Additional Support for Learning action plan: final progress report

Remaining Actions

The introduction to this final ASL Progress Report set out that 4 actions were still pending completion. To ensure transparency, the individual actions that remain have been set out below.

Recommendation 4 – Resources

• LI4 “The Scottish Government will, through continued work towards implementation of the Doran Review recommendations, consider opportunities to share the expertise of all professionals who support children and young people with complex additional support needs in specialist settings throughout the wider education system.”

Recommendation 4 - Resources

• LI5 “ADES and COSLA will consider how authorities can improve the experiences of children and young people with additional support needs through local commissioning, which has progressed since the Doran Review.”

Recommendation 5 – Workforce, Development and Support

• TP6 “As set out in the Bute House Agreement, the Scottish Government will explore with Local Government and partners, the development of an accredited qualification and registration programme for Additional Support Needs assistants with final proposals to be brought forward by autumn 2023.”

Recommendation 8 – Understanding Rights

• LI25 “The Scottish Government will revise GIRFEC policy and practice guidance, including a single planning process for children and young people. It will seek to align and clarify the relationship between statutory and non-statutory plans and to align those plans.”

The ASL Project Board members felt that it was important to recognise that the context within which ASL policy is delivered, and education more broadly, has changed dramatically since Angela Morgan’s Review of ASL in 2020. Members carefully considered the pending actions to ensure they remained relevant and necessary, and explored the most appropriate route for oversight and delivery going forward, to ensure that the actions continued to be delivered in a way that will support our children and young people, and their families and carers.

Two of the pending actions relate to the 2012 Doran Review. The Doran Review specifically focuses on improving the educational outcomes and learning experiences of children and young people with complex additional support needs. The timescales for the Doran Review have always been longer-term and are due to conclude in 2029. The delivery of these actions, therefore, did not align with the timescales of the ASL Action Plan, and completion by the end of this Parliamentary term (March 2026). Good progress is being made in this space, with research having been commissioned across all 32 Local Authorities to provide a comprehensive, up-to-date evidence base to inform future decisions on services to be commissioned for children and young people with complex needs. The findings from this research will be available in spring 2027.

Progress towards delivery of the two pending actions has straddled two governance mechanisms; the ASL Project Board and the Doran Strategic Commissioning Group. Reporting mechanisms for this work are currently being discussed and agreed by Scottish Government Officials, however, any new arrangements that are put in place will continue to have wide stakeholder engagement.

One of the pending actions relates to Workforce Development and Support, with a specific focus on Additional Support Needs assistants (also known as Pupil Support Staff), for the Scottish Government to explore with Local Government and partners, the development of an accredited qualification and registration programme for Additional Support Needs assistants. Extensive work has been undertaken by the Scottish Government to explore options for the introduction of an accredited qualification and a registration programme for pupil support staff. While progress has taken longer than anticipated, this reflects the importance of engaging meaningfully with key stakeholders to ensure any solution is practical and sustainable. The report will set out recommendations for working collaboratively with partners to establish a sustainable, long-term solution, while also enhancing the support that is already available for pupil support staff. Oversight for this work will remain the responsibility of Scottish Government Officials. They will continue to engage with key stakeholders as this work evolves.

The final pending action relates to understanding rights and proposes that the Scottish Government revise GIRFEC policy and practice guidance, including a single planning process for children and young people. Throughout 2025, the Scottish Government GIRFEC team have been undertaking exploratory work in partnership with stakeholders, to better understand local challenges around GIRFEC implementation, to strengthen its consistent, high-quality application across Scotland. A core component of the GIRFEC approach is the child’s plan. A personalised child’s plan is developed when it is recognised that a child or young person needs a range of extra support to be planned, delivered and co-ordinated. The GIRFEC Child’s Plan Practice Statement sets out that specialist statutory plans such as a Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP) for education, Adoption Support Plan, Looked After Child's plan or Young Carer Statement may form part of the GIRFEC child’s plan. This is supported by a suite of national guidance, including the National Practice Model. This approach to planning allows local authorities, Health Boards and agencies to support the local needs of children, families and their services.

To support this work, NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) was commissioned by the Scottish Government to produce two GIRFEC e-learning modules which were published in December 2024 to better support the knowledge and skills of the workforce in GIRFEC implementation across public agencies. The skilled module outlines the relevant statutory requirements for preparing a record of a child or young person’s needs and how these align with the shared approach to planning underpinned by the GIRFEC approach, and these modules continue to be promoted to support inclusive practice and to embed the GIRFEC approach.

Due to the scale of this work, it will continue into 2026 and beyond the life of the ASL Action Plan. The Scottish Government will continue to work with local GIRFEC leads to understand and promote effective practice in the consistent implementation of the child’s plan. This includes facilitating solutions-focussed discussions around improving the consistency in the use of a simple, joined-up approach to planning between agencies. The Scottish Government will also continue to facilitate a regional stakeholder engagement programme over 2026, which brings practitioners from health, education, social work and third sector organisations together regionally to share effective practice, discuss common challenges and work together to find realistic solutions. The programme is a partnership approach and the child’s plan are expected to be a key theme at events as a core component of GIRFEC implementation.

Oversight for this work will remain the responsibility of Scottish Government Officials. They will continue to engage with key stakeholders as this work evolves.