There are lies, damned lies, and statistics, so the cliché goes. Nonetheless, some statistics can help expose the truth. Take, for instance, the fact that this year around 43% of pupils in Scotland have been recorded as having Additional Support Needs (ASN) by the Scottish government, a 2.5 percentage point increase from the already huge 40.5% from 2024. In England and Wales, by comparison, only 20% of children have Special Educational Needs (SEN).

On the surface, these figures would suggest that Scotland is pathologising children’s behaviour more than the rest of the UK. Any behaviour which doesn’t quite fit the norm, it seems, must be evidence of special needs or medical disorders.

Upon closer inspection, however, the problem is more accurately attributed to the fine print of Scottish educational frameworks. As acronyms go, SEN and ASN may seem more or less the same thing — but there are crucial differences. Most significantly, SEN has considerably narrower parameters for qualification. Children with Special Educational Needs refers fairly strictly to pupils with a diagnosable medical or physical impairment: autism, ADHD, speech impediments, learning difficulties, wheelchair usage and so on.

Conversely, Education Scotland’s definition of Additional Support Needs is far more broad. ASNs, it claims, “can arise, in the short or long term, from a variety of circumstances including: the learning environment; family circumstances; health or disability needs; social and emotional factors”.

In other words, ASN essentially refers to anything that can affect a child’s behaviour or wellbeing: bereavement, bullying, a parent with mental health issues at home, even a minor life upheaval. For example, in any given classroom in Scotland, a child with severe dyslexia or ADHD, a child who speaks English as a second language, a child whose parent is an alcoholic, and a child stressed about joining a new school all qualify as ASN pupils.

The generous interpretation of such a lenient policy is that it’s a good thing we are now taking seriously a range of factors which can negatively affect children. Anybody who, as a child, was stigmatised for a learning difficulty or experienced cruelty from a teacher while navigating a highly stressful life experience will appreciate the intentions. 

In reality, though, conflating social and emotional struggles with neurodivergent conditions or physical disabilities is disastrous. Not only does it undermine our ability to help children with serious conditions, but it incentivises children to make excuses for their shortcomings rather than taking responsibility for improving their behaviour.

This is an inclusion-driven policy spreading itself so thin that it ceases to be rational. The unhelpfully vague criteria for ASN stems from Education Scotland’s Getting In Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) framework, which forms a key part of The Children And Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. GIRFEC’s primary aim is early intervention in helping children and their families, and advocates for the community around each individual child — educators, social workers, health visitors — to work in partnership with parents with the child’s interests at heart.

While this may sound noble, its implementation has caused considerable controversy. Some critics perceive it as an example of state overreach which undermines parental authority. In April this year Stuart Hunter, president of the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association (SSTA), said the schools system “has passed the tipping point leading to crisis” due to the “explosion” of ANS diagnoses. When almost half the country’s schoolchildren are categorised as prohibited from thriving without special support, you know something has gone wrong.

There simply isn’t enough money to triage this productively. Inevitably, children with severe ASNs risk being given less support than they require in favour of children going through normal, if challenging, life experiences. Instead of teaching, Scottish educators are dedicating unprecedented time playing makeshift social workers in ways they are not trained to handle.

Scottish educational frameworks are currently getting it very, very wrong. These statistics must be a wake-up call.

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Nina Welsch is a writer and former librarian.

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