After research was unveiled last week showing that the number of pupils taken out of school in Wales to be taught at home in 2016-17 had more than doubled over four years to 1,906, with many believed to be on the autism spectrum, North Wales Assembly Member Mark has called for a Welsh Government statement on the matter.
In yesterday’s Business Statement Mr Isherwood, who Chairs the Cross Party Autism Group in the Assembly, said the research reported last week by BBC Wales was accompanied by concerns from the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, the Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales and the National Autistic Society Cymru.
He said:
“I call for a single Statement on the number of pupils being taken out of school to be taught at home who are on the autism spectrum or with other additional learning needs. You might be aware that, last Friday, BBC Wales reported research showing that the number of pupils being taken out of school to be taught at home had doubled in the previous four years, with many of those pupils believed to be on the autistic spectrum. This follows previous revelations that the number of pupils in the School Action and School Action Plus categories being excluded from school on short-term exclusions had doubled, whilst falling for the general school population.
“We've heard concern in this context from the Children's Commissioner for Wales, who expressed concern that some parents had told her they'd been encouraged to home educate because their child might be affecting the school or local authority performance data. We heard from the Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales that families with autistic children lodged more appeals about the lack of support their child was receiving in school than those with other learning needs. And we heard from the National Autistic Society Cymru that a lot of parents are finding themselves in positions where they have no options, and the only thing they can do to help their children is to educate them at home, even though they might not feel fully equipped to do that or want to.
“Now, I know you're going to tell me, or you might have been going to tell me, that the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill, to be debated later, will be addressing this and overhauling the system for supporting learners, but the National Autistic Society Cymru has called for mandatory training in autism awareness in schools, recognising that the very same people in schools who are currently getting it so wrong with these children are likely to be the people who will have a major influence on their Individual Development Plans in the future. I do therefore hope that you will find time for the Welsh Government to provide a Statement on this very important piece of work by BBC Wales.”
Leader of the House and Chief Whip, Julie James AM replied: “I will take the opportunity to say that our very ambitious Additional Learning Needs Bill will, if passed this afternoon, completely overhaul the system for supporting any learner with additional learning needs and introduce duties to secure additional learning provision in schools. Obviously, we continue to be absolutely committed to creating an inclusive education system that works for all our learners, and we're always very open to additional evidence or commentary that shows that some part of the system needs another look at it. But the Cabinet Secretary for Education has heard your remarks and I'm sure she'll take them on board, and, if we do identify any such trends or patterns, or evidence is available, I'm sure she'll be taking those into account in due course.”