Additional support needs in Scottish secondary schools: FOI release

Information requested

1. The number of additional support need staff employed in mainstream Scottish secondary schools.

2. The number of Scottish secondary schools that cater for pupils who require additional support.

3. The number of pupils with additional support needs attending a mainstream secondary school.

Please present this in a table, broken down per local district.

Response

1. The number of additional support need staff employed in mainstream Scottish secondary schools. Education authorities are responsible for identifying and meeting the additional support needs of their pupils. They have responsibility for securing appropriate resources, including teaching and support staff, to meet children and young people’s long or short-term needs. All teachers are responsible for supporting pupils with additional support needs, not just those teachers whose role is specifically related to additional support for learning. Whilst local authorities are responsible for the recruitment and deployment of their staff, Scottish Ministers continue to do everything they can to help maximise the number of jobs available for teachers, including permanent posts. The number of secondary school teachers by main subject is published in Table 3.9 of the teacher census supplementary statistics (see https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementarystatistics/). In 2024, the total number of teachers with a main subject of Learning Support, Additional Support Needs, Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment or English as an Additional Language was 1,418 FTE.

Statistics on school support staff are published on the Scottish Government website here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

2. The number of Scottish secondary schools that cater for pupils who require additional support. All children and young people should receive the support that they need to reach their full potential. Local authorities oversee the delivery of education in Scotland, and they have a statutory duty to identify, provide for, and to review the support that they provide for pupils with additional support needs in their local community. Most children and young people’s needs are met through a universal level of support and 95% of children and young people with ASN were educated in mainstream classes in 2022 through adapting learning and teaching approaches to support children in the classroom. However, it is recognised that children and young people should learn in the environment which best suits their needs. The legislation on the presumption of mainstreaming has clear exceptions to enable children and young people to learn in a special school or in a specialist unit. Guidance for local authorities is provided by a statutory supporting learners’ code of practice and guidance on mainstreaming.

Information on the number of pupils with additional support needs in each secondary school in Scotland is published in the school level summary statistics, available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-level-summary-statistics/ There were 360 secondary schools in 2024, all of which had at least one pupil with additional support needs.

3. The number of pupils with additional support needs attending a mainstream secondary school. The number of pupils with additional support needs attending mainstream secondary schools is shown in table 1.5 of the pupil census supplementary statistics, available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/pupil-census-supplementary-statistics/

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