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

Additional Support for Learning in Scotland

Introduction

This section of the report provides statistical information on the number of children and young people in Scotland with additional support needs; the principal factors giving rise to the additional support needs and the types of support provided to these pupils, and the broad cost of providing that support. This fulfils the duty on Scottish Ministers at section 27A of the legislation.

Sources of information

The information on additional support needs, types of support and principle factors are gathered through the pupil census, a national statistics collection on Scottish school pupils. The census is a 'snapshot' of Scottish school pupils collected from schools management information systems in a single day in September 2012. Therefore the information must be treated as indicative of the position at that particular time. Financial information is collected as part of the local government finance statistics. This covers the period April 2010 to March 2011. In addition, supplementary information including attendance, exclusion, positive destinations and qualifications data has been included at Annex A.

Comparability and Reliability

Local authorities are autonomous bodies and are influenced by their values and principles, school estate, resources and staffing structures in their delivery of educational services and their duties under additional support for learning. Therefore the way in which provision is made for children and young people is unlikely to be fairly compared across authority areas without taking account of these variables. Prior to 2010, only pupils with CSPs, IEPs or who were attending a special school were recorded as having additional support needs. However, in 2010 this was extended to include anyone receiving additional support, regardless of whether it was under a formal plan. This has led to a large increase in the number of pupils recorded with Additional Support Needs since 2010.

It is important to note that the figures provided below relate to information recorded on the school's management information system and may not reflect the 'non quantifiable' support provided to pupils in schools by classroom and support staff, or support provided which is not recorded within the management information system. Therefore the tables presented here do not represent the whole picture of the provision made for additional support needs in Scotland. For example, in the table on page 26 the Health Services are those recorded in the school system and do not reflect the broad range of services provided to support children and young people with additional support needs. It is likely that some improvement in recording practices will take place in coming years.

Therefore, case studies have been provided throughout this report to support a full representation of the support available in schools for children and young people with additional support needs.

The Scottish Government has committed to considering the data collected on children and young people with additional support needs to ensure that it is what is required to ensure adequate information is available to support implementation of the Act.

Overall picture

In 2013 national statistics indicated that there were 673,530 pupils in Scotland's local authority primary, secondary and special schools and grant-aided schools. Of those, 131,621 were identified as having an additional support need, around 19.5% of all pupils. This is a 1.5% percentage point increase on last year.

Of those pupils identified as having an additional support need 40,089 (30%) have an Individualised Educational Programme ( IEP) a percentage point decrease of 6 on last year. 12,102 (9.1%) have a child's plan, provided through the Getting It Right for Every Child approach, a percentage point increase of 67% on last year. 3,279 (2.4%) were identified as having a co-ordinated support plan ( CSP).a percentage point decrease of 0.5 on last year Those pupils with CSPs represent 0.48% of all pupils in local authority and grant-aided schools.

The statistics also indicate that 95% of pupils with additional support needs (124,637 pupils) learn within mainstream schools. 62% of pupils with additional support needs are boys and 15,510 pupils were recorded as Assessed or Declared Disabled. This is an increase of 142 pupils on last year, and equates to 11% of pupils recorded as having an additional support need and 2.3% of all pupils.