Some autistic pupils in Scotland have to “fail” in mainstream education before receiving the support they need, MSPs have heard.
Suzi Martin, external affairs manager for the National Autistic Society Scotland, also said that better training for staff was essential to helping autistic children feel included in school.
She was addressing the new additional support for learning (ASL) inquiry, in its second evidence session, where she welcomed the national 2020 additional support for learning action plan but said progress had been “slow, and it’s not created the change that we needed to see”.
Addressing the ASL inquiry, run by the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee, on Wednesday, Ms Martin said that “we hear from families still to this day that do not feel like their autistic child or young person is supported or included in the mainstream school environment”.
Autistic pupils ‘not feeling included in school’
She said that “we see, continually, autistic children and young people are forced to ‘fail’ at mainstream before any other option or support is offered”, adding: “And even still then families are forced to fight the system to get that support and many are forced into legal action and engaging a solicitor before a solution is found.
“Clearly something is not working and the system is not working for autistic children and young people when it comes to receiving their rights to an education.”
She said it was difficult to ascertain the precise scale of the problem, but said that “we know from families we hear from every day that it is a huge problem for autistic children and young people in engaging in education and not feeling included in school”.
Essential for staff to understand autism
Ms Martin called for better funding of specialist support in mainstream schools and underlined the importance of better training and “ensuring that staff have the correct level of autism understanding”.
She asked: “How can you have a positive relationship with an autistic child or young person if you don’t understand what autism is?”
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “While it is for local councils to determine the most appropriate educational provision, the Scottish government is committed to improving the experiences and outcomes for young people with additional support needs, and spending on additional support for learning reached a record high of £830 million in the most recently published figures.
“We have continued to invest £15 million per year since 2019-20 to help schools respond to the individual needs of children and young people.
“We also provide over £11 million in funding to directly support pupils with complex additional support needs and services to children and families.”
The spokesperson added: “The Scottish government and [local authorities’ body] Cosla have publicly reported on the progress of delivering the actions of the ASL action plan. This demonstrates ongoing and sustained delivery of the actions since the action plan was established.
“A further update on progress will be published in May 2024.”
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