Created on: 10 Dec 2024
Transforming Additional Support Needs (ASN) policy from ambition to impact in Scotland’s schools will be the focus of a special parliamentary event at the Scottish Parliament this evening (Tuesday 10 December).
Organised by the country’s biggest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), and co-hosted by MSPs Pam Duncan-Glancy (Scottish Labour) and Willie Rennie (Scottish Liberal Democrats), the event will focus on the compelling need to fully implement the promise of inclusive education made to all children, young people and their families twenty years ago.
The event will bring together MSPs of all parties with teachers, school support staff and parent representatives, as well as with allied professionals, to raise awareness of their experiences in seeking to support pupils with ASN, against a backdrop of dwindling resources and rising levels and complexities of additional support need.
Earlier this year, teacher, support staff and parent representatives released a joint statement, expressing their growing concern over the inadequacy of current ASN provision in Scotland’s schools. With around 4 in every 10 young people now having an identified Additional Support Need, the funding and resourcing of ASN provision in schools is increasingly falling far short of what is required.
EIS Education Convener Susan Quinn, a primary headteacher and the chair of tonight’s panel discussion, said, “Over the past fifteen years, the number of young people with ASN in our schools has risen from around 6% to around 40%, without a corresponding increase in the level of resources to meet this level of need. The range and complexity of Additional Support Needs has also continued to grow, placing ever more strain on teachers and support staff in our schools. Far too many young people are not having their support needs met adequately, with serious implications for the young people in question and, also, wider implications for the entire school community. Put simply, Scotland is currently letting down young people with Additional Support Needs, despite the best efforts of teachers and support staff in our schools.”
Pam Duncan-Glancy said, “I’m proud to host this event tonight because we have to do all we can to ensure education opens opportunity for all. And right now, in Scotland, it is failing too many. The Education Committee found that the situation for pupils with ASN is intolerable. This reflects the experience of my constituents and of parents and pupils across Scotland and I won’t tolerate that. Scotland’s young people deserve a world-class education system that provides opportunity for all and gives every single child the best start in life. We need a genuine change in direction for our education system, and a real workforce plan to support staff to open opportunity for all.”
The joint statement, which will provide the main focus for tonight’s event, states: “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…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.”