) in Scotl ..read more

Schools have had a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils since amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 came into force in 2001.  These duties were later expanded to include “auxiliary aids and services”.  The phrase “reasonable adjustments” is fairly well known by now, but prompts the question – “what is reasonable?” and specifically, what might be regarded as reasonable in the particular circumstances of a global pandemic crisis. Overview of the legal framework Part 6, Chapter 1 of the Equality Act 2010 is the part of the Act which applies to schools ..read more

The Scottish Government published its programme for government this week. I thought I’d take a quick look at what it says about additional support needs. There is a whole section on education, of course, and much of that will be relevant to all pupils (including those with additional support needs). There are also specific commitments in relation to care experienced pupils and those who are socio-economically disadvantaged. Many of these pupils would fall within the definition of “additional support needs” although that is not always as well recognised as it ought to be. However, in terms of a ..read more