Additional Support Needs : Placement in Mainstream Schools
North Ayrshire Council aims to meet additional support needs in local mainstream schools. Only where the local mainstream school is found to be unable to meet a child's or young person's educational needs will alternative types of educational placement be considered.
Every school-aged child or young person in Scotland has the right to be educated with their peers in their local, mainstream school. The Council ensures it does everything it can to offer this right to each child or young person.
Staged intervention
We have established a "Staged Intervention" model to help guide the delivery of this service.
Stage 1
When additional support needs are first identified, nursery staff, the class or subject teacher will try to meet these needs by more focused planning and monitoring.
Stage 2
If needs are not being met, the whole-school procedures for meeting additional support needs will be used to create an intervention plan.
Stage 3
The school will request outside support from central services or from other agencies.
Where these additional resources and strategies still do not meet the needs of the child or young person, then a higher level strategic planning framework will be implemented to see what needs to be done to meet the ongoing needs.
Assessment
Our assessment process would need to establish that placement in the local mainstream school:
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Would not be suited to the ability or aptitude of the child;
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Would be incompatible with the provision of efficient education for the children with whom the child would be educated; or
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Would result in unreasonable public expenditure being incurred which would not ordinarily be incurred, and it shall be presumed that those circumstances arise only exceptionally.
The legislation is clear that such alternative educational placements are likely to arise only in very exceptional circumstances.
Various assessment groups work to provide the Head of Service with all relevant information about a child's needs and will offer recommendations about possible alternative placements. Parents/carers and the child or young person are at the centre of these discussions and their views are an important part of the overall evidence that is gathered to inform the decision. The final decision rests with the Head of Service.