In September 2005, Scottish Ministers asked Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) to monitor and evaluate the consistency, effectiveness and efficiency of education authorities in implementing the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 which came into force on 14 November 2005; and to ensure that procedures for implementation were in line with the duties of the Act 2004 and the associated Code of Practice. This report is the outcome of that evaluation. Its findings are based on fieldwork in local authorities and schools and consultation with a range of voluntary agencies supporting families of children and young people.
The main activities of this specifically focused task were:
Legislative and wider policy background
On 14 November 2005, the system of assessing and recording of children and young people with special educational needs was replaced by a framework based around additional support needs. The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 defines ‘additional support needs’ more broadly than special educational needs.1 The Act aims to ensure that all children and young people are provided with the necessary support to help them work towards achieving their full potential. It promotes collaborative working among all professionals supporting children and young people. In doing so, it reflects a wider range of policies designed to further improve the quality of provision for young people with additional support needs. Getting it Right for Every Child2 and More Choices, More Chances3, for example, emphasise the need for authorities and agencies to improve transition pathways and life chances for a broad range of children and young people.
The framework for the task
Inspectors carried out a first phase of monitoring between September 2005 and February 2006 and reported directly to authorities on the strengths and areas for development that had emerged to date. HMIE published an interim report on its findings in October 2006.4
In the second phase of the task, HMIE revisited all authorities between September 2006 and March 2007. During this second phase, a sample of ten inspection visits was carried out by inspectors from HMIE with a background in social work and health.
Inspectors also visited schools within a sample of ten local authorities to speak to staff, parents5 and pupils, and to discuss the impact of the legislation on young people and their families. In gathering further evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of implementation, inspectors carried out interviews with a range of voluntary groups supporting families and children and young people with additional support needs.
The second stage of the task covered specific aspects of the Act. These were:
Description of evaluative terms used in this report
The following words are used to describe numbers and proportions throughout the report:
almost all |
over 90% |
most |
75-90% |
majority |
50-74% |
less than half |
15-49% |
few |
up to 15% |
Throughout this report, the term, ‘the Act’, refers to the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004.