Additional Support Needs (ASN)
A child or young person is said to have additional support needs if they need more help with their education. An additional support need comes from anything which is a barrier to learning. We have legal duties to help pupils with additional support needs.
Reasons for support :
Children or young people may require additional support for a number or reasons. Needs are identified on an individual basis and may arise from:
- having a physical or learning disability
- living with parents who are abusing substances
- being a young carer
- being looked after
- being on the child protection register
- having social, emotional or behavioural needs
- being able or talented
- having English as an additional language
Moray is an inclusive authority. Our service helps children and young people, who need extra support - both long and short term - to make the most of their school education and feel included in their learning. We have no special schools but do offer an enhanced provision in all of our secondary and eight of our primary schools. We hope that children and young people, where possible, will participate in mainstream education.
We use a Staged Intervention Process to identify, assess and plan for additional support needs, based on the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) framework. This helps us decide when more targeted support is needed.
Who will support you and your child:
- Key adult - who can be a key worker in early learning and child care centres, class teacher, subject or ASfL teacher in schools
- Named Person - who can be a health visitor for pre-school children, head teacher for primary school pupils, principal teacher (Guidance or ASfL) for secondary school pupils.
- Lead professional – who is included when more than one agency is involved. It can be a head teacher, principal teacher or social worker.
How we can help
The help we provide for children and young people can come in the form of strategies, individual education programmes, extra support in the classroom or input from a specialist teacher or service. The type of support required will be based on the assessment and planning for meeting the learning needs of a child or young person
We work closely with Central Support Services to provide your child with the best possible support. This includes the Autism Development Team, Early Years Education Service (EYES), English as an Additional Language (EAL), Moray Social and Emotional Behaviour Needs team (SEBN), Sensory Education Service (SES) which includes hearing impairment and visual impairment and Educational Psychology. When appropriate, multi-agency working with a range of partners, including NHS and third sector, will take place.
Who to contact for help
In the first instance, your child's school, named person or early learning and childcare centre will be able to provide help and support.
Independent advice and information
Enquire offers independent, confidential advice and information on additional support for learning. They also provide a range of clear and easy to read guides for both parents and children.