Per-pupil funding for ASN children drops

Total funding has risen but funding per additional support needs pupil has dropped from £4,276 in 2012 to £3,224 in 2020

28th June 2021, 10:17am

Tes reporter

Per-pupil School Funding For Asn Children Falls

Funding to support children with special needs has fallen by more than £1,000 per pupil since 2012, according to Scottish government figures.

While the total amount of education funding for children with additional support needs (ASN) has risen by £200 million over that time, the number of pupils identified as having ASN increased by 97,886.

Across Scotland’s 32 local authorities, the average spend per pupil on extra support for ASN pupils in primary schools, secondary schools and special education facilities dropped from £4,276 in 2012 to £3,224 in 2020 - a fall of 24.6 per cent.

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Spending in cash terms per pupil ranged from £1,737 in Edinburgh to £5,849 in the Shetland Islands.

Fears over fall in per-pupil ASN funding

Last year there were 215,897 pupils with ASN - almost a third (30.9 per cent) of all children at Scottish schools - up from 118,011 at the start of the 2012 school year.

Meanwhile, the number of full-time equivalent ASN teachers at publicly funded schools fell from 3,389 to a record low of 2,836, a decrease of 553 teachers.

Commenting on the figures, published in response to a written question to education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition called for more funding.

A spokesman for the group, which represents support providers, said: “It is vital that those with ASN get the care and support they need, especially during and as we come out of the current Covid-19 crisis.

“This is also key if we are to genuinely close the educational attainment gap as we know that those with ASN disproportionately come from lower-income families and areas of deprivation.

“Such a situation is clearly challenging in an environment of austerity and evidence of cuts in spending per pupil with ASN and in the number of specialist teachers supporting this group.

“It is vital that the Scottish government and local authorities work together to provide the necessary resourcing to address the needs of those children and young people with ASN, who represent some of the most vulnerable individuals in our society.”

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “All children and young people should receive the support they need to reach their learning potential.

“All teachers provide support to pupils with additional support needs - not just ‘support for learning’ staff - and teacher numbers are at their highest since 2008.

“Councils are responsible for identifying and meeting the additional support needs of their pupils. We provide councils with an additional £15 million each year to further enhance capacity to help meet the individual needs of children and young people.

“This year 1,354 extra pupil support assistants were recruited, exceeding a Programme for Government commitment to deliver 1,000 new support assistants.

“Local government financial statistics for 2018-19 showed that local authorities spent £5.6 billion on education in Scotland. This has gone up from £5.2 billion in 2017-18 - a 4.1 per cent increase in real terms (6.3 per cent in cash terms).

“Of that, £661 million was on additional support for learning - increasing from £633 million in 2017-18 - a 2.2 per cent increase in real terms (4.3 per cent in cash terms).”