Joint Media Statement - Additional Support Needs in Scotland's Schools

With Additional Support Needs (ASN) in our schools at an all-time high and recognition that the gap between ASN policy and practice is now ‘intolerable’, trade unions and organisations representing teachers, practitioners, support workers and parents have come together to issue a joint statement, outlining our shared concern at the insufficient levels of funding to deliver ASN provision to the almost 40% of pupils who require it.

The co-signatories of the statement are clear that such inadequate ASN provision is now having an impact across the whole learning population and is detrimental to the wellbeing of children and young people; the wellbeing of school staff; and the educational experience for many pupils.

The joint signatories listed below call on the Scottish Government and Education Authorities to put in place the requisite additional staffing and resources to fully implement the relevant legal duties and commitments in practice for all pupils with recognised additional needs.

Quotes from organisations involved are included below:

“AHDS members, school leaders from Scotland’s primary, nursery and ASN schools, routinely highlight the need for increased support for the inclusion agenda as

their number one issue.  Urgent investment is needed in additional staffing in mainstream schools as well as in expanding specialist provision if we are to achieve the goal of getting it right for every child.” – Greg Dempster, General Secretary, AHDS

“Parents should not have to fight for ASN provision for their children. It is a right enshrined in law and needs to be properly upheld. Every child in Scotland who needs it deserves the right to addition support for learning and it’s time that was delivered.” - Gavin Yates, Executive Director, Connect

"The under-funding and under-resourcing of ASN provision is a national scandal which must be addressed as a matter of urgency. The lack of ASN resourcing and staffing is letting down the large and growing number of young people in need of additional support, a very large number of whom also live in poverty, piling untold pressure on already over-burdened teaching and support staff, and disrupting the learning and teaching environments across our schools.

The Scottish Government and Scotland’s local authorities cannot sweep this issue under the carpet any longer – they must invest much more in ASN provision to ensure that we can mitigate the impact of poverty on children’s education and truly get it right for every child.” – Andrea Bradley, General Secretary, EIS

"As parents, we see firsthand how the lack of adequate funding for ASN impacts not only our children but the entire school community. It's heartbreaking to watch dedicated teachers and staff struggle to meet the needs of almost 40% of their students without the necessary support.

"We urgently need the Scottish Government to bridge the gap between policy and practice to ensure all our children receive the education and care they deserve." - Leanne McGuire, Chairperson, Glasgow City Parents Group

“Our members are providing crucial support for pupils with additional needs but are coming under intolerable stress and increasing pressure.

“The service is underfunded and classroom assistants are being asked to hold it together without adequate resource or support from management.

“Their work is vital to the effective running of our schools and the life chances of hundreds of young Scots. That demands urgent recognition and far more support.” - Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser in public services

“The longer the Scottish Government fails to act, the bigger the challenge becomes for teachers and schools. Ministers cannot continue to ignore their duty to every child, parent and teacher to ensure that there is adequate funding to ensure every child can have their needs met in education.” – Mike Corbett, NASUWT Scotland National Official

“The National Parent Forum of Scotland is well connected to and engages with parents/carers across all of our local authorities and concerns regarding funding, support and resourcing for children and young people with additional support needs are being raised on a daily basis. In our view this has reached crisis point where we have been asked by parents regularly to provide advocacy and signpost for support to enable their children to receive their entitlement.

"Requests for advocacy support are coming through on a daily basis with many Parents left feeling that their children are being failed by our current system. NPFS are committed to supporting the EIS pledge to increase resourcing ASN as a matter of urgency.” – Cheryl Burnett, Chair, NPFS

“Despite the huge amount of excellent supportive work already happening in schools, school leaders across Scotland witness each and every day the growing inequity between the ever-increasing demand for ASN support in our schools and the inadequate supply of resources to meet the needs of these vulnerable young people. 

"This insufficient level of staffing and resources is preventing schools from addressing their needs fully and from narrowing the achievement gap, which impacts negatively on the futures of almost 40% of our young people.” – Graham Hutton, General Secretary, SLS  

“SSTA is increasingly concerned that the meaning of ‘Getting it Right for Every Child’ has now become getting it right for council budgets. SSTA calls on the Scottish Government to take meaningful action to ensure that children’s education is not compromised by budget concerns of Local Authorities”. – Seamus Searson, General Secretary, SSTA

“The signs are that the number of pupils identified as having ASN is only set to grow, yet funding levels and resources are already woefully inadequate to meet even the current number of pupils with additional needs, let alone even more.

“UNISON members are the army of classroom assistants who support our children with additional learning needs. They tell us that too many children attend mainstream schools but are not getting the education they deserve.

“Resources to support children with additional support needs should help them access an education not just a mainstream school. School staff cope with cuts to educational resources and to wider teams who should be supporting children like social work, CAMHS, speech and language therapy – which are all harder to access.”

“The government needs to put the resources in place to ensure there are enough properly-trained staff to support children – some who have a range of complex needs - to have an access their full learning needs.” – Lilian Macer, Scotland Regional Secretary, UNISON

“The lack of funding to deliver ASN provision has now reached inexcusable levels.  We are badly letting down our children and young people and compromising their rights to a confident and positive future and school staff are placed under enormous strain in trying to deliver the undeliverable with little recognition of the value of their fundamental role.” -  Graham McNab, Lead Officer, Local Authorities, Unite Scotland

Full joint statement on ASN

Issued by the EIS Comms Department on behalf of all co-signatories to the joint statement.

Joint Statement on Additional Support Needs (ASN)

We support the Scottish Government's commitment to ‘getting it right for every child’ to provide all children, young people and their families with the right support at the right time; so that every child and young person in Scotland can reach their full potential.

The Education (ASL) (Scotland) Act 2004 places various duties on education authorities related to the provision of school education for children and young people with additional support needs belonging to their area. Education authorities must:

• make adequate and efficient provision for the additional support required for each child or young person with additional support needs for whose school education they are responsible;

• make arrangements to identify additional support needs;

• keep under consideration the additional support needs identified and the adequacy of support provided to meet the needs of each child or young person.

We, the undersigned, record our concern that the proportion of Scotland’s pupils with an identified Additional Support Need (ASN) has risen from 6.5% in 2009 to 37% in 2023 without a corresponding increase in resources to support this level of need.

We have seen the level and complexity of additional support needs grow, whilst poverty continues to extend its crippling grip across families in Scotland, intensifying in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, with hunger, fuel and digital poverty now impacting more than one in three children in some areas.

We believe that the Scottish Government has not provided sufficient funding to allow local authorities to make adequate and efficient provision for the additional support required for each child or young person with additional support needs. 

The current climate of under-investment in Additional Support for Learning is now having an impact across the whole learning population and is detrimental to the wellbeing of children and young people; the wellbeing of school staff; and the educational experience for many pupils.

The final report of the National Discussion on Education highlighted the imperative for ‘adequate sustained funding to provide staffing and specialist resources to be able to achieve the commitment to inclusivity and [meet] the needs of each learner, with a particular urgency for children and young people identified as having Additional Support Needs’. Yet we continue to witness efforts to evade discourse around the crucial issue of resourcing.

The Scottish Government and education authorities must face up to the challenge and invest in Scottish Education to deliver the promises of inclusive practice made to young people and their families twenty years ago and which continues to be framed in current legislation. 

We call on the Scottish Government and all education authorities to put in place the requisite additional staffing and resources to fully implement the relevant legal duties and commitments in practice for all pupils with additional support needs, and in so doing, improve the quality of education provision and wellbeing for those children and young people, and improve the working conditions, health, safety and wellbeing of the teachers and support staff who work with them. 

Co-signatories of the Joint Statement on ASN

Addendum: Also signed by Community - Archie Glen