Month: April 2021

Potential Energy (Part 9)

On By Iain NisbetIn Additional Support Needs, ASL ReviewLeave a comment

Theme 8 in the ASL Review is “Understanding Rights”. As a lawyer, and a former law centre lawyer at that, you would expect me to be in favour of a rights-based approach – as indeed I am.

Things have moved on since the Review was published. It notes the Scottish Government’s commitment to incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law. Now, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill has been passed by the Scottish Parliament. The Bill has been referred to the Supreme Court under section 33 of the Scotland Act 1998 by the Attorney General and the Advocate General for Scotland, which may delay implementation a little, but is unlikely (as I understand it) to have any significant impact on the main operation of the law.

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Manifesto Review – Scottish Parliamentary Elections 2021

On By Iain NisbetIn Additional Support Needs, ASL Review, School Education3 Comments

I expect it hasn’t escaped your notice that there is an election happening soon. As such, and with an optimistic aspiration that it might encourage people consider more than just that issue when considering how to vote, I will review the main political parties’ manifestos.

This is not a review of the whole of the manifesto of each party, but only those parts which relate to additional support for learning. I am aiming to let you know what each party says and to provide some commentary where appropriate. I am certainly not going to tell you how to vote! Comments on the policies themselves and other ideas you wish were included are very welcome – political points scoring and arguments are not! I am presenting the manifestos in the order in which they were released.

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Case summary – Midlothian Council v PD and PD v Midlothian Council (Upper Tribunal for Scotland)

On By Iain NisbetIn Additional Support Needs, Case summary, Placing Requests, School EducationLeave a comment

Back in October 2019, I blogged on a decision on permission to appeal in this case (cf. Case summary – Midlothian Council v. PD). As you’ll remember, permission to appeal was granted and the decision on the appeal has now been published on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service website.

The appeal was granted, and the case has been sent back to a new First-tier Tribunal (Health and Education Chamber) to hear the case afresh.

Many of the same issues canvassed at the permission to appeal hearing are covered again in this decision (unsurprisingly). As before, I’ll attempt to cover the main points which might be of more general application.

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Promises, promises

On By Iain NisbetIn Additional Support Needs, ExclusionLeave a comment

Following the report of the Independent Care Review came The Promise which is effectively the vehicle for driving forwards the actual implementation of the changes required by the review. Yesterday, Plan 21-24 was published.

Plan 21-24 focuses on the period from 1 April 2021 until 31 March 2024. It outlines a set of outcomes that should be concluded by 2024.

There is a lot in the plan, with further detail to follow, but I wanted to take a quick look at what it says about the right to education. There are five specific outcomes which, according to the plan, will be in place “By 2024”:

  1. Care experienced children and young people will receive all they need to thrive at school. There will be no barriers to their engagement with education and schools will know and cherish their care experienced pupils.
  2. School improvement plans will value and recognise the needs of their care experienced pupils with robust tracking of attendance and attainment so that support can be given early.
  3. Care experienced young people will be actively participating in all subjects and extra-curricular activities in schools.
  4. The formal and informal exclusion of care experienced children from education will end.
  5. Schools will support and ensure care experienced young people go on to genuinely positive destinations, such as further education or employment.
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