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The term additional support needs under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (the 2004 Act) applies where for whatever reason children or young people are unable to benefit from school education without the provision of additional support. Therefore, the information requested in relation to colleges and universities is not applicable.

There are no national recommended standards or benchmarks for the caseload of school staff working with children and young people with additional support needs. School staffing decisions are the responsibility of individual local authorities. Therefore the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government.

All teachers are responsible for supporting pupils with additional support needs, not just those teachers whose role is specifically related to additional support for learning. The ratio of pupils to teachers has remained at its lowest since 2009.

The Equalities, Inclusion and Additional Support for Learning budget was £26.8 million in each of 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 which equates to 0.65%, 0.63% and 0.65% of the wider Education and Skills portfolio budget.

This budget includes the Scottish Government’s investment of an additional £15 million per year since 2019-20 to help local authorities respond to the individual needs of children and young people. This investment has helped contribute to the highest recorded level of support staff in schools, 16,606 in 2022.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of revenue funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on education, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The most recently available Local Government Financial Returns show that Additional Support for Learning accounted for a record high of £830 million of Gross Revenue Expenditure in 2021-22, equivalent to 12.1% of Gross Revenue Expenditure on education.

We currently estimate the awards of around 160,000 people will be selected for ‘managed transfer’ to Adult Disability Payment.

Under section 70 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, any interested party can make a complaint to the Scottish Ministers that a responsible body (the managers of a school or education establishment, an education authority, or other persons) has failed to discharge a duty imposed on them by, or for the purposes of any enactment relating to education.

For Independent Adjudication, applicants write officially to Scottish Ministers with their complaint. Ministers will nominate an Independent Adjudicator. However they do not have any involvement in decisions after that point. Ministers also officially appoint the panel of Independent Adjudicators.

Since 2016-17, 7 complaints have been made under section 70 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 relating additional support needs provision, and 13 complaints have been made through applications for independent adjudication.

Complaints under section 70:

1 – City of Edinburgh Council

1 – Perth and Kinross Council

2 – Highland Council

1 – West Dunbartonshire Council

1 – Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles)

1 – Midlothian Council

Complaints through Independent Adjudication:

1 – East Dunbartonshire Council

1 – Aberdeen City Council

2 – Scottish Borders Council

1 – Dundee City Council

2 – Glasgow City Council

1 – East Lothian Council

1 – Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles)

1 – West Dunbartonshire Council

1 – North Lanarkshire Council

2 – City of Edinburgh Council

Under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004, education authorities have duties to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. Parents and carers are encouraged to continue to engage with their child or young person’s school about the support that is in place. The aim is for disagreements to be resolved at as local a level as possible, and as quickly as possible, to ensure that children and young people receive the support they need to access and benefit from learning. As these complaints are dealt with at a local level, the information is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally.

However, the Pupils with complex additional support needs: research into provision published on 19 September 2023 reflects practice and provides examples of the transition process followed by a child or young person with additional support needs to a specialist settings.

Data on the outcomes and achievements of school pupils with additional support needs are published on the Scottish Government website.

Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels data provides information on attainment of school pupils in literacy and attainment ( School education statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ). Information on pupils with additional support needs can be found in Section 4.3 of the publication. The latest data available is for 2021-22 with 2022-23 data due to be published on 12 December 2023.

Data on the attainment and initial destinations of school leavers can be found in the Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations publication ( School education statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ). Information on pupils with additional support needs can be found in tables 3 and 6. The latest data available is for 2021-22 with 2022-23 data due to be published in February 2024.

Data on the follow-up destinations of school leavers can be found in the Summary Statistics for Follow-up Destinations publication ( School education statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ). Information on pupils with additional support needs can be found in table 3. The latest data available is for 2021-22 with 2022-23 data due to be published in June 2024.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) publish a range of information for colleges and universities for disabled students. Information can be accessed through their websites at ( Data and analysis | HESA ) and releases ( Report on Widening Access 2021-22 (sfc.ac.uk) ).

The Students Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) publish data each year on the number of supported Higher Education students at college and university claiming Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA). Data is available through the Higher Education Student Support in Scotland publication ( https://www.saas.gov.uk/about-saas/statistics ).

The term additional support needs under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (the 2004 Act) applies where for whatever reason children or young people are unable to benefit from school education without the provision of additional support. Therefore, the information requested in relation to colleges and universities is not applicable.

Local authorities have duties under the 2004 Act to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. Local authorities are supported in fulfilling these duties under the 2004 Act through the statutory code of practice on additional support for learning. Chapter 3 of the code covers identifying additional support needs and the assessment process.

As set out in Pupils with complex additional support needs: research into provision published on 19 September 2023, there were 241,639 pupils recorded as having additional support needs in 2022.

Imprints are a way of stating who is responsible for publishing campaigning or promotional political material and who they are promoting it for.  This point is reflected in the Electoral Commission’s recent statutory guidance on digital imprints under the Elections Act 2022. 

The functions of the SPCB are laid out in the Scotland Act and require the SPCB to provide the property, staff and services required for the Parliament’s purposes.  In principle, the SPCB does not include imprints on its material as it is publishing material for the purpose of these statutory functions and not political campaigning or promoting.   

The SPCB provides support to Members through the Reimbursement of Members Expenses Scheme to produce and distribute parliamentary funded publications to inform constituents of the work of the Member in their electoral area or in Parliament or about the work of the Parliament itself.

As SPCB resources are applied for the Parliament’s purposes, in accordance with the SPCB’s statutory functions, Members must abide by the rules in the SPCB Policy on Members’ Publications where costs are met from the Members’ Expenses Scheme.

The Policy restricts members from including material promoting the political views of any person, political party, the government or other organisation involved in political campaigning in parliamentary funded publications.  The Policy also prohibits the issue of parliamentary funded publications in the immediate run up to elections and referendums. For its purposes, the Policy requires the inclusion of a statement in relation to how the costs were met for such a publication and a header which must include the Parliament’s Corporate Identity, alongside the Member’s name and their area of representation, whether the publication is online or in hard copy.