Almost 7000 Perth and Kinross pupils have been identified as having additional support needs; rising from 34 per cent the previous year to 39 per cent.
Councillors have confirmed the agreed scope for a review into Additional Support Needs (ASN) provision across Perth and Kinross schools.
A review is being carried out at the request of Perth and Kinross Council’s (PKC) Scrutiny and Performance Committee to better understand the challenges and align budget to need.
A comprehensive overview report will be presented to the committee later this month on January 29.
The review’s scope was agreed by councillors at the council’s final committee meeting of 2025 on December 18.
Councillors expressed their shock at the percentage of pupils with additional support needs and concern about the council’s ability to address them.
The latest census data – carried out in September 2024 – showed 39 per cent of Perth and Kinross pupils have additional support needs. The figure has risen from 34 per cent in the September 2023 census.
There are now 6973 children and young people with additional support needs out of a total school population of 17,778.
The main focus of the review – outlined in a report agreed by the Scrutiny and Performance Committee on December 18 – is: “To determine how effective the council is at ensuring that adjustments made for children and young people with additional support needs are:
• applied properly and consistently over time in practice.
• communicated well when pupils move schools or transition from nursery
to primary/primary to secondary.
• applied in a way that benefits both the council and the child through early
interventions.”
Liberal Democrat Kinross-shire councillor Willie Robertson asked if the review could explore “why there is such a huge percentage of children nowadays who have additional support needs”.
He added: “I have got great concern about our ability as a council to actually meet those needs.”
Conservative Carse of Gowrie councillor Angus Forbes added: “One of the concerns I have is that the number of people with ASN is just going up and up and up. And if you take that to its logical conclusion, everyone will have some sort of ASN.”
He sought clarity on the definition of additional support needs as part of the review.
PKC’s Inclusion and Additional Support Needs service manager Fiona Mackay told councillors the update later this month would look at the legislation which defines what additional support needs are.
SNP Perth City North councillor Ian Massie called for a breakdown on the help needed for each individual category such as figures on how many require help with reading/writing, etc.
Ms Mackay said: “It will have to be quite a broad brush for much of that data because we have nearly 7000 children and young people with additional support needs. The needs of those children will vary so significantly it won’t cover absolutely everything – but for the majority of supports, we can provide a reasonable summary.”
Conservative councillor Caroline Shiers – who suggested the review -welcomed the opportunity to meet with some of the smaller third sector organisations that schools and families work with.
The Blairgowrie and Glens councillor said: “I think that could be an interesting perspective to get that slightly smaller organisational voice included in this process.”
She added: “It will be interesting to see how we formulate a document at the end of this review. I know parents with children and young people with ASN are really interested in the summary of what our experience of looking at this area will be.”
Conservative councillor Keith Allan said he was “flabbergasted” to learn the percentage of pupils with additional support needs was above 60 per cent in some schools.
He said: “I’m absolutely flabbergasted at the levels of ASN in some of our schools. It’s been a big eye-opener to me; some as high as above 60 per cent – that’s two in every three pupils. Or in a class of 25, there will be 16 pupils with some form of additional need. I’m glad we have recognised this. I look forward to being instrumental to helping to deliver some form of tangible solutions as our review progresses.
“We need to be aware, however, that this is going to require budget to address many of our issues and we all need to think responsibly how we go about that.”