Parents generally don’t have enough knowledge or information on what is involved where additional support needs are concerned.
You are told your child has a diagnosis of something and then you are fighting as you move through the education system to get what they need.
Read more: Parents who want extra help for ASN pupils 'seen as troublemakers'
Families find it difficult because they are not getting the correct information from the services that are supposed to be giving it to them in the first instance and then they don’t know where else to go.
The issues continue when they eventually find out about co-ordinated support plans because they are often told by councils that they don’t need them when without them they could be missing out on the appropriate support.
There is a Catch 22 situation which crops up all the time which is that children who we believe require a CSP and who are getting input from a range of other services such as health or social work cannot get a plan because the support is not long term enough under the CSP criteria.
These plans are not even spoken about now in conversations with councils about ASN pupils and I think it is an approach by councils so they are not bound to the support and therefore cannot be held accountable. Instead we are seeing the use of things like wellbeing action plans, but these are not backed up in the law.
That means that if councils cannot provide the support there is no comeback, but we see that as a failure on the part of the councils to provide the support that is required.
Read more: Parents who want extra help for ASN pupils 'seen as toublemakers'
If a child is struggling in the classroom and needs extra support what tends to happen is that schools ask if the child can be put on a part-time timetable.
That is basically because the schools cannot cope because they have classes full of other pupils and other parents may be complaining.
The parent doesn’t know whether that is a good thing or not, but there is a concern that it send the wrong message to the child that if they lash out they get sent home and so they can use it as a mechanism to get out of something they don’t want to engage with or if they feel they can’t cope.
That appeases other parents and means the school doesn’t have to utilise resources that they would otherwise need to find to make sure the child was properly supported.
What we are finding is that headteachers are under so much pressure that they are doing this without following the correct processes and many parents are agreeing to it because they want their child to be safe.
Overall the system is very complicated and at the start of the process parents have no idea what to do.
They see the power of the education system and may be intimidated because of their own experiences at school so it is about ensuring parents know their rights as well as making it simpler for people to get the support their children need.
Individuals who fight for support should be welcomed rather than marked down as troublemakers.
Susan McKellar works for the Parent Network Scotland
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