The Scottish government has backed a Conservative motion calling for “a national review into the implementation of mainstreaming policy and the availability of specialist additional school places across local authorities”.
Opposition MSPs say the review is necessary because ”the presumption of mainstreaming is almost turning into a compulsion of mainstreaming”.
Education secretary Jenny Gilruth said the government would now engage in a “round table” with local government and local authorities’ body Cosla “at the earliest possible opportunity”, in order “to talk about what more might be done to support additional support needs in our schools”.
‘Mainstreaming a strength of Scottish education’
However, while she accepted there were challenges with the policy of mainstreaming, she also said inclusion was “a strength of Scotland’s education system”.
The “presumption of mainstreaming” refers to the principle that, whenever possible, children and young people with additional support needs (ASN) should be educated in mainstream schools.
The government commitment to a review of the implementation of the policy comes after a report published earlier this year from the auditor general, which found the government and councils had failed to plan properly for inclusion and needed to “fundamentally rethink how they plan, fund and staff additional support for learning”.
However, the Audit Scotland review is just one of many published in recent times to find that children with ASN are being failed by the system.
There has also been Angela Morgan’s 2020 review of additional support for learning (ASL) - which found that not all young people with ASN were being ”supported to flourish and fulfil their potential” - and the Scottish Parliament Education, Children and Young People Committee’s in 2024, which found that mainstream education could be “intolerable” for children with ASN.
During a Tory-led debate yesterday, Ms Gilruth said she was “struck” that the motion called for another review, having been repeatedly told in the past that ”the time for reviews is now over”.
However, she accepted “the gravity of the challenge” and said it was important that Parliament came together to recognise “what more needs to be done on behalf of Scotland’s children and young people”.
Conservative education spokesperson Miles Briggs said the review was needed to “understand the levels of ASL in our schools and realistically look at what the Scottish government and our councils can do to meet that demand and prioritise resources”.
Scottish Greens education spokesperson Ross Greer also acknowledged the number of reviews already carried out into ASL. However, he was “glad” the motion called for a review.
Mr Greer said: “It must focus on the actions and solutions that are required to address the implementation gap in the presumption of mainstreaming. There is no need for it to repeat the issues that we are already aware of.”
‘Compulsion of mainstreaming’
Willie Rennie, Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, said that the upcoming review needed “to look at the fact that the presumption of mainstreaming is almost turning into a compulsion of mainstreaming”.
Some parents, he said, did not want their children to be educated in mainstream schools and did not think the setting was suitable.
Mr Rennie asked when the review would start, when it would conclude and whether it would contain “practical actions for delivery”.
However, detail was lacking, with Ms Gilruth simply saying she planned to engage in “a round table” with local government and Cosla “at the earliest possible opportunity”.
Councils, she said, would need to be “at the table” when it came to determining the scope of the review.
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