1 The term ‘special educational needs’ was introduced by the Warnock Committee in 1978 and was incorporated into the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 as amended.
2 ‘Getting it Right for Every Child’ was published for consultation in June 2005. The report sets out an integrated and child-centred approach to service delivery.
3 ‘More Choices, More Chances’ 2006, is the Scottish Government’s strategy for reducing the proportion of young people not in education, employment or training.
4 The Interim report (2006) on HMIE initial findings in relation to local authority preparation for the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 is available on the HMIE website: www.hmie.gov.uk.
5 The groups of parents were selected by the senior managers of the schools visited. A number of parents contacted HMIE independently to provide additional views on their children’s experiences and levels of achievement.
6 ‘Staged intervention’ is the process used to identify and respond to the needs of children and families with additional support needs, using a multi-agency approach. The level of intervention required is measured against different levels of criteria according to the degree of need.
7 The role of the Pre-School Community Assessment Teams (Pre-SCAT) is to ensure a co-ordinated approach to planning to meet the needs of young children at the pre-five stage.
8 Joint assessment teams and school liaison groups are school-based multi-agency groups who meet regularly to provide solution-focused approaches to meeting the needs of vulnerable young people.
9 Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland were established within Section 2 of the Act to deal with appeals in relation to co-ordinated support plans. Tribunals have statutory powers and cannot be influenced by Scottish Government or local authority policy.
10 Within section 30, the Act allows a two-year transitional period to allow for children and young people with a Record of Needs to be assessed to establish whether they require a CSP under the new legislation. The transitional period ended on 14 November 2007.
11 Nurture groups are classes of ten or so children set up in primary schools with their own room, preferably in a central part of the school. The group is an integral part of the school’s provision, understood and supported by all the staff. Training for nurture group staff emphasises the importance of valuing the child as s/he is and responding to them at whatever developmental stage they might have reached.
12 English as an additional language programmes are taught by specialist teachers. They are designed to help students whose native language is not English.
13 Such young people are usually 16-18 years old. A range of programmes have been designed to reduce the size of this group and improve the choices and life chances of these young people.
14 The aim of the framework is to provide a means by which services for children – universal and specialist – will be able to gather and share information, assess needs, plan and co-ordinate services for individual children.
15 Assessment is for Learning is an approach to assessment which involves children and young people in their own learning.
16 Better Behaviour-Better Learning (2001) was the report of the Discipline Task Group into ways to improve discipline in Scottish schools. In 2005, HMIE published A Climate for Learning which highlights effective practice in promoting good behaviour and provides an agenda for improvement.
17 A guide to evaluating services for children and young people using quality indicators, HMIE 2006, provides advice on self-evaluation.
18 The Scottish Executive report, Looked after children and young people: we can and must do better (January 2007) sets out 19 specific and targeted actions for improving the educational outcomes of Scotland’s looked after children and young people.
19 Legally, the terms ‘education authority’ and ‘local authority’ mean the same. In the context of co-ordinated support plans the point being made is that the child or young person may require support additional to that available from the education authority carrying out its education functions. This could be from social work services in the authority and/or support required from an appropriate agency.
20 SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timed.