Children with ASN failed as specialist teacher ratio drops again

Access to additional support for learning specialist teachers has continued to drop in Scotland, the Scottish Greens have revealed. Figures from the Scottish Greens show that there is now only one specialist additional support needs teacher for every 76 ASN pupils.

The number of specialist additional support needs teachers in 2019 was 2,836 [1], while the number of pupils with additional needs rose to 215,897 [2].

The increasing number of children which each specialist teacher is responsible for is partly driven by the loss of hundreds of ASN teachers since 2010, whilst the number of pupils with identified needs has grown by almost 150,000.

The number of pupils with additional needs has increased from 69,587 in 2010 to 215,897 in 2019. By comparison, there were 3,887 ASN teachers in 2010, with just 2,836 now, or 3,462 if primary teachers in Scotland’s handful of special schools are included.

Ross Greer MSP, Scottish Green education spokesperson, said: “Thousands of children in Scotland with additional needs are being failed. I have raised this with the government time and again over a number of years, but the picture still is not improving.

“Specialist teachers are essential to supporting pupils with additional needs but they are gradually disappearing from our schools, at the same time as demand skyrockets.

“We know already that this lockdown is disproportionately hard for young people with additional needs and for their families, with a real risk that the attainment gap will be widened.

“As well as the need for urgent support, the Scottish Government must ensure that when schools do return to normal, it is a new normal where those with additional support needs are given a far fairer opportunity to learn than they have been this past decade.”

A spokesperson for the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition, which campaigns to improve services for vulnerable children and young people, commented: “The comments over a cut in specialist teachers reinforce concerns we have raised for some time now about a potential ‘lost generation’ of vulnerable children and young people.

“It is vital that those with ASN get the care and support they need, especially during and as we come out of the current COVID-19 crisis. This is also key if we are to genuinely close the educational attainment gap as we know that those with ASN disproportionately come from lower income families and areas of deprivation.

“Such a situation is clearly challenging during lockdown, when the educational attainment gap will inevitably widen, and with evidence of cuts in spending per pupil with ASN and in the number of specialist teachers supporting this group.

“The cost to society in the long term if adequate support is not provided will far outweigh any potential savings made today.

“Ensuring the adequate provision of educational support for children young people with ASN is critical and yet too many pupils are missing out on the specialist support they require because of cuts in specialist support at a time of increasing need.

“When children and young people with ASN return to school it is vital that we use this as an opportunity to give them the specialist support they need, ensuring that we can address increased inequalities that will have inevitably arisen due to lockdown.”