Review of Additional Support Needs provision in East Ayrshire

There has been a significant increase in the number of children and young people identified as having Additional Support Needs in East Ayrshire, and a corresponding increase in diversity and complexity of needs. This increase is attributed to greater awareness, earlier diagnosis and broader definitions of need, and also reflects the experience of every local authority in Scotland. 40% of all learners in Scotland receive additional support for learning, which is an eightfold increase since 2004.

A full review was therefore necessary to assess how well current provision was meeting the needs of our learners, to ensure equity and to identify areas that required development in line with local and national priorities.

The Council’s Education Service maintains robust systems to collect, analyse and utilise high-quality data. This is key to having a clear understanding of pupils’ additional support needs and the resources that are required to meet them effectively.

It is also key to meeting the requirements of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and to upholding the principles of inclusive education, which underlines that support should be provided as close to a child’s home and community as possible.

By using the data and the local expertise of education officers, the Education Service has been able to fully assess Additional Support for Learning (ASL) Centres, which are currently called Supported Learning and Communication Centres, and make the following recommendations to elected members, which have been agreed:

· utilise Capital Funding allocation, as identified in the Capital Investment Plan agreed at Cabinet on 26 February 2025, to expand and increase local ASL centres across Education Groups and increase flexible support spaces within mainstream schools, particularly in currently underserved areas
· embed the refreshed Staged Intervention Approach across the authority and establish clear, consistent guidance to ensure equity and accountability in practice
· finalise an ASN and Inclusion Strategy Framework, that brings together all guidance documents to work alongside the new Staged Intervention Approach
· re-distribute resource allocation as described above to align with each stage of intervention, ensuring that support is responsive, proportionate and sustainable
· enhance training and workforce development, through ongoing professional learning for school staff, leaders and partner agencies to ensure confidence and capacity in delivering interventions across all stages
· through robust quality assurance mechanisms, monitor and evaluate impact of interventions and investments on learner outcomes, inclusion, and resource efficiency by continuing to analyse data
· engage with families and communities in the evaluation of ASL centres to ensure services are accessible, inclusive and responsive to lived experience
· to reflect the changing landscape of support needs and to bring greater consistency to our language, we are also updating our terminology—replacing Supported Learning Centre (SLC) and Communication Centre (CC) with the more inclusive term ‘ASL centre’
· re-profile the ASL centres and infrastructure to deliver services closer to children’s catchment areas.

Councillor Elaine Cowan, Spokesperson for Education, and Children and Young People said: “There are seven Education Groups in East Ayrshire, based on the secondary school catchment areas, and they don’t all have a dedicated ASL centre across both primary and secondary sectors. It is clear that this has had a significant impact on children and young people. They are having to travel significant distances to get the support they need, which can be very unsettling for children and young people with Additional Support Needs, and it also means that they aren’t getting the same opportunity to build relationships within their own communities.

“It also impacts their families. Parental engagement is key to supporting positive outcomes for learners with Additional Support Needs and not having localised ASL centres can mean that coordinating transport and attending meetings can be really difficult.

“The decisions taken by Cabinet, which were fully informed by the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, will have a positive impact on children and young people, their families and Education Services, and I would like to take this opportunity to reassure parents and carers that no children or young people will be asked to move school as a result of these decisions.

“I look forward to visiting the current ASL centres in the coming months across East Ayrshire with Education Services and fellow elected members, to chat with staff and children and young people about the future.”