Stuart McMillan MSP has highlighted the continual challenges parents of children with additional support needs (ASN) face in Inverclyde – during a Member’s Debate in the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday 11 March.
The debate was on Alexander Stewart MSP’s motion S6M-15955 ‘Additional Support Needs in Scotland’.
As the MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Stuart has hosted public meetings with local families with children who have additional and complex needs to listen to the barriers they face on a regular basis.
These meetings have also been a forum for local parents to outline some of the improvements they would like to see happen, and to work with local councillors to develop these.
Consequently, Inverclyde’s SNP Council Group put forward a fully-costed budget proposal which included an additional £300,000 to expand the Play4All scheme to ensure more families can benefit from this over the summer holidays.
Stuart used his speech to quote comments made by his SNP colleague Councillor James Daisley during Inverclyde Council’s budget meeting last Thursday – during which their budget proposals were rejected by the minority Labour administration.
Commenting after the debate, Stuart said:
“This debate saw cross party support for improving the experiences of children with additional and complex needs in Scotland.
“That is welcome – but it is hugely frustrating to hear that parents are still having to fight to have their children’s needs acknowledged for them to receive the right support. I appreciate though that my frustration is nothing compared to the anger felt by families.
“I quoted from Cllr Daisley’s speech because this is about fairness and justice. It’s about recognising how exhausted families are, and why change needs to happen in Inverclyde.
“The SNP Council Group’s budget proposal was baselined, meaning the £300,000 spent this year on Play4All would be reoccurring in future budgets. That would have enabled us to build on the progress we were looking to make this year and start to work on the other issues parents have put to us.
“Yet in contrast, the minority Labour administration’s budget which was passed with support from independent and Conservative councillors, whilst investing £600,000 in ASN, provides little to no detail as to what that will deliver, nor is it baselined.
“Families are fed up with the politics and just want to see positive changes for their children. “I’ll continue to fight alongside these families, as will my SNP councillor colleagues in Inverclyde, until ASN provision actually reflects what parents and children want and need.”
