United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 or the UNCRC, is a part of the law which covers your child’s fundamental human rights. This law must be followed by all professionals supporting your child. These rights are called ‘articles’, and your child has these rights no matter what their ‘differences’ are, which means your child should be protected against discrimination and always have access to their rights. Some examples are:

The Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000 is another law that says your child’s school and local authority must listen to the views of your child on decisions that significantly impact them.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, as amended (The ASL Act) states local authorities and schools must seek and take account of your child’s views in specific situations. These include when they are:

The school, nursery or local authority should involve your child when making any decisions about the support they need. This will often happen in a fairly informal way. For example, staff should encourage your child to contribute to any learning support plans they have. Your child is also likely to be involved during the normal school day in setting goals and discussing and reviewing their progress. Involving your child can start at an early age in nursery, where staff can ask for and listen to your child’s views about their support.

This should also be done in a way that works well for your child’s ability, age and stage. For example, observing your child’s behaviour while they play, as this is a form of communication, or having a chat about how they are feeling about school in an age-appropriate way.

Nurseries and schools should build children’s confidence in this area during day-to-day activities from an early age by:

Expressing views can be easier for some children than others. However, there are very few children who cannot express any view at all. Some may just need encouragement and the right support and communication aids to do so. People should not assume that your child cannot express their views without first checking whether a different method of communication would enable them to do so. The following examples show how people working with children can help them express their views:

Regardless of their age and support needs, your child should be supported to attend and take part in meetings about their additional support for learning if they want to. This might include exploring options like if they want to come along for the start or end of a meeting to share their views, or if they want to stay for the whole meeting.

Your child may choose to tell you as their parent or carer how they’re feeling and ask you to speak for them. You could also support your child to record a short video or voice-note and send that in instead of them having to attend a meeting. You can suggest any of these options to your child to help ensure they are given every opportunity to be involved.

You can help your child become more confident about sharing their views by encouraging them to express how they feel and involving them in making decisions. It may also be useful if you discuss your child’s additional support needs with them. You and the staff who support your child can work with your child to help them to understand their own needs better, and how their support might help them.

Your child may not want to attend more formal planning or review meetings. For example, if they are anxious and would find it too overwhelming to speak in front of a group of adults. Your child should only attend meetings if they want to, as they should never feel forced to share their views or attend meetings. But if they don’t want to attend, it can be helpful to think about why they might not want to and discuss ways that the school could make the meetings more child-friendly or what might be making your child feel uncomfortable.

Children aged 12-15 have extra rights to help them become more actively involved in decisions about the support they receive. These rights are similar to the rights you have as a parent.

For example, they have a right to:

If your child wants to use one of their specific rights (for example, if they want to request an assessment of their needs), they must tell their school or local authority. They must do this in writing (letter or email) or in another way that can be kept for future reference. You can help them with this.

If your child has asked to use one of their specific rights, the school or local authority must let you know.

Before your child can use a particular right, the local authority must check that your child has the maturity and understanding (the ‘capacity’) to use that right. They should be able to understand the situation, contribute appropriately, and understand and remember any decisions they or others take relating to their rights.

For example, if your child wants to ask for their co-ordinated support plan to be reviewed, they should be able to understand the plan, communicate what they think needs changed in it, and understand and remember any changes that may happen to the plan as a result.

You can share any evidence you think is appropriate with the relevant people to help them decide whether your child has capacity.

The local authority must also make sure that your child’s wellbeing would not be negatively affected by using their rights. Using the right must not cause them harm or stop them from being safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible or included.

Find out more about local authorities’ duties to look after pupils’ wellbeing on our webpage Wellbeing and GIRFEC

In most cases your child’s teacher, or another professional who knows them well, will be able assess their capacity to use a particular right and understand the impact using that right may have on their wellbeing. If they are in any doubt, they may ask for advice from other local authority staff (such as an educational psychologist).

They may also ask the children’s views part of the My Rights, My Say service, who can independently gather your child’s views. There is no one-off decision for allowing a child to use all of their extra rights. A decision should be made for the specific right a child wants to use at the specific time they want to use it.

There is no time limit for assessing capacity and impact on wellbeing. However, your child’s school or local authority should make any decisions about your child’s capacity and wellbeing as quickly as possible. The school or local authority must let you and your child know the decision.

If you or your child disagrees with the decision about their capacity or the impact on their wellbeing, either of you can appeal (called ‘making a reference’) to the Additional Support Needs Tribunal. Find out more in our webpage on The Additional Support Needs Tribunal

If your child is aged 12-15, they have many of the same rights as you do under additional support for learning law, but this does not mean your rights have changed. Either you or your child can use any of the specific rights listed above.

However, it is not possible for you both to use the same right at the same time. For example, if you and your child both want your child’s needs to be assessed, you should agree which of you is going to request the assessment. You cannot both use your rights to do this.

If your child does not want to use a right, and does not want you to either, you can still use your rights if you choose to. If your child chooses to use one of their rights, you should still be fully involved in decisions about their education.

Once your child turns 16, under education law they are no longer ‘a child’ — they are now a ‘young person’. Young people are assumed to be able to do things on their own behalf and be fully involved in decisions about their education and support.

This means that your child will have the same rights that you do as their parents or carers had before they turned 16. For example, your child can make a placing request if they want to apply to move to a different school.

This means if the school has concerns or needs to review your child’s support, in the first instance the school should discuss this with them directly. If a more formal meeting is arranged, parents and carers are still normally invited. You can share your views and be there to support your child.

If your child cannot understand or does not have the capacity to make decisions, then as a parent or carer, you can still do this for them.

Support for pupils in the senior phase