Chamber and committees

You mentioned delay. Can you give us an idea of how long it might take if one wanted to access the service, from putting in the claim, whatever it is, to being heard and receiving a decision?

I am particularly interested in your point about the number of cases that settle and your comment about the parties being divided and having entrenched views if the case gets to a hearing. Are you aware of any research having been conducted into the outcomes for children and families who have accessed the tribunal?

Is there an appeal process?

No—that was hugely useful. I will put the same question to Irene Stove, but, if you think of something else that you would like to say, just catch my eye and I will come back to you.

Irene, as you have experience of what needs to happen to adapt the physical school estate for all pupils, can you give us any particular thoughts that you might have in that respect? Earlier you gave the example of a dysregulated child being on the ground floor of what you called a superschool.

Let me pose a question first, convener. I am keen to hear your thoughts, Dinah, but I would also like you to deal with Suzi Martin’s point about individualising to meet needs and how it relates to the proposals in your submission, which mentions a “universal design for learning”. I cannot quite see what you mean by that and wonder whether you might elaborate on it. How does a “universal design” relate to the individualisation that we have just heard about?

I will pick up on the same theme, specifically with regard to Covid and its impacts. Your organisation has made it clear that the interventions that you make cannot be one-offs in the early years and that, ideally, they should cycle right the way through. Did Covid break that contact with a lot of young people? If so, has it been easy to pick up the contact again after Covid, or have there been the challenges that Ruth Maguire mentioned, such as waiting times? Have some people been lost from your interventions?

I am grateful, convener.

I want to go back to something that was said earlier. I will start with Deborah Best and then go to Irene Stove, but I appreciate that other members might wish to come in.

Deborah, you talked and made some suggestions about the physical environment, but I want to give you the chance to elaborate on that. How do you suggest that the school estate’s physical spaces be adapted to support pupils, particularly given the resource constraints? Who should be leading on collating and driving forward those solutions?

I have a brief question, which I will direct to Peter Bain, although others might want to comment on it.

Mr Greer asked about co-ordinated support plans. I have heard that there can be a disconnect between someone requiring a CSP and their actually getting it. I understand that there is a duty on the local authority to put one in place, if statutory conditions are met, but, anecdotally, I have heard that parents can be pushed from pillar to post as they try to get one for their child. Indeed, I have heard of its taking years—up to a decade—to happen. Can you help the committee understand who has responsibility for leading on making CSPs happen, so that they can be held accountable if they do not? Is there any truth to the suggestion that, perhaps because of underresourcing, local authorities might not be able either to assess conditions or to put such plans in place?

I will ask Susan Quinn a very brief question. How many hours of specialist ASN training is given during the postgraduate diploma in education? I have heard anecdotally that it could be between one and three hours. Can you confirm or deny that?

Of course, but with respect, I ask the minister to take another intervention. Willie Rennie raised a very important point. In the next 15 minutes, we will be asked to agree this section, presumably—