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

Introduction

This purpose of this report is to set out the progress in implementing the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (as amended). The report fulfils the duties placed on Scottish Ministers at sections 26A and section 27A of the amended Act.

Scottish Ministers must report to the Scottish Parliament in each of the 5 years after the commencement of the Act on what progress has been made in each of those years to ensure that sufficient information relating to children and young people with additional support needs is available to effectively monitor the implementation of this Act. (Section 26A).

Scottish Ministers must each year collect from each education authority information on:

• the number of children and young persons for whose school education the authority are responsible having additional support needs
• the principal factors giving rise to the additional support needs of those children and young persons
• the types of support provided to those children and young persons
• the cost of providing that support

Scottish Ministers must publish the information collected each year. (Section 27A)

In addition to the information required by the Act, Scottish Ministers will provide further information and evidence from a number of sources.

This will enable the data required by the duties to be set in context and offer a fuller picture of implementation of the legislation. Sources include: Enquire, ASL Resolve and Common Ground Mediation, Independent Adjudication, Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland, the Scottish Government, Take Note, Education Scotland and the Advisory Group for Additional Support for Learning ( AGASL).

This information presents as full a picture as possible of the implementation of Additional Support for Learning. This includes information from the national statistics collection of data on pupils. This collection has been slightly revised to provide more detailed information on the plans used to support children and young people's learning. This fulfils the duty provided by Section 26 of the Act.

This is the third of five such reports, and is the middle point in this process. Consequently, this report will look back at implementation since the first report, set out the picture of implementation in the last year, and, focus on transitional arrangements in line with the themed approach taken to these reports. This information will be set in the context of wider developments in both additional support for learning and inclusion both in the UK and Europe.