Current Petitions

PE1381, by Gwen Garner on behalf of Action for Sick Children (Scotland), is on education provision for children and young people who are absent from school because of illness. What are members’ views on how to proceed with the petition?

We should continue the petition to pursue several issues that it raises, although I do not think that we will have enough time to consider it again in this session. If colleagues agree, we could also include the petition in the legacy paper.We should write to ask the Scottish Government for its response to the points that the petitioner has made in her latest letter, with the emphasis on instances in which the 2001 guidance is applied differently—for example, in Yorkhill hospital—and the fact that local authorities fund hospital teachers to teach only if a child has certain chronic conditions, whereas a hospital must seek authorities’ permission to teach children with other conditions, which causes delays. That seems to show a lack of consistency.On that basis, we should continue the petition and ask the Government questions.

Certainly, under very recent legislation children who require education in hospitals would be described as children who have additional support needs. In some cases, for example when the child has a chronic condition, that may require the establishment of a co-ordinated support plan. The issue would be considered as part of the review of that legislation, although it may be a few years before it is reviewed again. It seems to be a classic example of the quality of service that is provided being dependent on where someone is in Scotland, which is totally unsatisfactory.Is it agreed that we keep the petition open and that it is one that we continue now but that may well go into a legacy paper for the next committee to consider where it goes and, if appropriate, it may go to the next education committee?Members indicated agreement.