“I’m quite early in the journey but I can’t believe the fight.”
These are the words Laura McFarlane uses to describe the struggles parents of children with additional support needs (ASN) face when it comes to education in Renfrewshire.
The Linwood mum is part of a group of parents, who took that fight to the council’s headquarters in Paisley’s Cotton Street on Thursday, demanding their voices be heard and that things change for them and their children.
“I didn’t realise it was going to be what it is,” she continues, reflecting on a battle all too familiar for families in the area. “It’s really horrible.”
Laura’s son Jaxon, four, is autistic and non-verbal. He was due to start school in August, but will remain at nursery for another year, where staff go “above and beyond” for him, after she felt moving on wasn’t right for him.
“I got Jaxon a bonus year but even at that, I had to fight for that,” she explains. “The educational psychologist came out to the nursery and met Jaxon once.
“The feedback that I got was that he would be expected to go to mainstream school this year. He’s non-verbal and on his assessment his cognitive age was 18 months.
“I said to them, that’s like you going into that baby room and saying, ‘Right come on, get a school uniform, you’re going to school.’
“He looks like a big boy but he’s not – emotionally and socially he’s not.”
Laura says it was only through Educate Me 2: Needs Not Numbers – a support group for families with children with ASN, which organised the protest – that she found the confidence to push for options outside of the mainstream environment.
“Only when I did that, other options started to come up,” she adds. “If I had sat there and said, yes, okay, he’d be at school.”
The Scottish Government’s presumption to provide education in a mainstream setting – unless certain exceptions, such as suitability for the child, are deemed to apply – has been in legislation since 2003.
However, critics of how the inclusion policy works in practice have raised concerns about a lack of resources, specialist staff and training.
Mark Halliwell is the secretary of Educate Me 2 and his son Lewis, 11, is autistic and dyslexic. He is at primary school in Glasgow but Renfrewshire Council is said to be looking at a transfer to an ASN unit at Renfrew High School.
“The one word that the council and government need to pick up on is the word fight,” Mark says, relaying the challenges faced by parents.
“We as parents are already under a lot of pressure but then to have an extra fight on top of that, it’s crazy.
“I think it’s time the council came out, and the government, and listened.”
Sarah Tait is the vice chair of Educate Me 2 and has a son called Ethan, 13, who is autistic and dyslexic.
Now at the end of his second year, he hasn’t attended Johnstone High School on a consistent basis since February last year because the amount of pupils, noise levels and moving between classes can prove overwhelming.
During that time, he has spent varying periods of time working with an inclusion support assistant, the discontinuity team and in a flexible learning unit, which ultimately haven’t been suitable for him.
A placing request for Mary Russell School – one of Renfrewshire’s two ASN schools – was refused, Sarah says, but she plans to appeal.
She is concerned flexible learning resources at St Benedict’s and Linwood high schools, where Ethan has been offered a place, won’t be suitable environments for his education either.
Sarah says: “It’s been a lot of fighting, a lot of emails, a lot of meetings and having to get councillors involved.
“It’s been very draining.
“It’s been a battle, it’s been a lot of stress on our family and on him.
“He had a complete shutdown. He stopped football, stopped going to boxing.
“For the past while since he stopped attending school, he doesn’t leave the house at all.”
Parents have said they do not blame the schools or teachers, but are urging local and national governments to properly resource them.
“The Scottish Government needs to realise that presumption to mainstream is not working,” Sarah adds. “They are waiting until our kids are failing.
“The council needs to realise what is actually going on in the schools.
“I feel like they don’t understand the challenges that we as parents have and the fight we have to put up for our children to get them what they need.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said it is for councils to “determine the most appropriate educational provision”, taking account of legal responsibilities and circumstances of children and young people.
However, they said it takes its commitment to pupils with ASN “very seriously” – adding that spending on additional support for learning reached £830 million in 2021/22, with the number of support staff in Scotland exceeding 16,600.
A council spokesperson said: “We have robust support measures in place across our schools and there is enough provision within ASN learning spaces for all children and young people who need it.
“We continue to invest in training for staff to ensure they can provide the best support to children and young people with additional support needs.”
They said staff continue to meet parents regularly to discuss the needs of their children.
“We continue to listen to parents, carers and their children on the challenges they face,” the spokesperson added.
“We would ask parents or carers to get in touch with our school teams to discuss any concerns they have.”
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