Created on: 13 Nov 2025
In February 2025, Audit Scotland published a briefing on Additional Support for Learning where they called for "a fundamental review of planning and resourcing of additional support for learning".
Audit Scotland, the Scottish Government and COSLA were invited to give evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Public Audit Committee where they were questioned about the contents of the ASL briefing covering a wide range of topics including the presumption of mainstreaming, ASL data recording, wait times for diagnosis, ASL funding and staffing.
The EIS was invited to respond to the evidence given by Audit Scotland, the Scottish Government and COSLA. In our detailed submission to the Committee, we reinforced the challenges confronting teachers, families and children and young people in the context of over 40% of learners having additional support needs.
We continued to focus on the under-resourcing of ASL in schools and the imperative of a long-term resourcing strategy to close the gap between policy and practice, highlighting that Scottish Attainment Challenge funding and the Pupil Equity Fund can no longer continue to be used as a replacement for adequate core funding of education.