Just 2% of teachers in Scotland say that the pupils they teach who have additional support needs (ASN) always receive the support they are entitled to, with over a third (35%) saying these pupils rarely or never receive the support they need.

While the number of pupils with ASN in Scottish schools is rising and their needs are becoming more complex, funding, support and the number of places in specialist provision are all dwindling, a survey of teachers in Scotland conducted by NASUWT-The Teachers’ Union has found.

While 92% of respondents said the number of pupils they teach with ASN has increased in the last five years and 93% said the needs of the pupils with ASN that they teach have become more complex during this time, 69% said that the level of support received by pupils they teach with ASN has decreased over the last five years.

Funding and resource pressures are evident with nearly half (47%) saying that there are pupils in their school who have been identified as needing specialist provision, but remain in their mainstream school because specialist settings are full. 43% said their local authority has reduced the number of places in specialist settings in order to manage budgets.

Over half (53%) said the number of specialist teachers employed to support pupils with ASN in their school has declined in the last five years. 62% said the number of specialist support staff has decreased during this period.

Unsurprisingly therefore, 94% said that the workload of teachers and school leaders in their school has increased as a result of underfunding for specialist services for ASN.

Only 2% of respondents say they always receive the support they need to teach pupils with ASN effectively. 46% say they rarely or never receive the support they need.

Over half (54%) of respondents who teach in specialist or alternative provision said they had been physically assaulted by a pupil in the previous year. 59% said they had been threatened with physical assault and four in five had experienced verbal abuse. Nearly half (49%) said they experienced such abuse daily or more than once a day. Two-thirds said the abuse is increasing in severity.

Only 14% said their school always takes appropriate action to address behaviour incidents when they are reported and just 4% said the same about local authorities.
 
Delegates at NASUWT Scotland’s Annual Conference last month called for the Scottish Government and local authorities to fundamentally rethink how they fund, plan and staff ASN provision.
 
Matt Wrack, NASUWT Acting General Secretary, said:
 
“The results of this survey only underline the recent damning report by Audit Scotland which heavily criticised the Scottish Government’s failure to adequately fund, plan or resource its presumption of mainstream policy.

“While we welcome the recent commitment from the the Cabinet Secretary to look at what more might be done to support additional support needs in schools, we now need to see more detail about who and what will be involved in this review. Any discussions should certainly not be limited to just COSLA and local authorities.
 
“A continued failure to get to grips with the crisis in ASN provision will have a far-reaching and long-lasting impact on young people’s future life chances, the Scottish economy and on the recruitment and retention of teachers. The evidence for action and change has never been clearer.”

Mike Corbett, NASUWT National Official Scotland, said:
 
“Teachers are now routinely being placed in a situation where they are expected to teach children with such high level and complex needs that they require almost one-to-one support at the same time as teaching the rest of their class.

“This is a betrayal of the duty of care which employers owe to both those pupils and to teachers. Pupils, teachers and families are being failed by the current system of ASN and the presumption of mainstream policy, under which children and school staff are being left to sink or swim.

“Teachers desperately want to do their best for all the pupils they teach, but are being set up to fail by a system which is not fit for purpose.

“The Scottish Government and COSLA needs to bring together the various agencies and groups who work with children and young people to develop a plan to rebuild and transform ASN provision so pupils and teachers receive the support they are entitled to expect.”