3. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to better support teachers and educators who work with learners with ADHD. (S6O-02246)

We want all children and young people, including those who have ADHD, to get the support that is needed for them to reach their full potential. We work closely with partners, including Education Scotland, to ensure that teaching staff have access to a range of free professional learning and developmental resources. Those include free learning modules for practitioners on inclusive practice that are available via the Open University.

On 30 November last year, we published our updated additional support for learning action plan, which outlines further work that we will take on ASL to ensure that teaching staff continue to receive training to support all children with additional support needs, including those with ADHD.

Although I recognise that Scotland’s teaching staff are committed to providing all children and young people in their care with the support that they need to succeed, too many occasions have been brought to my attention on which, for a variety of reasons, that has not been done to the parents’ satisfaction. Will the cabinet secretary indicate whether the Scottish Government will consider publishing updated guidance for teachers and educators on how best to support children and young people with ADHD, including those who do not have a diagnosis but present with ADHD symptoms?

As Stuart McMillan outlined, in our model of additional support for learning, support in school does not require a formal diagnosis of a particular condition. However, I recognise that a diagnosis can help families and our young people to understand how they can better deal with and respond to additional support needs. More broadly, other professionals who work in our education sector but are not teachers can help to provide specialism in that regard, too.

Through our additional support for learning action plan, we have committed to building on and developing the suite of resources that are already available to meet the needs of children and young people. As part of that work, the project board sub-group on training and resources will consider how to improve the support for neurodiverse learners, including those with ADHD.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

We have a number of supplementaries and I want to get them all in. They will need to be reasonably brief, as will the responses.

I remind the chamber that I am the vice chair of the ADHD Foundation and have an ADHD diagnosis myself. With as many as one in five children in the classroom having a neurodevelopmental disorder, training in teaching children with neurodevelopmental disorders should be not optional but something that all teachers must have. Will the cabinet secretary confirm what conversations she has had with the General Teaching Council for Scotland about incorporating that in initial teacher education?

A number of teaching unions raised the issue with me directly over the weekend. I recognise some of the challenges in our classrooms. It is worth putting on record the increase in the number of pupils with additional support needs in Scotland’s schools. I think that, since 2010, there has been an increase of more than 30 per cent, which is quite substantial. In the past year alone, there has been an increase of more than 8,000 pupils being reported as having an additional support need.

It is crucial that our teaching staff have the professional support that Daniel Johnson spoke to. Of course, the GTCS has a crucial role to play in that regard. It has a requirement that 35 hours of professional development for teachers be completed within the year. What that development focuses on is at the teacher’s discretion but I take the member’s point on working with the GTCS on the issue, particularly noting the national increase in recent years in the number of additional support needs in our schools.

In February, members of the Education, Children and Young People Committee were told that

“provision for young disabled people when they move on from school is a national disgrace.” and that for young people transitioning out of school,

“It is a messy and terrifying place out there at the moment, particularly given the lack of co-ordinated plans.”—[

Official Report

,

Education, Children and Young People Committee

, 1 February 2023; c 18.]

With our college and university sectors strapped for cash, what action is the Scottish National Party Government taking to support individuals with ASN who attend university and college?

I will not answer on the specifics about universities and colleges because the initial question was focused on school education, although I would be happy to write to Pam Gosal on the transition period. I recognise that it is potentially a challenge for some young people.

In relation to school education, we have co-ordinated support plans—CSPs—that follow, or should follow, a young person as they transition, for example, from primary to secondary. It is really imperative that we in Government work with our partners in the university sector and in colleges to ensure that that co-ordinated support plan is followed through.

I would be more than happy to write to the member with some additional information in relation to the specific point on higher education.

The questions today have mentioned ADHD and additional support needs. I go back to the original question about ADHD, which is a disability. Article 23 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, on which evidence is being taken today, gives a right to “special care” in education for children with a disability.

Can the Scottish Government explain how it is meeting that requirement for special care in education with the support that is being given to ADHD sufferers?

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

Be as brief as possible, cabinet secretary.

A direct response to the member’s question is that we currently have the highest record of support staff in our schools. In 2022, 307 additional pupil support assistants were recruited, which built on the increase of more than 1,000 from the previous year, bringing the total number of pupil support staff to 16,606. That increase is a direct result of continued investment from the Government.

However, I recognise the member’s point that, more broadly, we will need to go further to ensure that the increase in additional support needs in our schools is adequately supported in our classrooms.

I committed over the weekend to working with the teaching unions on that very issue and I have already committed to the member’s colleagues that I will work directly with the GTCS on the professional requirements for teachers as they undergo teacher training.