More Glasgow families are asking the city council to test their child for ASL (Additional Support Learning) needs since covid-19 according to the depute leader. 

A paper presented to members of the city administration committee highlighted that there is a £5.1 million overspend in staffing resulting from the number of pupils registered at school increasing as well as the number of staff needed to help with the complex needs in the ASL sector. 

During the meeting, questions were raised on the pressures on education services and how the council would cope with the demand of ASL. 

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(Image: Soryia Siddique)

Bailie Soryia Siddique said: “We have been discussing the pressure points on education, assisted support for learning and mental health.

“The facts are that the education budget has been significantly cut – we know that the teacher numbers have been cut. In light of this pressure point, what projected impact are these cuts going to have.

“It appears to me quite clearly that there needs to be investment in education. What impact will having less teachers have on assisted support for learning and mental health of our learners in the classrooms.”

(Image: Ricky Bell)

Depute council leader, councillor Ricky Bell there had been a “large increase” on the number of families wanting to assess their children for ASL and the local authority would need to look into the reasons behind this.

He said: “We are in a very challenging situation and we have had to make some decisions that we may in better times may not wish to have made.

“I think we have to remember that Glasgow is and continues to be, even after the change, still above the teacher pupil ratio, there is an opportunity there for us.

“Most of the changes to the teachers are not impacting the ASL sector so that support is still there but clearly from what the figures are telling us, there’s not enough support.

“We are making that expenditure in ASL but it is not sitting within the budget that is why it is recorded as a budget pressure and we have to look at the other budget lines and see where we can tighten things there.

“We need to figure out what is driving this, why is there a sudden really large uptake in the number of families who are asking for their child to be assessed and what impact has covid had [on this].

“We all know how difficult it was as adults to be locked up but what damage has that done to our young people is something we are still working through.

“It is a much wider conversation we need to have to address this and see what we can do to help those young people.

“It is very challenging for those families but it is putting pressure on our service.”