FAQs — Changes to the law

What are additional support needs?

In November 2005 a new law, the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, came into force. This law says that any child or young person who needs more or different support to what is normally provided for children or young people of the same age in order to benefit from school education, has ‘additional support needs’. Children may need extra help with their education for a wide variety of reasons. These include:

• emotional or social difficulties
• problems at home
• being particularly gifted
• bullying
• a physical disability
• being a young carer or parent
• having English as an additional language
• moving frequently.

It is not possible to list all the reasons a child may need additional support because each child is different. Any number of different circumstances can affect a child’s ability to learn. It is also important to recognise that circumstances that disrupt one child’s learning, could have little or no effect on another’s learning. A child’s needs may last for only a short time and the problem may be resolved easily, or they may be more complex and may require additional support for a number of years.

For additional information please see The parents’ guide to additional support for learning.

I’ve heard the law has changed. My child has a Record of Needs — what will the changes mean for us?

The ASL Act says the following things:

• Your child is automatically recognised as having additional support needs. (This is important as it means your education authority has the duties to your child that are set out in the ASL Act and you have additional rights.)
• Within 2 years of 14th November 2005, your education authority must establish whether your child needs a co-ordinated support plan (CSP).
• Your education authority must make sure that your child continues to get at least the same level of support as they were getting on the 14 November 2005 until the education authority decides that:
  1. your child needs a co-ordinated support plan; or
  2. your child does not need a co-ordinated support plan, in which case it must provide the same level of support for at least a further 2 years; or
  3. your child’s needs have changed significantly.

Please see Factsheet 14 — Moving to additional support for learning.