IPSEA Briefing on the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Bill

January 2003

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This new legislation, proposed by the Scottish Parliament, would remove key duties which, at present, add up to disabled children's legal entitlement to receive the educational provision their needs call for. They include:

• the duty to obtain full professional advice on a child's needs when undertaking an assessment of those needs: that is, from a psychological, educational and medical perspective (under s61(1) Education (Scotland) Act 1981).
  — Under the proposed Bill, Education Authorities would be able to choose themselves who they obtained professional advice from (Clause 9(2) Education (Additional Support for Learning)(Scotland) Bill). This will leave an Authority which does not want to provide a particular type of provision - e.g. speech therapy - free to choose not to seek a speech therapist's advice.
  
  
• the duty, following assessment, to include in a Record of Needs a statement of the child's special educational needs (under s65D(2)(b) Education (Scotland) Act 1980 as amended) and then to ensure that the school education which they provide for a child includes provision for his or her special educational needs (s62 (3) Education (Scotland) Act 1980).
  — Under the proposed Bill, Education Authorities would instead only have to describe "the additional support required by the child or young person and the name of the appropriate agency … by whom the support should be provided" (Clause 6(2)(a)(iii) & (iv) Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Bill). Also, under the proposed Bill, Education Authorities would only have to "ensure that additional support is provided by them for the child … so far as they have the power to do so." (Clause 7(5)(b) Education (Additional Support for Learning)(Scotland) Bill).
  These changes will remove Education Authorities' current duty to arrange the educational provision which a disabled child's educational needs call for. Instead, an Authority will be able to claim that they do not have the 'power' to arrange provision and nominate other agencies who, crucially, will have no legal duty to meet children's needs.
  
  
• the duty, with regard to all children between two and five years of age to undertake an assessment and issue a Record of Needs where appropriate (s60(2) Education (Scotland) Act 1980 as amended.)
  — Under the proposed Bill, children under five will have no right to assessment or provision unless they are attending a nursery or some other pre-school provision. Children not attending pre-school provision will only have a right to 'such educational provision as is appropriate in the circumstances.' (Clause 1(3)(b) Education (Additional Support for Learning)(Scotland) Bill). Children who are being educated at home or who for other reasons are not registered with a pre-school provider will have no legal right to have their needs assessed or provided for.

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