Implementation of The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004: report to Parliament 2013

Attendance, exclusion, qualifications and positive destinations for pupils with additional support needs

National statistics on the attendance, exclusion, attainment and leaver destinations of pupils provide an indicative picture across key indicators for children and young people with additional support needs.

Attendance

The table below indicates that pupils with additional support needs in 2012/13 have very slightly poorer attendance than pupils without additional support needs, a percentage difference of 1.3%. National statistics on attendance are collected every two years, since the last collection in 2010/11 there has been an increase across the board in attendance for pupils with additional support needs (1%) which is greater than that for pupils who do not have additional support needs (0.6%).

Percentage attendance of pupils with Additional Support Needs ⁽¹⁾ by sector, 2012/13

	Percentage Attendance
	Primary	Secondary	Special	Total
Children with ASN	93.6	89.2	90.5	92.7
Children with no ASN	95.2	92.5	#	94.0

Exclusion

The table below indicates that children and young people with additional support needs are significantly more likely to be excluded from school than pupils who do not have additional support needs, this is likely to be linked to the significant proportion of pupils with additional support needs who have social and emotional behavioural difficulties. Those children and young people with social and emotional behavioural difficulties, specific learning difficulty (including dyslexia), learning disability and moderate learning difficulty are most often excluded from school.

Cases of exclusion and rate per 1,000 additional support needs 2012/13

	Number of exclusions	Number of temporary exclusions	Number of removals from register	Number of pupils at census (1)	Rate per 1,000 pupils
Primary
With ASN	2,271	2,270	1	62,546	36
all time in mainstream class	2,061	2,060	1	60,346	34
some time in special class	179	179	-	1,554	115
all time in special class	31	31	-	646	48
Without ASN	1,557	1,556	1	307,672	5
Data not available	19	19	-	##	##
Secondary
With ASN	7,332	7,329	3	48,434	151
all time in mainstream class	7,123	7,120	3	46,884	152
some time in special class	149	149	-	1,059	141
all time in special class	60	60	-	491	122
Without ASN	9,695	9,684	11	244,538	40
Data not available	67	67	-	##	##
Special	931	929	2	6,720	139
Data not available	64	64	-	##	##

(1) Pupil numbers as at September 2012

Attainment and Destinations

Much of the previous information published on the attainment or destinations of pupils with additional support needs has only looked at one year of data and has tended to focus on secondary schools only. This short piece of analysis looks at the attainment and destinations of leavers from secondary and special schools with additional support needs and how this has changed over the past three years. As we are looking at information on leavers from special schools as well as those from secondary schools, we are only able to use information on the initial destinations of school leavers (destination in the September after leaving school) as follow-up destination are not collected for leavers from special schools.

Attainment

As the types of qualifications pupils may take at school varies considerably, we will be looking at the average tariff score of school leavers rather than the individual qualifications. The average tariff score is simply a number representing the overall qualifications a leaver has achieved while at school, qualifications at a higher level or with better grades receive more points. So, the larger the average tariff score the more the leaver has achieved. The table below provides information on the number of school leavers with additional support needs and their average tariff score over the last 3 years.

Average tariff score attained by leavers from secondary and special schools with additional support needs, ASN, 2009/10 - 2011/12

	Average tariff score			Number of school leavers
	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12
Any ASN	121	168	206	3,813	5,831	7,366
No ASN	385	405	433	50,968	48,895	44,055
Learning disability	55	66	78	835	880	940
Dyslexia	189	222	252	670	1,039	1,413
Visual impairment	161	234	249	103	136	166
Hearing impairment	225	218	274	78	100	146
Autistic spectrum disorder	168	195	215	312	450	481
Physical health problem	201	248	263	238	380	478
Mental health problem	126	114	147	41	87	122

The number of school leavers recorded as having an additional support need has increased by over 90 per cent (almost doubled). This is mainly due to the increased recording of additional support needs and the recording of other types of support from September 2010 (2010/11 leavers onwards) rather than just Co-ordinated Support Plans ( CSP), Individualised Educational Programmes ( IEP) and all pupils in special schools. This means that although the average tariff score of leavers with additional support needs has increased by 70 per cent, from 121 in 2009/10 to 206 in 2011/12, this could be simply due to the inclusion of a wider range of leavers with different levels of additional support needs. However, by looking at leavers with specific reasons for support it appears that this is not the case for leavers with a learning disability. The number of leavers recorded with a learning disability has only increased slightly, by 13 per cent from 2009/10 to 2011/12, however their average tariff score has increased by 42 per cent from 55 in 2009/10 to 78 in 2011/12. In the other reason for support categories shown above the number of leavers has increased by more than 50 per cent from 2009/10 to 2011/12, so any increase in their average tariff score may be the result of the inclusion of a wider range of leavers with different levels of additional support needs.

Destinations

As with the information on attainment, the destinations data will also be affected by the large increase in the number of school leavers recorded as having an additional support need due to the changes in recording practices and the inclusion of the 'Other' support type. Therefore any changes in the percentages in each destination category could simply be the result of the inclusion of a wider range of leavers rather than a real change. The table below provides information on the destinations of leavers with any additional support need over the last 3 years.

Percentage of secondary and special school leavers with any additional support need by initial destination category, 2009/10 - 2011/12

	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12
Higher Education	7.7	11.1	15.0
Further Education	45.0	40.9	39.5
Employment	10.1	13.9	14.7
Training	11.3	10.8	9.2
Voluntary Work	0.3	0.6	0.7
Activity Agreement	N/A	1.9	3.2
Unemployed Seeking	20.4	15.9	13.6
Unemployed Not Seeking	4.7	4.3	3.5
Unknown	0.6	0.4	0.6
Number of leavers	3,813	5,831	7,366

The table above shows that 82.3 per cent of 2011/12 school leavers with an additional support need were in a positive destination (Higher Education, Further Education, Employment, Training, Voluntary Work or Activity Agreements) in September 2012, an increase from 74.4 per cent in 2009/10. The percentage of leavers with ASN entering Higher Education has also increased substantially, and while the percentage entering Further Education has decreased there is still a substantial number of leavers with ASN in Further Education (2,906 leavers (39.5 per cent) in 2011/12 compared to 1,717 leavers (45.0 per cent) in 2009/10). Overall the percentage in Higher or Further Education has increased over this period.

The table below provides information on the destinations of leavers recorded as having a hearing impairment. It shows that in 2011/12, 84.9 per cent of school leavers with a hearing impairment were in a positive destination in September 2012, up from 83.3 per cent in 2009/10. This is a small increase, and is likely to be related to the increase in the number of leavers recorded with a hearing impairment, and the effect of a larger group on the average, rather than a real increase. However the increase in the percentage in Higher Education is more substantial, increasing from 12.8 per cent in 2009/10 to 24.0 per cent in 2011/12. This could indicate that universities and colleges are doing more to support young people with a hearing impairment into a Higher Education course. However, The percentage of leavers with a hearing impairment entering further education has fallen from 55.1 per cent in 2009/10 to 45.2 per cent in 2011/12.

Percentage of secondary and special school leavers with hearing impairment by initial destination category, 2009/10 - 2011/12 ⁽¹⁾

	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12
Higher Education	12.8	16.0	24.0
Further Education	55.1	42.0	45.2
Employment	9.0	18.0	10.3
Training	6.4	9.0	*
Voluntary Work	0.0	0.0	*
Activity Agreement	N/A	0.0	*
Unemployed Seeking	*	10.0	8.9
Unemployed Not Seeking	*	5.0	6.2
Unknown	0.0	0.0	0.0
Number of leavers	78	100	146

(1) Percentages based on less than 5 leavers have been starred out to prevent disclosure of information about individuals.

The table below provides information on the destinations of leavers recorded as having a visual impairment. It shows that in 2011/12, 83.1 per cent of school leavers with a visual impairment were in a positive destination in September 2012, down slightly from 83.5 per cent in 2009/10. This is a small decrease, and hides a wide variety of large changes within the individual destination categories. There have been large increases in the percentage of leavers with a visual impairment in Higher Education (22.3 per cent in 2011/12, up from 8.7 per cent in 2009/10) and a large decrease in the percentage in Further Education (43.4 per cent in 2011/12 down from 63.1 per cent in 2009/10).

Percentage of secondary and special school leavers with a visual impairment by initial destination category, 2009/10 - 2011/12 ⁽¹⁾

	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12
Higher Education	8.7	22.1	22.3
Further Education	63.1	41.2	43.4
Employment	*	6.6	7.2
Training	*	*	*
Voluntary Work	0.0	0.0	*
Activity Agreement	N/A	*	*
Unemployed Seeking	11.7	4.4	3.6
Unemployed Not Seeking	4.9	20.6	12.7
Unknown	0.0	0.0	0.6
Number of leavers	103	136	166

(1) Percentages based on less than 5 leavers have been starred out to prevent disclosure of information about individuals.

The table below provides information on the destinations of leavers recorded as having a mental health problem. It shows that in 2011/12, 79.5 per cent of school leavers with a mental health problem were in a positive destination in September 2012, up from 58.5 per cent in 2009/10. However, this increase, whilst large, is likely to be related to the increase in the number of leavers recorded with a mental health problem over the last 3 years. In addition, the small number of leavers recorded with a mental health problem in 2009/10 makes it extremely difficult to comment on the changes in specific categories over time. However, the percentage in Further Education increased to 45.1 per cent in 2011/12 up from 36.6 per cent in 2009/10, and the percentage unemployed almost halved over this period.

Percentage of secondary and special school leavers with a mental health problem by initial destination category, 2009/10 - 2011/12 ⁽¹⁾

	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12
Higher Education	*	*	10.7
Further Education	36.6	42.5	45.1
Employment	*	9.2	10.7
Training	*	8.0	9.0
Voluntary Work	0.0	0.0	0.0
Activity Agreement	N/A	*	4.1
Unemployed Seeking	26.8	17.2	11.5
Unemployed Not Seeking	12.2	12.6	9.0
Unknown	*	*	0.0
Number of leavers	41	87	122

(1) Percentages based on less than 5 leavers have been starred out to prevent disclosure of information about individuals.