Scotland’s approach to special needs education is more inclusive than the rest of the UK – but it doesn’t always work in practice
Across the UK, how children are identified with special educational needs, and how they are then supported, differs according to where they live. There are broad similarities in the approaches in Wales, England and Northern Ireland. But in Scotland things are done differently. Northern Ireland, Wales and England define children with learning needs as those who have significantly greater difficulty in learning than their peers. Scotland takes a more distinctive approach, using the term “Additional Support Needs” (ASN). A child or young person has ASN if they are unable, without the provision of additional support, to benefit from the school education provided. This much broader definition means that there is a wide range of reasons a learner could have ASN. These could be permanent or temporary in nature: they could be, for instance, experiencing family bereavement or bullying. Unsurprisingly, Scotland’s broader definition has meant that it has a significant proportion of learners identified with ASN – 37% in 2023. Across a wide range of policy documentation, inclusive education in Scotland is understood broadly to encompass …
