NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union is warning of a missed opportunity and a dereliction of duty if the Scottish Government does not agree to ring-fence millions of pounds flowing from the Westminster Government to address the crisis in additional support needs provision in schools.
The Scottish Government will receive £920 million in Barnett Consequentials as a result of additional funding committed by the Westminster Government to support the special needs system in schools in England during this parliament.
Barnett Consequentials are the automatic funding adjustments made to the block grants of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland whenever the UK Government changes public spending on comparable public services in England.
NASUWT has called directly on ministers to commit to ring-fence this additional money for ASN support in schools, but the Cabinet Secretary has failed to provide any assurances to the union of how this funding will be used.
This is despite cross-party support pre-election for making addressing the issues around ASN a priority in the new Parliament and an Audit Scotland report published last year which called on the Scottish Government and local councils to fundamentally rethink how they plan, fund and staff services for pupils with ASN.
Matt Wrack, NASUWT General Secretary, said:
“Schools are grappling with both an exponential increase in the number of pupils with additional support needs and a growing complexity of needs among children and young people.
“As has been extensively evidenced, the current system of ASN support is completely insufficient to meet the reality in schools and is failing pupils, parents and teachers.
“The provision of this additional source of funding from Westminister is a golden opportunity to begin to turn the tide and to start the work of fundamentally reforming how additional support for learning is managed, resourced and delivered.
“For ministers to fail to take this chance is a dereliction of duty that risks creating a lost generation of young people.”
Mike Corbett, NASUWT Scotland National Official, said:
“The Scottish Government is only receiving this money because of extra investment being put into special needs education by the Westminster Government. Given the scale of need in this area, it only seems right and fitting that ministers in Scotland ring-fence it for the same purpose.
“The previous Cabinet Secretary accepted the main recommendations of the McManus Review into Additional Support for Learning earlier this year. The review called for national consistency, cross-system coordination, workforce alignment and earlier, preventative support for children.
“These commitments all require investment and utilising this £920 million for this purpose would inspire confidence among teachers that the Government’s acceptance of the recommendations were more than just warm words and empty promises.”
