When will the Scottish Government commit resources to ensure reality can meet ambition?
In our March edition, we welcomed the publication of an Audit Scotland report which echoed the concerns which the EIS has long highlighted about additional support for learning and brought into stark relief the scale of the challenges facing schools in meeting the rising levels of additional support needs, laying bare the reality of life in our classrooms for pupils and for over-worked teachers.
Following publication of the report, Audit Scotland, Scottish Government and COSLA were invited to give evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee to answer questions on the detailed recommendations and what lay beneath.
In his evidence to the Committee, the Auditor General unsurprisingly focused on resourcing, making it clear that whilst the vast majority of pupils with additional support needs receive support in mainstream settings, the Scottish Government has not planned effectively for its inclusive approach in funding formulas for education, in planning, professional learning, class sizes and the design of school buildings – findings which resonate with the key messages from the EIS Stand Up for Quality Education campaign.
The consistency of available ASL data, perceived gaps in data collection and the use of data were also highlighted as reasons why it is difficult to measure the impact of funding directed towards ASL.
The Scottish Government and COSLA in their evidence session to the Committee, responded to the findings of the Audit Scotland report by highlighting the work of the ASL Project Board, which is tasked with implementing the recommendations from the 2020 Morgan Review.
Welcoming the focus that is finally being placed on resources, our response was clear that years of systemic underfunding cannot continue
Reference was made to one aspect of the Project Board’s work in relation to the creation of a National Measurement Framework which aims to capture the achievements of young people with ASN, in a bid to move away from the narrow focus on attainment. It was noted that this may go some way to satisfying some of the recommendations from the Audit Scotland report relating to data.
The EIS was invited to respond to the evidence given by Audit Scotland, the Scottish Government and COSLA. In its detailed submission to the Public Audit Committee, the EIS reiterated its continued support for the presumption of mainstreaming but reinforced the imperative of a long-term resourcing strategy to address the challenges confronting teachers, children and young people and their families in the context of over 40% of learners having an identified additional support need and to deliver the promise of inclusive education, made over 20 years ago.
Welcoming the focus that is finally being placed on resources, our response was clear that years of systemic underfunding cannot continue; the Scottish Attainment Challenge funding and the Pupil Equity Fund can no longer be a replacement for core education funding; and the detrimental impacts of under-funding on teachers and learners must be addressed.
Statistics show the size of the challenge. Since 2010 there has been:
- 141% increase in young people with ASN
- 36% reduction in the number of Special Schools
- 19% reduction in ASN teachers (FTE)
Whilst the rise in identified additional support needs does not necessarily entail an expected commensurate rise in required spaces for specialist settings, it defies credibility to suggest that the marked decline in specialist provision at the same time as a massive increase in identified additional support needs does not manifest in learners whose educational needs are currently unmet.
This reduction in specialist provision simply transfers the pressure of meeting increasingly complex needs onto teachers and school staff in mainstream settings.
And these pressures are exacerbated by the under-resourcing of allied professional services and delays in accessing specialist support, with many teachers being left in the interim to provide vital support to pupils and their families.
A staggering 1% of respondents to the EIS 2025 all member survey reported that they could access frontline support services when it was needed all of the time.
The EIS also outlined the importance of high quality, fully resourced and accessible professional learning being available to support all teachers in Scotland
With reports also highlighting the falling numbers of 27 month checks being completed by Health Visitors as a result of system capacity, opportunities for the early identification of need will continue to be missed unless urgent action is taken. The impact of this is exacerbated by the 55% decrease in the number of nursery teachers since 2010 whose specialist contribution to early intervention is a gaping hole in our system.
Responding to the parliamentary Committee, the EIS also outlined the importance of high quality, fully resourced and accessible professional learning being available to support all teachers in Scotland throughout their careers in meeting the needs of children and young people.
A crucial component of such an offering is time – time for teachers to participate, to reflect on learning, to engage with colleagues and to consider the relevance and impact of that learning for their own context.
The Public Audit Committee has considered the correspondence from different stakeholders, including the submission from the EIS, and have decided close scrutiny of the Audit Scotland report and write to the Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People’s Committee.
What happens next remains to be seen. We have already had a range of reviews commissioned to consider the delivery of ASL in our schools with working groups created to implement recommendations and yet to see any tangible improvements. So, members might be forgiven for wondering, ‘What’s different this time?’
The Audit Scotland report makes the centrality of resourcing clear. We hope that this will help to mitigate the efforts we have witnessed in the past to evade discourse on resourcing but only time will tell. The Scottish Government cannot continue to dodge this issue and to tinker around the edges of fixing the problem. It’s time to deliver on making the ambition of inclusive education a reality in practice.