The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
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Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Ross Greer
I think that I saw Marie Harrison looking to come in, convener.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Ross Greer
Convener, can I just—
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Ross Greer
I can see that Megan Farr is looking to come in. First, however, I want to follow up on that point. The cynical answer to the question why local authorities do not understand that is that they do understand it; they just do not want to implement CSPs.
In general, a child’s plan will be less resource intensive or will, at the very least, mean that the local authority is somewhat shielded from potential legal redress through the tribunal system. Is the cynical explanation fair, given the amount of information that has been provided over such a long period of time?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Ross Greer
At various points, everyone on the panel has been keen to talk about co-ordinated support plans, which you will all be delighted to know that we can now do.
Chloe Minto said that co-ordinated support plans are important because they open up the route for legal redress through the tribunal. This is my first question. Given that co-ordinated support plans are as rare as hens’ teeth—0.2 per cent of all pupils with a recognised additional need have such a plan—is it an issue that there are no other routes to access the tribunal? You can either fight really hard to get a CSP—the vast majority of children with additional support needs will not get one, though—or you can go for the somewhat nuclear option of trying to get a placing request and moving the child out of the mainstream school into a special school. Is there an issue, in that CSPs are the only route to access the tribunal while staying in a mainstream setting?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Ross Greer
I would like to pick up on a point that is somewhat tangential, but I hope that it will make a neat segue. A moment ago, Lynne Binnie acknowledged that the legislation on additional support needs in Scotland sets out a very broad definition of additional needs that is universally—certainly widely—supported. Not every child or young person with a recognised additional need will require a co-ordinated support plan, but you will be aware that the committee has heard evidence that only around 0.2 per cent of kids with recognised needs have such plans. I am interested in hearing Lynne Binnie’s and Nicola Dickie’s perspectives on that. Do you recognise the concerns that we have heard from others that that proportion is simply far too small, or is there a different explanation here? Is it appropriate that there are CSPs for the 1,000 or so kids with the most complex needs—is that the proportion that you would expect?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Ross Greer
Would COSLA concur with that?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Ross Greer
You mentioned needing to dig into the numbers and understand the context a bit more. A review of CSPs took place immediately after the Morgan review reported. Should it not have done that?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 13 March 2024
Ross Greer
Thank you to both of you; that was a really useful way of specifically identifying the barriers.
My next question is for Vivienne Sutherland and Kerry Drinnan. We know that the single biggest advantage of having a CSP is that it gives a route to redress through the tribunal system. Are there any particular advantages to having a child’s plan, as an alternative? The child’s plan does not offer a route to the tribunal, but is there anything that you know about from your delivery work that makes the child’s plan an attractive alternative to a CSP? If we put aside the issue of having to tick the box of needing 12 months of multi-agency intensive support, are there situations or certain reasons that make a child’s plan more suitable?
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 12 March 2024
Ross Greer
I want to pick up on Margaret Akers’s point in answer to the first question about this being about prayer, not just protest. The right to prayer and the right to protest are protected differently and to different extents in different pieces of human rights legislation.
My first question, though, comes from my personal perspective as a Christian. As it is a theological one, Bishop Keenan, I hope that you will not mind if I come to you first. How important is proximity to prayer? I have to say that I am not aware of a reading of scripture that emphasises the importance of proximity for the purpose of prayer.
09:45Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Meeting date: 12 March 2024
Ross Greer
I am obviously not suggesting that you should—