Chamber and committees

In an update on the Additional Support for Learning Review Action Plan, published in November 2022 ( https://tinyurl.com/ywu6dtcw ) we committed to revisit this research in spring 2023.

In parallel, the Pupil Support Staff Working Group commissioned Education Scotland to undertake a national engagement programme for pupil support staff – ( https://education.gov.scot/improvement/research/pupil-support-staff-engagement-programme-2022-2023/ ). The engagement programme commenced in October 2022, has generated over 2,500 responses to date and will close shortly.

We consider it prudent to let the engagement programme conclude and for the responses to be analysed, before deciding on the requirement for the proposed research.

In 2021-22, as part of the implementation of the Additional Support for Learning review action plan, we provided Enquire, the national advice and information service on Additional Support for Learning, with an additional £70,000 of funding. This aimed to increase the capacity of the service to support parents and carers of children with additional support needs and ensure it was effectively resourced to meet the needs of the families it supports.

The utilisation of this funding and its impact is established via ongoing grant management processes. This includes statistical information on provision of services and feedback from parents and carers using Enquire’s services. For example, in 2021-22 Enquire responded to more than 1,750 enquiries and over 1,120 in the first three quarters of 2022-23. During the third quarter of 2022-23, 100% of those who provided feedback indicated that they had a better understanding of their and their child’s rights and 91% rated the service they received as “excellent”.

The additional funding has enabled Enquire to create additional capacity to more effectively respond to enquiries from parents and carers and increased engagement with wider stakeholders; a programme of outreach; and development of new initiatives such as increased video content on the Enquire website. This level of funding was maintained in 2022-23 to ensure service delivery sustainability and continuity in support for families of children and young people with additional support needs.

The Scottish Government are committed to working with COSLA, ADES and our partners to deliver improvements in additional support for learning implementation and to ensure meaningful change for children and young people through our Additional Support for Learning Action Plan

As part of our work under the Additional Support for Learning Action Plan we have considered the impact of the incorporation of UNCRC on the 2004 Act, as well as additional support for learning policy, practice and guidance. We intend to continue to engage with key stakeholders to consider this work further and ensure that children’s rights are embedded and effectively underpin implementation of additional support for learning policy.

The Scottish Government is working with local government partners on the Additional Support for Learning Project Board to deliver the recommendations of the 2020 additional support for learning review by March 2026. As outlined in our updated action plan published in November 2022, we have committed to undertaking an internal awareness raising programme following a policy mapping exercise. This work will contribute to a positive communications plan to ensure visibility and awareness of additional support for learning and children and young people’s successes and achievements across a range of policies. This work is currently on track and will build upon the existing ongoing engagement across policy portfolios.

Progress can be followed through the published minutes of the Project Board . A further progress update is due to be published in May 2024.

The Scottish Government are committed to working with COSLA, ADES and our partners to deliver improvements in additional support for learning implementation and to ensure meaningful change for children and young people through our Additional Support for Learning Action Plan. The most recent ASL Action Plan progress report published in November 2022 confirms the progress made on the development of the measurement framework, including measures to celebrate the successes and achievements of children and young people with additional support needs. Since the publication of the progress report, a draft of the framework has been considered by the ASL Network and ASL Project Board and officials continue to work with partners to further enhance the framework.

The Scottish Government will continue to report on the progress of implementation of the ASL Action Plan through formal progress reports. The next progress report is due to be published in May 2024.

The Children’s Service, My Rights, My Say is a Scottish Government funded national service which supports children between the age of 12 and 15 years to exercise their rights under the additional support for learning Act.

The free support service comprises of four parts – advice and information, advocacy support, legal representation and a service which independently seeks children’s views to inform decision making.

As a statutory service, it is available to children in every local authority. Therefore, the Additional Support for Learning Act does not also require local authorities to have advocacy services in place.

Information on the deferral rate for disabled students entering Higher Education is not held by the Scottish Government.

UCAS collect and publish information each year on the number of applicants, applications and acceptances for UK providers. As part of their releases, UCAS publish the number of acceptances who defer entry to a later year split by Domicile, Age and Gender, in their interactive dashboard. Deferral rates for those with a Disability Declared are not included.

UCAS Undergraduate end of cycle data resources 2022 | Undergraduate | UCAS

UCAS do publish the number of acceptances with a Disability Declared overall. This shows in the 2022 cycle, there were 6,535 Scottish domiciled acceptances with a Disability Declared, 17.5% of all Scottish domiciled acceptances.

Social Security Scotland received 91,225 new applications for Scottish Child Payment between 14 November and 31 December 2022. This does not include applications from existing clients looking to add additional children to their current award.

The majority of people who applied or added additional children to their existing award during this period have now received a decision. People who made new applications and received an award decision received their payment by the end of February. For people who were adding additional children, payments will follow their existing payment cycle.

Where someone applied for Scottish Child Payment before 31 December 2022 and has not received a decision, this is because additional information or evidence is required to process their application. Social Security Scotland has been in contact with everyone in this situation.

Social Security Scotland works to progress applications as quickly as possible.

Decisions for the majority of people who applied for Scottish Child Payment, or added additional children to their award, between 14 November and 31 December 2022 have now been issued and this will be reported on in the next round of statistics. As previously announced, all successful awards will be backdated to the date that the application was received.

Around 143,000 school age children benefitted from the Winter 2022 Bridging Payment of £260, with over £37.1 million of payments awarded to families. We do not hold information on the number of people who applied for Scottish Child Payment who also received Bridging Payments.

The latest available information on new applications for Scottish Child Payment is contained in the most recent official statistics release, covering the period to 31 December 2022 - https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/scottish-child-payment-high-level-statistics-to-31-december-2022 .

Social Security Scotland routinely produces information at application level and not by household type, such as on behalf of couples or individuals.

Information relating to applications received for benefits is routinely published by Social Security Scotland as part of Official Statistics releases and includes both monthly and financial year breakdowns of data.

These statistics are available at https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications .