The Scottish Government has invested a total of £14,751,739 since 2018 to support the delivery of specific Welfare Advice Services in Scotland. The amount for each year is as follows:

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.

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 receives quarterly reports from Let’s Talk ASN, the national advocacy and legal representation service for young people (over 16 years old) and the parents and carers of children with additional support needs. In the last quarter, between October and December 2022, Let’s Talk ASN received 124 enquiries. Of those, 27 were retained as a Let’s Talk ASN case. The remaining enquiries were provided with advice.

In the last quarter, Let’s Talk ASN lodged 20 references to the Health & Education Tribunal to commence the process to a full hearing.

The Scottish Government does not hold disaggregated information on Let’s Talk ASN cases between ‘parents’ and ‘carers’.

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 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 a policy mapping exercise to inform the development of a shared positive communications plan. The plan aims to ensure visibility and awareness of additional support for learning and children and young people’s successes and achievements. This work is currently on track.

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 Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment is being led by Professor Louise Hayward. Professor Hayward is firmly committed to offering an approach that ensures the achievements of all learners, including those with disabilities, can be recognised. The commitment to proposing a system that works for each and every learner is evident in her recently published interim report.

During the Review’s public consultation Professor Hayward sought views on the specific question of how a system of qualifications and assessment can uphold the right of all learners including those with disabilities to have their achievements recognised.

I understand that Professor Hayward has met Angela Morgan, Chair of the Review of Additional Support for Learning Implementation, on several occasions and that Angela Morgan has also offered advice to the Independent Review Group. Professor Hayward is also visiting several schools which provide specialist education and learning for children and young people with additional support needs and complex health and medical needs, and will hear directly from learners, teachers and staff there.

The final Phase of the Review is now underway, and Professor Hayward is seeking views from a range of stakeholders across the education landscape, and beyond, on a draft model for the future of qualifications and assessment, this Phase is open until the 7 April. I look forward to receiving a final report before the end of May 2023.

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.

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

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.