The number of pupils in Scottish schools with additional support needs (ASN) is likely to rise again when figures are published later this year, education secretary Jenny Gilruth has said.
Annual statistics released in December 2024 showed that 40.5 per cent of pupils (284,448 children) had an ASN in 2024 - up from 36.7 per cent in 2023.
Speaking at a fringe meeting hosted by the NASUWT teaching union at the SNP conference in Aberdeen at the weekend, Ms Gilruth said that figure is likely to continue to increase.
ASN approach ‘a good thing’
“We have a really broad measurement in terms of additional support - that’s a good thing,” she said.
“At the moment additional support needs in schools sit at around about 40 per cent. The next data update, I think, is December and we can expect that figure to rise again within that measurement.”
The education secretary also spoke to the meeting about the impact that poverty was having on children “before they even cross the school gates”, saying that she was “astonished” by the number of schools with services for addressing poverty.
“The normalisation of poverty in our schools horrifies me,” Ms Gilruth said. “Food banks, clothing banks are normal features in everyday schools in Scotland in 2025 - an energy-rich Scotland, that is completely unacceptable.”
She added: “Our schools are having to respond to this call in terms of poverty in our communities, but they shouldn’t have to be doing that.
“They’re doing that because that’s what schools have always done - they’re meeting the needs of children in ways, historically, I don’t think we would have thought was the role of schools.”
Ms Gilruth appeared at the fringe event on Saturday, a day after confirmation that teachers in the EIS union are to be balloted on strike action over their workload and lack of progress on the Scottish government policy to reduce class-contact time by 90 minutes a week.
‘Heavy lifting’ on contact time
She said she was “very supportive” of reducing class-contact time for teachers, adding that the government was “doing a lot of heavy lifting just now because I’m trying to get this over the line”.
Ms Gilruth added that while it is not a government responsibility to handle the workloads of teachers, there is “more we can do” at a local level.
Mike Corbett, the national official for the NASUWT in Scotland, laid out his union’s requests for the next Scottish government elected in May 2026.
He said he wanted to see an increase in teacher pay and “sufficient numbers” of teachers.
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