The Parent Council Alternative Blueprint is is an
interesting proposal . I am glad that they have taken the trouble to offer a
counter proposal rather than just pleepsing about school closures.
The proposals that were originally put forward do not have
much effect on my family. However on reading the document I was alarmed to find
this glib statement:
“Compare ASN spending
with other local authorities. Set reasonable targets compared with these
authorities. Consider ASN as part of the restructuring of schools as a whole –
it is not a separate issue. Savings of £1.5 million would still leave Shetland
as a very high spender in this area.”
I do not know what experience of ASN education the authors
of the report have. One of my daughters has been in ASN education all their
life. In the years she has been there I have been delighted with her progress
ASN has already been asked to find savings of £500,000 and
they are worried that will cause the quality of provision here will suffer. Any
more cuts will just mean ASN education will go back to the bad old days when it
was a baby-sitting service with no advancement for the bairns.
The authors have been a bit selective in their selection of
costs, citing Orkney as costing £551 per pupil, as against Shetland costing
£1,952. However the Western Isles spend £1,331 per ASN pupil.
Some more information on ASN across Scotland can be found in
the Scottish Executive report Mainstreaming Pupils with Special Educational Needs: an evaluation . Appendix 2 shows that Western Isles like Shetland
educate all ASN pupils within the isles, unlike Orkney who send 13% of ASN
pupils south for education.
Are we to send our ASN pupils to live away from home so Aith
secondary pupils do not have to commute to the AHS?
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