Additional Support for Learning review - action plan: third progress report

Recommendation 6: Relationships between Schools and Parents

7 Actions are Completed

The ASL Project Board continue to promote good examples of joint working with parents, schools, and local authorities through current improvement routes. Education Scotland continue to work on Collaborative Improvements with ADES, all 32 local authorities are engaged and 7 include a focus on Additional Support for Learning. Work is ongoing with scrutiny and inspection colleagues to discuss further support and development of this work and Education Scotland continue to engage with ADES to consider how the next phase of this work will be linked to the ADES self-evaluation approach being developed. The information from these reports is currently made available through the National Improvement Hub (NIH) and ASL Project Board members will be focusing on increasing the number of local authorities engaging in this process going forward.

To enhance the information and signposting provided to parents and carers on additional support for learning, the Scottish Government has included information and signposting on additional support for learning within Read, Write, Count packs. These are provided by the Scottish Book Trust to every child in Primary 2-3 in Scotland. The next steps for the ASL Project Board are to undertake a mapping exercise to capture the universal resources provided to families. This will enable us to explore opportunities to up-date the content of these resources to reflect additional support for learning. This work builds on earlier engagements with the Parent Club, who have published a Family Support Directory to signpost parents and carers to organisations, benefits, and information across a range of topics, including additional support for learning.

Following a successful pilot initiative in partnership with the Association for Real Change (ARC), a Principles into Practice Framework has been established and is available across Scotland. The purpose of this framework is to improve the experiences of children and young people with additional support needs to make the transition into young adult life, and to ensure that they are at the centre of all transition planning for their future. However, the principles have a broader application and have also been adopted in the transitions between primary and secondary and transition out of foster care. The Scottish Government continues to support ARC, who will continue to offer practical support for more local authority areas to implement the Principles into Practice Framework to improve transition planning. Project Board members will continue to monitor the implementation and impact of this work.

The ASL Project Board has considered the value that the National Advice and Information Service for additional support for learning (Enquire) already brings to parents and carers, as well as teaching professionals and practitioners across Scotland. Further investment in this service was secured from the financial year 2021-22, to ensure that the service is effectively resourced to meet the needs of those using the service, and the increasing demand across the system. The investment to provide this service is on-going. In addition to Enquire, the Scottish Government fund ‘Let’s Talk ASN' to provide advocacy and legal advice to parents, carers, and young people over the age of 16, in relation to references to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland. To support individual young people, the Scottish Government continued to fund and support the Children’s service – ‘My Rights, My Say’. This service supports children and young people aged 12-15 to access advice and support to enable them to be fully involved in decisions about their education and to exercise their rights under the ASL Act. The Scottish Government manage the contracts and grant arrangements for each of these services and has an established framework in place for measuring outcomes and impact of each service. This information is regularly considered by the ASL Project Board. Project Board members are currently developing a communications strategy, which will include ways that each of these services can be promoted to ensure that awareness is raised across the education system.

As a key mechanism and important route for parents and carers in the dispute resolution process, mediation continues to be promoted at a national and local level. Local Authorities continue to ensure that the benefits of mediation services are highlighted and have processes in place to regularly review their Service Level Agreements with mediation providers. This approach supports Local Authorities to ensure that the service they are offering to parents and carers, is achieving best value and is having the desired positive impact for children and young people. The ASL Project Board are currently mapping the mediation providers across Local Authorities, to ensure that this information is available on Enquire, and accessible by parents and carers.