Additional support needs services to receive more than £1.7M

Mid Argyll councillor Dougie Philand has welcomed plans for more than £1.7 million to be provided to learning centres to help school pupils with additional support needs.

 

Additional teacher and support assistant hours are also planned to be made available.

 

Other projects, which have been kept confidential by the council, also form part of the service provision which was unanimously agreed by a key council committee.

 

The discussion took place at a meeting of the council’s community services committee on Thursday, August 24.

 

Councillor Philand said: “This is fantastic news to see. Having managed child and adolescent mental health services, the stress when they had to go out of the area is something you could not write, along with the long-term effects of what it does.

 

“So to see the paper here today is something that has to be applauded.”

 

Councillor Philand then queried a section of the report which read: “All local authorities submit an annual census return on additional support needs to the Scottish Government through scotXed in September.

 

“It is only in recent years that a definition of support needs has been provided by the Government and the current definition in the scotXed data collection specification has 24 specific categories plus another box.

 

“The system is populated directly by schools based on their interpretation of support need and signed off by the HT [head teacher].

 

“However, this council only uses three categories to assess ASN staffing allocations which highlights the flexibility in determining the total census population.”

 

Jennifer Crocket, the council’s head of education, replied: “I have previously worked in another authority with five stages.

 

“All authorities write their own policy based on statutory obligations. The three we have encompass best our ability to meet needs.”

 

Councillor Yvonne McNeilly, the committee’s chairperson and the authority’s policy lead for education, said: “I, unashamedly, am passionate about additional support needs or learning difficulties, with the various terms used over the last 33 years.

 

“I think this paper is excellent. We cannot wait for national responses and we need to do this.”