Hansard

The SNP warmly welcomes the use of primary legislation to introduce education accessibility strategies, and fully supports the bill's general principles. However, there was general agreement within and outwith the Education, Culture and Sport Committee that, in order to provide a really robust process, the bill must be strengthened in certain areas. I want to highlight a few issues that need to be addressed.

Most important, we want to know how we will ensure that the strategies increase accessibility. Under the bill, responsible bodies could take a minimalist approach, but there is no point in introducing legislation if it can be largely ignored. As the minister said, monitoring and evaluation are crucial and there is a feeling that they should not be left to supplementary guidance, but require an amendment to the bill. Such an amendment might usefully clarify the priority that HMIE will place on inspecting strategies and their implementation and its role in that process, and might also include a requirement for accessibility strategies to be sent as a matter of routine to HMIE and the Scottish Executive.

There is an equally important question about what a child, young person or parent can do if duties are not being discharged. Because the bill makes no specific provision for complaint or redress, it requires amendment that will allow families the means to pursue that course of action with some expectation of satisfaction.

During evidence-taking meetings, the question was flagged up of how children, young people and their parents will know about the strategies. I note that the minister is not minded to require responsible bodies to publish their accessibility strategies and, in fact, the bill requires local authorities only to be reactive to requests to inspect the strategies. However, evidence to the committee suggested strongly that a proactive approach to dissemination should be considered, and I acknowledge the minister's comments on that point. I would like her to consider how we might take such an approach, as it would parallel the requirements in the Standards in Scotland's Schools Act 2000 and could easily be achieved through existing requirements on local authorities to produce summary plans.

There was also an issue about how those plans would connect with other planning requirements. Incorporation of accessibility strategies with existing plans would be very much in line with joined-up government and joined-up policy and practice. I hope that the guidance will make a clear recommendation that local authorities and schools should link their accessibility strategies to their existing requirements to provide annual statements of improvement objectives and school development plans, both of which must already address equal opportunities requirements. It would also seem sensible, in the interests of integration, for those strategies to fit with children's services plans. All of that would in consequence help the monitoring and evaluation role that I highlighted.

Many local authorities expressed concerns about their role in supporting pre-school provision with partner providers, and the difficulties of meeting the costs of adapting their properties to the required standards. That was particularly the case where voluntary and private sector businesses were involved. In his oral evidence to the Education, Culture and Sport Committee, the deputy minister stated that private and voluntary sector providers of pre-school education that operate in partnership would not be required to prepare accessibility strategies because they are defined as service providers and are therefore subject to the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

However, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the committee were concerned that some implications of the bill might discourage local authorities from partnership with multiple small providers, and that they might in some way make it difficult for the private and voluntary sectors to continue to make provision, with the knock-on effect that there would be a lack of choice for families. That would be in no one's interests and I am sure that that is not the intention behind the bill. However, I trust that the minister's interpretation is correct and that there is no loophole that would lead to any reduction in pre-school provision—particularly on a partnership basis, which is very important—especially in rural areas.

The SNP urges support for the general principles of the bill and encourages the minister to note the concerns that were expressed by me and by others, and to note the suggestions that have been offered. That would ensure a meaningful, robust and useful addition to disability legislation, which will be of real benefit to a number of children throughout Scotland.