The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition is campaigning to improve support for children and young people with additional support needs (ASN). To achieve this, we are seeking the increased provision of a wide range of high-quality, well-resourced and easily accessible services, tailored to their individual needs.
Additional support may be required if children and young people, for example, have social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD), learning difficulties, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), mental health problems, are care-experienced or encounter adverse life events such as bereavement.
Those with ASN are disproportionately drawn from poorer neighbourhoods. They also experience poorer educational and employment outcomes than those with no ASN.
The Scottish Government’s annual pupil census indicates that in 2024, 284,448 children and young people in Scottish state schools were identified as having ASN, a record high. This represents more than two out of five of all pupils (40.5%), of which 56.0% are boys. The number of those identified with ASN has been increasing for years, more than doubling (102.4%) over the past decade, from 140,542 pupils in 2014.
Reasons for the increase include better identification and continued improvements in recording those with ASN. Additionally, growing levels of poverty, rising levels of poor mental health, and social, emotional and behavioural issues have also contributed to this escalation.
An increasing number of children and young people with ASN has a potential effect on the outcomes of the individual concerned. This often causes distress to both them and their families or carers, with short term impacts on school attendance, safety and attainment, and longer term cumulative social and economic impacts.
We are campaigning to ensure that those children and young people with ASN get the tailored care and support they need when they need it, seeking radical reform to deliver a truly inclusive education system. This includes the increased provision of a wide range of well-resourced services, ensuring that we are overcoming barriers to learning and Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC), the Scottish Government commitment to provide all children, young people and their families with the right support at the right time.
These services include support provided by teachers (including ASN teachers) and school support staff, such as pupil support assistants and educational psychologists; mental health professionals, and other specialist staff. They are delivered by local authorities, health services, and voluntary and private sector service providers.
Under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, education authorities have a statutory requirement to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of children and young people for whose education they are responsible.
However, while there has been an increasing demand for support for those with ASN, this is against a backdrop of inadequate resourcing and staffing of services. Along with delays in identification, assessment and intervention, many children and young people with ASN are missing out on the care and support they so vitally need.
The impacts on those with ASN have been aggravated further by rising levels of poverty, increasing due to the cost-of-living crisis, and the damaging effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as significantly increasing levels of mental ill health. The poorer educational and employment outcomes experienced is potentially leading to a lost generation of vulnerable children and young people.
Well-resourced services and improved staffing, who are adequately trained, will help to ensure we are providing the right support at the right time, supporting the closing of the educational attainment gap and creating a more inclusive society.
It is also clearly vital that those who are thought to require additional support have this identified as early as possible, are promptly assessed and are provided with it. Such early intervention can assist in preventing further difficulties developing later, maximising their life chances and enabling them to flourish and thrive.
As a coalition, we have built up a strong reputation campaigning for the increased provision of high-quality services for children and young people with ASN.
The cornerstone of an inclusive approach to education is a presumption of mainstreaming for pupils with ASN, introduced in the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000. This means that they are educated in a mainstream school unless specific exceptional circumstances apply. As a coalition we are fully in support of a presumption to mainstream these children and young people.
However, we are concerned that there is a lack of resources, staff and co-ordinated support when it comes to addressing the needs of an increasing number of those with ASN in these schools.
Many children and young people with ASN are therefore being left poorly supported, often impacting on fellow pupils and teachers and leading to increased classroom disruption, or being excluded from school altogether. To deliver a truly inclusive education system, an increase in tailored support is vital to help those with ASN meet their needs.
It is also recognised that there are a number of children and young people currently in mainstream education whose interests would be better served by, for example, being in a special unit attached to a mainstream school or in a special school.
