In many ways, the story of Connor Chalmers is about how successful the care system can be when it is working well, but it also exposes how poor the educational system can be at coping with children and young people who have extra needs.
Mr Chalmers was eight years old when he was taken into care (he is 20 now) and is overwhelmingly positive about his early experiences. He remembers the first day he moved into the specialist unit when a female member of staff hugged him and told him everything would be all right. Up to that point, most of the physical contact he had experienced had been violent.
Despite being suspended ten times by the time he was eight, Mr Chalmers' experience of school was also broadly good - he attended a specialist school where he received the attention he needed and the staff knew how to keep him calm and help him learn. But then Mr Chalmers went to college, which is where the system designed to support him appears to have broken down.
The system should work as follows: Mr Chalmers, who is dyslexic, was the subject of a co-ordinated support plan (CSP) which meant that while at school he could receive the extra support he needs, such as a scribe for exams. This plan should have followed him up to college so that staff there could offer him similar help but at least one lecturer was not aware of the plan or Mr Chalmers' extra educational needs.
This failure in the system could have had disastrous consequences for Mr Chalmers - and indeed he did drop out of college for a while - but he is now back on track and doing well. Even so, it is concerning is that a young man in his position should have had co-ordinated support plan but did not, and just as worrying is the fact that the problem appears to be common. By law, every child in care with additional support needs must be assessed for a CSP, but figures gathered by Govan Law Centre show that of 12,533 children in such circumstances, only 6,374 have been assessed.
That is a dereliction of duty by the councils concerned, but it also helps stacks the odds against children who are already in difficult circumstances. Children in care are less likely to leave school with qualifications, they are more likely to have special educational needs, and they are more likely to struggle when they leave school. There is a system of co-ordinated support to help them, but councils must meet their legal obligations to ensure that it is working effectively for the children who need it.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article