3. To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet. (S5F-00952)

Tuesday.

I think that every member in the chamber, and everybody outside the chamber, wants Scotland to be successful in closing the attainment gap in our schools. However, that gap is not the result of merely one simple phenomenon; it has many complex causes. One of the most significant causes is the additional support needs that many young people have. Because we recognise far more of those needs now, which is welcome, one in four of our young people in Scotland is now recognised as having additional support needs.

However, shocking evidence was given to the Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee this week about the lack of provision to meet those needs. There has been a one-in-seven reduction in additional support needs teachers since 2010, and a one-in-10 reduction in ASN assistants. The shocking suggestion was made to the committee that a teacher in a Scottish school had been told that, in lieu of the training that they genuinely need to develop their skills to support young people with additional support needs, they should go away and watch “The Big Bang Theory”. Was the First Minister as shocked as I was to hear that?

The First Minister:

Patrick Harvie is right to raise the issue of additional support needs. He is also right to say that we have extended the definition of additional support needs so that we capture more people to ensure that they get the support that they need. I referred earlier to statistics that were published this week that show increased spending on schools. Within that, we also saw increased spending on additional learning support.

There is a fundamental point here, and perhaps a point of difference between Patrick Harvie and me. I ask him to consider that something like 95 per cent of all children who have additional support needs are taught in mainstream schools, so we must not see the support that they need as coming just from additional support needs teachers. Every teacher who is working in our schools has a responsibility to provide the support that those young people need. It is not simply a case of looking at dedicated additional support needs teachers.

That is why two things are so important—first, that spending has increased in the statistics that I spoke about, and secondly, that we see from the most recent figures that the number of teachers is being maintained and is slightly increasing as well.

The last part of Patrick Harvie’s question was on evidence that was given to a committee this week. The example that he narrated represents, in my view, completely unacceptable practice. That is why the Scottish Government has supported the development of resources for autism, for example, so that teachers have access to such resources. The autism toolbox helps teachers and education support staff to meet the needs of pupils with autism. It is important that we ensure that teachers are aware of that, because the resources are there for the training of teachers and it is important that they all have access to that.

It seems fairly clear to anyone who has looked at the evidence that was given to Parliament this week that the specialists working in this field do not feel that teachers have access to the resources that they need. The Scottish Government is absolutely right to want to recruit more teachers, but concerns have been expressed by, for example, the Educational Institute of Scotland that teachers will not have the time to develop the skills that they need to do the job that our modern education system quite rightly requires of them. It is vital that all teachers have access to a level of training in additional support needs, but the committee heard this week that in many people’s view there is less training provision in place than there was 25 years ago.

We need to invest in the specialists who can give the additional support where it is needed. That specialism also needs to be an attractive and well-supported career path for teachers. Has the First Minister read the evidence that was given to the committee this week? If she has not had time yet, will she commit to do so very soon? Will she ensure that the next time that we discuss this issue we are not talking about the level of provision going down as the level of demand goes up and teachers being told to go and watch sitcoms?

The First Minister:

Yes; I have looked at the evidence. I will make sure that I study very carefully all the evidence that is given to the committee on this issue. If the Government needs to take further action, I will work with the education secretary to make sure that we do that. However, it is important that we recognise the trend in investment that I referred to earlier and that we recognise that this is not simply about specialist teachers, important and vital though they are, but about making sure that all teachers in schools have the training and are equipped to support children with additional needs in the way that they need to be supported.

On the comment about teachers being asked to watch “The Big Bang Theory”, that situation is totally unacceptable. However, more than that, there is absolutely no need for it to happen. I referred to the resources that are available. The autism toolbox is very well used already, but we will now re-engage with local authorities to ensure that they are aware of it and are promoting it within all their settings. I think that we do the right thing in having a wide definition for young people with additional support needs. We also do the right thing in supporting as many of those young people as possible to learn in mainstream education. Although Patrick Harvie and I might have some disagreements around the right way to do that, he is right to raise the issue because it is of huge importance and the Scottish Government will continue to pay close attention to it.