Riddell comments on the struggle of grant-aided special schools to fill their places

Description

Professor Sheila Riddell was interviewed by Emma Seith from Tes Scotland about the struggle of some grant-aided special schools to fill their places in face of declining rolls in recent years.

Riddell criticised that, despite of the recommendation of the Doran review to plan and commission national services strategically, there was no particualar logic as to which schools have the grant-aided status  at the moment. She suggested that there could be 'fairer ways' of distributing the budget they received each year. When asked about why all the grant-aided special schools were located in the central belt, Riddell noted that local authorities wanted to avoid as far as possible putting children into residential placements because of the potential for things to go wrong as demonstrated by the review of historical child abuse that's going on at the moment.