Item 10 - Services for Children, Young People and Families Update Report

West Dunbartonshire Council · 27 November 2024
Back to Educational Services Committee — 27 November 2024 and its agenda

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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL
Report by Laura Mason, Chief Education Officer
Educational Services Committee:   12th December 2024
___________________________________________________________________
Subject: Services for Children, Young People and Families Update Report
1. Purpose
1.1 The purpose of this report is:
a) to inform the Educational Services Committee of progress on supports
to children, young people and families.
2. Recommendations
2.1 Members of the Educational Services Committee are asked to:
a) Note progress on plans to continue developing and improving supports.
3. Background
3.1 In January 2019 a national review of the implementation of Additional Support
for Learning began.  The subsequent report and action plan had nine key
themes which set standards nationally, locally and at establishment level. 
3.2 The national report recommends that local authorities must take account of
the findings of the report to review and align their quality assurance
processes. This must drive improvements in processes, practice and
outcomes at all levels in the system. 
3.3 West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) is committed to ensuring all children and
young people are enabled to progress through Early Learning and School with
the support they need.
When this support is more or different to what is generally provided for children
and young people of the same age, then the child or young person is said to
have additional needs. 
3.4 The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2009 lists four
interrelated factors which individually or jointly impact on ability to learn:
• Learning Environment
• Family Circumstances
• Disability or Health
• Social or Emotional Factors
Additional support may be required throughout a child or young person’s
educational journey: others may only require additional support for a short
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period.
3.5 It is recognised that children, young people and families are best supported
through effective multi-agency planning and delivery of services. Educational
Services work in collaboration with a range of council, Health and Social Care
Partnership (HSCP) and third sector colleagues to support our families. This
work is being developed via the Whole Family Wellbeing (WFW) planning, led
by Educational Services on behalf of the Community Planning Partnership.
4. Main Issues
4.1 There are currently 11 884 school pupils in West Dunbartonshire Council.
5434 Pupils have Additional Support Needs (ASN), supported mainly in
mainstream schools. Approximately 272 pupils are supported in our specialist
settings as they require a more specific learning environment.  We also have
a small percentage of our children and young people with additional support
needs supported by day or residential providers in external placements. 
These often involve young people separated from their peers and their
community and can be expensive in comparison to supporting in-house.
These costs have increased significantly over the past few years due to
increased salaries and increased charges from partner providers for the range
of specialist supports offered.  This has resulted in budget overspends and it
is anticipated that there might be mitigation of these to some extent by the
ASN strategy implementation.
The trajectory of ASN needs in WDC has increased over time (from 36.9% in
2013 to 45.7% in 2024) and been supported by the investment in our ASN
estate expansion. Over the past four years this has resulted in the availability
of 78 additional places in specialist settings.
4.2 In preparation for transition to school session 2024-2025 there was a
significant increase in number of children’s cases considered by the Joint
Review Panel (JRP) which allocates specialist places. This is reflective of
local and national ASN statistics and increases post pandemic.
53 children who had cases heard at the Joint Review Panel (JRP) were
identified as having needs which would require additional support when
transitioning to primary school.  31 of the group were identified as having the
most complex needs and allocated places in our Specialist Settings.  9
children were identified as having needs which would be able to be supported
in mainstream establishments within the existing ranges of support planning
by team around the child processes, and a further group of 13 were identified,
who would require enhanced support in mainstream establishments.
No child considered at JRP this year has a Coordinated Support Plan (CSP).
To meet the criteria for a CSP, the child requires significant and ongoing
support from another agency, other than education, to meet their educational
targets and this does not currently apply to this cohort.

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4.3 In line with National Guidance, we have a presumption to mainstream and
almost all children with additional support needs have them successfully met
in mainstream settings.
Our ASN Strategy identifies and addresses these issues with a focus on the
four pillars of inclusive education in Scotland which are: present, participating,
achieving and supported, in order that children meet their full potential. 
Mainstreaming the ‘central pillar’ to this approach.
Our strategy is successfully upskilling staff and building on consistent
approaches to meeting learner needs across all settings, ensuring our legal
obligations are being met.
4.4 Enhanced Local Learning Community Model
An enhanced Local Learning Community (LLC) model of support  has been
established, building on inclusive practices and our processes of moving
towards a ‘new normal’, where the expectation will be a presumption to
mainstream schooling for all children, with child’s planning, support, and
professional learning for staff key to this.  In session 2024-25 additional
staffing capacity and support has been provided to 3 identified schools;
Linnvale, Knoxland and Levenvale, to supporting transition and approaches to
meeting learners’ needs.  The 13 identified pupils offered places accepted
and started in school.  A group of Central Officers and Educational
Psychologists have produced an action plan and associated tasks to be
undertaken to ensure that staff are appropriately trained and supported; that
school environments meet the requirements of children attending and that the
team around the child works with parents to ensure the transition and
supports in place have enabled a settled start in P.1.
4.5 Progress and impact so far of the  Enhanced Model of Support   
The new model supports delivery of inclusive environments which meet the
needs of all learners and makes best use of resources.
This year, the three schools piloting the model are managing the needs of
children who require significant additional support in a responsive manner via
a blended mix of access to mainstream and enhanced supports.
The allocation of additional class teacher and a learning assistant who work
with existing school staff, ensures all children in the class are supported to 
access to their curriculum and associated care. 
This team of staff have and will continue to be trained and supported to
develop their skills and expertise in a range of ways and will be supervised
and managed as part of the Collaborative Support Service (CSS). They will
work in collaboration with other members of the team to identify the most

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appropriate and relevant approaches to support and allocation of the wider
CSS, Educational Psychology and Early Years team support. 
All establishments have now undertaken post placement reviews for the
children involved.  Feedback has been positive, and children’s progress is
evident.  They are benefitting from the language rich social environments of
the mainstream setting.  Reviews will continue to monitor pupil progress and
inform next steps.
The Neurodevelopmental (ND) Team are currently supporting across the 3
Enhanced Support Model Schools as part of a pilot model.   This collaborative
approach with Education, offers a multiagency targeted support to parents in
an environment where they are comfortable, increase staff awareness of
neurodivergence and reduce the wait times whilst streamline the ND
assessment process, thus improving collaborative planning and outcomes for
neurodiverse children and young people.  
The ND Team will continue to offer ‘Cuppa and Connect’ across educational
establishments bringing support to parents in school settings as these were
welcomed and very well attended last session.
In line with the introduction of this model, a review of the JRP processes and
timings has taken place.  In addition, further professional learning and revision
to pupil support forums in our Early Years has taken place, supported by 
Educational Psychology staff and Central Officers, ensuring consistent
approaches to inclusive practices.   
Another element of the WD for Families work is the development of workforce
and culture supports to ensure sustainable change across services for
families.   In each Hub there are Professional Learning twilight sessions
delivered by our NHS Colleagues (Occupational Therapists & Speech and
Language Therapists), Health Improvement Team as well as a partner with
lived experience of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder and Sensory Processing difficulties.
4.6 Education Leaders have collaborated to identify key areas of development
and focus for Year 4 of the Additional Support Needs (ASN) Strategy. 
Notable progress has been as follows:
● Year 3 of the implementation of the Child Inclusion Research into
Curriculum Learning Education (CIRCLE) has been completed and
monitoring via school improvement visits and in dialogue with school
leaders and Champions, informs us this is supporting inclusive practices
and improving learners’ experiences. The School Participation
Questionnaire has been completed by almost all schools and this
evaluation process records that 78% of schools report an improvement in
their inclusive environments, an average increase of 10%.

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This evidence shows that schools have been working collaboratively to
make their environments more inclusive for all children.
● The implementation of social communication, emotional regulation,
transactional supports (SCERTS) in five out of our seven specialist
settings has ensured consistent approaches to using the SCERTS
framework with parents/carers at review points for their children.  Aligned
with work developing parent understanding of the programme, this has
enabled practical strategies to supporting home school collaboration and
provided a basis to build upon vital communication skills developed in
each setting.     Within each of the 5 specialist setting ‘Brew & Blether’
sessions have been arranged in term 1 or 2 of this session, to support
parental engagement and understanding of SCERTS.
● We continue to develop approaches to supporting our care experienced
children and young people in a range of ways such as specific tracking of
attendance and attainment with targeted interventions to address gaps.  In
addition, a Principal Teacher and class teacher from the Collaborative
Support Service(CSS) will continue to develop our interrogation of data
and progress of looked after children and young people through the
implementation of cyclical approaches to monitoring progress and
delivering of interventions to support the narrowing of gaps in attendance
and attainment. In collaboration with Partner Agency Y-Sort It, plans to
allocate support and track and monitor progress are in place, with a focus
on helping pupils develop the 6 West Dunbartonshire’s Competencies for
Learning.
● Dumbarton Academy is our first school to achieve the national ‘We
Promise Award’ for their engagement in a bespoke professional learning
programme regarding supporting the work of The Promise.  School and
Early Learning establishments will be supported to increase awareness of
and develop  consistent approaches in delivering the ‘We Promise Award’
across all education establishments. In recognition of Care Experience
Week taking place on 19th-26th October,  WDC have joined Action for
Children in hosting a Fun Day to celebrate the care experienced
community with children and families.
● In line with the Equally Safe strategy and responding to concerns around
Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) 16 days of action planning
has commenced much earlier than usual, High Schools have been
encouraged to sign up to Equally Safe at Schools in line with Scotgov
commitment to this and bullying incidents in seemis can be recorded under
the premise of gender based violence where required.
4.7 The Children’s Rights Officer has continued to develop Council wide
approaches to ensuring the Rights of the Child are understood and upheld.
The Rights Respecting Schools Programme continues to be implemented
across our service. It is anticipated all of our schools will have achieved the
Bronze level of award by December 2024, with many having progressed to
achieving or towards Silver.
4.8 Attendance at school remains a key focus for all establishments who monitor
attendance closely as well as tracking their key data in line with the monthly

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overview of key characteristics. 5 primary schools are collaborating with
Education Scotland on a Quality Improvement Project (QUIP).The key focus
is Primary School attendance and anticipate this will provide valuable 
learning and sharing of experiences that this will provide about attendance in
WDC Primary schools.
5. People Implications
5.1 There are no people implications as a direct result of this report. However, it
should be noted that in line with the recommendations in the ASN Review we
must ensure we have a well-trained, high-quality workforce who are equipped
to support the range of needs and rights of our children and young people.
6. Financial and Procurement Implications
6.1 The projected additional funding required for the learning estate expansion
has been approved and planned for in current and future budgets.
7. Risk Analysis
7.1 If the Council is unable to ensure appropriate support to children and young
people, we will not be meeting their needs under the terms of the Children
and Young People Act 2014 (Equalities Act 2010).
7.2 If the Council is unable to ensure appropriate support for all children, young
people and staff this could result in reputational damage.
8. Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA)
8.1 As noted in the previously produced Equalities Impact Assessment, the ASN
strategy and subsequent  supports and guidance developed will enhance the
quality of the service provided to all children, young people and staff  and
therefore can be seen to have a positive impact in terms of the equalities.
9. Consultation
9.1 Legal Services and the Section 95 Officer have been consulted in relation to
the content of this report. 
10. Strategic Assessment
10.1 This report reflects the Council’s aspiration to reduce inequalities for the
people of West Dunbartonshire.
Laura Mason
Chief Education Officer

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Person to Contact: Claire Cusick, Senior Education Officer
Services for Children and Young People
E-mail: claire.cusick@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
Wards Affected: All Wards

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