We do not need more reviews or research into supporting children with additional needs in school, says the chief executive of Children in Scotland - but we do need to put what we know into action and invest to bring staffing back to 2010 levels.
Judith Turbyne marked her first year as the chief executive of Children in Scotland (CiS) this month. The body is Scotland’s national agency for 450 organisations and individuals working with children and their families, and it also runs the Scottish advice service for additional support for learning, Enquire.
That service - as well as the regular conversations that CiS has with children and young people with additional support needs (ASN) - give it real insight into how well inclusion is working in Scottish schools.
Dr Turbyne feels that, thanks to the 2020 additional support for learning review as well as research her own organisation has been involved in, understanding has improved and that now it is time to act.
Speaking exclusively to Tes Scotland, she said: “There’s a challenge there about really putting into action what we know. There’s been a lot of research and we kind of know what is and isn’t working. We know that children with additional support needs in many circumstances do have some challenges to be fully included, so there’s a real need to say: ‘Right, we’ve got all the information let’s not research it any more. What can we actually do about it?’”
She says there is a need to resource inclusion properly and to “invest in the professionals you need in order to make inclusion work”.
Dr Turbyne adds: “We should be going back to the staffing levels we had in 2010; we know they have been really cut.
“I know that’s about investing and money but we are talking about investing in our children and young people now so that further down the line there will be fewer things we have to work on, so we need to find the money for that.”
Dr Turbyne says that the groups of professionals that have seen their numbers hit include support for learning teachers, speech and language therapists and educational psychologists
Scottish government figures show that in 2010 there were 3,524 specialist ASN teachers working in Scottish schools, but by the time of the 2021 teacher census last year, that figure had dropped to 2,886.
That represents a cut of almost a fifth (18 per cent) to specialist teaching staff, at the same time as the number of children with additional support needs in mainstream schools has more than trebled.
In 2010, there were 69,587 pupils in Scottish schools with ASN and they made up around 10.7 per cent of the roll. By 2021, there were 232,753 pupils with additional needs and they made up a third of the school roll.
Meanwhile, in 2021, the government recorded 383 educational psychologists working in Scotland; in 2010, the figure was 401.
An analysis of children’s speech and language therapy services in Scotland commissioned by the government and published last year found “a significant number of services where the resource simply is inadequate to meet the considerable needs of the population served”.
Support for those working with pupils with ASN
However, getting inclusion right is not just about money, says Dr Turbyne - it’s also about making sure those working with children with ASN are properly trained and supported, especially pupil support assistants.
Dr Turbyne says that the importance of kindness should not be underestimated and this came across in a recent podcast made by Children in Scotland’s “inclusion ambassadors”, a group of secondary-aged pupils with a range of additional support needs.
The inclusion ambassadors have recorded two podcasts looking at what makes a good pupil support assistant and why they are crucial for inclusion.
“If you don’t have access to the training you need to do your job better - even if you want to improve you’re not going to be able to do it. We need to make sure we are valuing and supporting staff. That’s fundamental to a happy organisation and to ensuring everyone can play their part.”
Dr Turbyne has been Children in Scotland’s chief executive since August last year, when she took over from Jackie Brock.
She says the body’s goal is to ensure that children and young people flourish. It does that by listening to young people, pushing for policies that benefit them, helping develop the children’s sector workforce, and pushing back “constructively” when it believes the government is not getting it right, she says.
For example, Children in Scotland has spoken out about the national testing of P1 pupils’ literacy and numeracy, saying the policy contradicts the play-based learning that is supposed to take place up to the age of 6 under Curriculum for Excellence and describing the policy as “completely unproven”.
Dr Turbyne says CiS still believes assessment at a very young age is “not a good idea”.
However, she believes on the whole there is a lot of good policy “thought and intention” in Scotland. That, she says, is important because it is “the starting point” and without it “you are getting nowhere”.
The Scottish government has committed to properly protecting children’s rights in law, although it has come in for criticism from children’s commissioner Bruce Adamson for taking too long.
Dr Turbyne says CiS is also supportive of policies such as the increase in free early learning and childcare hours and also of Curriculum for Excellence - although it would like more emphasis to be placed on the health and wellbeing strand of CfE and for it to be “threaded through the whole curriculum”.
The body made a call in its manifesto, which was published last year before the Scottish Parliament elections, for Scotland to follow in the footsteps of Finland and introduce a “hobby premium” to ensure that all children and young people in Scotland have free access to a hobby or activity of their choice within or around the school day.
Dr Turbyne says schools sit at the heart of a child’s “learning journey”, but she would like to see more collaboration between all the different organisations dedicated to ensuring children thrive. Informal education, she says, sits at the edges of the formal education system but has “a massive impact” on children.
“How are we building on that and making the most of what we all have to offer?” she asks.
However, as a result of the fallout from the Covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, she warns that there is likely to be a period where “we might do brilliant work but see no impact because all we have managed to do is keep things where they are at, or slightly behind”.
She makes a plea for patience - and also continued investment - to head off problems before they appear. “Let’s think about the long-term journey and agree we need to invest in prevention,” she says.
After all of the reactive and hasty decisions made around children’s services during the Covid years, that message may be more timely than ever.
