Meeting of the Parliament 19 November 2025
I very much agree with Liz Smith’s points. In reflecting on our own teaching, we understand the importance of building trust with pupils and the class. That was fundamental to all that I did in my time in teaching, and I know that that was the case for Liz Smith, too. That trust was eroded during the pandemic, and we should be mindful of the challenge that, for many young people, returning to formal education has been difficult.
We heard from a number of members this afternoon about the important role of our teachers and support staff. Willie Rennie and others talked about the importance of teachers in our schools, and George Adam also spoke specifically to that point.
Willie Rennie was right to speak about the increase in the number of additional support needs pupils, which we also heard about from Roz McCall and George Adam. I was pleased that Willie Rennie’s party, supported by the Green Party, voted for the Government’s budget last year, which provided an extra £29 million for the ASN workforce.
Another stream of work that we have committed to undertaking is a wider cross-party review of ASN. As part of that, Willie Rennie came forward with a very positive suggestion on holding a national conference. I confirm that we will be holding a national conference on best practice in relation to additional support needs. That was a very sensible suggestion from Willie Rennie, and I hope that he recognises that the Government is very much listening to his views in this space.
On ASN, I also highlight the national data summit that I opened last Wednesday at Murrayfield. Part of the challenge, particularly in relation to the additional support needs that we see across the country, are the various approaches to monitoring, tracking and measuring ASN. The variety of approaches disturbs the national picture, because it does not necessarily give us an accurate data set. The national summit that we had last week was extremely important, and I look forward to continuing to work with COSLA on arriving at a national understanding of how we measure ASN better to get that accurate picture.