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Last year, officials in Falkirk Council launched a formal consultation on a plan to scrap the entire ‘Enhance Provision’ (EP) system in the area. Unsurprisingly, the plan was hugely controversial.

EP units cater to primary-aged children with additional support needs, specifically those who have “a high level of need, which requires a high level of support.”

According to the council itself, that means these children benefit from a “differentiated and adapted curriculum”, a “communication rich learning environment”, “autism-friendly” teaching approaches, “flexible class participation” and access to “base areas”, and the “equitable” allocation of specialist staff.

To put things as simply as possible, these units are designed for children whose needs are, even today, too complex to be accommodated in mainstream classrooms.

It sounds great, but there’s a huge problem: the council has only created about 280 places, and admits that more than 650 pupils have already been identified as requiring the kind of the support the EP centres provide.

The solution?

Apparently, it’s to close down every single EP unit, and “redistribute” the resources involved across all the primary schools in the area.

To get specific, that means taking the roughly £3million a year currently spent on........

© Herald Scotland