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Chapter 2: Inclusiveness: The Way to Realise Potential
All the agencies and organisations which provide learning opportunities and support for young people should encourage and promote a culture of Inclusiveness which ensures that the needs, abilities and aspirations of young people are recognised, understood and met within a supportive environment; and that they are encouraged to achieve their goals and to make real, measurable progress. (Paragraph 2.27)
Chapter 4: Improving Transition: Agencies Working Together
The Scottish Executive should set up a National Action Group for Implementing Inclusiveness, to be chaired by a Minister, to set up local area networks and monitor their effectiveness. (Paragraph 4.8)
There should be an Area Strategy Group for Implementing Inclusiveness that brings together all the relevant organisations and agencies in each area to ensure that young people receive all the learning opportunities and support services that they might require. The Area Strategy Group should set up an Implementing Inclusiveness Team. (Paragraph 4.9)
The National Action Group should set criteria for the establishment of the area networks. Within those criteria, there should be active encouragement for diversity of approaches designed to meet the needs of the area: rural/urban split; size of population; demographics; pattern of FE and training provision; and the community learning plans. (Paragraph 4.12)
In the first 3 years of the area networks, every area should be regarded as a "pilot". (Paragraph 4.13)
The National Action Group should make money available for set-up costs to be awarded to Area Strategy Groups on approval of the plan. (Paragraph 4.15)
There should be 17 area networks based on the current boundaries of careers service companies. The Committee has taken the view that flexibility should be given to the agencies and organisations in the area to decide which agency would be best placed to facilitate the establishment of the area network. This decision should be based on local circumstances. (Paragraph 4.22)
The National Action Group should give particular attention to the funding arrangements proposed in the plans submitted for formation of area networks and encourage the development of pooled resources. (Paragraph 4.25)
The National Action Group should consider and agree appropriate and regular monitoring arrangements for the Area Strategy Groups; and the Area Strategy Groups should agree monitoring arrangements with the Implementing Inclusiveness Teams. The monitoring should include the arrangements for multi-agency practitioner teams, key workers and mentors as described in Chapter 5. (Paragraph 4.29)
The Area Strategy Groups should establish both formal and informal mechanisms for engaging young people in the decision-making process about learning and support provision in the area and for gathering their views and ideas about future strategies. (Paragraph 4.33)
Chapter 5: Improving Transition: Key Workers and Mentors
The Area Strategy Group should work with the relevant agencies to set up key worker support arrangements in their area which best meet local needs and circumstances. The arrangements should include clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the relevant agencies; protocols and guidelines for referral; and monitoring arrangements. (Paragraph 5.26)
The National Action Group should promote the piloting of different models for the key worker support arrangements within the three-year period of setting up and piloting of the area structures. (Paragraph 5.27)
There should be a network of volunteer mentors with close links to the Area Strategy Groups and Implementing Inclusiveness Teams. (Paragraph 5.34)
The Scottish Executive should offer a start up fund to one of the national voluntary organisations to develop a training programme for mentors. (Paragraph 5.35)
Chapter 6: Improving Transitions: Guidance and Support
Careers service companies should continue to develop their work in partnership with schools and other agencies, to identify those young people who will find it most difficult to make the transition from school to post-school provision, or who are risk of dropping out of the education and training system. (Paragraph 6.26)
The Scottish Executive should ensure that careers service companies have adequate resources to work with these young people. (Paragraph 6.26)
Careers advisers should also identify young people at school who might benefit from the support of a key worker and/or mentor in collaboration with schools and guidance staff. (Paragraph 6.27)
Careers service company managers should work with other key agencies to seek alternative ways of assisting young people with additional support needs and develop effective multi-agency approaches to support young people. (Paragraph 6.28)
Careers service companies should identify those young people for whom further tracking would help, for example, young people who leave school and do not enter any further education, training or employment or young people who leave care. (Paragraph 6.31)
Careers service companies should be given sufficient resources to track such young people beyond their first destination. (Paragraph 6.31)
Careers service companies should work with schools, colleges, LECs and training providers to improve pre-entry guidance for young people who will require additional support in further education or training. Where possible, careers service companies should identify young people who may experience difficulties in sustaining a college or training place, and in partnership with the education and training provider, identify a specific support mechanism. This may involve a referral to a key worker or mentor. (Paragraph 6.37)
Colleges and training providers, in collaboration with careers service companies and other agencies, should identify ways in which ongoing guidance and support for learners can be enhanced. Specific consideration should be given to improving early diagnosis of problems; introducing an improved tutor system so that the young person has a named contact; and identifying young people who may benefit from key worker and/or mentor support. (Paragraph 6.42)
The Scottish Executive, in co-operation with the Association of Scottish Principal Psychologists, The British Psychological Society, and COSLA, should develop a specification for psychological services for 16-24 year olds based on the outline above. They should also review staffing levels and training requirements for psychological services in Scotland in light of this new emphasis and extension of role. (Paragraph 6.46)
Chapter 7: Improving Transition: Assessment
The Area Strategy Groups should work with the lead agencies to develop an assessment framework setting out the key principles, roles and responsibilities and pathways into and between assessment. (Paragraph 7.6)
There should be a review of assessment tools at national level to be undertaken by the lead agencies in assessment, with particular emphasis on the skills and attributes which contribute to employability. The lead agencies would include the careers service companies, LECs, training providers, FE colleges and the voluntary sector. (Paragraph 7.9)
The Area Strategy Groups should work with the key agencies - careers service companies, LECs and training providers, colleges and the local authority to develop a wider range of enhanced guidance and assessment programmes supported by appropriate funding mechanisms. (Paragraph 7.11)
The Area Strategy Groups work with the relevant agencies to agree arrangements for encouraging the participation and ownership of the young person which take full account of the individual's rights and wishes as far as possible. There should also be agreed arrangements about the process of referral to a key worker and the ongoing role of the key worker in the assessment process. (Paragraph 7.21)
There should be a Transition Form for all young people which contains up-to-date and accurate information (as far as possible) about achievements, goals and learning and support needs. (Paragraph 7.25)
The Scottish Executive Education Department, working together with COSLA and the teaching bodies, should develop our proposal for a Transition Form in conjunction with the work now going on in the Education Department and local authorities on Personal Learning Plans. (Paragraph 7.29)
The Area Strategy Groups should promote and encourage the development and use of a standard Transition Form within their own area. (Paragraph 7.31)
The Area Strategy Groups should work with the key agencies to develop agreed protocols for the transfer of information which set out specific arrangements for confidentiality. (Paragraph 7.36)
The agencies - careers service companies, the enterprise networks, training providers, colleges and other agencies who are involved in assessment - should ensure that staff receive training in assessment practice. (Paragraph 7.37)
The Area Strategy Groups should work with the key agencies to promote joint staff training to develop consistent standards and practices in assessment across agencies. (Paragraph 7.37)
The assessment framework should include a profile and action planning system agreed by all the relevant agencies. (Paragraph 7.42)
The arrangements for referral to a key worker or appointing a multi-agency team should be the responsibility of the Area Strategy Groups. (Paragraph 7.44).
The co-ordination of services by Area Strategy Groups should encompass post-school provision for young people who have been involved in the FNA process. (Paragraph 7.47)
The Area Strategy Groups should work with the relevant agencies, and specifically with the local authority Education Department, to ensure that the Future Needs Assessment process has clear links to the key worker support arrangements; and that the needs of the young people are addressed in the profile and action planning system. (Paragraph7.48)
Chapter 8: Improving Provision: Further Education and Training
The recently established Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) and the enterprise networks should work with each other to improve the links between further education and training and to develop a post-school learning system that offers continuity, coherence and clear routes of progression. (Paragraph 8.5)
All agencies responsible for the delivery of further education and training for young people with additional support needs should develop Inclusiveness policies; and
Inclusiveness policies should be developed in consultation with learners, staff, and other relevant agencies and should be kept under regular review. (Paragraph 8.13)
SFEFC and SE/HIE should ensure that the Inclusiveness policy is approved by the College/LEC Board in its strategic role. (Paragraph 8.14)
SFEFC should require further education colleges in Scotland to produce disability statements on an annual basis. (Paragraph 8.17)
Colleges and training providers should regularly review the quality and effectiveness of disability statements (the format, content and accessibility) in consultation with learners. (Paragraph 8.18)
SFEFC and the enterprise networks should review the effectiveness of, and continuing need for, disability statements after a 5 year period. Over time it may be more appropriate to develop Inclusiveness Statements which encompass the needs of learners with disabilities and other support needs. (Paragraph 8.20)
SFEFC should fund initiatives which promote an Inclusiveness approach in colleges, and SE and HIE should fund initiatives which promote an Inclusiveness approach in training. (Paragraph 8.21)
Colleges, LECs and training providers should be encouraged to work with other agencies in developing Inclusiveness approaches, and SFEFC, the enterprise networks and other agencies e.g. social work should jointly fund initiatives where appropriate. (Paragraph 8.21)
Colleges should be required to develop a plan for improving accessibility and agree a timetable with SFEFC for achieving full accessibility. (Paragraph 8.26)
SFEFC should provide capital support for accessibility and highlight it as a priority in estate funding. (Paragraph 8.26)
The Scottish Executive Estates Strategy guidance to colleges should include accessibility, and guidance on accessibility audits should be available to Estates Managers. (Paragraph 8.27)
The ACCESS Centres should play a greater role in the assessment of learning needs and SFEFC and the enterprise networks should fund ACCESS Centres to take on these additional responsibilities. (Paragraph 8.32)
The ACCESS Centres and the Employment Service Disability Advisory Service and other organisations offering specialist assessment and advice should collaborate with each other but avoid duplication of activities. (Paragraph 8.34)
The provision of equipment and aids to support individual learners should be reviewed by the SFEFC and the enterprise networks. Ways of providing an effective and responsive post-school service should be explored, with a view to ensuring that all young people requiring specialised equipment and other support should have easy access - regardless of where they are living, learning or working. (Paragraph 8.47)
SFEFC, the enterprise networks, the Employment Service and central government should examine ways of providing a more coherent funding mechanism for equipment and specialised support in education, training and employment. (Paragraph 8.49)
Chapter 9: Improving Provision: Enhancing Learning Opportunities for Young People in Resource Centres
Social Work Departments should work with other agencies to refocus and re-orientate Resource Centre provision to give a higher priority to addressing the continuing learning needs of young people, either in the Centre or through attendance at a college or training provider. (Paragraph 9.9)
The SFEFC should examine the case for enhancing and extending the range of continuing learning opportunities in colleges to meet the needs of young people who have a high level of learning and support needs. (Paragraph 9.10)
The Implementing Inclusiveness network at national and local level should give specific consideration to developing and co-ordinating enhanced learning and support opportunities for young people with a high level of support needs arising from disabilities, including young people in Resource Centres. (Paragraph 9.13)
The Area Strategy Groups should pay specific attention to developing and co-ordinating enhanced learning and support opportunities for this group of young people. (Paragraph 9.15)
Chapter 10: Improving Provision: Funding
The enterprise networks should work together to develop a more flexible funding mechanism for training which is based on an individual profile and action planning system and is responsive to the needs of learners with additional support needs. (Paragraph 10.6)
SFEFC should examine ways to direct funding towards the additional support needs of disabled learners, paying particular attention to the model of the Disabled Students Allowance, and develop funding methods which target individual needs. (Paragraph 10.17)
SFEFC and the enterprise networks should work together to review the ideas discussed in this chapter and examine the feasibility of a national support fund. (Paragraph 10.22)
Chapter 11: Improving Provision: Staff Training and Development
All organisations offering learning, guidance or support to young people with additional support needs should have a coherent and comprehensive framework of staff training and development. (Paragraph 11.16)
All organisations offering learning, guidance or support to young people with additional support needs should ensure that their staff have a basic training in recognising and understanding the needs of young people who require additional support. (Paragraph 11.17)
Staff working for the first time with young people who have additional support needs should have a minimum level of in-service training. This should be linked to the organisation's staff training plan and quality assurance systems, for example, FE Quality Indicators, SQMS, Investors in People. (Paragraph 11.17)
SFEFC, the enterprise networks, the FE Professional Development Forum and the relevant National Training Organisations (Employment NTO and FENTO) should commission the development of a joint training and qualifications framework building on existing approved qualifications. This should be done in consultation with organisations which have responsibility for, or an interest in, overseeing staff training and development in the FE and training sectors. (Paragraph 11.18)
The proposed Area Strategy Groups should devise a joint staff training and development strategy. Training should be organised at a local level and should include staff from FE, training providers, careers service companies, social work, voluntary sector, health and any other relevant agencies. (Paragraph 11.25)
Chapter 12: Improving Provision: Quality Assurance
The FE and training sector, and other organisations working with young people should build on their existing quality arrangements, and where appropriate, adapt them to promote Inclusiveness. (Paragraph 12.3)
Local authorities, voluntary organisations and HMI should ensure that the new quality assurance arrangements for community learning provision take account of learners with additional support needs. (Paragraph 12.4)
SFEFC and HMI should review the extent to which the recommendations in "Equally Successful" have already been met. (Paragraph 12.11)
The new Quality Framework being developed by SFEFC should specifically assess how well colleges are providing an Inclusive learning environment. (Paragraph 12.11)
SQMS should be further developed to assess Inclusiveness. i.e. for training providers, how well the design and delivery of training is matched to the needs and abilities of the individual; and for careers service companies, how well guidance meets the needs of the individual. (Paragraph 12.15)
The new SQMS Standards Council should review the quality standards to assess more specifically how well organisations are providing an Inclusiveness approach to training, and guidance. (Paragraph 12.15)
SQMS Scotland should ensure that external auditors have the appropriate expertise and training to assess Inclusiveness. (Paragraph 12.18)
SFEFC, the SQMS Standards Council and HMI should work together to consider how there could be greater harmonisation of quality assurance for further education and training. (Paragraph 12.19)
Chapter 13: Employability and Employment
Employability
The assessment process should clearly identify the extent to which young people can demonstrate, and use, the 'core' skills and attributes (reliability, willingness to learn, enthusiasm, honesty) which are valued by employers. (Paragraph 13.21)
The enterprise networks in conjunction with training providers, should review their pre-vocational and life skills programmes; and the SFEFC in conjunction with colleges, should examine the nature and scope of this type of provision in the FE sector. (Paragraph 13.22)
The Area Strategy Groups and Implementing Inclusiveness Teams should include employers. (Paragraph 13.24)
Employment
The proposed National Action Group should establish an Employment Forum. The members should be drawn from Scottish Business in the Community, Chambers of Commerce, Institute of Directors, CBI, STUC, Small Business Federation, Scottish Further Education Funding Council, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, COSLA, Employment Service, Benefits Agency, careers service companies and the voluntary sector. The Employment Forum should be charged with producing an action plan for increasing supported employment programmes and strategies for supporting the growth of social firms. As a first step, there should be a national survey of supported employment programmes to identify best practice, looking at specific client groups and taking into account pilot projects which have been formally evaluated. (Paragraph 13.51)
The Area Strategy Groups should work with employers and the local Employment Service and Benefits Agency to develop local arrangements for promoting and expanding supported employment programmes for young people. (Paragraph 13.52)
The Employment Forum should institute a review of supported employment practices with a view to developing a model appropriate to young people whose problems arise from low educational attainment, lack of basic skills and poor motivation. (Paragraph 13.54)
National Training Organisations should be asked to develop and promote the idea of employers as "Champions" of "disaffected" young people in the workplace. The Scottish Council of National Training Organisations (SCONTO) should support and encourage this development by setting up a network and sharing good practice. This should include the idea of a mentoring network. (Paragraph 13.57)
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