Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all students with a disability, long term medical condition or additional support needs are able to access further and higher education and are fully supported throughout their studies.

Further Education

The Additional Support Needs for Learning Allowance is a non-income assessed allowance administered by individual colleges. It is intended to support students with disabilities or additional learning needs who are studying a course of Further Education and may have extra costs because of their disability.

Colleges, as part of their integral core funding via Scottish Funding Council, also receive the Access and Inclusion Fund. This supports the teaching and learning of students with additional support needs.

It is the responsibility of individual colleges to manage their student support budgets in a prudent and effective manner. The Scottish Funding Council has clear guidelines and processes in place to monitor colleges’ management of their student support funds, including the requirement for colleges to be audited, by external auditors, on their annual student support expenditure.

Higher Education

The Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) is a non-income assessed fund that is administered by Student Awards Agency Scotland. It is intended to support disabled students and those with additional learning needs who are studying a course of Higher Education and may have extra costs because of their disability.

As a bespoke fund, the amount a student is eligible to receive is based on their individual needs. Those awards are made based on comprehensive guidance prepared by Student Award Agency Scotland and shared with institutions on an annual basis, ensuring that there is a consistency of approach across the sector.

The Scottish Government supports a range of SCQF-accredited courses and recognises the important role that many, like the ones referenced, play in supporting interdisciplinary learning. Such courses offer learners the opportunity to apply disciplinary knowledge and develop key skills in relation to complex, real world challenges and are relevant to future employment opportunities.

In 2022-23 the Scottish Government provided SCQF with total funding of £44,000, and then a further £30,000 in 2023-24 to deliver its small scale Learning for Sustainability (LfS) grant fund to ensure there is a better offer on LfS-related qualifications for learners. In both financial years SCQF then allocated funding from this pot to individual projects within the overall funding amount – proposals were invited and then assessed and decided by an assessment panel involving officials and run by SCQF, based on agreed criteria. Ministers were not involved in final funding decisions to applicants.

In 2023-24 the International Sustainability Diploma, developed by the Futures Institute at Dollar Academy (FIDA), was successful in securing £6,030 of funding to support its accreditation at SCQF Level 6 and the course’s promotion to other schools and centres. The course is being piloted in approximately seven schools this year with the intention to scale it up further following this initial pilot phase.

Most recently, in 2024-25 the Scottish Government awarded the established Powering Futures programme £250,000 through the Entrepreneurial Education Pathways Fund, which aims to create an entrepreneurial overlay to their current academic qualification, allowing it to be more explicit around entrepreneurial understanding and attributes. Powering Futures supports learners to develop crucial skills for the workplace as well as gaining an understanding of sustainability.

Both qualifications focus on sustainability but differ in a number of ways. In particular, the FIDA qualification offers 24 SCQF Credit points at Level 6, while Powering Futures is awarded at 8 SCQF Credit points at Level 6.

In 2022-23 the Scottish Government provided SCQF with total funding of £44,000, and then a further £30,000 in 2023-24 to deliver its small scale Learning for Sustainability (LfS) grant fund to ensure there is a better offer on LfS-related qualifications for learners. In both financial years SCQF then allocated funding from this pot to individual projects within the overall funding amount – proposals were invited and then assessed and decided by an assessment panel involving officials and run by SCQF, based on agreed criteria. Ministers were not involved in final funding decisions to applicants.

In 2023-24 the International Sustainability Diploma, developed by the Futures Institute at Dollar Academy (FIDA), was successful in securing £6,030 of funding to support its accreditation at SCQF Level 6 and the course’s promotion to other schools and centres. The course is being piloted in approximately seven schools this year with the intention to scale it up further following this initial pilot phase.

In response to the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment, the Scottish Government committed to undertaking further work to develop a consistent, high quality interdisciplinary learning (IDL) offer that provides all young people with an experience and in time, a qualification, that is valued by employers and further and higher education. An IDL working group is bringing together relevant partners already active in this space to take this work forward, including Dollar Academy and Powering Futures.

A number of forums exist which provide an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss disabled student and graduate outcomes.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) have regular contact with the College Development Network’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion network, which brings together equality leads from Scotland’s colleges. SFC are also developing a relationship with the Scottish Equality Forum, a network which brings together equality leads from across Scotland’s universities and college to provide support to each other on addressing inequality in the sector.

Additionally, through the development of the proposed Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill, 3 Bill Advisory Panels were established early last year to co-develop proposals. This includes stakeholder and practitioner panels and a lived experience panel. Those panels provide a forum for wider discussion of the challenges and barriers faced by autistic and neurodivergent people, including their experiences of education.

And in September 2024, the Scottish Government published its Student Mental Health Action Plan which sets out, for the first time, a mainstreamed approach to student mental health. The Scottish Government will work in partnership with NHS Boards, CoSLA, Public Health Scotland and community based providers to join up support that is already available, embedding support for students into the wider communities in which they live and study.

Data shows that we have a record number of new students at university with a recorded disability or additional support need (6,765, an increase of 14.9% over the year). Additionally, the support provided to students via the Disabled Students’ Allowance totalled £14.1 million in 2023-24, an 18.4% increase over the year.

Against that backdrop, the 2025-26 budget, published on Wednesday 4th December, emphasises the First Minister’s priorities and champions programmes that have a far-reaching impact in addressing child poverty and improving outcomes for families and learners across Scotland.

As part of the budget announcement, Ministers expect the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to prioritise the additional investment, to support widening access and to protect and enhance the learner experience. In addition, by protecting the right to free tuition, the Scottish Government is driving forward our commitment to widening access.

As part of the annual funding allocations process, the SFC reviews demand and supply of funded places, to reflect the dynamic changes to learner needs.

SFC and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are currently working together to enhance the SFC’s leadership and oversight role in tackling persistent inequalities in the tertiary system.

Through this, SFC and EHRC have established a set of National Equality Outcomes (NEOs) for the tertiary education sector through their Persistent Inequalities work, including three NEOs specific to disabled students.

The SFC asks colleges and universities to be mindful of the Equality Act (2010), under which disabled students are protected, and supports them to meet the requirements and achieve the aspirations of the Public Sector Equality Duty. This includes through the statutory requirement for Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessments of new and revised strategies and policies.

Notifications of awards of DSA to assessors are being provided as part of the new DSA online service that Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) released in October 2024.

The service is in a pilot stage where it is being trialled by 3 universities to submit new DSA applications. It is anticipated that the online service will be rolled out by SAAS to every Higher Education Institution during 2025. In the interim, there is an exceptions handling process in place for assessors who require a copy of a DSA award notice from SAAS.

The member raised the issue of setting up such a forum in the Chamber during general questions on 28 November 2024.

I confirmed at the time I would be happy to meet to discuss such a group, noting that I would be keen to extend any such forum to look at apprenticeships as well.

The Scottish Government is developing a new digital strategy which is due for publication in early 2025, for school education in Scotland. This is being developed in partnership with COSLA and key education stakeholders and will help support the use of technology in our schools.

In November 2024, we published an updated Additional Support for Learning Action Plan and a third progress report. The next update is due to be published in 2026. Officials continue to work with local government partners on the ASL Project Board to deliver the remaining actions to improve the experience of children and young people with additional support needs at school, including those who benefit from digital learning and assistive technology.

The Scottish Government also grant fund CALL Scotland £367,177 per year to have a positive and enabling impact on the provision of support to children and young people who can benefit from assistive technology or augmentative and alternative communication.

Two peer review processes are overseen by the social research profession in Scottish Government.

Organisations working for Scottish Government and officials may be involved in an Ethics Peer Review. The Scottish Government Ethics Guidance for Social Research (https://www.gov.scot/publications/ethics-guidance-scottish-government-social-research/) sets out the criteria, expectations and process ensuring ethically highly sensitive projects receive this additional scrutiny.

The Scottish Government Social Research Contractor Handbook (https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-social-research-publication-protocol/) suggests peer reviews to assess the quality of completed reports. These are internal or external by independent researchers. Internal social research guidance advises external peer review may be useful at the start of complex projects.