The presumption in Scotland that children and young people with additional support needs (ASN) should be educated in their local school often comes under heavy scrutiny, usually because school leaders and teachers say it is not being properly resourced.
Now, in a submission to an ongoing inquiry into additional support for learning, the Additional Support Needs Tribunal - which helps pupils with ASN and their parents who want to challenge the educational support they are receiving - has put forward another reason for calling into question the presumption of mainstream schooling.
The ASN Tribunal says this presumption should be removed because, for some pupils with ASN, mainstream is best, but for others, special schools are better, so “a default bias in favour of one or the other is, in principle, therefore, wrong”.
‘The reverse of an inclusive approach’
The submission adds: “An inclusive education for those who have additional support needs would be best served by the removal of a bias in favour of a particular type of education.
“A bias of this type is the reverse of an inclusive approach.”
The ASN Tribunal makes its comments in a submission to the Additional Support for Learning (ASL) Inquiry at the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee, in advance of its meeting tomorrow.
The ASN Tribunal regularly considers issues around the settings where pupils are educated and supported.
In 2022-23, 160 of the 202 applications to the tribunal were in relation to placing requests to schools made by parents or children but refused by councils.
The tribunal says the presumption of mainstream is the one most common reason for local authorities to refuse placing requests - there are 12 other grounds for refusal - but it says: “The ‘presumption of mainstream education’ should not be a ground for the refusal of a placing request.”
Mainstream education, it says, is “right for some children and young people with additional support needs” but not for others who need “a special school…to meet their needs”.
Placing requests putting pressure on budgets
For their part, councils have told the ASL Inquiry that an increasing number of placing requests to independent special schools is putting more pressure on their already stretched budgets.
Fife Council says it has “an increasing number of parents” making placing requests to independent educational provision, “which often results in a reference to an [ASN tribunal]”.
It says the process is “enormously expensive”, especially if “the ASN Tribunal decision is to place the child in the independent provision”.
City of Edinburgh Council says that costs associated with out-of-authority placements in special schools is “the main budget overspend in most local authorities alongside transport”.
Placements cannot be ‘predicted or planned’
The council highlights that independent school placements can cost anywhere from £70,000 to £180,000 per year with children and young people often remaining in placement for over eight years.
It says the placements cannot be “predicted or planned” and it is “unclear” if “experiences and outcomes are improved as a result”.
Figures supplied by the ASN Tribunal show that over the last 12 years, the presumption of mainstream was given as a ground for refusing a placing request 27 times.
In 19 of those cases, mainstream education was deemed to be appropriate for the pupil; in eight cases a special school education was deemed appropriate.
Tomorrow, May Dunsmuir, president of the ASN Tribunal, will give evidence to the committee as it continues its inquiry into how Scottish legislation designed to support pupils - including 2004’s Additional Support for Learning Act - is working in practice.
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