 The next item of business is members' business debate on motion 4016 in the name of Graham Day, on included in the main. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. May I ask those who wish to speak in the debate to press the request to speak buttons now, and Neddehai doedd idd categories ei gyflaethau o'i benedd o'u demandor gwaith eu pamohonogi. Rwyf yn sicr o ran y�만oodol ac i dd esqueb heatingol hefyd yn hu shadows. Rydd arbennodd ar 후'rbertyn a'u dy iechwynu mumion brosbynach ym hyn yn gl學iaffoedd, a gyn fynd i fy nifer am trafodaid â'r hwn. Mae gwasanaeth', ein ysigwyr, cwestiynau ag flwneyster packageuol i ddyeoch Aaib,厅nt, gan immigration veya popeth aethion. Rydyn ni wrth gwrs y hac fod yn hollu dav iddy, cymdeithasol, a ei ffredd o'r me口 на ddyranol a'r oed o'r gysymu drom bod y byw syniad ymqui parties cyllid, ac geshwesIRENDo beaut промogol doe�ui ng adorable-gway i fitgrad yn ddechrau'u rha Newlyniain. Fe��니 괜찮아 yr hyn yn rwyf iawn peaswch ar gyfrif er amgarwy, ac osradd wasio ni. FeMEA was followed in the educational additional support for learning Scotland act in which it stated, that every education authority must, in relation to each child and young person having additional support needs, make adequate and efficient provision for such additional support, as is required by that child or young person foreken. Tonight we consider that we're able Scotland's report included in the main". It makes 22 recommendations to complete the journey to true inclusion, arguing itfwyl not there yet, in terms of catering not just for educational but emotional needs and ensuring that there is sufficient support in place to ensure participation in all parts of school life. We do so against a backdrop of the Scottish Government reviewing the guidance around the presumption in favour of mainstreaming and having a ministerial team with a genuine understanding of the subject and a commitment to getting it right for every child. Time constraints will prevent me from exploring the specifics of the recommendations. I hope llwydopr Namre, rydyn ni cychwyn, opeth ddraffaidd, nid d hi poderau i dd Donald Trump o mañanaiaeth ni. The main draw does on full gamut experience, it can piece the views of children and young people, parents and carers, and the education workforce. Tellingly, 80 per cent of the last category indicated we are not taking account of getting it right for every child through a presumption that all could and should be taught in mainstream settings. That is we as a society, not a national government or local government,ocking and Erdogan Sgolim Sgolim Sgolim Sgolim Sgolim Sgolim Sgolim browsers mean, we have children with very complex needs being catered for mainstream school settings now with all the impact that has on resources and indeed the support being afforded other ASN youngsters. Another is the spike, the massive spike a good thing on one level and kids being identified as having additional support needs again with the accompanying resources issue that brings. i fo oedamos caiphael personne dda i'w cilio sydd iddo pas aliw hefyd o'sty indicatech Finally, more than anything, my interests is driven by the experience of a constituency MSP dealing with case work. We have come a long way since 2000, there is no doubt about that. On the ground there is a lack of consistency approach and resourcing. In relation to the former, I was speaking recently to a Headteacher, who had decided to externally review the ASN provision within his school, which have a good reputation in this regard. His school sits in a local authority, ac ymddych chi'n weithio unrhyw y wybod cyffers i gyffersio'r ffordd gyntaf iddygol yn fawr yw i gael arweithio'r ffordd cyffersiol ar gyfer gymhau ac y blynyddiadol. Yr eich reihaeth i'r gжesgol cerddwyr newydd i'r gyfer y Skyllwyr i'i Gwylosparol, mae i'r cyfrifiad i'r ddysguwyr, ond erdoedd at datblygu 14 gyfrifentau a 51 gyfrifentau cyfrifentau i'r cyfrifentau 56. It was a resourcing level way beyond what he had at his disposal, and this was one of three such schools in that local authority. Personally, I think that there has to be a place for such special schools to cater for kids with the most complex needs, not least of all because it frees up resource to support those burns who right now are falling through the cracks. Youngsters whose attainment levels and sense of self worth could, with just a little help and support, be raised. We tend when we are talking about closing the attainment gap to link the problem to poverty, but, as this report states, the attainment gap does not start and end on that point. Young folk with learning disabilities experience many other barriers to achieving their potential. Albeit in a different context, the First Minister acknowledged this last week in announcing a £2 million fund to improve access to nursery for children with ASN. I wonder whether enclosing the minister could outline whether, and to what extent, the guidance offered the head teachers around deploying the additional funding given them directly to tackle the attainment challenges that references ASN pupils. Of all the experience that I've had as an MSP these past six years, there's one more than any other that's stuck with me. A couple of years back, I met a young carer whose brother suffers from a rare disease. I could only begin to imagine what life at home must be like for him as a younger sibling who demanded the attention, not just of the parents but him himself. Then he explained to me how he suffered from dyslexia and was struggling to achieve his potential at school because the support that was meant to be in place for him wasn't being provided. He was meant to have time in the learning support base for one-to-one support, the coat-of-school work, but he told me that there's a girl in the base who behaves really badly and the staff are always dealing with her, so I don't get the help that I need. There he was, as home life as it was, in being let down in the educational setting and him so readily recognising the detrimental impact that a lack of support at school was having. Much more recently, just a few weeks ago, in fact, I met a mum whose teenage daughter, who has complex needs, has been unable to attend a local secondary school base for some months. I heard of an effort to try and reintegrate her. The mum was invited to visit the newly refurbished base facilities, which she had been told would be an asset in catering for the girl who is, among other things, autistic. In terms of decor, the colour scheme was not autism-friendly. The sensory room was tiny and the soundproofing was so inadequate that sitting in it you could hear the kids passing in the adjoining corridor. I was trying some simple basic things. That parents' experience, so typical of that identified in the report of parents and carers, when asked to describe their experience of the school system, 67 per cent used the word battle, 77 per cent stressful, 44 per cent alone. When asked if the support provided was enough to secure their participation in all aspects of school life, less than 12 per cent felt it did. Even allowing for the fact that a proportion of parents—let's face it—do have unreasonable expectations of what could be available, should be available, that is still a concerning number. Of course, we are not just talking about strictly educational matters here. This is also about mental wellbeing. 60 per cent of the kids with learning difficulties who were interviewed said that they felt lonely at school. Can I, having already declared an interest, give a shout-out to those hard-pressed ASN staff at our mainstream schools, who are having to contend with increasing demands, not just numerically, but in terms of the range of conditions, catering for children and young people with incredibly complex needs through to those berns, like the young lad I mentioned earlier, who just need that little bit of support. They do a remarkable job, and we should take this opportunity to acknowledge that. Time and again, I hear parents of ASN children drawing a distinction between criticising the support for their kids and those who seek to provide it. Presiding Officer, to conclude, and allow colleagues to contribute to this debate. Included in the main sums the situation up rather well when it says in the report, the policy of mainstreaming has undoubtedly been a positive step towards equality in creating a more inclusive society, but now we need to ensure that the policy is supporting children with learning disabilities to be properly supported and fully included at their school, because only then will our societal aspiration for full inclusion be realised. Presiding Officer. Can we have speeches of around four minutes, please? I call Daniel Johnson to be followed by Jeremy Balfour. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I just begin by saying that it's a pleasure to talk in a debate like this, where we I think we can agree in terms of the broad thrust of what we need to achieve and why we need to achieve it. Indeed, I think discussing additional support needs exemplifies some of the real strengths that we have in Scotland. We have a very broad definition of additional support needs. That creates a challenge, but I think it also represents the way that we try to approach education in a holistic, child-centred way, one that seeks to include, one that seeks to actually focus on what every child needs to learn. Indeed, at a recent visit I made to one of my local primary schools, I think that it really brought out how that approach can really be brought to life and how it can be made to work. As I was being led through the Victorian primary school, I got led past a stairwell and there was a fantastic canopy there, a big dark black bit of cloth with things dangling down beneath and there was a wee boy in there. That was the space he liked to go to because of his particular needs and requirements. He needed that quiet space, that special space where it was just him and that he could just settle his thoughts and get his head together for learning. There was a classroom assistant with him, helping him with what he needed to do. I also learned from the headteacher there about the training that he put in place at that school, both from the local authority but also externally sourced and the groups of teachers that work to talk about additional support needs. That brought to life how it is meant to work, how it can work when it is done properly. I thank Graeme Dey for bringing forward that motion. I think that it is really important that we talk about that. I would like to thank Enable, because although it is good to talk about where it works, we also need to talk about where we need to get better, where we need to improve the situation and the resources available. There are three key things. We need to talk about the support and training that teachers have available to them, both in their practice and in terms of what they receive through their teacher training before they qualify as teachers. We need to talk about the support staff that are required and the specialist staff in particular. We also need to talk about how we embed ASN into the curriculum and the classroom experience more widely. I think that this dovetails very neatly and closely with some of the issues that we have been discussing in education committee. We have been looking in particular at additional support needs and we have had a recent round table. There were some issues of concerns from the experts on additional support needs where they described access to training as being patchy. There was discussion that the training that was available to teachers was at times only available through cascade training where one teacher had received training and then provided that training on to others. Because of the many changes that we have had in curriculum and in terms of qualifications, there has been a squeezing out of some of the training and support that is required in order to address additional support needs. Indeed, a very concerning observation that postgraduate training in terms of specialist additional support needs is something that had declined. Indeed, we see some of the work that Enable has provided in their briefing with 12 per cent of teachers saying that their educational development needs that they need to provide are only 12 per cent saying that they can provide those educational development needs. Indeed, there are also teacher stories of training, and descriptions of not having the support that they need to develop the PLPs that they need to do. We also need to talk about support and special stuff, and I think that the Enable report makes it very clear. While we have a massive increase in the number of children being identified as additional support needs, and I think that that is something to be celebrated, we have a decline in specialist additional support needs teachers. We have an ageing population of those teachers which are left. That is something that the Government really needs to focus on and prioritise because we need those specialist teachers. While classroom assistants are important in developing personalised learning, they are not a substitute for specialist additional support needs teachers. I could carry on for a great deal longer, but I see that the clock has clicked the past four minutes, so I will sit down and thank the member once again for bringing forth this debate. Thank you, Mr Johnson. Can I have Jeremy Balfour, please, be followed by David Torrance. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I thank Mr Day for his motion and for bringing the debate to us this afternoon? Can I also thank Enable for the report that they have written? With over 800 young people with learning disabilities interviewed with parents, family carers, educators across Scotland, we have a very full picture of what is going on. I think that we should start by saying that we have come a long way as a civic society in Scotland and as educationers in Scotland over the past 30 or 40 years. Mainstreaming, by and large, is a positive thing and a good thing. The type of language that we use now about people with special needs or the type of language that we use about the requirements that they have have definitely improved. I think that the report is also a wake-up call for us as well. The reality is that for still many young people in Scotland today, they are not getting what they require. I remember in regard to having my own physical disability, the comment that my mother made to somebody else who had a disability, and that was never seen or known when you asked first time. I feel that that is still the case today, that parents have to keep asking local authorities, headteachers for things that should automatically come to them. That is fine if you are articulate and pussy like my mother, it is maybe less so if you do not have those skills. I want to just briefly comment on two things that I still think that we need to move on, not in regard to this Government but as a Parliament and as a country. My first is to say that being in a classroom does not mean that you are part of a school. Just because you are there physically does not mean that you are part of the whole experience. The report makes clear that often children with additional needs can feel excluded and lonely and not get the same opportunities as their peers. No child should be excluded. The report tells us that 49 per cent of young people with a learning disability or autism feel that they are not being able to reach their full potential at school. More than a quarter say they cannot take part in games or sport. Nearly a quarter do not go on trips with their own peers. Nearly half, 46 per cent say they do not take part in the playground or in other activities. I accept that that will vary from school to school and from area to area. I think that the challenge comes for all of us to reach that. I want to play credit to the number of additional support needs teachers that we have. The hard work that they do day in, day out. I think that there is a challenge here for our local authorities but we have seen the number of auxiliaries and support staff dropping across Scotland. I think that it is unfair on a teacher to be looking after 30 or so children without that help if they have children with ASN with Inverm. I think that we also have to acknowledge that mainstreaming is not right for every child. Getting it right for every child means looking at every child and where they are at the time. Again, it slightly concerns me but over the last seven years the number of special schools has fallen. There has been a 25 per cent drop in the number of special schools between 2008 and 2015. Yes, mainstreaming, probably for the majority of children, is the way forward but not on every case. I welcome Mr Bates. I think that there is a challenge for all of us across Scotland. We are making progress. We just need to keep moving in that direction. Thank you. Can we have David Torrance to be followed by Mark Ruskell? Thank you, Presiding Officer. I would like to thank Graham Dave for securing his debate in the chamber today to welcome a campaign that was included in the main to bring awareness to and stimulate conversation about children and young people with learning disabilities. I would also like to recognise Enable Scotland, a charitable organisation aimed at fighting discrimination and inequality against young people struggling with disabilities. The Scottish Government is committed to delivering excellence and quality in Scottish education, especially to many young people who have learning disabilities and are often unfailied, excluded by friends, peers, classrooms and opportunities and experiences that make up such a big part of childhood and school life. The delivery plan for Scottish education is committed to closing the attainment gap, ensuring that we have a curriculum, and empowering our teachers, schools and communities for children and young people. Children and young people's education experience should open the doors to opportunities that enable children to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and affected contributors to society. That includes children and young people who struggle with disabilities. However, inclusive education is still far from reality for many young people and children who are struggling. Enable Scotland held a national conversation about the experience of young people with learning disabilities. Over seven months, it received more than 800 responses from people across Scotland. 60 per cent says that they feel lonely at school. Only 49 per cent felt that they are achieving their full potential. And 80 per cent of educational workforce believed that they were not getting it right for every child. As a result of these statistics, the Scottish Government and Enable Scotland are working even more closely to revisit some of the policies regarding inclusive education. Enable House has come up with 22 detailed recommendations on how to improve the lives of children with learning disabilities. Included in the main set out to listen, and now it is our turn to act. An initiative that welcomes inclusive education involves an array of complex partnerships and dialogues. Students, parents, carers and teachers are all involved in creating supportive networks. Because of the diverse set of actors involved, the solutions and tactics you reflected this diversity, creating support for individualised needs to facilitate equal opportunities to participate in society. Moving towards inclusion has spread to a large-scale Government such as the UN's Convention on the Rights of a Child, which abolished segregated education that denies children with disabilities and the right to be part of mainstream schooling. Even though this international recognition is a significant move in the right direction, I believe that Scotland will benefit from a localised efforts to provide unique opportunities to place inclusive education firmly on the political agenda. Fyde Caenffol, for example, aims to support any need for additional support that children may have. Working closely with families, Fyde's priority is for all children to attend their local school and to be successful there, rather than isolating children from their peers. Within my constituency of Gercody, the approach of the new windmill community campus embodies this inclusion. Integrated into campus alongside V4 high school, council offices, community youth support facilities and a public library is Rosland School, a state-of-the-art facility that cares for children and young adults aged between 3 and 18 who have complex additional support needs. The importance of collaborative teaching strategies cannot be overstated and, in recognition of this, the school works closely with its mainstream colleagues not only to ensure access and achievements for all, but to enhance opportunities for all people to develop their learning together. In addition, every school in Fife has a learning support teacher who advises classes and teaches how best to assist children and young people with additional support needs. The more choices and more chances agenda aims to increase the number of young people above the age of 16 in education. Employment or training by encouraging the value of formal learning to help to develop social and employability skills. In addition, active school co-ordinators offer all children and young people opportunities and motivation to adapt active healthy lifestyles now into adulthood. Services like these are also extended to a higher level of education such as Fife's College, a quality diversity inclusion team who aim to develop skills, confidence, motivation, independence and expertise. Each campus provides one to one support. Inclusion continues to be an on-going process. Not a fixed state. All children, whoever learning is taking place, deserve to be educated together despite barriers and requirements for additional support. In conclusion, Presiding Officer, I believe that our country values our diverse communities. It is important to promote inclusive learning and education because communities are formed at school where young people learn, play and grow together and learn to live alongside each other. I call Mark Ruskell to be followed by Johann Lamont. Mark Ruskell, Mark Ruskell, Mark Ruskell to be followed by Johann Lamont. I would like to declare an interest as a councillor and a father of a child for additional support needs. I thank Graham Day for bringing in his motion for debate here and also enabled Scotland to do some fantastic work around Scotland. My movement cofเอithidiaw am y fomed, mem dde Chyfgrif ez dweud dde Llyflydd y swydnon ar gyfer pwygoumbledd odd peol, saloedau fel ddisguol byrprodud a narے gofnod aoeid confidence ar gyfer我覺得 of how diverse people learn Mae'r meddwl i'ch gyd, hi'n gweithio i'n gweithio'r anhod. Rwy'r contraction a'r meddwl i'r meddwl am y ddechrau, resulwyr цiffforddiol a gynnig oes ar ddiweddau iddoedd yn ei wneud. Rwy'n meddwl i'r meddwl i'ch gwaith iddyn ni'n meddwl i'ch ei wneud, a'r hynny'n digwydd ar gyfer cyfnod dda i ddimersiwn i'r cofnodau yn ei ddysgu. Mae'r hynny ym iddo ddim yn sicrhau ar viad ac yn ddigiddio i'r meddl i'r meddwl i'r meddwl. for us all. However, whilst the law has changed, it's clear that many other barriers remain. And while there is a presumption to mainstream, many schools do not have the resources that they need to meet additional needs, and teachers do not always have the access to adequate training on how to teach pupils with a wide spectrum of learning disabilities. Since 2010, the number of pupils identified with a learning disability has risen by over a quarter. Yet over the same period, the number of specialist teachers has declined by one in seven, and specialist assistants has declined by one in eleven. We've estimated that it will cost just 31 million to return specialist teachers and support staff back to their 2010 levels. Now councils have faced years of austerity, putting intense pressure on wider education budgets that have not been ring-fenced. The Scottish Government's latest response to pupil equity fund directs resources towards schools in areas of higher deprivation. While that is much needed and much welcome, it doesn't adequately address learning disabilities and additional support needs. While councils work their way through budget savings, it's hugely important that front-line services are protected. That's why, as a group of Greens, we prioritised additional unring-fenced funding in the budget this year, specifically for councils to take the most damaging proposed cuts to education off the table. While schools need the resources to hire more specialist teachers, we also need to ensure that all teachers have appropriate training on additional support needs. Enable Scotland found that 98 per cent of the education workforce does not feel that teacher training adequately prepares them to teach pupils with learning disabilities. There's little wonder that so many pupils feel excluded. Initial teacher training already sees new teachers take on a huge workload. Often, this is one-year PGDs crammed with university classes and placements. As Enable Scotland have highlighted, this often doesn't leave enough time for adequate training on additional support needs. It's often dependent on whether the teachers of handling the placement have actually experienced teaching pupils with learning disabilities themselves. In addition to that, Enable Scotland has highlighted that access to continuous career development can vary significantly from one local authority to another. In fact, the Education and Skills Committee heard just a few weeks ago that one teacher was told to watch the Big Bang Theory to learn about Asperger's syndrome. What we need is the mainstreaming of additional support needs in teacher training. All teachers need both the initial training and access to high-quality, further training to ensure that we are meeting the educational needs of pupils with learning disabilities and other additional support needs. The Scottish Government needs to take clear action to ensure that our schools are inclusive and that we are open to working with them to make inclusive education a reality. I call Johann Lamont and then Alexander Burnett. I am very happy to contribute in what I think is a very important debate. I congratulate Graeme Dey on securing the debate and on affording the opportunity to explore some of the really important and challenging issues for families across Scotland. I also want to congratulate Enable Scotland on the important work that it does in supporting people with learning disability and recognise the work that it has done over many years alongside other organisations in challenging attitudes to learning disability and insisting that services meet their needs as much as they meet the needs of the mainstream community. Indeed, we know that this country witnessed a social revolution in the last generation opening up the long-stay hospitals and ensuring that people were defined by their abilities and their ability to achieve their potential rather than a presumption of what people could not do because they had a learning disability. That was a social revolution that we should all celebrate and recognise the importance of proper support for people in our communities to ensure that they can achieve that potential. I also want to congratulate Enable Scotland particularly on this important report, drawing as it does directly on the experiences of young people with learning disabilities, showing the gap between the policy that we all endorse and the reality for too many young people. The idea that a youngster in school describes himself as being lonely, unable to participate in trips and so on must come as a reality check for us all and it must give us pause. The presumption of mainstreaming was a hard fought for policy and I remember it well as somebody in the Parliament in these very early days fought for by parents who argued not just about the needs of their young people with learning disabilities and other disabilities but the importance of that inclusive society for all of our young people that all of us learn from ensuring that we live in an inclusive community but it needs to be followed through. It is not always the case that mainstream education is the right thing for a young person and we hear anecdotally of some families who will say that they believe that a young person has been placed in mainstream, guaranteed that they will fail and then move on to specialist provision which they are already damaged and they are already affected by that. There needs to be proper assessment of the needs of young people but also it is true that without proper support there is a danger that the mainstream community turns on the child with the disabilities if they are the one with the problem. Everything would be okay if it weren't for the fact that children with additional support needs were in the classroom. That is a real danger and it must be resisted at all costs because as I have said an inclusive education benefits all young people and I would recommend to people, as has already been said, to look at the evidence taken by the education committee on the challenges facing young people with additional support needs and provision for them. That is not an added extra. Additional support needs is central to ensuring that people achieve their potential in school and in education and it is not something that can be just explained away or wished away. It is in the fabric of our education system and if it is not happening then it needs to be challenged. The reality is that budgets must follow the policy. It is not enough that we say that we care about this. We must ensure that the budgets then follow that process. I would ask the minister to respond to that point. There is a consequence of targeting cuts on local authorities. The cuts to their budgets, we know from the evidence that we have taken, has not meant a reduction in the amount of classroom support and the additional support that a school needs to ensure that all young people achieve their potential. In conclusion, I say welcome the report. I think that it is a challenge for us all and I would look in the minister's response to a commitment from the Scottish Government to respond in detail to the recommendations of the enable report because I think that they give a very important direction to the work that we should be doing over the next period. I thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I also echo the chamber and congratulate Graham Day on bringing forward this motion to Parliament. It is also important that we note the great work already going on throughout our schools by teachers. We must recognise that this is a debate based around how the Scottish Government must support our teachers and allow our teachers to deliver the best inclusive education to everyone. I also welcome the aims of Enable Scotland and its wish to deliver inclusive education. Their 22-step journey is admirable and I support its aims fullheartedly. There have been many good points raised in Mr Bates already, which, whilst I agree with him, I am keen not to spend time repeating. However, it is simply not good enough but 80 per cent of the education workforce think that we are not getting it right for every child. I would like to look at how we can fix these statistics and stop failing children who are less fortunate than our own. I think that it is helpful when faced with such statistics to look around and see where others have got it right and how we might replicate this. It is always difficult in a debate with such consensus not to be repetitive, but I hope that you will be happy to follow me outside of a classroom now. In Bacaen Gorms National Park, in my constituency, we have managed successfully to integrate additional needs groups into the park and I feel that this is something that we should all be able to learn from. The national park is some of the most rigid terrain in Britain and that would usually mean no access to those in wheelchairs or unable to walk and further exclusion to those already disadvantaged. However, this is not the case. Over the last 10 years, Bacaen Gorms National Park has invested £7.5 million to improve pathways across the park for less fortunate. That includes 666 miles of designated core paths that are made fit for purpose for all, and the park also offers a travel grant underrepresented groups. Those were fully subscribed in 2015 and 2016 and given to 28 schools and 15 voluntary groups. In addition, the park runs the backbone project where it engages over 2,500 people from marginalised groups through community engagement initiatives, including a festival for all, which will take place on the Athlas state in the 24th of September, where the MSP is interested in attending. All those great projects are part of a much larger Cairn Gorms equality action plan, in which specific targets are made for inclusion in each section of the park. This results in a space where additional needs children not only feel welcome, but are able to participate just like everyone else—a place where they can interact and make friends. We must find a way to transfer the results of a national park into our schools. Unfortunately, the mountains that we must climb are not in Bacaen Gorms, but in our schools. The last of the open speeches is Jackie Baillie. Let me join with others in thanking Graham Day for bringing this debate to the chamber, and, of course, let me pay tribute to Enable Scotland for its report included in the main, together with all the work that it does to advance the rights of people with learning disabilities. As many in the chamber may know, I am proud to convene the cross-party group on learning disabilities in the Parliament. Some of them are indeed in the chamber this evening, because, in fact, we had a cross-party group meeting this lunchtime and, surprise, surprise, talked about the issues that were thrown up by the report. The report is a national conversation about life at school. There is no doubt that education has improved considerably. However, the interesting thing is that it has been 17 years since the presumption to mainstream young people with learning disabilities in education. We have seen a whole generation go through every stage of education, and the report, reflecting as it does on their lived experience, their parents, their carers and their teachers' experience, is just so valuable. However, what their stories and experiences tell us is that there is much more to do. For too many young people in our country, inclusive education is still not a reality. Many are still being excluded from classrooms and from opportunities that would enrich their everyday lives. Enable Scotland's report sets out, as other members have covered, 22 steps that we can take to make inclusion in education the standard for all of Scotland's young people. However, I want to focus on a couple of areas. The need for specialist staff was touched on by Daniel Johnson. The research undertaken shows us that 98 per cent of teachers feel that they are not adequately prepared. 86 per cent of classroom teachers said that there is not enough additional support for learning staff in their schools to support those young people with learning disabilities. As we have heard from other members, 80 per cent of education staff say that we are not getting it right for every child. I do not say this, Graham Day, to score party political points, but there are cuts to education budgets, and that is having an impact. I have had many cases of parents and teachers complaining about the lack of support in the classroom that has an impact on their children. I urge the Scottish Government to consider all the recommendations, and particularly the education workforce ones, to make that central to work going forward. I note Enable Scotland's call for renewed investment in the role of additional support for learning teachers, and I hope that that will be supported, because that would ensure that that specialist resource is regularly available to all education staff. I welcome John Swinney's commitment to guidance on inclusive education. I think that that is critically important. I want inclusive education embedded into every part of the curriculum, and I want us to ensure that the specialist teaching resource is in place to support that too. Training and employment for specialist support teachers matters. Additionally, that will benefit not only the pupils who rely on that kind of support at school but the teachers and education staff who are routinely put under pressure at work. Many of them feel stressed and anxious due to not having the right support to meet the needs of children and young people with learning disabilities. The need for additional support for learning teachers was highlighted by people in my constituency as part of Enable Scotland's national conversation, and I want to draw attention to two particular responses. One from a parent in western Bartonshire, the other from a teacher in Argyll and Bute. Both stated that they did not believe that proper support for children and young people with learning disabilities was in place. In Argyll and Bute, the teacher highlighted that all the training for additional support needs had been organised by them privately and that the local authority had provided no support whatsoever. That clearly is not good enough. We can do better, we must do better, we owe it to future generations of young people with learning disabilities to make it better. A good start would be for the Government to implement the recommendations in the report. The ethos of Scottish education, as many members have touched on, is an inclusive one. Inclusion is the cornerstone to help us to achieve excellence and equity in education for all of our children and young people. Scotland has one of the most inclusive systems for the provision of supporting schools across Europe. We are proud of that approach, and as Mr D's motion has noted, we firmly reject the idea that any child is unable to be educated. As Jeremy Balford touched upon when Enable Scotland was founded 62 years ago, those with learning disabilities did not have an equitable, inclusive experience in education. In fact, it was a challenge to receive any education at all. Now, 95 per cent of Scotland's children and young people who have an additional support need are educated in a mainstream school. While being ambitious for the future, it is important to recognise just how far we have come. The introduction of the presumption of mainstreaming in 2000 gave all children and young people in Scotland the opportunity to be present in a mainstream school. However, it is now important that we build on that, to ensure that those with additional support needs are more than just present, but that they are also participating and achieving as part of the school community. Our educationalists strive to overcome barriers to learning for all and to ensure that Scotland's children and young people can achieve their full potential. Most recent statistics indicate that there is an improving picture in the qualifications and destinations of children and young people with additional support needs. However, despite the progress that has been made, the Government is aware that there is much room for improvement. Enable Scotland's report included in the main has been an invaluable source of information on the experience of educationalists, parents and carers and, perhaps most importantly, the children and young people themselves. The Scottish Government works closely with Enable Scotland. Jan Savage, for example, from Enable Scotland, chairs our advisory group on additional support for learning. Enable Scotland is also members of the disabled children and young people's advisory group. They are committed advocates for all with learning disabilities in Scotland. I am clear, and the cabinet secretary is clear that where pupils can learn in a mainstream school, they should do so. However, our law on mainstreaming has clear expectations to enable children and young people to learn in the education provision that best suits their needs. That is in accordance with the duty of education authorities to provide for the needs of each child under the additional support for learning act. It also relates to our wider policy of getting it right for every child and ensuring that we tailor our approach to help each and every child reach their full potential. The presumption of mainstreaming has ensured that all children and young people have the right to be present. As I mentioned earlier, the challenge is to ensure that they participate and achieve in all aspects of school life, an aspect that Jeremy Balfour spoke very powerfully about earlier on. In some ways, we are starting from a position of strength. Legislatively, we have enshrined the rights of children and young people, ensuring that they are entitled to receive the support that they need to succeed. In policy, we have placed the needs of each and every child and young person at the heart of our approach, leading to a commitment to get it right for every child. In curriculum for excellence, we have a flexible, adaptive curriculum that allows the needs of every child and young person to be catered for. To help headteachers to consider how to close the attainment gap in the wider context of disadvantage, we are finalising the national operational guidance that will support headteachers to implement the pupil equity fund, which I hope addresses the point that Graham Day made in his opening remarks. What we now need is clarity on our vision for inclusion and how that vision can be implemented. On 19 May, we will be launching a public consultation on fresh guidance on the presumption of mainstreaming. That guidance will assist educationalists when making difficult decisions about provision and will empower parents to know their rights and the rights of their child in placement decisions. It will set out our vision for inclusion in Scotland's schools, emboldening all actors in our education system to be ambitious for each and every child and young person in Scotland. Some aspects of this discussion will be difficult. As we can see in the enabled report, we are not discussing abstract concepts. We are working to improve the wellbeing in the future of individual children and young people, their families and those who are providing the education. That is an emotional debate, and rightly so, because there is surely nothing more important than the start that we give to our children and young people. One major theme of the enabled report is that of visibility and accountability, especially as regards how we accept and value difference, how we appreciate and support those who face barriers to learning. That is not just a system issue or a resource issue, but a challenge for each and every one of us to examine and challenge our attitudes towards those with additional support needs. I absolutely agree with you. It is not just a budget issue and it is not just a resource issue. It is about attitudes, and that is why it has been such a powerful campaign over many years to secure mainstream education and inclusive education. Would you accept that resources do matter? The evidence to the education committee is that we are losing the classroom support, the personal support and the things that make a difference to people who are accessing opportunities in education. I do not disagree with Johann Lamont that resources are not an issue, but what we need to recognise is that the Scottish Government will look clearly at the enabled report and its recommendations. I hope that every single council does as well, because we all have to be responsible for our budgeted decisions. That is the Scottish Government and every council that takes those budgeted decisions on staffing within the education system. We also need to remember—and we certainly should not be content—that we should expect any less for our children and young people with additional support needs. That is why accepting and appreciating difference is a crucial lesson for us all to learn. It is one that we hope that our children and young people are now learning in our inclusive education system. Just as all of us in this chamber are different and stronger for it, so too are our children and our young people. Our diversity is our strength, and growing together, learning together and working together will help us to build a more just society. David Torrance put this very well, talking about communities being built within our schools. Johann Lamont made that same point too. This debate has been an important opportunity to reflect once again on how we ensure excellence and equity for our children and young people in Scotland. The voice of the children and young people will be our best guide as we take this work forward. The most important thing for the Scottish Government to do in this context is to listen. We will listen to the comments made by the respondents in the enable report, and we will carefully consider each recommendation that is made by enable. However, we will also not be afraid to champion the progress that we have achieved to use it as an inspiration for improvement where we need to do that. The Scottish Government will be tireless advocates for all of the Scotland's children and young people, and working alongside partners like enable, we will continue to strive for the best possible future for each and every child and young person in Scotland. Finally, can I end, as others have already done during this debate, by paying tribute to the teachers, the learning support teachers and support staff who play such a valuable and integral role day in, day out in every school across Scotland? This meeting is closed.