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SECTION 7: SUMMARY, FUTURE SERVICE OPTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Summary of key points

Contrasting views of the national advice and information service

Parents were particularly enthusiastic in their endorsement of the support offered by the Enquire helpline, describing the knowledge gained from the service as fundamentally empowering. They were also very positive about publications, although some felt that more 'bite-sized' chunks of information would be helpful, as well as publications about specific conditions, which might be developed in collaboration with other organisations. There was also some enthusiasm for greater use of web-based information. Some parents suggested that more local information and individualised advice and support over a longer time-frame would be helpful, with further development of key worker programmes. A general criticism was that there was insufficient awareness of Enquire's services and far more effort could be made by local authorities and health agencies to inform parents of the support available as soon as their child was identified as having difficulties. Parents described their efforts to ensure appropriate educational provision for their children as 'a struggle' and believed that some local authorities had difficulty in seeing parents as equal partners.

Local authority staff, whilst positive about Enquire's publications as a useful source of reference, were less aware of the telephone helpline and were not sure to what extent parents in their area were using the service. Some local authority staff suggested that generic training was unlikely to meet practitioners' needs, and more audience-specific events should be held. In general, local authorities in Scotland were quite slow to develop advice and information services for parents (Mordaunt, 2001; Riddell, 2002), and there has been no equivalent of England's Parent Partnership Scheme. Enquire was initially set up to promote improvements in this area, and there was initially some suspicion amongst local authorities that the service might encourage dissent among parents. It was evident, however, that more constructive working relationships were developing. In particular, local authorities were aware of their new duty under the Additional Support for Learning legislation to publicise mediation and support services to parents, and some hoped that they would be able to develop future collaborative projects with Enquire.

Support organisations suggested that Enquire might not have enough local knowledge and argued that they should do more to build up contact with local and specialist support groups. Questions were raised about whether Enquire, in endeavouring to provide an impartial service, failed to empathise sufficiently with individual parents. There was a need, it was felt, for services with an advocacy remit to complement the work of Enquire. Concerns were also expressed about the ability of the service to provide an adequate service for parents with communication difficulties or in very disadvantaged circumstances. Parents' criticism that advice and information services were difficult to access was reinforced by other support organisations, who felt that a much higher profile was needed. Overall, much greater cross-referral between agencies was seen as highly desirable.

Children's awareness of current information provision was patchy, with children in special settings knowing more about the service than those in mainstream schools. Many of the children in special schools had heard of Enquire and had come across leaflets and other materials in school. However, they were less clear about what Enquire did as an organisation or about how to access the services directly. They had not heard about the helpline. By way of contrast, none of the children in mainstream schools had heard of Enquire.

All of the children knew about ChildLine, although there were doubts about whether they would use it or not. There was a relatively high level of awareness of the existence of the Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People amongst children in mainstream and special schools. Most children reported that if they had a particular problem, they would prefer to speak to someone face-to-face, in particular a familiar adult. Few felt they would use leaflets, although the materials produced by disability organisations seemed to be a useful resource for teachers. Online information for children and young people, whilst improving access for some, may further exclude already marginalised groups.

It would appear that if advice and information services are targeted primarily at adults, they are unlikely to be greatly used by children and young people. Parents rather than children have traditionally been construed as consumers of education, but there is a desire to encourage children to have much greater ownership of and engagement with educational aims and processes. There is therefore a need for advice and information services which are targeted specifically at children and young people. These are at a relatively early stage of growth, and should be developed further in the future.

Future options for advice and information services in Scotland

Option 1: Maintaining the existing service

It is evident that there is very strong support for the Enquire service as it currently exists amongst a range of stakeholders. Parents who are service users speak extremely enthusiastically about the significant difference Enquire has made to their lives. Without the support of Enquire, many parents feel that they would not have been able to act as effective agents alongside practitioners in helping their children access the support they need to benefit from education. They also reveal that there is still a reluctance in certain parts of the education system to involve parents as equal partners. Furthermore, education staff are not always fully informed about developments in the field of additional support for learning. For example, a parent reported that a request for an Individualised Educational Programme was turned down without a proper explanation, and another request for a Personal Learning Plan was rejected out of hand. Finally, the new additional support for learning legislation allows local authorities considerable autonomy in terms of implementation, for example in determining which children require an Individualised Education Programme or a Co-ordinated Support Plan. Opportunities for access to a tribunal service, independent mediation and adjudication will ensure that parents have greater recourse to redress if dissatisfied. At the same time, the existence of a national advice and information service will help to underline the point that there are certain standards which all local authorities should adhere to. This will have a positive effect in terms of ensuring that there is, as far as possible, commonality in interpretation of the legislation in different parts of the country.

Option 2: Alternative mechanisms for service delivery

Despite the strong endorsement of the existing service, it is evident that there are clear suggestions for further improvements and developments. These include the greater use of publications targeted at different audiences (parents/carers, practitioners, children and young people) with different levels of literacy. Even when great efforts are made to avoid unnecessary jargon, explanations of the legislation inevitably involve a high degree of complexity and abstraction. There is therefore a need for easy-read versions of publications which convey the general principles using simple language and illustration. It is also evident that some parents and carers would welcome the greater use of the internet, with websites containing frequently asked questions with links to useful sources of information. Greater use of e-mail, messaging and chat-rooms are also welcomed by some people. However, it is also clear that some parents, particularly slightly older people and those in socially disadvantaged circumstances, do not have access to the internet or do not find it a sympathetic medium for a range of reasons. It is therefore extremely important that these diverse preferences are catered for by producing material in a wide range of formats.

Option 3: Radical options

A number of radical options arise as a result of the information gathered from parents and children and young people. First, some parents express the view quite strongly that, whilst they value access to impartial advice and information, which is the current basis of the Enquire service, they also on occasion require one-to-one support which might be in the form of advocacy or a key worker service. These are functions which probably could not be provided by the Enquire service unless a very large increase in funding was forthcoming. In addition, such services would probably be best delivered at a local level to ensure accessibility and local knowledge. Local authorities are probably best placed to develop key worker services, and such services have been thoroughly evaluated (Mitchell and Sloper, 2000; Greco et al, 2004; Greco et al, 2005).

A key element of advocacy services is that they are independent, and they are generally provided either by voluntary organisations specialising in a particular area, or by generic advocacy groups. In 2002, the Health and Community Care Minister announced significant funding to set up an Advocacy Safeguard Agency and a Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance to develop independent advocacy services for people with health problems, particularly mental health problems and learning disabilities, to give people the best chance of leading independent and autonomous lives. There has been no similar investment in educational advocacy services, however the views expressed in this report suggest that such a development would be welcomed by some parents, who may be experiencing extreme difficulties in their lives.

Finally, there is a need for further thought about the best means of delivering advice and information services to children with additional support needs. Whilst children have clearly benefited from some of the learning resources produced by Enquire, particularly the leaflets and video, the telephone line is little used. However, discussions with children suggested that they would be much more likely to use a helpline specifically targeted at children, and Childline was the service with which they had the greatest familiarity. Consideration should therefore be given to the provision of a separate helpline targeted specifically at children, or the development of an existing helpline such as Childline to deal with additional support needs queries.

Implications for different groups of service development options

In the following section, the implications of the options review for different groups are summarised.

Implications for the Scottish Executive

• On the evidence of a range of stakeholders, there is clearly a need for a national advice and information service for additional support needs.
• There are a number of suggestions which have been made for the improvement of the service and these are noted below.
• In addition, ideas were presented in relation to other types of services which would meet a range of needs, and the Scottish Executive may wish to consider how these could be taken forward.
• In particular, parents expressed a desire for one-to-one support in the form of key worker or advocacy services. These services lie outwith the current remit of Enquire, and it may be that local authorities might be encouraged to develop such provision as part of the wider modernisation and personalisation agenda which is being promoted by the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004.
• The Scottish Executive should encourage local authorities to fulfil their new duties in relation to informing parents of their additional support for learning policies. (Under the Additional Support for Learning Act, HMIE is charged with ensuring that local authorities undertake this duty.) The Scottish Executive might be able to offer assistance in disseminating information about Enquire through their printed and web-based materials.
• Whilst children and young people with additional support needs in special settings have used and appreciated Enquire's publications and video, it is evident that the telephone helpline is little used. Childline, on the other hand, is well known and used by children, and many of the enquiries that are made refer to school-related issues, such as bullying. In the future there is a possibility that Childline might be encouraged to deal with more enquiries from children in relation to additional support in school.

Implications for the Enquire service

• A number of clear suggestions were made with regard to the improvement of the Enquire service, particularly the development of the service's public profile through better advertising and marketing.
• Parents need access to advice and information at an early point in the diagnosis process. Enquire might develop materials specifically aimed at parents and carers of children in the early years.
• Parents signalled that, in addition to general information, they require in-depth information about local provision, personnel and processes. To provide this, Enquire needs to nurture local contacts in both local authorities and health boards to ensure that the new inter-agency approach is reflected.
• Parents indicated a desire for more impairment-specific information, and support organisations felt that there could be improvements in cross-referral.
• Parents' literacy and communication needs differ and the development of material in different formats, including easy-read and video with sign language interpretation, would be appreciated.
• Some parents are keen to make greater use of the internet, e-mail and chat rooms in order to access information and advice, whilst other parents do not have access to the internet or prefer to use more traditional ways of accessing information. A variety of formats is therefore required.
• Enquire provides information and advice to a wide variety of groups (parents/carers, children and young people, voluntary and support organisations, local authority and health board practitioners). It may be necessary to provide publications and training events which are more closely targeted at specific groups, recognising the diversity of information needs and prior knowledge which exists.

Implications for local authorities

• Unsurprisingly, there is evidence that parents still lag behind local authority staff in their knowledge of education legislation and policy, leading to a power imbalance. Local authorities need to ensure that in the future they do everything they can to redress this imbalance by conveying information to parents about additional support needs policy in a clear and accessible format.
• Local authorities could do a great deal more in informing parents of Enquire's existence and distributing publications. Under the new legislation, they have a duty to inform parents of the availability of advice, information and mediation services, and working more closely with Enquire would clearly help them to fulfil their responsibilities in this area.
• Given the broad definition of additional support needs, local authorities need to ensure that information about advice and information services reaches all parents, and not just those whose children are being assessed for a Co-ordinated Support Plan.
• Local authorities will be undertaking a major staff development exercise in relation to the new legislation and they might choose to work in conjunction with Enquire on this to ensure that staff are made aware of the parents' perspective.

Implications for schools

• Schools are in the frontline in responding to parents' requests for advice and information. Like local authorities, they can play a major role in distributing information about the Enquire service to parents.
• Schools will be including additional support for learning in their staff development activities over the coming months, and they could also usefully draw on Enquire's expertise and publications.

Implications for support organisations

• There is a need for closer working between Enquire and other voluntary and support organisations to ensure that unnecessary duplication is avoided. This could be achieved by exchange of material and better cross referral in both directions, thus ensuring complementarity rather than competition.

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