Chamber and committees

Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills submission of 27 October 2021

PE1870/G - Ensure teachers of autistic pupils are appropriately qualified

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the above petition, PE1870, which calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce legislation requiring teachers of autistic pupils to be appropriately qualified to improve educational outcomes.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people get the support that they need in school to reach their full potential, this includes autistic children and young people.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act requires education authorities to identify, provide for and to review the support for pupils who need support to overcome barriers to learning, including autism. Any person working with a child, or young person, can draw attention to the fact that they may require additional support. For example, this person might be the parent, class teacher, a member of the school health team, educational psychologist, social worker or any person who has been working with a child or young person.

Staged intervention is used as a means of identification, assessment, planning, recording and review to meet the learning needs of children and young people. All local authorities have a staged intervention and assessment process in place which enables practitioners to assess and meet learners’ needs. Staged intervention:

• Provides a solution-focused approach to meeting needs at the earliest opportunity and with the least intrusive level of intervention.
• Involves the child, parents/carers, school staff and, at some levels, other professionals, all working in partnership to get it right for every child.
• Staged intervention is designed to be flexible and allows for movement between stages depending on progress.

Assessment plays a key role in a school’s and the education authority’s arrangements for identifying children and young people who have additional support need, including autistic learners. It is for education authorities to determine the most appropriate provision for children and young people with additional support needs, taking account of their legislative responsibilities and the individual circumstances and wishes of children, young people and their families.

Following a round-table discussion on support for autistic learners chaired by the Deputy First Minister, the Scottish Government published an autism action plan in December 2020. This was developed in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders, including: Scottish Autism, National Autistic Society Scotland, National Autism Implementation Team, Children in Scotland, Education Scotland and the GTCS. This action plan covers four key areas which seek to improve the support offered to autistic learners in school:

• to ensure a common baseline of content on autism during the delivery of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes
• more distillation of inclusive pedagogical work to ensure a deeper understanding within the system
• wider sharing of quality practice by Education Scotland, local authorities, professional associations, autism organisation and others and evidence of good standards
• ensuring a continuum of support for ongoing professional practice and development

A full report on progress against this action plan will be published in December 2021, but a summary of some of the delivered actions is included below:

• The GTCS revised their accreditation programme for ITE providers in December 2019 to make specific reference to autism alongside other neurodevelopmental conditions. In January 2021, the GTCS published revised Professional Standards for all teachers, which included reference to additional support needs across all five standards, including specific reference to autism.

• New content on autism, woven through Initial Teacher Education course programmes, was developed through a review of evidence informed practice and consultation with the autism community, including autistic people, parents of autistic children and young people and professionals from education, health and third sector. This was piloted at Strathclyde University in February 2020 and has since been shared with all ITE institutions.

• The Autism Toolbox was refreshed and updated in late 2019. This is a popular free resource with practitioners and includes a variety of resources and guidance to help support autistic children and young people. A working group has been set up to support the development and updating of this resource annually.

• In March 2021 Education Scotland published several resources to support practitioners in delivering inclusive education, which included an Introduction to Autism and Inclusive Practice and the CIRCLE frameworks for primary and secondary.

• In June 2021, an Implementation Group, chaired by the Scottish Government, was set up to monitor progress against the autism action plan but also to consider and lead further work to support autistic children and young people.

The Scottish Government will continue to work to improve the educational outcomes and experiences of all children and young people including autistic learners, and believe that the actions set out in the autism action plan are sufficient to achieve the aim intended by the petitioner.

The Committee also requested an update on the ASL Action Plan report. Following publication of the review of implementation on additional support for learning in June 2020, the Scottish Government and COSLA accepted the recommendations from the review. In October 2020, we published a joint action plan which set out the measures we would take to address the findings of the review.

Since October 2020, the Scottish Government and COSLA have continued to work collaboratively with partners and a wide range of stakeholders to progress the actions set out within the ASL action plan. Significant progress has been made in a number of key areas. We will publish our report and an updated ASL Action Plan which reflects the progress that has been made since October 2020. Publication is expected week commencing 1 November.

I hope the committee finds the response helpful.