Additional Support for Learning review: action plan - November 2022 update

Complete

The Scottish Government and COSLA recognise that parents and carers are key partners in policy development. As a key guiding principle, the Scottish Government always seek to create opportunities to enable parents and carers to be involved fully and listened to in additional support for learning policy development.

Parents and carers are represented in all of our stakeholder groups, including the ASL Project Board, the ASL Network, the Code of Practice Working Group, the Physical Intervention Working Group and the Doran National Strategic Commissioning Group.

Education Scotland regularly engage closely with parental organisations, including the National Parent Forum Scotland (NPFS). The Chair of NPFS participated in the ASL satellite session, hosted by Education Scotland at the Scottish Learning Festival 2022.

COSLA engages with parent and carer organisations at a national level.

In addition to Enquire, the Scottish Government funds other organisations who work closely with parents and carers to ensure their views are reflected in policy development including Scottish Traveller Education Programme (STEP), Dyslexia Scotland and CALL Scotland.

3.2.1

Ongoing

Parent and carer organisations have presented at previous meetings of the COSLA Children and Young People Board and officers will look for further opportunities for this throughout the year.

3.2.1

Ongoing

The sharing of effective practice will continue through ADES' Collaborative Improvement Programme with Education Scotland. All 32 authorities are participating in this programme with several having a focus on aspects of additional support for learning. The learning is shared with the ADES networks including the Additional Support Needs and Children Young People service networks.

ADES and Education Scotland will keep the additional support for learning Project Board updated on key learning from the programme.

6.1

Ongoing

Local authorities continually review the information available on their websites, and seek to enhance this information with additional content on social media platforms, and through the channels that children, young people and families go to for information. Content is often reviewed by users of those websites so that it can be presented in an accessible format that is most useful to those who need it. Authorities also work with local third sector organisations who provide support in order to ensure information is accurate and up to date.

Linked to Action PC5, further consideration will be given on the further routes through which appropriate advice and information can be proactively provided to parents and carers. Parents and carers should be involved in this consideration.

6.1

Ongoing

Local authorities have many ways of working with parents and carers to enhance communication and collaboration and will seek to share learning and best practice in order to further improve experiences for learners and their families.

Forms of engagement and participation with parents in local authorities varies according to demographics, with some having parent groups and others having parent representatives on their strategic planning groups. For example, some authorities have worked closely with third sector organisations on support for families with complex needs. These collaborative approaches connect policy to practice based around children and families' additional support needs.

As per PC 4 above, consideration should be given as to how parent groups can help support measurement of improvement.

3.2.1

6.1

Complete

The Scottish Government has increased funding to Enquire by £70,000 per year to ensure that it continues to be effectively resourced to meet the needs of the families that it supports.

In 2021-22 this allowed the recruitment of additional staff, additional outreach work and increased social media engagement. The new initiatives have supported children and young people's participation and rights, the building of positive relationships between schools and parents as well as the development of enhanced advice and information for teachers and support staff.

6.1.3

Ongoing

Since November 2021 Enquire have responded to over 1,700 enquiries and distributed over 5,000 parents' guides. They have also launched their updated website that provides parents, carers and professionals with accessible information on children's rights to additional support for learning and practical advice to help schools and families work together. Between April and July 2022 the website had over 60,000 views.

Their latest update included a range of new quick read infographics for parents and carers:

• Know your rights: Disability rights and support for learning
• Kinship carers: Understanding your child's rights to additional support for learning (developed in partnership with Adoption UK Scotland Kinship Care Service)
• Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC)

In addition to their core tasks of providing advice, information and awareness raising, in 2022-23 Enquire will carry out development work to improve service efficiency and increase capacity to provide advice and information to as many people as possible. This will include delivery of targeted outreach sessions to groups who may face barriers to accessing digital and online services; additional outreach sessions to professionals and advisers and a comprehensive review of their helpline delivery model.

As part of wider consideration of information, advice and support for parents and carers under Actions PC 4 and 5, the services provided by Enquire will be considered as part of the wider strategic approach.

6.1.3

Ongoing

The Scottish Government funds Let's Talk ASN to provide advocacy and legal representation to parents, carers and young people over the age of 16 to access their rights in relation to additional support for learning. The Scottish Government has increased the contract value for the service by £59,000 per year (2021-2024).

Between January and June 2022, the Let's Talk ASN service has supported over 170 families to resolve concerns with education authorities about the support in place for children and young people's education. The majority of cases have been resolved prior to reaching a Tribunal hearing in line with our commitment to seeking resolution of concerns at as local a level as possible.

All local authorities have local advocacy partnership agreements which children and young people can access.

6.1.3

Complete

The Scottish Government and partners worked with Parent Club to publish a Family Support Directory which provides signposting for parents and carers to organisations, benefits and information across a range of topics including on additional support for learning.

As part of further consideration of information and advice for parents and carers, further actions to update and proactively present information on family support will be considered.

6.1

Complete

The Scottish Government worked with Parent Club to update the information and signposting that is available on their web pages on additional support for learning to ensure that parents and carers can access the right support when they need it. This included updating the information available on support for children and young people with long Covid, including the impact it may have on their learning, and providing signposting to further support.

6.1

By end 2023

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.

Building on this, we will carry out a mapping exercise to capture the universal resources provided to families. Following this, we will explore opportunities to update these resources to include information on additional support for learning within the context of whole family support, this will be informed by parents and carers organisations.

As part of this, we will engage with those who support children and young people in health and social work to ensure they can access and signpost to appropriate information.

6.1

By end 2023

Parents and carers can access information on additional support for learning from a range of sources, including through education, health and other professionals and online at Parent Club and Enquire. However, we recognise that more must be done to ensure that parents are pro-actively provided with information and signposting to support services about the support that their child might be entitled to in Early Learning and Childcare Settings and at school. Therefore, the Scottish Government will work with our partners, including parents and carers and professionals, to consider further opportunities to enhance the proactive provision of information and signposting for parents and carers of young children on additional support for learning as part of our wider strategic approach.

6.1