Draft Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Bill

The Scottish Executive Consultation Paper

The UNISON Scotland Response

March 2003

Executive Summary

UNISON Scotland shares the Executive's vision for the future of the Scottish education system. Like the Executive, UNISON Scotland also wishes to see an education system that is inclusive, welcomes diversity and provides an equal opportunity for all children to develop their personality, skills and abilities to their fullest potential.

UNISON Scotland broadly welcomes the proposals in the draft Bill and is supportive of the Executive's strategy to improve the educational provision and attainment levels for children who require additional support for learning. UNISON Scotland also welcomes those sections of the draft Bill which provide for greater parental and child involvement in the decision-making process concerning the provision of assisted support needs education.

UNISON Scotland firmly believes that all support staff in schools should have the ability to access in-service training and development around SEN awareness. We are pleased therefore to see the Executive place an emphasis on continuing staff development and training in the framework document Moving Forward! Additional Support for Learning.

However, schools support staff throughout the education system, many of whom are UNISON members, do not see their value recognised in status terms and in terms of their salary and employment conditions. Supporting children with special needs to achieve their full potential requires the input and consideration of a whole host of support staff as much as it does by teachers. UNISON Scotland is disappointed therefore that the Scottish Executive has not put forward proposals in the draft Bill to address the just concerns of support staff.

In addition, UNISON Scotland is opposed to the proposals in the draft Bill, which will deny parents the right to apply for legal aid for legal representation in tribunal hearings. UNISON Scotland believes that this proposal has the potential to seriously impair the prospects of parents, especially under privileged parents, putting a legally equitable case in challenges against education authorities.

 Introduction

UNISON Scotland welcomes the opportunity to respond to the consultation on the ‘Draft Education (Additional Support for Learning)(Scotland) Bill'

UNISON Scotland represents a diverse range of frontline and support staff that work in education, social services and the NHS, the three services which will be most affected by the Executive's proposed changes to the system of educational provision for children with special needs. Those staff include careers staff, nurses, nursery nurses, drivers, learning support assistants, general administrative staff, secretarial and clerical staff, janitorial, cleaning, catering and maintenance staff.

Additionally, many of our members have disabled children and, accordingly, they have a keen interest in, and concern for, the direction that special educational provision may take.

Background

The draft Bill arises from the Scottish Executive's review of existing arrangements for the assessment and recording of children with special educational needs in Scotland. The review highlighted the concerns of many parents, teachers and educational professionals who felt that existing SEN arrangements in Scotland were outdated and overly bureaucratic.

Many of those who responded to the Executive's consultation felt that the Scottish legislative model represented by the ‘Record of Needs' was one, which was out of kilter with current international thinking on the provision of education for children with special needs. In recent years international developments in the area of SEN has seen a move towards inclusive education and wherever possible, children with special educational needs being educated in mainstream schools.

The draft Education (Additional Support for Learning) Bill contains new proposals, which are designed to address the perceived outdated and bureaucratic deficits of the current SEN arrangements in Scotland. The draft bill proposes a move away from Special Educational Needs terminology to the wider concept of Additional Support Needs, which will include all children who face difficulty in accessing and benefiting from education. The bill also proposes to scrap the ‘Record of Needs' and to replace it with a Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP) where the focus will be on the educational outcomes for the child and the support required to achieve these, rather than focusing on the weaknesses and deficiencies of individuals. It is also hoped that the new proposals will ensure a less bureaucratic approach and promote more effective joined-up planning and provision of services between education authorities, schools, social workers and health professionals.

Response

Additional Support Needs

UNISON Scotland applauds the work of support staff in supporting children with additional support needs. We recognise that in order for children with assisted support needs to achieve their full potential this requires the input and consideration of a whole host of support staff as much as it does by teachers. However this group of workers fail to see their value recognised in status terms and in terms of salary and employment conditions. UNISON Scotland is disappointed therefore that the Scottish Executive has not put forward proposals in the draft Bill to address the just concerns of support staff.

UNISON Scotland believes that it is important that children be expertly assessed early in their school careers when early detection of additional support needs could be matched with the appropriate educational provision. UNISON Scotland is therefore supportive of the proposals, which introduce a new duty on education authorities to identify and address, in the widest sense, the additional support needs of every child whom they provide a school place for.

In addition UNISON Scotland welcomes the proposals, which will extend to parents the right to also formally request education authorities to establish whether their child has additional support needs.

UNISON Scotland believes it is a positive feature of the draft bill that it contains proposals, which will place a duty on other agencies including health and social work services to assist education authorities in supporting the education of children with additional support needs. UNISON Scotland believes that this will support a more comprehensive and integrated approach to identifying the educational needs of children with additional support needs.

Assessment and Intervention

UNISON Scotland shares the concerns of many parents concerning the proposal in the draft bill to remove, as part of the consideration by the education authority of a child's needs, the compulsory observation and assessment by educational, medical and psychological personnel. UNISON Scotland believes that the compulsory nature of these observations and assessments as they stand at present, are of real value and make a significant contribution to the identification of children's learning needs.

UNISON Scotland is also uneasy about the proposal in the draft bill to remove the duty, on the part of education authorities, to seek advice from other agencies in identifying a child's additional support needs. UNISON Scotland believes that the proposal to oblige authorities to seek advice from other agencies only ‘where they think it necessary and appropriate' fails to take into proper consideration the importance of joined-up working in the delivery of services for children who require additional educational support.

It is the view of UNISON Scotland that in the area of assessment and intervention the current proposals would remove key duties, which at present add up to disabled children's legal entitlement to receive the educational provision their needs call for.

Parent and Family Involvement and Support

UNISON Scotland is supportive of those elements of the draft bill, which attempt to foster better relations between parents and authorities and encourage greater parental involvement. UNISON

Scotland welcomes the proposal, which will require education authorities to publish their policies, arrangements and provisions for pupils with additional support needs. This, we feel, will inform and encourage parents who so wish, to be effective partners in supporting their children's education.

UNISON Scotland also welcomes the proposal to provide parents with a named contact person.

UNISON Scotland believes that the conciliatory and advisory role played by this contact can help establish better parent-authority relations and enhance parents understanding of the policies and mechanisms used to deliver their children's education.

UNISON Scotland is also encouraged by the proposals in the draft Bill designed to enhance the involvement of children in the decision-making process concerning the provision of their own education. UNISON Scotland is pleased that the Executive is prepared to enact legislation, which will make it a duty on the part of education authorities to consult with and listen to the views of young people directly effected by their decisions.

Mediation

UNISON Scotland recognises the damage, which can be caused to all parties when disagreements arise between parents and education authorities over aspects of a child's educational provision. UNISON Scotland therefore welcomes the proposals in the draft Bill to develop the role of mediation in disputes between parents and education authorities. UNISON Scotland believes that any process, which can assist communication, encourage understanding and prevent the breakdown of relations between parents and the school or education authorities, is welcome.

Transitions and future needs

UNISON Scotland welcomes the Executive's recognition of the importance of transitions, whether they be from pre-school to primary, from primary to secondary or between schools, in the educational experience of children with additional support needs.

UNISON Scotland is supportive of the proposals in the draft Bill, which places a duty on education authorities to engage with other relevant agencies to identify future needs for supporting and preparing pupils, with additional needs, for post-school life.

Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP)

UNISON Scotland is supportive of the proposals in the draft Bill to introduce a statutory Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP) as a further instrument in assisted needs educational provision. UNISON Scotland believes that in relation to the provision of a child's educational needs, the proposed CSP has the ability to foster co-ordination across the range of diverse external services engaged in assisted needs education and also aid long term planning for the achievement of learning outcomes for pupils.

However UNISON Scotland shares the concerns of parents that the present proposals imply that only children with complex special educational needs will be considered for a CSP. UNISON Scotland would welcome the Executive's clarification on this matter and believes that in the interests of equality of access, children with specific or pronounced special needs must also be considered for Co-ordinated Support Plans.

UNISON Scotland is supportive of the Executive's proposals to allow only pupils educated within the public sector to be eligible to have a CSP opened. UNISON Scotland agrees with the Executive that it would be inappropriate for an education authority to be held responsible for a CSP when they play no part in providing for the child's education, either directly or indirectly.

Appeals and the Tribunal

UNISON Scotland believes it is a positive feature of the draft Bill that it includes proposals for the establishment of a new independent expert tribunal entitled the Additional Support Needs Tribunal.

UNISON Scotland welcomes the Executive's proposals to grant new appeal rights for parents of children in relation to the proposed Co-ordinated Support Plans. In addition, UNISON Scotland welcomes the draft Bill proposals to ensure that Additional Support Needs Tribunals will provide a more informal, user-friendly setting than is traditionally found in courtrooms.

However, UNISON Scotland believes that the proposal in the draft Bill, which would prevent parents from applying for legal aid to enable legal representation at tribunals, is inequitable on two counts. Firstly, it is widely recognised that under the current SEN tribunal system, the overwhelming majority of education authorities are represented by solicitors at tribunal. UNISON Scotland believes that under the new system this practice would endure and in doing so put parents, especially less privileged parents, at an immediate legal disadvantage in what are already distressing circumstances for these parents.

In addition, UNISON Scotland is concerned that this proposal plainly discriminates against economically disadvantaged parents. This proposal would allow economically advantaged parents to hire legal representation, whilst ensuring that less privileged parents have no such recourse to legal representation.

Placing Requests

UNISON Scotland acknowledges that whilst the mainstreaming of assisted support needs children is the ultimate goal of the Executive there are children whose needs cannot be provided for in within the current mainstream educational system. UNISON Scotland therefore supports the proposal, will extend to parents of assisted support needs children the right to make placing requests for their children to attend specialist Independent schools.

Transitional Provisions

UNISON Scotland welcomes the Executive's proposals, which will guarantee the appropriate educational provision for pupils in the transition from the current arrangements to those proposed for the new Additional Support Needs.

For Further Information Please Contact:

Matt Smith, Scottish Secretary
UNISONScotland
UNISON House
14, West Campbell Street,
Glasgow G2 6RX

Tel 0141-332 0006 Fax 0141 342 2835

e-mail matt.smith@unison.co.uk