The education system in Scotland is sidelining children with learning disabilities and autism, claims a new report.

Research by Enable Scotland, a learning disabilities charity, suggests that children with special needs are suffering. It says they are the victims of informal exclusions and bullying. They were also denied equal access to sport and school trips.

Jan Savage: believes that the presumption-to-mainstream policy has failed

Teachers inadequately prepared

The report, called#IncludED in the Main?!, also reveals that teachers feel inadequately prepared for the challenges of educating pupils with learning difficulties.

Up to 40 per cent of parents and carers who took part in the research said that a school had informally excluded their child. Around half of them (19 per cent) suggested that exclusion was happening every week.

Up to 46 per cent of people with a learning disability said they don’t get the same chances as other children to take part in playground games. Half that number (23 per cent) said they had been denied access to school trips.

Nearly two-thirds (60 per cent) feel lonely at school, while up to 67 per cent said they had been bullied.

Virtually all of the teachers surveyed (98 per cent) said their initial training did not prepare them for pupils with learning disabilities.

Mainstream policy in Scotland ‘has failed’

Jan Savage, Enable Scotland’s campaigns director, said it was time to talk about the elephant in the room. She said it was time to acknowledge that the presumption-to-mainstream policy had failed on inclusion.

She added: “It has resulted in more children being educated in the same classroom, which is an important first step.

“But 16 years on, we can also now see that it has taken specialist expertise out of the Scottish education system, and left young people who have learning disabilities sidelined.”

The report has 22 recommendations. One of them is replacing the presumption-to-mainstream policy with a framework that “really includes pupils who have learning disabilities”.

The Scottish Government is reviewing the guidance on the presumption to mainstream. It said it wants to ensure the policy is focused on the “individual needs of the child”.

Enable Scotland’s research involved more than 800 people. Participants included young people with learning disabilities, parents, carers and teachers.

Published: 14 December 2016