- Title or Description
- Care and education for children with additional support needs
- FOI Number
- 2024551
- Date Received
- 22/05/2024
- Type of Request
- FOI
- Request or Question
-
I am aware of data published by the Scottish Government. However, the Pupil Census Supplementary Statistics ' data set (link below), doesn't provide a granular breakdown by primary type of SEN need and type of plan. I am aware the data set provides the number of children in special schools but does not split this data more granularly into school type. Therefore, I would like to request the following breakdown of data: 1. Please could you supply the name, job title, email address and telephone number of the commissioner or individual with responsibility for children s additional support needs (ASN) placements. For questions 2 through 6, please supply the following information for the financial years 2020/21 to 2023/24, and where possible, budgeted or projected figures available for 2024/25. Please note that all Special School categories includes state-funded nursery, primary, and secondary special schools, non-maintained special schools, pupil referral units, and independent special schools
2. Please provide the total number of children and young people in the local authority with: i) additional support needs (ASN), ii) a co-ordinated support plan (CSP), iii) or an individualised education programme (IEP) in all 'Special school' categories with a primary need of; a. Learning disability b. Autistic Spectrum Disorder c. Social, emotional and behavioural difficulty
3. Please provide the total number of children and young people in the local authority with: i) ASN, ii) CSP, iii) or IEP in a 'Special school: independent special school' only with a primary need of; a. Learning disability b. Autistic Spectrum Disorder c. Social, emotional and behavioural difficulty
4. Please provide the Local Authority s total expenditure on ASN placements in 'Special school: independent special schools'
5. Of the total number of children and young people with: i) ASN, ii) CSP, iii) IEP, who are attending all Special School categories, please provide the number that are placed out of area (i.e. outside the LA boundary) with a primary need of; a. Learning disability b. Autistic Spectrum Disorder c. Social, emotional and behavioural difficulty
6. Please provide the total number of children and young people in the local authority with: a) ASN, b) CSP, c) IEP, in a 'Special school: independent special school' that are in day placements (no boarding component) - Response
-
We currently have no specified Officer with this overall remit but a number of officers with specific remits within ASN. For any specific requests, these would be forwarded to the Education Duty Manager to coordinate. CSPs only -and v approximate due to subjectivity involved
2021-22 2022-23 2023-24
LD 9 8 12
ASD 2 4 3
SEBD 0 0 1
LD and ASD 3 4 2
CSPs only -and v approximate due to subjectivity involved
2021-22 2022-23 2023-24
LD 4 6 5
ASD 0 1 0
SEBD 0 0 1
LD and ASD 0 1 1
The expenditure allocated 24/25 was 2,731,021.
CSPs only -and v approximate due to subjectivity involved
2021-22 2022-23 2023-24
LD 4 6 5
ASD 0 1 0
SEBD 0 0 1
LD and ASD 0 1 1
CSPs only -and v approximate due to subjectivity involved
2021-22 2022-23 2023-24
LD 4 5 4
ASD 0 0 0
SEBD 0 0 0
LD and ASD 0 0 0
This type of information is not readily available in the detail requested given that we do not keep this data in anything like the categories requested. It would take us a significant amount of time (in excess of 40 hours for one member of staff which is more than the full time hours for one person for a whole week of work) to provide this data and concluded that the cost of complying with it would be more than 600. Under S12 (1) of FOISA 2002 Scottish Borders Council is not obliged to comply with a request that is estimated to exceed this cost. To explain further. The total number of data sets is a lot taking into account the number of year groups, the range of ASN and plans, and the type of need. A number of assumptions are made; for example that primary needs can be clearly identified using the (only) three need categories identified by the requester and that they are each independent of each other. This is not the case. I have an overview of CSPs for SBC and having asked ANMaT last week to try and extract relevant CSP data for this request from our current information fields it is apparent that: * Looking at the factors from which the ASNs in each case arise, hardly any of the young people have only one primary need. The response categories specified does not allow for joint categories which for some cases need to be factored in. For example, young people who have a learning disability and are blind or who have a learning disability and also diagnosed ASD. To answer this question with any confidence would require consultation, for each of the young people, with someone who knows them well. It would not be the same person to speak to in each school for each child given the number of children and young people covered by this request. * The special school option is not just one school when you take account of the enhanced provisions in different SBC secondaries and primary provisions and the external independent day and residential schools - I would estimate approximately 25 schools. The special school options mentioned are not all relevant for Scotland - we do not have PRU s for example. - Related links
- Pupil census supplementary statistics
