The Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act (2004)
by Alison Closs

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) Bill was passed on 1 April this year and the Act will be implemented in Autumn 2005. All interested parties contributed to the very extensive consultation process co-ordinated by Dr Mike Gibson and his team in SEED's Additional Support Needs Division. This team will produce, with working/ advisory stakeholder groups, a Code of Practice and regulations to ensure operational systems under the Act. Substantial funding has been allocated to ensure that Education Authorities, schools and their partner non-education services will be able to implement the Act.

The Act reflects changes in policies, practices, attitudes and expectations since the 1980 legislation with its focus on 'Special Educational Needs' (this will remain in force until the new Act's implementation). It is the legislative base for a system that will be more readily understood and have at its core the intention that the learning needs of all children should be addressed without stigma. The system aims to provide support when and where it is needed, preventing any additional needs limiting children's future within an inclusive society.

The Act introduces the concept of 'additional support needs' and a broad and inclusive framework for support for learning. It is the need for additional support in order to benefit from school education that is the key factor. It is recognised that the impact of any barrier or disadvantaging context will vary from youngster to youngster and that the support provided must accommodate to this diversity.

The Act outlines the duties of EAs and schools to identify additional support needs and ways to meet these needs. It introduces Co-ordinated Support Plans (COSP), a statutory planning document for children or young people with enduring complex or multiple barriers to learning who need a range of additional support from different services. A range of measures will also enable parents and schools or EAs to address disagreements about the education of children with ASN. These include mediation, conflict resolution and a user-friendly Tribunal.

The Act can be found, along with the updated (2nd edition) Summary Handout on the Act and the updated (2nd edition) Guide for Parents on the Act - available in Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, English, Farsi, Gaelic, Hindi, Mandarin, Punjabi and Urdu - at the Additional Support Needs Website.

Inclusion and Diversity in Central Asia

A recent Save the Children seminar brought together governmental representatives and diverse non-governmental organisations from four Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan (the host country), Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan and a few interested 'outsiders'. The topics were Inclusion and Diversity, key themes for the larger fund-giving organisations such as USAID, UNICEF and the Soros Foundation.

The challenges facing education in the countries of Central Asia include; political uncertainty, pervasive poverty or temporary and unevenly shared oil-related affluence, culturo-linguistic divisions between local and Russian heritages, the tensions between, for example, new fee-paying selective schools and inclusion, and the presence of many international agencies - all with their own agendas. Their greatest resources are the energy, creativity and ability of their own people and their willingness to use and adapt worldwide ideas and resources.

When I visited Shopokov Elementary School, one of Save the Children's partner schools outside the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, I was very impressed with the school's confident and able leadership, high expectations and successful efforts to include all the children in their catchment area - boys and girls, all languages and religions, and children with diverse additional support needs. Staff not only produced many of their own resources, they had also worked with parents to repair and decorate the school. Older pupils were able to converse fluently in three or four languages, including English. And the staff room was very similar to most schools in Scotland, full of ideas, liaison about children, good-humoured banter and occasional grumbles!

Alison Closs
Senior Lecturer
University of Edinburgh