What is a Co-ordinated Support Plan?
A co-ordinated support plan is the rough equivalent under the new rules of a record of needs. While it is not a direct replacement, the co-ordinated support plan is the only statutory document of this type which exists under the 2004 Act - just as the record of needs was under the 1980 Act.
However, there are significant differences in the two documents. Whereas a record of needs was for those children or young people with the most severe, most complex needs; eligibility for a co-ordinated support plan depends not so much on severity or complexity of needs, but on the sources of the support required to meet those needs.
Section 2 of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 sets out the criteria for eligibility to a co-ordinated support plan. There are four:
- An education authority must be responsible for the child's or young person's school education (i.e. no CSPs for pre-nursery age children, nor for those educated by parental choice at home or in independent schools);
- The child's or young person's additional support needs must be likely to continue for more than a year;
- The additional support needs must be caused by one or more complex factors or by multiple factors (hint: don't worry too much about the distinction as both boil down to whether or not there is or is likely to be a "significant adverse effect" on the school education of the child or young person);
- Crucially, significant additional support must be required from education as well as at least one of the following:
- social work (or another, non-education, council function) services;
- a Health Board; and/or
- another local authority.
The Scottish Executive and education authorities have been planning the implementation of the Act on the basis of approximately 1% of pupils requiring a co-ordinated support plan. This is around half the proportion of pupils who had a record of needs.
What does a Co-ordinated Support Plan look like?
A co-ordinated support plan must include the following sections:
- factors giving rise to additional support needs;
- educational objectives;
- additional support required;
- persons providing the additional support;
- nominated school;
- additional support provision co-ordinator; and
- parental advice and information officer on the co-ordinated support plan.
.. and additionally ..
- the name, address, contact telephone number, date of birth, gender, preferred language or form of communication, school currently attended and the date of entry to that school of the child or young person;
- the name, address, contact telephone number, relationship to the child or young person and preferred language or form of communication of each parent of the child or young person;
- a profile of the skills and capabilities of, and any other relevant information relating to the child or young person;
- any views expressed by the child / young person / parent(s) on the plan; and
- the review timetable for the plan in accordance with the statutory time limits.
The next section is all about Assessment and Determinations.