PE01747: Adequate funding to support children with additional support needs in all Scottish Schools

More psa and resources to support teachers and psa is needed. My experience is that support have terribly reduced from p1 to P2, or from 2018 to 2019

Thomas Rodriguez

14:57 on 16 Sep 2019

Royal Blind supports the call for adequate funding to support children with additional support needs. Research has shown that up to 80 per cent of learning takes place through our vision, which is why additional support for pupils who are blind and partially sighted is so important. Our education system must respond to a growing need to support children and young people who have vision impairment. The Scottish Government’s school census figures show that the number of blind or partially sighted pupils has more than doubled, from 2,005 in 2010 to 4,574 in 2018. It is vital that pupils benefit from learning approaches designed by specialist teachers with knowledge of delivering and designing a curriculum. A successful education for pupils with vision impairment must involve habilitation and skills for life, which too often are not being sufficiently provided through mainstream education. The vision of inclusion in mainstream schools can only work if it is properly resourced. In many instances schools are not equipped to achieve equal and inclusive education for learners with vision impairment. Too often pupils are told they cannot participate in subjects because the staff do not have skills to teach them or the staff ratios required to facilitate the pupils learning are inadequate. We are concerned that in many instances the main driver for decisions over the education for blind and partially sighted children is based on budget, rather than where they will receive education which best meets their needs. Adequate funding must be matched with a change of culture to ensure children with vision impairment receive the support they require.

Callum Macdonald, Policy and Research Officer, Royal Blind and Scottish War Blinded

14:16 on 16 Sep 2019

We're kidding ourselves if we think that inclusion, a good thing in itself, can possibly work without adequate funding for more and fully trained PSAs.

Norman Henry McLeod

17:33 on 15 Sep 2019

I think all kids with special needs get the support in education to help them with their future

Rachel Baillie

21:43 on 11 Sep 2019

Teachers need more support to be able to carry out their jobs, which are highly specialised. They don't need to be given extra responsibilities, such as speech and language therapy provision. SALT needs to be properly funded and provided to everyone, as a core part of their learning pathway.

Lynne Georgiades

8:59 on 10 Sep 2019

Additional Support provided in the first few years disappears in 5th and 6th years due to lack of funding and the schools having to make that choice. It is a major step for children willing to remain in school and learn to then be penalised when they do so.

Fiona Donaldson

12:18 on 09 Sep 2019

It would be great for all children to go to mainstream Schools but without the funding how can that be. If the Government cannot fund special Schools how can they fund mainstream Schools. More money is needed for both.

Elaine McRae

20:35 on 04 Sep 2019

Despite multiple complex issues a family member has received no additional support in school despite having full time audit hours in nursery. Their needs have not changed - indeed have become more profound. You are denying them a chance to be the best they can be and at the tender age of 7 putting them on the scrap heap!!

Fiona Ogilvie

14:07 on 04 Sep 2019

A family member has not received the support in school they have needed. They have no diagnosis despite pushing every door that I can to get support. Because they look fine and do not typically display asn they has been so let down. They are now home educated, and I am needing to pay for assessment and support they need. Many children are in trauma and confusion, in schools, and staff are fire fighting, do not have proper training and are left to cope and do as they are asked to do and not question or complain. This country and government needs to take the future and education of our children seriously and make supporting them PRIORITY. There needs to be a complete RADICAL REVIEW of EDUCATION, with HUMILITY. Funding needs to be IMMEDIATELY released so that staff can be poured into schools again. Then for PEOPLE to accept CHANGE IS NEEDED, and RADICAL CHANGES made to ensure we leave behind the colonial top down, controlling of victorian educational system is put behind us. Lets look at the Scandanavian Models of Education, Steiner, and so on and bring joy and hope back into our children and families lives, and this country. Lets let go of control and see people flourish and our country prosper again!!

Joyce Kilgour-Blaikie

17:28 on 30 Aug 2019

Local councils recruit Additional Need Assistants on temp contracts which I understand as the work is only there for the duration required by pupils at school, however everytime savings are to be made these roles are cut under the "No compulsory redundency" guise regardless of whether or not the role is justified and urgently required so the pupils are left to get on with it and parents made to feel they should just be happy with any support the school can provide under the circumstances. Hardly getting it right for every child is it! Those in higher positions like to say the right words while making it impossible to achieve. What generally happens is the pupils with extreme needs get the vast majority of the hours while pupils with learning disabilities are left scratching their heads.

Gordon Robb

15:19 on 30 Aug 2019