East Dunbartonshire Council’s policies, procedures and practices relating to children and young people with additional support needs are in line with the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 which place duties on education authorities and provide rights for parents of children with additional support needs and young people with additional support needs.
All children require support to help them learn. However, there are some children and young people who need some extra support or support which is a bit different from the support provided for all children to make sure they benefit from school education. That support may come from education services but can also be provided by a NHS Board, Social Work, Skills Development Scotland, or independent and voluntary organisations. Children and young people in school who need extra support or a different sort of support from what is generally available have additional support needs.
These additional support needs can arise for lots of different reasons. The reasons why a child or young person may have additional support needs are too many to list here, however the following are examples:
That the child or young person:
- finds it difficult to behave in school;
- is hearing or visually impaired;
- has a particular health need;
- is living with parents who have a drug or alcohol dependency;
- has English as an additional language.
Some additional support needs may only last for a short period of time other additional support needs will be life long.
If you think your child may have additional support needs you should talk to your child’s school or pre school provision about this.
All children and young people have their needs continuously assessed and reviewed. Your child’s school will be able to show you their assessment of your child’s needs and will send you copies of reports on how your child is progressing in school.
All schools and early years establishments in East Dunbartonshire look at children’s needs through a process of staged intervention. This process allows teachers and others to
- identify those children who may need additional support;
- make plans to support those children identified;
- deliver the support the child requires; and
- regularly review the support provided.
In addition to the additional support which schools themselves can provide through individual planning or making specific resources available, schools can also request support from East Dunbartonshire Council’s specialist educational support services. The Council can also provide individual children with special equipment and resources if necessary. Some children may also benefit from attending the special schools and specialist resources which East Dunbartonshire manages.
Parents have a very important role to play in their child’s education and the views of parents and young people will always be taken account of in making decisions which affect the child or the young person. If your child requires additional support at school you can provide the school with important information about your child which will be helpful in making plans to support your child. Parents and young people will always be invited to participate in reviews of progress.
A small number of children and young people with additional support needs require a co-ordinated support plan (CSP). All of these children and young people will already have a plan provided for them in school which set out targets for their learning and timescales for achieving those targets. Parents, professionals and the child or young person can all be involved in regularly reviewing the plans. The CSP sets out the educational objectives for an individual which can only be achieved by services such as health or social work working together with education to support the child or young person i.e. where the support required must be co-ordinated.
If you have If you have a concern that your child’s additional support needs are not being met you should always, in the first instance, contact the school to arrange a time to discuss that concern. Every effort will be made by the school and the education authority to resolve your concern at that point. If you are not happy with the way the matter has been dealt with and you continue to have concerns you may be able to make use of one (or more) of the following:
- mediation
- independent adjudication
- the Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland to assist in reaching a satisfactory conclusion.
Further information is available at the Council's website.
The Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act 2004/2009 places duties on local authorities to provide access to independent mediation for resolving disputes with parents and carers of children and young people with additional support needs when or if they arise. East Dunbartonshire Council uses Resolve Scotland. For further information contact: 0131 313 8844 or go to www.resolve.org.uk
Woodland View School supports children who have been assessed by East Dunbartonshire Council with having an additional support need that cannot be met within a broadly mainstream or unit based provision. There is a very wide range of conditions that staff in the school are able to support.
Pupils may have a medically diagnosed genetic condition, be managing a physical disability, have been diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder or may be developmentally delayed. Placement at Woodland View School would be preceded by a process of consultation between parents, the school, involved agencies such as Psychological Services, Speech and Language Therapy, Social Work Department and the authority’s consultation group – the GIRFEC liaison group.
Woodland View School aims to provide a nursery, primary and secondary experience for pupils at their social, emotional and academic level in smaller class sizes. This often means that classes are not purely based on age or stage.
We also link with mainstream schools across the local authority for children or young people who would benefit from a social or academic experience with their mainstream peers. If there comes a point where we feel a child or young person would be better placed in another EDC provision we would have this discussion with the team around the child and act accordingly following these discussions.
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Support for Learning Services
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East Dunbartonshire Council, in supporting inclusion in its schools, has a number of support for learning services.
These are:-
- Education Support Team which includes English as an Additional Language Learning Support (Secondary), Sensory-Hearing Impaired and Visual Impaired, Assistive Technology, Language and Communication Resources
- Wellbeing Support Service
The Services support pupils through:-
- Consultancy
- Continuing Professional Development
- Co-operative Teaching
- Curriculum Development
- Partnership Working
The named person for all pupils in Woodland View School is our Head Teacher Kay Hunter who can be contacted by telephone or email through our school office. Our three Depute Head Teachers – Simon Tonner (nursery – P6), Jennifer Livingstone (P7-S3) and Lynsey O’Donnell (S4-S6) can also be contacted for information about your child’s progress.
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Supporting Families Service
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The core purpose of this service is to provide support to families in developing their skills and confidence in their parenting and to provide services to children to enhance their development and learning. Examples of the services available include parenting workshops, individual support following the Triple P programme. If you wish to access any of the services please contact the team on 0300 1234510.
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Protecting Children and Young People
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East Dunbartonshire Council has issued Child Protection Procedures and Guidance which all staff must follow to promote the welfare of children and to protect them from harm.
All adults must share the responsibility for promoting children’s health and safety and ensuring, as far as possible, that all children are protected from abuse, neglect and exploitation. Children cannot be expected to take full responsibly for keeping themselves safe. Professional staff must work together and in co-operation with families and carers to enable children to grow up in a warm, stimulating and safe environment.
Education staff are required to assist in the protection of children by:
- Creating and maintaining a positive and caring ethos
- Developing health and personal safety programmes
- Being observant of children’s needs, views and concerns
- Reporting and recording concerns about the welfare or safety of children
- Monitoring and supporting children in co-operation with relevant professionals, parents and carers.
Education staff cannot keep secret any allegations or concerns about child abuse, even if a child or adult request this. Information or concerns that a child may be at risk of harm must be passed on in order to protect the child. Staff will treat the matter sensitively, and information will only be passed to those who need to know in order to protect and support the child.
If parents or others have concerns for any child, they can speak to the Head Teacher about this. They can also contact social work services and/or the police.
When a member of staff, a child or another individual provides information and the Head Teacher considers that there is a possibility that a child has been harmed or is at risk of harm, the Head Teacher is required to immediately contact social work services to discuss the circumstances and agree the immediate action to be taken. School staff are then required to co-operate with any subsequent enquiries or support plans.
Every education establishment or service has copies of the East Dunbartonshire Council Child Protection Procedures and Guidance. These are available for reference from the Head Teacher.
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Additional Support Needs
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As with all local authority schools in Scotland, this school operates under the terms of the Additional Support for Learning Act (2009) and its accompanying Code of Practice. Further details of the policies and procedures can be found on the East Dunbartonshire Council website, and the school’s Additional Support for Learning Co-ordinator will be able to outline the support that can be offered in school.
Working with other agencies and professionals – for example, Social Work Services, Educational Psychology Service, National Health Service and parents – decisions are made with regards to the best possible education to meet the needs of the child within the resources available.
Parents, carers and children with additional support needs can also seek independent advice and support through:
Enquire: www.enquire.org.uk, 0845 123 2303
Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance, www.siaa.org.uk, 0131 260 5380
Take Note: National Advocacy Service for Additional Support Needs (Barnados in association with the Scottish Child Law Centre) www.sclc.org.uk, 0131 667 6633.
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Autism Adviser
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Every establishment has an Autism Adviser who is an established member of the school teaching team and who has been provided with training and ongoing support from a multi-agency team - led by an educational psychologist and a quality improvement officer. Every Autism Adviser is guided by a process of collaborative practitioner enquiry, which allows the school to develop the role of their Autism Adviser in response to the needs of their school context. Every Autism Adviser will be able to signpost colleagues to resources and sources of supports. While every establishment will use their Autism Adviser differently, the role of the Autism Adviser may include facilitating staff training within their school, supporting communication to parents/carers; planning for establishments' Autism Awareness Week; running a parents/carers' support group and supporting individual staff members using existing school structures (e.g. Pupil Support Group).
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Specialist Support Service – teachers teaching in more than one school
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The Additional Support for Learning Team makes provision for children and young people who have a range of additional support needs. The service comprises of teachers who work in the pre-5, special, primary and secondary sectors. Staff in the team work in partnership with staff in the establishments to plan and deliver an appropriate curriculum. The service also provides staff development and advice on resources.
The teams support the additional needs of:
- children with a significant hearing and or visual impairment;
- bilingual learners who are at early stages of learning spoken English;
- looked after and accommodated children and young people who are experiencing difficulties in school;
- children at early stages of primary school who have a developmental coordination disorder along with attention difficulties;
- young people who attend special provision units; and
- pre-5 children who have been identified as having significant support needs.
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Pastoral Support
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Each pupil in Woodland View School has a core teacher associated with their class who links to a principal teacher and a depute head teacher. All secondary pupils attend registration periods each morning where staff focus on any pastoral issues which may have arisen. Primary classes have a core teacher and support staff who have this direct pastoral responsibility. For many learners this will be the time for the morning routine to take place.
Staff will manage many issues within the bounds of being a core teacher. If further support is required staff can refer issues to one of our Depute Heads or to our Child Protection Coordinator.
During the day, if core staff are unavailable, pupils can access support through any staff member – teaching or support and can meet with a principal teacher, depute head teacher or head teacher to manage any difficulties they may be having. Learners are encouraged to remain in class, or return to class as soon as possible in order that key and core relationships can be maintained. Learners who are out of class on a number of occasions will be discussed at pastoral meetings in order that potential help or solutions can be identified. Learners may require a range of support or intervention at various points in their school career and if this support is outwith the expertise of the school staff (eg counselling, support around domestic issues etc) then we would refer to our partner agencies for advice and support.
All staff can make a referral to our Pupil Support Group for extra guidance for pupils. Pupils may have confided in them that they are struggling with an aspect of school, home or friendships, or staff may be observing changes through the behaviour, outlook or presentation of the child or young person.
At this point our Pupil Support Group would discuss any extra support we could offer. This could include learning support, counselling or the involvement of one of our link agencies. Pupil support groups are attended by senior management, social work and educational psychology as well as our nursing team if appropriate. Parents are asked for permission to discuss their child at Pupil Support Group and outcomes are shared following the meetings.
Further information and support for parents of children and young people with ASN can be found at the following organisations identified under The Additional Support for Learning (Sources of Information) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2011:
(a) Children in Scotland: Working for Children and Their Families, trading as “Enquire – the Scottish advice and information service for additional support for learning”, a charitable body registered in Scotland under registration number SC003527;
(b) Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance, a charitable body registered in Scotland under registration number SC033576; and
(c) Scottish Child Law Centre, a charitable body registered in Scotland under registration number SCO12741.”
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Promoting Wellbeing, Protecting and Safeguarding.
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The Scottish Government introduced Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) as a programme of change, reaching across all children and adult services in the public and voluntary sectors in Scotland, to achieve better futures for all of our children, young people and their families. It builds from universal health and education services and drives the developments that will improve outcomes for all children and young people. The Children and Young People’s (Scotland) 2014 Act now provides a legal framework around these principles.
We want all our children and young people to be fully supported as they grow and develop into successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens. We believe they should be: Safe, Healthy, Active, Nurtured, Achieving, Respected, Responsible and Included. These are the eight indicators of wellbeing.
The Getting It Right approach is about how practitioners across all services for children and adults meet the needs of children and young people, working together where necessary to ensure they reach their full potential. It promotes a shared approach and accountability that:
- builds solutions with and around children, young people and families
- enables children and young people to get the help they need when they need it
- supports a positive shift in culture, systems and practice
- involves working better together to improve life chances for children, young people and families
To do this the Scottish Government has legislated that all children have a Named Person until the age of 18 who will coordinate services for them, should they require it. The Named Person for children in early years’ settings is their Health Visitor and for those at school it is their Head or Depute Head Teacher. Young people under the age of 18 who have left school can access their Named Person via the Education Service.
Once a concern has been brought to their attention, the Named Person, needs to take action, help, or arrange for the right support in order to promote the child’s development and wellbeing. Referring to the eight Wellbeing Indicators, they will need to ask these five questions:
- What is getting in the way of this child or young person’s wellbeing?
- Do I have all the information I need to help this child or young person?
- What can I do now to help this child or young person?
- What can my agency do to help this child or young person?
- What additional help, if any, may be needed from others?
The Named Person also needs to help children and families feel confident they can raise concerns, talk about their worries to people who will listen and respect their point of view and work with them to sort things out. Above all, they will ensure that the child or young person’s views are listened to and that the family (where appropriate) is kept informed.
To find out more about Getting it Right or to access the Named Person for your child, please inquire directly to the school office.
