The biggest extension of rights in Europe? Needs, rights and children with additional support needs in Scotland

Riddell, Sheila; Carmichael, Duncan

Abstract

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 boosted the rights of parents of children with additional support needs (ASN) by improving access to information, instituting a Code of Practice and establishing new redress mechanisms such as the ASN Tribunal and independent mediation. More than a decade later, Scottish legislation enacted in 2016 and implemented in 2018 attempted to increase children’s rights, broadly placing them on a par with those of parents and young people. This paper draws on data from an ESRC project entitled Autonomy, Rights and Children with Special Needs: A New Paradigm? (ES/P002641/1). Analysis of Scottish Government policy and legislation, key informant interviews and official statistics are used to examine the extent to which the new rights are likely to be realised in practice, given the complexity of the legislation and competition between discourses of needs, broadly synonymous with the wellbeing agenda and rights. The paper concludes with a discussion of the lessons which may be learnt from the Scottish experience, which will be of interest to an international audience.

Citation

Riddell, S., & Carmichael, D. (2019). The biggest extension of rights in Europe? Needs, rights and children with additional support needs in Scotland. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 23(5), 473-490. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2019.1580925

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 8, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Feb 19, 2019
• Publication Date: 2019-05
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 8, 2019
• Journal: International Journal of Inclusive Education
• Print ISSN: 1360-3116
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-5173
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 473-490
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2019.1580925
• Keywords: Rights, children, additional support needs, autonomy, Scotland,
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1625532
• Contract Date: Mar 8, 2019