An issue that strikes at the heart of Scottish education – leader comment

The number of children known to have additional support needs like autism and mental health problems has soared as the number of teachers to have them as been cut.

The number of days taken off work by teachers for mental health reasons has been increasing

Over the past six years, there has been an extraordinary increase in the number of children recognised to have ‘additional support needs’ or ASN.

The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC) found that between 2012 and 2018 the overall figure had gone up from 118,034 to 199,065, meaning that nearly 29 per cent of all pupils need some form of extra help. A breakdown reveals a 101 per cent increase in pupils with an autism spectrum disorder and a 252 per cent rise in children with mental health problems.

It is thought that one of the main reasons for the changes is that we have become better at spotting and recording such conditions, so the situation isn’t as simple as it first appears.

However, over the same period, there has been a fall of more than ten per cent in the number of specialist teachers providing the support these children need and a reduction in the amount of money spent per pupil with ASN from more than £4,250 to just under £3,400.

So it seems fairly clear that as it has emerged such problems are significantly more prevalent than we once thought, the amount of support available has been reduced.

While the SCSC said it backed the “presumption of mainstreaming” – the idea that pupils with ASNs should be taught in ordinary schools if at all possible – it added that it was “difficult to see how this is functioning properly” given the figures.

Scotland’s teachers are at the frontline of such issues, charged with the practicalities of children’s education, and it’s hard to avoid the suggestion that this is a factor in growing complaints about teacher stress and the rise in the number of sick days taken for mental health reasons.

If a pupil requires extra help the teacher does not have time to give, that’s bad for the child and the teacher. If the teacher chooses to give the child sufficient attention, the rest of the class could suffer. But it’s wrong to put teachers in that position. Pupils with ASNs should not be in competition with their classmates.

The aims of mainstreaming are laudable, but if we cannot afford the level of support required, perhaps specialist facilities would be more efficient. Striking the right balance is difficult – a task best left to the experts – but it doesn’t seem like Scotland is doing that at the moment. The risk is that our current system is failing all concerned.