Leaving school is “messy and terrifying” for young people with additional support needs and their families, MSPs have heard.
MSPs who sit on the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee are considering a bill that seeks to improve the opportunities for disabled young people as they grow up - and when the committee met this week, the need for improvement was made crystal clear.
Taking evidence yesterday from educationalists and charity organisations that work with disabled children and their families, the MSPs heard that the lack of specialist staff, support and services after school was leaving families and young people feeling “isolated and dejected”, “disenfranchised” and that “that they just don’t matter”.
Jenny Miller, chief executive of the organisation PAMIS, which supports people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, said: “It’s a messy and terrifying place out there at the moment [for children and families.”
She added that her organisation would like to see transitions for children with complex needs starting at 14, but she said that “some of them aren’t starting until six months before they go, if that”.
Another witness described the lack of post-school provision for disabled young people as “a national disgrace”.
MSPs were told there is just one specialist college in Scotland - the recently opened Corseford College in Renfrewshire, run by Capability Scotland. But in England there are 120 specialist colleges, said Rebecca Scarlett, senior policy and information officer for Lead Scotland, which supports disabled people to keep learning.
Getting more support for ASN school leavers
The lack of appropriate placements means some young people with special needs are staying on in school for longer; others are being forced into unsuitable placements or simply left with nothing to go to.
Lee-Anne McAulay, headteacher of New Struan School, which is in Clackmannanshire and run by Scottish Autism, said: “A lot of our young people and our families feel they are not heard or they don’t have a voice in these transitions. That - rather than a suite of options available to them, as there would be for other young people approaching school leaving age - it’s more about what’s available and what’s affordable than...what should be in place for a young person.”
The witnesses made several proposals, saying:
- It should be mandatory for every council to have a dedicated transitions worker to coordinate planning.
- An urgent review of post-school provision for disabled young people should be carried out to identify what services are available.
- There needs to be continuity in children’s and family’s relationships with professionals. It was suggested that an “all-age service” might address the problem of families losing professionals they had long-standing relationships with when children leave school and move into adult services.
- There needs to be recourse for families when suitable post-school placements are not provided. Ms McAulay said: ”Accountability is the key here.”
MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy - the first permanent wheelchair user to be elected to the Scottish Parliament - introduced the legislation on transitions for disabled children and young people.
The bill’s proposals have three main strands: it provides for a national transitions strategy to be set out; for a minister to be specified as being responsible for the transitions of children and young people; and for a duty on local authorities to plan for disabled children and young people’s transitions and a statutory process for this.
However, there is not universal agreement that more legislation is the answer. Lead Scotland’s written submission to the committee says it is concerned about the impact that more legislation could have “on an already cluttered policy landscape”. It suggests instead that more focus and resource should be put into existing policy.
On the other hand, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health says a non-legislative approach, such as guidance, “would be more likely to be ignored than statutory duties”.
Ms McAulay also believes legislation is the right approach.
She told the committee: “As an educator in a highly regulated sector, legislation is what I often rely on to get the best outcomes for my young people. I have to be able to use that legislation and to rely on it and to refer to it to get what we need.”
Ms McAulay added: “There are gaps that some of the young people I support fall between. They’re not quite covered by one set of legislation, and they don’t quite fit the bill for the other set of legislation. I believe this bill has the potential to be a net for those gaps.”
