Social Focus on Disability 2004

chapter four: Qualifications and Education

'Our ambition is to ensure that everybody living in Scotland has the opportunity to achieve their maximum potential in their lives. We are determined to provide a school system that allows all children in Scotland to enjoy the same educational opportunities - not limited by where they live, by their family circumstances or by any special needs they may have. We are determined to foster self-esteem, respect for others and positive attitudes to learning so that all children are able to make the most of their potential.'

Closing the Opportunity Gap: Education and Young People

The provision of high quality education for all is a key priority for the Scottish Executive. Education is seen as essential to ensure that young people receive that best possible start in life to enable them to be well equipped for the job market. A key feature of the national priorities for education in Scotland is to promote equality and help every pupil benefit from education, with particular regard paid to pupils with disabilities and special educational needs. The Scottish Executive is committed to developing inclusive policies which allow all children to reach their full potential.

New legislation to support children with additional support needs (ASN) has just been passed by the Scottish Parliament. This stems from a review of the arrangements for assessment and recording of children with special educational needs (SEN), arrangements which were introduced more than 20 years ago.

This chapter presents information on special educational needs within the pre-school, primary and secondary sectors and on disability within Higher Education. It also presents some information from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) on the level of qualifications obtained by disabled and non-disabled people.

The results show that:

In January 2004, 5 per cent of pre-school children had recognised special educational needs.
In 2003, 73 per cent of the 25,770 children who have special educational needs spent all of their time in mainstream classes.
Four per cent of higher education students in Scotland have a declared disability.
Disabled people and those who have a long-term illness are more likely to have no qualifications than non-disabled people.

Special educational needs and disability

Information is collected annually in Scotland on the number of pre-school and school age children who have special education needs. ⁹ This information is closely related to, but not synonymous with disability. Data on disabled pupils are not collected currently, but will be as from 2005. The focus within the education system is on educational need rather than whether or not a child has impairment. Therefore, it is possible that a child may have a disability but because of the nature of the disability, or because adaptations have been made to the school environment, that the child is not considered to have special educational needs.

Special educational needs in pre-school education

Table 4.1 presents data on the number and proportion of children with special educational needs collected as part of the annual survey of pre-school and day care centres. It shows that overall, 5 per cent of pre-school children in Scotland have special educational needs.

Table 4.1: Children with Special Educational Needs in Pre-School Education Children's special needs by centre type, 2004

	Nursery classes		Nursery school				Total
Special needs	LA primary	Independent	LA	Private	Voluntary	Other	Total
Number of children with...
Recorded special educational needs	156	1	389	418	297	0	1,261
In progress of being recorded	210	6	388	129	102	6	841
Non-recorded special educational needs	1,112	4	1,357	157	184	3	2,817
All with special educational needs	1,478	11	2,134	704	583	9	4,919
No special educational needs	43,417	1,364	25,696	16,876	10,568	297	98,218
Total	44,895	1,375	27,830	17,580	11,151	306	103,137
Proportion of children attending with...
Recorded special educational needs	0%	0%	1%	2%	3%	0%	1%
In progress of being recorded	0%	0%	1%	1%	1%	2%	1%
Non-recorded special educational needs	2%	0%	5%	1%	2%	1%	3%
All with special educational needs	3%	1%	8%	4%	5%	3%	5%
No special educational needs	97%	99%	92%	96%	95%	97%	95%
Total	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%
Change since previous year
Recorded special educational needs	-127	-4	90	-418	-269	-8	-736
In progress of being recorded	-11	4	-72	30	-43	-2	-94
Non-recorded special educational needs	-105	-4	206	-97	-6	-7	-13
All with special educational needs	-243	-4	224	-485	-318	-17	-843
No special educational needs	-1,637	107	-824	1,308	257	-309	-1,098
Total	-1,880	103	-600	823	-61	-326	-1,941

Source: Pre-school and childcare statistics 2004

Table 4.2 shows how the number and proportion of children in pre-school education with special educational needs in Scotland has changed since 1990.

Table 4.2: Children with Special Educational Needs in Pre-School Education ¹

Year	Total number of children in pre- school education	Children in pre-school education with a Record of Needs (RoN)		Children in pre-school education in the process of being assessed for a RoN		Children with SEN but no RoN ^2,3
Year	Total number of children in pre- school education	Number	Percentage of total	Number	Percentage of total	Number	Percentage of total
Sep-90	43,981	103	0.2%	169	0.4%	n.a.	n.a.
Sep-91	45,238	109	0.2%	147	0.3%	n.a.	n.a.
Sep-92	46,992	85	0.2%	193	0.4%	n.a.	n.a.
Sep-93	48,127	109	0.2%	226	0.5%	n.a.	n.a.
Sep-94	48,954	138	0.3%	176	0.4%	n.a.	n.a.
Sep-95	49,020	203	0.4%	194	0.4%	n.a.	n.a.
Sep-96	50,117	168	0.3%	247	0.5%	n.a.	n.a.
Sep-98	53,260	188	0.4%	209	0.4%	n.a.	n.a.
Feb-99	79,361	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
Sep-99	88,799	440	0.5%	459	0.5%	1,880	2.1%
Jan-01	98,837	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
Jan-02	98,769	808	0.8%	664	0.7%	2,760	2.8%
Jan-03	105,078	1,997	1.9%	935	0.9%	2,830	2.7%
Jan-04	103,137	1,261	1.2%	841	0.8%	2,817	2.7%

Source: Data shown here are published in the following bulletins and news releases:
Provision for Pre-School Children (published June 1992)
Provision for Pre-School Children (published April 1994)
Summary Results of the 1995 School Census (published August 1996)
Summary Results of the 1997-98 Census of Pre-School Education Centres (published November 1999)
Summary Results of the 1999-2000 Census of Pre-School Education Centres (published July 2000)
Provisional Results of the 2001 Pre-School and Daycare Census (published August 2001)
Summary Results of the 2002 Pre-school and Daycare Census (published September 2002)
Summary Results of the Pre-School and Daycare Census (published July 2003)
Preschool and childcare statistics 2004 (published July 2004)
1 Figures prior to 1998 include children in local authority nursery schools or departments only. As from 1999, figures include children in education authority provision and children in private or voluntary centres which are run in partnership with the local authority.
2 Children with recognised special educational needs in terms of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, as amended.
3 A Record of Needs (RoN) is provided for a child who has "pronounced, specific or complex special educational needs which require continuing review". The RoN contains the child's details; the details of the parent/guardian and the named person (someone to represent them); an assessment profile; a summary of the child/young person's impairments; a description of the special educational needs arising from the impairments; a statement of the measures proposed by the education authority; the name of the school to be attended; a summary of the views of the parent/guardian; the date the Record was opened and a summary of the reviews of the Record; and a note of who is allowed to access the Record.

The figures show that the number and proportion of children reported to have special educational needs has more than doubled in the last 14 years. However, it is important to bear in mind that the rise in the number of children reported to have special educational needs may be due to wider diagnostic criteria, earlier diagnosis (especially with the increasing numbers in pre-school education), greater awareness, genuine change or a combination of factors.

Special educational needs in school age education

Information on special educational needs in publicly funded primary, secondary and special schools is collected annually as part of the Pupil Census.

Primary education

Table 4.3 shows that in September 2003 there were 13,582 children in publicly funded primary schools who had a Record of Need (RoN) or an Individualised Educational Programme (IEP). ¹⁰ The largest categories were for specific learning difficulties (24.3 per cent), moderate learning difficulties (22.4 per cent) and social and emotional difficulties (12.2 per cent).

Table 4.3: Main difficulty in learning of pupils with a Record of Needs and/or an Individualised Educational Programme in publicly funded primary schools, September 2003

Impairment Type	Number	Percentage
Total	13,582	100.0
Hearing impairment	251	1.8
Visual impairment	176	1.3
Physical or motor impairments	547	4.0
Language and speech disorder	1,068	7.9
Autistic spectrum disorder	1,382	10.2
Social and emotional difficulties	1,654	12.2
Learning difficulties:
Moderate	3,041	22.4
Severe	402	3.0
Profound	56	0.4
Specific	3,439	24.3
Complex or multiple impairments
Dual sensory impairment	23	0.2
Moderate learning difficulties & other	501	3.7
Severe learning difficulties & other	214	1.6
Profound learning difficulties & other	69	0.5
Other	730	4.4
Not Known	29	0.2

Source: September 2003 Pupil Census

Table 4.4: Integration of pupils with a Record of Needs and/or Individualised Educational Programme into publicly funded primary schools, September 2003

Nature of attendance	All Pupils with a Record of Need and/or an Individualised Educational Programme
Time spent by pupils in mainstream classes
Total	13,582
All the time in mainstream classes	85%
³/ ₄ or more but less than all time in mainstream classes	2%
¹/ ₂ or more but less than ³/ ₄ of the time in mainstream classes	5%
¹/ ₄ or more but less than ¹/ ₂ of the time in mainstream classes	2%
Some time, but less than ¹/ ₄ of the time in mainstream classes	4%
No time in mainstream classes	2%

Source: September 2003 Pupil Census

The Pupil Census also collects information on how much of these pupils' time is spent in mainstream classes.

The majority of pupils (85 per cent) spend all of their time in mainstream classes. Only 8 per cent of pupils with a RoN and/or an IEP spent less than half of their time in mainstream classes.

Secondary education

Table 4.5 shows that in September 2003 there were 9,684 children in publicly funded secondary schools who had a Record of Needs (RoN) or an Individualised Educational Programme (IEP). As with primary school pupils, the largest categories were for specific learning difficulties (30.0 per cent), moderate learning difficulties (24.2 per cent) and social and emotional difficulties (14.7 per cent), however the proportions in these categories are higher than for primary level education. There were lower proportions of pupils with autistic spectrum disorder (4.6 per cent) and language and speech disorder (1.9 per cent) compared to primary schools.

Table 4.5: Main difficulty in learning of pupils with a Record of Needs and/or an Individualised Educational Programme in publicly funded secondary schools, September 2003

Impairment Type	Number	Percentage
Total	9,684	100.0
Hearing impairment	260	2.7
Visual impairment	147	1.5
Physical or motor impairments	447	4.6
Language and speech disorder	182	1.9
Autistic spectrum disorder	542	4.6
Social and emotional difficulties	1,422	14.7
Learning difficulties:
Moderate	2,343	24.2
Severe	190	2.0
Profound	17	0.2
Specific	2,907	30.0
Complex or multiple impairments
Dual sensory impairment	19	0.2
Moderate learning difficulties & other	375	3.9
Severe learning difficulties & other	96	1.0
Profound learning difficulties & other	31	0.3
Other	694	7.2
Not Known	12	0.1

Source: September 2003 Pupil Census

Table 4.6: Integration of pupils with a Record of Needs and/or Individualised Educational Programme into publicly funded secondary schools, September 2003

Nature of attendance	All Pupils with a Record of Need and/or an Individualised Educational Programme
Time spent by pupils in mainstream classes
Total	9,684
All the time in mainstream classes	76%
³/ ₄ or more but less than all time in mainstream classes	10%
¹/ ₂ or more but less than ³/ ₄ of the time in mainstream classes	6%
¹/ ₄ or more but less than ¹/ ₂ of the time in mainstream classes	2%
Some time, but less than ¹/ ₄ of the time in mainstream classes	3%
No time in mainstream classes	4%

Source: September 2003 Pupil Census

Table 4.6 shows that around three quarters of pupils with a RoN or an IEP spend all of their time in mainstream classes; this compares with 85 per cent of pupils in primary schools. Nine per cent of pupils with a RoN or IEP spend less than half of their time in mainstream classes, similar to the figure for primary schools.

Special schools

Table 4.7: Main difficulty in learning of pupils with a Record of Needs and/or an Individualised Educational Programme in publicly funded special schools, September 2003

Impairment Type	Number	Percentage
Total	7,573	100
Hearing impairment	146	1.9
Visual impairment	202	2.7
Physical or motor impairments	340	4.5
Language and speech disorder	190	2.5
Autistic spectrum disorder	739	9.8
Social and emotional difficulties	773	10.2
Learning difficulties:
Moderate	1,956	24.8
Severe	667	8.8
Profound	65	0.9
Specific	31	0.4
Complex or multiple impairments
Dual sensory impairment	20	0.3
Moderate learning difficulties & other	1,007	13.3
Severe learning difficulties & other	859	11.3
Profound learning difficulties & other	489	6.5
Other	72	1.0

Source: September 2003 Pupil Census

As with primary and secondary schools, the biggest proportion of pupils in special schools, 24.8 per cent, have moderate learning difficulties. However there is a large difference in the proportion of children who have specific learning difficulties: 24.3 per cent in primary, 30.0 per cent in secondary and 0.4 per cent in special schools. Perhaps not surprisingly, there is a much higher proportion of pupils in special schools who have complex or multiple impairments with 31.4 per cent in these categories.

Table 4.8: Pupils with a Record of Needs and/or an Individualised Educational Programme in publicly funded special schools by sex and age, September 2003

Age	Female	Male	Total
All ages	2,504	5,069	7,573
4	45	105	150
5	93	202	295
6	115	275	390
7	104	281	385
8	111	266	377
9	150	304	454
10	142	312	454
11	168	387	555
12	189	444	633
13	248	434	682
14	217	542	759
15	312	615	927
16	272	485	757
17	207	246	453
18	83	104	187
19	8	12	20
Other	40	55	95

Source: September 2003 Pupil Census

Table 4.8 shows that of the 7,573 pupils in publicly funded special schools with a RoN and/or IEP, around two-thirds of them were male. The table also shows the age profile for males and females. Just over 3 per cent of males were aged under 5, 40 per cent were aged 5-11 and 57 per cent were 12 and over. The proportion of pre-school female pupils was virtually identical, but there were slightly lower proportions of primary school aged females than males (34.3 per cent) and therefore a higher proportion of secondary aged females (61.4 per cent).

Disability in Scottish Higher Education Institutions and Further Education Colleges

Information on the disability status of students engaged in higher education is collected by the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and Further Education Colleges (FEC) in Scotland by the Higher Education Statistics Authority and the Scottish Further Education Funding Councils.

Table 4.9: Proportion of Higher Education Students in Higher Education Institutions and Further Education Colleges in Scotland by disability status ¹ and sex, 2001-2002

	Female	Male	Total
Disability declared	3.9	4.3	4.0
No disability declared	96.1	94.7	96.0

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC)
1 The disability categories indicate the type of disability that a student has on the basis of their own self-assessment, and are consistent with those used by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). For continuing students, where the information is not already known, institutions have the option of recording the student's disability as not sought. As a result, some institutions have not returned disability data for some of their students. In addition, students are not obliged to report a disability. HESA therefore advises that the figures reported in analyses are derived from a subset which may not be representative of the total student population.

Table 4.9 presents data on higher education students in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and Further Education Colleges (FEC) in Scotland for 2001-2002. Four per cent of students have a declared disability. The proportion of male students with a disability is slightly higher than female students (4.3 per cent compared to 3.9 per cent).

Table 4.10 shows the age profile for the disabled student population and for the non-disabled population:

Table 4.10: Proportion of Higher Education Students in Higher Education Institutions and Further Education Colleges in Scotland by disability status and age, 2001-2002

	20 years and under	21-24 years	25-29 years	30-34 years	35-39 years	40+ years
Disability declared	33.0	27.3	10.0	7.4	6.8	14.6
No disability declared	32.3	22.2	11.4	9.8	8.6	14.6

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC)

Overall, the age profiles of the disabled student population and the non-disabled population are similar although there is a slightly higher proportion of disabled students who are under 25 years old (60.3 per cent) compared to non-disabled students (54.5 per cent).

Table 4.11 shows the proportion of disabled and non-disabled students by subject of study.

Table 4.11: Proportion of Higher Education Students in Higher Education Institutions and Further Education Colleges in Scotland by disability status and subject of study, 2001-2002

Subject of study	Declared disability	No declared disability
Business Administration	14.2	22.4
Combined	13.1	10.9
Allied Medicine	9.8	10.9
Social Studies	8.9	6.9
Creative Arts	8.3	4.8
Information Technology	7.4	4.8
Engineering and Technology	7.0	8.5
Biological Sciences	6.4	4.5
Humanities	3.9	2.0
Education	3.8	6.5
Physical Sciences	3.7	2.4
Architecture	3.1	2.8
Languages	2.7	2.9
Law	1.7	2.2
Medicine and Dentistry	1.7	2.3
Mass Communication	1.5	1.6
Maths	1.3	1.1
Agriculture	1.0	0.8
Veterinary Science	0.5	0.5

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC)

The most common subject of study for both disabled and non-disabled students is business administration but there are differences in the proportion of students involved: 14.2 per cent of disabled students and 22.4 per cent of non- disabled students. There are 13.1 per cent of disabled students studying for a combined degree compared to 10.9 per cent of non-disabled students. For most other subjects the proportion of disabled and non-disabled students is fairly similar. Notable exceptions include Creative Arts (8.3 per cent of disabled students compared to 4.8 per cent of non-disabled students), and Education (3.8 per cent of disabled students compared to 6.5 per cent of non-disabled students).

Table 4.12 shows the split of degree classifications for graduates by disability status. There was a higher proportion of graduates who have a declared disability who received a first or second class degree (66.2 per cent) compared to graduates who have no declared disability (63.0 per cent).

Table 4.12: First degree Higher Education Graduates from Higher Education Institutions and Further Education Colleges in Scotland by disability status and degree class, 2001-2002

Percentage of total degrees

	Declared disability	No declared disability	All
First class	8.9	8.4	8.4
Second class	57.3	54.6	54.7
Third class	3.2	3.0	3.0
Other	30.6	34.1	33.9

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC)

Highest level of qualification

The Scottish Household Survey collects information on the highest level of qualification achieved.

Table 4.13: Highest level of qualification obtained (Adult population), 2001 and 2002

Row percentages

	No qualifications or qualifications outwith those listed	Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Base
Disability (with or without a long-term illness)	58	13	16	5	9	1,673
Long-term illness only	54	13	15	7	10	1,265
No disability or long-term illness	24	19	24	9	24	17,192
All People aged 17-64 years	28	18	23	9	22	20,130

Source: Scottish Household Survey

The qualifications within each group are:

Group 1: 'O' Grade, Standard Grade, Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2, City and Guilds Craft, SVQ Level 1 or 2 or equivalent.

Group 2: Higher Grade, CSYS, ONC, OND, City and Guilds Advanced Craft, RSA, Advanced Diploma, SVQ Level 3 or equivalent.

Group 3: HND, HNC, RSA Higher Diploma, SVQ Level 4 or 5 or equivalent.

Group 4: First Degree, Higher Degree, Professional Qualification.

Table 4.13 shows that there are large differences between the disabled and long-term ill population and the rest of the population in the proportion of people who do not have any qualifications (or have qualifications, such as school leaving certificate, which are outwith those listed). Twenty-four per cent of the population aged 17-64 years who do not report a disability or long-term illness have no qualification or qualifications outwith those listed. This rate is more than doubled when looking at those who report a disability or long-term illness: 58 per cent and 54 per cent respectively.

Consequently there are a higher proportion of people without a disability or long-term illness who have each of the different levels of qualifications than for those with a disability or long-term illness. The difference is most marked in the proportion of people who are educated to degree level or above: 24 per cent of the non-disabled population compared with around 10 per cent of the disabled and long-term ill population.

As with many of the indicators presented in this publication, there is a correlation between highest level of qualification and age; the proportion of the population who have no qualifications increases with age as older people are less likely to have qualifications (Table 5-29 in the 2001/2002 SHS Annual Report shows this relationship). Given the older age profile of the disabled population, they are less likely to have qualifications. However table 4.14 shows that even when the data are split into broad age bands, people who are disabled or long-term ill are more likely to have no qualifications or qualifications outwith those listed.

Table 4.14: Proportion in each age group who have no qualifications or qualifications outwith those listed, 2001 and 2002

	17 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 54	55 to 64	All People aged 17-64
Disability (with or without a long-term illness)	32	42	61	71	58
Long-term illness only	20	41	56	71	54
No disability or long-term illness	10	18	31	51	24
All People aged 17-64 years	11	20	35	57	28

Source: Scottish Household Survey

References

Closing the Opportunity Gap: Education and Young People
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/finance/ctog-05.asp

Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Bill
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/bills/pdfs/b11s2.pdf

Education Statistics
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/ED/IAC/00015568/Education.aspx

Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)
http://www.hesa.ac.uk/

Lifelong Learning Statistics
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/ASD/ELL-EAS6/00017875/page830054467.aspx

Preschool and childcare statistics 2004
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00346-00.asp

Scottish children's statistics gateway
www.scotland.gov.uk/statistics/children

Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC)
http://www.sfc.ac.uk/

Scottish Household Survey
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/SR/CRU-SocInc/00016002/SHShome.aspx

The National Priorities in School Education
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/education/nationalpriorities/default.asp

Contacts

Telephone contact points for information relating to Chapter 4, Qualifications and Education:

Scottish Executive

Chapter Author	Amy Wilson
	0131 244 0310
	amy.wilson@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Children Statistics	Esther Roughsedge
	0131 244 3745
	children.statistics@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Higher Education Statistics	Hugh McAloon
	0141 242 5605
	hugh.mcaloon@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
School Statistics	Mal Cooke
	0131 244 1689
	mal.cooke@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

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