Issue - meetings

(i)       to note that there was unprecedented uncertainty and market fluctuation in relation to construction costs and energy costs, and uncertainties relating to school roll forecasting following changes in patterns of school enrolment have led to challenges in providing an accurate and robust set of recommended actions within the School Estate Plan; and

(ii)       to instruct the Chief Officer – Corporate Landlord to report back to the next meeting of the Education Operational Delivery Committee with a further detailed update.

(A)      DEPUTATION – DR ALISON MURRAY

The Committee heard from Dr Alison Murray, who advised that she was the chair of parent/carer support group ‘Autism and Other Conditions Aberdeen’.  She explained that she had asked to talk to Committee about the School Estate Plan update and what she considered was its failure to meet or acknowledge the Council’s obligations under the Education (Disability Strategies and Pupil’s Educational Records) (Scotland) Act 2002, and the associated guidance “Planning improvements for disabled pupils’ access to education: guidance for education authorities, independent and grant-aided schools.” She specifically highlighted what she felt was the Council’s failure to fulfil its statutory duty under section 1.(2)(b) of the Act, namely to prepare and implement a strategy for “improving the physical environment of the school, or schools, in relation to which the strategy is prepared for the purpose of increasing the extent to which pupils with a disability are able to take advantage of education and associated services provided or offered by such school or schools.”

Dr Murray stated that in September 2020, the Committee had approved an Accessibility Plan which she considered failed to satisfy this and other statutory duties, and which she added also failed to follow the accompanying Government guidance.  She added that she felt that the Council’s current Accessibility Plan omitted the Scottish Government guidance on this matter within its section on Key Legislation and Guidance.  Rather than considering, as required by the Act, how to improve the physical environment of schools to enable better access to education and associated services provided, Dr Murray said that the Accessibility Plan simply asked the question “can everyone access the physical environment?” with the answer focusing principally on wheelchair accessibility.  She added that she had subsequently heard of schools being misdescribed as ‘fully accessible’ when what was meant was ‘fully wheelchair accessible’ with no consideration having been given to for example, vision or hearing accessibility.

Dr Murray explained that Government guidance made clear that disability included sensory impairments and hidden disabilities such as dyslexia, autism and speech and language impairments, as well as physical impairments.  The pupil census data for 2021 reported that Aberdeen City had 443 pupils assessed or declared as having a disability.  However, Dr Murray stated that this considerably underestimated the number of disabled pupils: for example, she advised that there were 731 autistic children alone in mainstream schools in Aberdeen City last year.

Dr Murray noted that the Accessibility Plan stated that “Accessibility will be a key driver in the upcoming review of the School Estate” and the action plan stated that the Council would “involve disabled children, parents, specialists and services in the development of the school estate strategy including nurseries and preschool centres, by June 2021”.  She considered that it was at least doubtful whether a strategy to merely draw up another strategy could be said to fulfil the requirement to have a strategy for improving the physical environment, or whether drawing up a School Estate Plan could be said to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10