Additional Support for Learning Act
Depending on your son’s or daughter’s needs, different levels of planning will be needed to make sure their learning and support needs are met.
Personal Learning Planning (PLP) – sets out individual aims and goals for your child to achieve within their class. The aims and goals must be manageable and realistic and reflect your child’s strengths as well as areas for development. Your son or daughter may be involved in setting their own aims and goals.
Individualised Educational Programmes (IEPs) – are specific documents which describe in detail the nature of your son’s or daughter’s additional support needs and the type of support they require. This may include considerable adaptation of the curriculum, or a particular teaching method, or the use of a particular communication tool. An IEP will contain more-specific short-term and long-term aims and goals for your son or daughter than personal learning planning, and may include tasks which can be done at home to help your son’s or daughter’s progress.
Co-ordinated support plans (CSPs) – are specific documents which describe in detail the nature of your son’s or daughter’s additional support needs and are legal documents so all education authorities must follow the same rules and regulations. There are specific criteria which must be met if your son or daughter is to have a co-ordinated support plan prepared for them. The criteria is as follows.
- they have additional support needs that are 'complex' or as a result of 'multiple factors' that have a significant affect on their school education (the exact definitions of 'complex' and 'multiple factors' are explained on page 37 of the parents’ guide to additional support for learning).
- supporting them requires high levels of involvement from one or more appropriate agencies such as health or social work services and the education authority
- their support needs will last more than one year.
The purpose of the plan is to ensure co-ordination of services across agencies towards specific learning outcomes.
Parents can ask their education authority to assess whether their son or daughter requires a co-ordinated support plan. They can also ask for specific types of assessment to be carried out.
Further information on planning to meet additional support needs is available from the parents’ guide to additional support for learning.
Planning for transition points
Planning is particularly important at transition points, for example when changing schools or when leaving schools. Wherever possible, education authorities should gather information and views from other agencies that have been working with your son or daughter at least six months before they are due to move from pre-school to primary school and twelve months before they are due to move from primary to secondary.
In planning for the transition from school to post-school, education authorities must ask appropriate agencies, for example Careers Scotland, social work and health for advice and information about any provision they are likely to make to meet your son’s or daughter’s needs once they leave school. This must be done at least 12 months before your son or daughter is due to leave school. This information will be used to ensure that any programme of support set up to prepare your son or daughter for post-school life is appropriate.
