Coordinated Support Plan Scotland: How to Get One and What to Do When Refused

The Co-ordinated Support Plan is the only document in Scottish education that the law actually compels schools and education authorities to deliver on. Every other plan — IEPs, Child's Plans, informal support agreements — represents professional intention, not legal obligation. If the school doesn't follow through on what's in an IEP, your main recourse is another meeting. If the education authority doesn't deliver what's written in a CSP, you can take them to a Tribunal with the power to issue binding orders.

That distinction matters enormously. And yet, as of 2024, only 1,215 pupils in Scotland have a CSP.

Out of 299,445 pupils identified with additional support needs, that's 0.4%. In 2014, there were 3,128 CSPs. The number has collapsed by more than half in a decade, even as ASN identification has surged. This is the central tension families need to understand before entering the CSP process: the system is designed to keep this threshold high, and authorities push back hard.

What a CSP actually is

A Co-ordinated Support Plan is a statutory document prepared by the education authority — not the school — for a child with complex needs requiring significant multi-agency input. Its key distinguishing features:

• It places an absolute legal duty on the education authority to provide the support listed
• It must be reviewed annually
• It guarantees access to the ASN Tribunal if the authority fails to comply
• It requires the education authority (not just the school) to coordinate provision across agencies

This is fundamentally different from an EHCP in England, which you may have encountered if you've moved from south of the border. EHCPs cover education, health, and care provision. A CSP is education-only, though it requires coordination with health and social care agencies. It's also different from a Child's Plan, which is a multi-agency plan under GIRFEC but carries no statutory enforcement mechanism.

The four CSP criteria — all must be met simultaneously

The ASL Act 2004 sets out strict eligibility criteria. The education authority is only legally required to prepare a CSP if a child meets all four of the following conditions at the same time:

1. The education authority is responsible for the child's school education. This is typically satisfied for any child in a maintained Scottish school, but matters for children educated otherwise (at home, abroad, etc.).

2. Complex or multiple factors create a significant adverse effect on school education. Note the emphasis: it's the impact on learning that matters, not the specific diagnosis. A child with multiple conditions — say, autism, sensory processing difficulties, and significant anxiety — may more readily satisfy this criterion than a child with a single diagnosis that is well-managed within the classroom.

3. The need for support will last, or is likely to last, for more than one year. Short-term needs — recovery from illness, a temporary period of family disruption — don't qualify. This criterion filters out children whose needs, however intense, are likely to resolve.

4. The child requires significant additional support from the education authority AND from at least one other agency. This other agency is typically an NHS Health Board (for speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, CAMHS), social work, or Skills Development Scotland. The threshold for "significant" is judged by the intensity, frequency, and duration of that external input.

This fourth criterion is the most common sticking point. A child who receives substantial support solely from within the school — support for learning staff, in-school interventions, differentiated curriculum — will not qualify. The CSP framework is specifically designed for cases where education and health (or education and social care) must work together with legally specified obligations on each side.

The assessment process and timelines

Once you submit a written request for a CSP assessment, the clock starts ticking. The timelines are statutory — the authority cannot extend them unilaterally:

8 weeks — from receipt of your written request, the education authority must notify you whether they agree to assess. If the request arrives during the summer holiday period, this extends to 16 weeks.

16 weeks — if the authority agrees to assess, they have a further 16 weeks to gather multi-agency information, make an eligibility determination, draft the CSP, and issue it to you. This can extend to a maximum of 24 weeks only in defined circumstances: when a required agency fails to respond or a specialist assessment cannot be completed in time. The authority must explicitly notify you of any extension and provide a revised completion date.

The total timeline from written request to receiving a final CSP is therefore a maximum of 24 weeks in standard cases, or 40 weeks (16 + 24) if the summer holiday extension and an exceptional drafting delay both apply. In practice, families often wait longer because the 16-week assessment period has legitimate extensions, and chasing responses from NHS services is a common bottleneck.

Keep records of every date. If the authority misses the 8-week milestone without notifying you, that missed deadline itself becomes grounds for a Tribunal reference.

What should be in a finalized CSP

A CSP is not a general statement of intent. It must be specific:

• The child's educational objectives
• The exact additional support required to meet each objective
• The specific individuals or agencies responsible for providing that support
• The dates for formal review (minimum annually)

Vague language like "speech and language therapy as required" is inadequate. A properly drafted CSP should specify frequency (e.g., weekly direct therapy sessions), duration, the responsible provider (the NHS Board, not just "the NHS"), and the measures that will indicate whether objectives are being met. If the CSP your authority produces is full of generalities, you have grounds to request revision before signing off.

What to do if the authority refuses

If the authority refuses to assess, or refuses to issue a CSP after assessing, you have two options:

Independent adjudication — you can request that an independent adjudicator review the authority's decision. This produces recommendations but not legally binding orders.

ASN Tribunal — a reference to the Additional Support Needs Tribunal is your most powerful option. The Tribunal can hear cases about refusals to assess, refusals to issue a CSP following assessment, and failures to deliver what's in an existing CSP. Its decisions are legally binding — the education authority must comply.

The deadline to lodge a Tribunal reference is two months from the date of the refusal letter. Do not let this deadline slip.

If you are considering a Tribunal reference, contact the Govan Law Centre's Education Law Unit before you file. They provide free legal representation for families at the ASN Tribunal. This is not a means-tested service — it's available to any family in Scotland. Their number is 0800 043 0306.

Most families won't get a CSP — but you still have rights

The honest picture is this: if your child's needs are met by school-based provision alone, even if that provision is intensive, you will likely not meet the multi-agency threshold for a CSP. The authority may acknowledge your child has significant ASN but still legitimately decline to issue a CSP on the grounds that they don't require input from external agencies at a "significant" level.

This does not mean your child has no rights. The education authority still has a continuous statutory duty to provide "adequate and efficient" additional support under the ASL Act. The absence of a CSP shifts enforcement to more informal channels — meeting requests, written follow-ups, escalation to the authority's ASN Lead Officer — but the underlying duty remains.

For the full picture of what rights you have under an IEP or Child's Plan (the non-statutory alternatives), and how to make those plans carry real weight, the Scotland CSP & Additional Support Blueprint covers this in detail at /uk/scotland/iep-guide/.

Quick reference: CSP criteria checklist

Before submitting a CSP request, assess your situation against each criterion:

• Does your child have complex or multiple factors significantly affecting their school education? (Not just a single, well-managed need)
• Has this been the case for a year, or is it likely to be? (Persistent, not temporary)
• Does your child receive significant input from at least one agency outside the school — typically NHS speech therapy, OT, physiotherapy, CAMHS, or social work?
• Is the school struggling to meet needs within its own resources?

If you can say yes to all four, you have a strong basis to request a CSP assessment in writing, citing Section 7 of the ASL Act 2004. Keep a copy of your letter and note the date it was sent. The 8-week clock starts from the date the authority receives it.

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