Audit Scotland recently published their briefing paper considering how the Scottish Government and local councils are addressing the demand for Additional Support for Learning (ASL) in publicly funded primary, secondary and special schools.
It highlights the current statistics that reveal approximately 40% of pupils in Scotland are in receipt of additional support for learning. It also acknowledges a significant increase (768%) in pupils recognised as having an additional support need since the introduction of the ASL Act (2004).
The briefing paper calls for the Scottish Government and councils to “fundamentally rethink” how they plan, fund and staff support for learning provision as part of core school education in Scotland.
This has been recommended to include:
- How mainstream and special education is currently provided and changes required to meet current need
- Capacity in classrooms
- Staffing numbers
- Training and qualifications for teachers and support assistants
- Physical environment and building design
The report also recommends improving data gathering to better understand pupils’ additional support needs and the resources required to better support them. This includes using the National Measurement Framework currently in development (see more in our latest post on the ASL Action Plan), to better demonstrate outcomes for young people with additional support needs, as well as the publication of annual data to help better identify scale, complexity and nature of additional support needs.
The Audit Scotland Briefing Additional Support for Learning was published on Thursday 27 February.
Read in full at https://audit.scot/publications/additional-support-for-learning