Scotland's Ten Year Strategy for the Learning Provision for Children and Young People with Complex Additional Support Needs 2017-2026

Yes - with some qualification - see below

Whilst the structure and contents is useful, we would note that the actual Strategy does not commence until page 12 of the document. It may be useful to consider whether there is any facility for earlier factual material to be moved to an appendix. It may also be useful to consider whether there could be an additional insertion which draws the Strategy sections and specific actions into one table for ease of reference such as an executive summary.

Yes - to an extent

The contents page is useful in guiding the reader. However, not all sections appear to be given equal weight. There is much emphasis on strategic commissioning and whilst we acknowledge that this is a most significant and important issue, there is less development of the Strategy overall.

Overall we agree with the vision, aims and objectives. Although it is mentioned within other areas of the document, it may also be useful to consider the delivery of improved outcomes for children within the context of the GIRFEC wellbeing indicators – we note that these are referenced later, but only in relation to service self-assessment. This would better recognise the partnership contribution in delivering overall outcomes(1)

(1) Rasbash, J., Leckie, G., Pillinger, R. & Jenkins, J. 2010. Children's educational progress: partitioning family, school and area effects. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), 173, 657-682.

We agree that in the current context there is a need to ensure maximum return not only for financial planning but in ensuring that children receive the best support possible. Fundamentally, a child’s access to specialist support should not be impacted by their postcode. However, it will be important that any transition to a new model of commissioning has at the heart consideration of the needs of children currently in receipt of existing services.

In delivering strategic commissioning, it will be important to be cogniscant of the contextual arrangements which could impact on achieving this aim, including the increasing complexity of governance arrangements, for example, individual IJB /H&SCP structures and also the outcome of the education governance review, the impact of which is not currently known but which could significantly affect local authority children’s services capacity. The need for collaborative approaches to strategic commissioning could be more fully considered through integrated children’s services planning arrangements.

Finally, as with any commissioning, recognition needs to be given to the local context and the children’s experiences of services and the interaction with the child’s local community. It will be important to recognise the changing landscape of provision and funding, with an increasing focus on the development of social enterprises and business sector investment, in addition to shift towards communities finding ways to develop their own solutions.

We note the report IncludED in the Main? recently published by ENABLE, in particular their findings and recommendations in relation to young people’s lived experiences of education (2) . It may be useful for consideration to be given to addressing some of the key issues within this report, including the recommendation for holistic guidance to promote inclusion.

(2) http://www.enable.org.uk/includedinthemain/Documents/IncludED%20in%20the%20Main%20-%2022%20Steps%20on%20the%20Journey%20to%20Inclusion.pdf

We note that the transition from child to adult services is a key issue for many young people and their families. As this directly relates to those children considered as having additional needs, it may be useful to address this key issue as part of the Strategy insofar as it relates to impact on learning. We note the very useful recently Alliance and Scottish Government published report on this issue (3).
The importance of Self Directed Support in maximising the way in which people / families can maximise taking control of their lives also needs to be central to any consideration of national needs assessment. People increasingly wish personalised solutions, adopting unique approaches to address their need for support, and this needs to be considered prior to any population wide needs analysis.

(3) http://www.alliance-scotland.org.uk/news-and-events/news/2017/05/experiences-of-transitions-to-adult-years-and-adult-services-new-report/#.WYd4klJdDVI

We note that there is no reference to the recent Scottish Government consultation on Guidance on Health Care in Schools (4) . Given the potential for children with complex additional support needs to require more/ specialist health support it would be important to make the links to this.

(4) https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/supporting-learners/guidance-on-healthcare-needs-in-schools/

It isn’t clear as to whether any consultation has taken place with children and their families – the current draft refers to plans for parental engagement but doesn’t mention any plans for engagement with children and might be best to stipulate this.

Given that a significant part of this document is about reviewing the current service provision/ commissioning, it isn’t clear whether any of the proposed research will address the gap in understanding what the long terms outcomes are currently for children in specific specialist facilities and the anticipated outcomes if we were to move to different models (is there evidence in other countries for example) or is this is more of an expectation of any commissioning process?

Whilst the Strategy focusses on the training of teachers, it would be useful to set out how the Scottish Government will engage and support local authorities and other providers in the development of other staff including teaching support. We also note that there is a plethora of different training already in place and it may be that a more coordinated approach is required rather than more training ie that we seek to ensure that everyone has reasonable access to and receives training commensurate with their role.

On a more person centred note, in thinking about individual children, the Strategy might be best in thinking about training, learning and knowledge in its widest sense – some of the best learning about how to engage with and support the learning of a particular child with complex additional support needs may well come from the child’s family and so we need to think about how engage with parents as well as more formal learning. Joint approaches to learning (parents and professionals) can be particularly empowering, particularly if framed within a lived experience, adult learning, coaching framework.

We agree with the need to identify and take forward tests of change to identify good practice which can be both shared and scaled for delivery at a national level to ensure consistency in the standards of service delivery. We note that it will be important that this is done in partnership with local arrangements already in place and with consideration as to what local communities could provide in future.

Key to this approach will be ensuring that there is a true partnership between families, educational professionals, social workers, health professionals and others involved in the direct provision of services to children with additional needs and their families. Training to that extent needs to be commensurate with roles, support and promote “the team around the child” and promote an understanding of the impact on the family in caring for a child with additional needs.

We would note that this section of the Strategy could be better developed- it would be useful to consider stating the intention of the Scottish Government in engaging with and providing support to leaders.

As previously noted, it would be useful to consider articulating the Scottish Government’s commitment to engage and support local authorities and other providers in the development of training for the wider team staff involved in supporting children’s learning.

If possible, it may be useful to consider articulating how parental engagement will take place as part of taking the Strategy forward or if still to be developed when this will be in place. We also note that explicit reference should be made to engagement with children themselves.

We note that in thinking about this area, consideration needs to be given as to undertaking research with respect to the current lived experiences of children with complex additional support needs.

We would also note that service improvement partnerships should go beyond health and local authority statutory services and include community/ 3rd sector who will also contribute directly or indirectly to outcomes for these children.

This section could be clearer with respect to what is intended. For example, will a specific data suite be compiled or is it more of a developing measurement framework flexible to local contexts? What framework is anticipated for supporting national and local use of the data to better inform planning etc. We note there are parallels to this area of work and the use of evidence within the Scottish Government’s child protection improvement programme.

We note that thought should be given as to how to best ensure that the views of parents and children are reflected in the governance arrangements.

We note that further thought may need to be given to the additional challenge as to how to support the workforce in providing support to minority groups of children who have additional support needs which could include children who experience homelessness, child refugees (including unaccompanied asylum seeking children) and children from traveller communities, whom we know to have some of the worst outcomes. The unique challenges associated with caring for looked after children with additional support needs also require to be considered.

We note that much of this document is necessarily technical and an easy read version (if possible) may be useful. It isn’t immediately clear whether children and families were consulted directly in developing the Strategy.

Stylistically, the Strategy could be more powerful if it were able to articulate some of the current lived experiences of children with complex additional support needs.

Finally, whilst we welcome better strategic commissioning, we note that even with optimising arrangements, this is still an area which will continue to require significant funding to truly impact on outcomes.