Website review

Websites offering guidance on the new legal regime covering additional support needs in learning

The Journal, November 2005, page 49

On 14 November 2005 the long-awaited Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 came into force, bringing with it the most substantial changes in education law in Scotland for almost 25 years. The potential for confusion is huge, but luckily there are already a number of websites to help you make sense of the legislation.

Scottish Executive ASN Site

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/School-Education/19094/17176

There’s no place to start like the horse’s mouth. The “front” page of this mini-site begins with a short summary of the Act and its policy aims. The “publications” page is also worth visiting for the useful list of links to documents, both historical and contemporary, which (assuming you’ve a lot of time to spare) provide an interesting backdrop to the legislation and an insight into the changes in direction which have occurred during its journey from policy to statute to implementation.

Beyond that there is not a huge amount of content for a section which dubs itself a “site” – indeed not all the information relevant to this topic is gathered here. For example, you have to search elsewhere on the Scottish Executive website to locate the all-important code of practice, or news on the Tribunal (and I do mean search). This is not a particularly helpful approach. There are also dead links, at least one of which is to a page on another Executive website, Parentzone (www.parentzonescotland.gov.uk).

Additional Support Needs Tribunal for Scotland

www.asntscotland.gov.uk

This is the website of the new tribunal system introduced by the Act. The site is very attractively presented and, like many government websites, scores highly in terms of accessibility. Some pages on the site are still blank, but it is only fair to overlook that since no cases have yet been before the tribunals.

There is a fairly detailed summary of the route taken by the legislation to date and this in fact provides more interesting and useful information than the Scottish Executive’s version. The FAQ section is very good, covering questions one might actually ask (not universally true of FAQs); and what the links section lacks in numbers, it more than makes up for in ensuring that those listed are (a) working properly; (b) useful for the target audience and (c) furnished with a paragraph explaining why the reader might wish to visit the site in question.

The site does not mention whether Tribunal decisions will be made available online, but if they are (and there is no good reason why they should not) this site will become an essential item on your internet browser’s bookmarks.

Enquire

www.enquire.org.uk

Enquire is a project run by children’s charity Children in Scotland and provides an advice service on all matters related to additional support needs in Scotland. On arrival at the site you are offered a choice of a site for children and young people or another for parents, carers and practitioners. It is the latter which is reviewed here.

Despite a fulsome number of subsections within the site, there is actually not a huge amount of substantive information on the new legislation within its main body. For all the best information and advice (for yourself or your clients) click first on “Publications” and then download your choice from a wide selection of documents, factsheets, bulletins, implementation newsletters and other papers on the subject of additional support needs. These are usually of a high quality and an appropriate level of detail, combining nicely a wealth of practical advice and knowledge with a good grasp of the legal framework underpinning it.

Additional Support Needs: Govan LC guide

www.additionalsupportneeds.org.uk

For a more technical and detailed legal approach to the legislation, the Education Law Unit, or ELU (www.edlaw.org.uk) at Govan Law Centre (www.govanlc.com) has launched this website to coincide with the Act. Obviously, as head of the ELU and author of the website, I have an interest to declare and I’ll confine myself to the nuts and bolts of the content. It is, as the name suggests, a guide to the law and the Act is split into 10 reasonably compact topic areas with each explored in turn.

The legislation, code of practice and related regulations are linked to where mentioned and the “Extras” section offers details of the latest news, upcoming events (training etc), downloads, legislation, case law and links. The site also attempts to put the Act into some kind of context by addressing some related topics such as disability discrimination in schools.

The site claims compliance with the relevant web standards and WAI accessibility at level “AA”.