Interesting Reading

In this section we highlight reports, documents, websites and papers which we have discovered whilst creating this website. We hope you find "interested reading" of interest (!) and please let us know if there are any other links which should be posted on this page. (Note that links on this page will open in a new window.)

• Report of the National Review of Services for Disabled Children. Published online in February 2011 the Review was undertaken jointly by Scottish Government, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the for Scotland's Disabled Children Liaison Project to provide a strategic assessment of the children's disability landscape.
• Local Matters: Delivering the Local Outcome Approach. Overview commentary on Single Outcome Agreements and the local outcome approach. Published by the Scottish Government on 10 March 2011.  
• Strategic Review of Learning Provision for Children and Young People with Complex Additional Support Needs. The Doran Review will consider whether the current system is achieving the best possible outcomes for Scotland's children and young people, and recommend any improvements necessary.
• Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics 2009/10. Details of 2009/10 General Fund Revenue Income and Expenditure by Local Authority. Published February 2011.
• News Release - Cash for families of disabled children. The Scottish Government is to spend an additional £2 million on providing short breaks for families who have severely disabled children.
• Better Health, Better Care: Hospital Services for Young People in Scotland Published in May 2009, contains recommendations for NHS Boards and their regional planning partners to ensure that the care they provide for young people requiring time to spend time in hospital is appropriate to their particular needs.
• For information on the Assessing Dyslexia Toolkit and Framework for Inclusion please click on the links.  
• Building Better Schools: Investing in Scotland’s Future. (2009). The School Estate Strategy was prepared by the School Estate Strategy Working Group, jointly chaired by COSLA and the Scottish Government.  This strategy builds on and supersedes the one published in 2003 by the Scottish Executive and COSLA and responds to Audit Scotland’s report “Improving the School Estate” which listed 19 recommendations.
• Care Commission website. The Care Commission ensures that care service providers meet the Scottish Government's National Care Standards and work to improve the quality of care. The Commission published in July 2010, “The physical health of children and young people in residential care” and in January 2009 “The mental health and well being of children and young people in residential care”. These documents can be accessed on the website. The Commission also publishes copies of inspection reports including inspection reports.
• Caring Together: The Carers Strategy for Scotland 2010-2015. The Scottish Government and COSLA are determined to ensure that carers are supported to manage their caring responsibilities with confidence and in good health, and to have a life of their own outside of caring.
• Child Protection and the Needs and Rights of Disabled Children and Young People: A Scoping Study. Stalker, K., Green Lister, P., Lerpiniere, J. and McArthur, K (2010).
• Disability sport: is it handicapped by PE teacher training?. Article published in the Herald.
• Equally well is a report of the ministerial task force on health inequalities. Published in 2008, the document presents key statistics on health inequalities in Scotland.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of the national special needs information system in Scotland (November 2004). This is an NHS National Services Scotland document
• Getting it right for children in residential care (September 2010). Published by Audit Scotland. Councils spend £250 million a year on residential care for children and young people, many of whom have very complex and challenging needs.  This report examines how effectively Councils use their resources on residential placements for their looked after children and identifies areas for improvement.
• www.growingupinscotland.org.uk. Growing up in Scotland (GUS) is longitudinal research project aimed at tracking the lives of a cohort of Scottish children from the early years, through childhood and beyond. The study is funded by the Scottish Government and carried out by the Scottish Centre for Social Research. Its principal aim is to provide information to support policy-making but it is also intended to be a broader resource that can be drawn on by academics, voluntary sector organisations and other interested parties. The first wave of fieldwork began in April 2005. See their website for information.
• New Scottish research has found that teachers who are overly sympathetic to children with learning difficulties or physical disabilities can hold them back in the classroom.
• Inclusion Scotland is a consortium of organisations of disabled people and disabled individuals. Their website includes parliamentary questions relating to young disabled people.
• Scotland Performs website. HEAT stands for Health, Efficiency, Access and Treatment. It is a performance management system that sets out targets and measures that NHS Health Boards are publicly monitored and evaluated against. Statistics that inform progress against the suite of HEAT targets are reported publicly throughout the year and can be accessed via this website.
• Service Provision for Children and Young People with Complex Needs in a Community Setting from the Perspectives of Nursing and Allied Health Professionals. (June 2009). Provides a picture of the key issues facing nurses and AHPs when working with children with complex needs.
• The Study of Community Health Partnerships examines the early progress they have made and identifies the key factors which facilitated or possibly hindered progress. Ways to improve CHP's capacity and capability to maximise potential are also identified.
• teachernet hosts interesting articles/news on special education needs and disability. Of particular interest are:
  • “Breaking the link between special education needs and low attainment”
  • “Home-educated children with SEN”
  • “Guidance on look-after children with SEN placed out-of-authority”.
• Towards an Autism Strategy (September 2010) sets out what the Scottish Government in partnership with users, carers and professionals proposes to do to meet the needs of people with ASD in response to growing concerns that, whilst much has been achieved in Scotland to date, much has yet to be done.
• www.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/index.html.  The Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York has an international reputation for excellence in research in social policy, especially health and social care, poverty, welfare and social work. Click on their home page to access research documents including "Care coordination and key worker schemes for disabled children: results of a UK wide survey", Greco, V and Sloper, P, 2004.