\n Figures described as \u201cstaggering\u201d by campaigners showed the number of pupils with mental health difficulties had increased by 526% over a decade.\n<\/p>\n
\n The analysis, conducted by leading organisation the SCSC, showed there were 14,638 school pupils with some form of mental health problem in 2025, up from 2,338 in 2015.\n<\/p>\n
\n Campaigners have also complained that while the number of specialist additional support needs (ASN) teachers had dropped, the number of children in the classroom requiring extra help had almost doubled.\n<\/p>\n
\n A decade ago, there were 153,143 children with an additional need. However, the figure had reached 299,445 in 2025, with 43% of all pupils now requiring some form of extra help.\n<\/p>\n
\n Over the same period, the number of youngsters with autism has increased from 11,722 to 41,285 \u2013 an increase of 252%.\n<\/p>\n
\n There has also been a 144% increase in pupils with a social, emotional or behavioural difficulty within the 10-year period, up from 31,684 to 77,405.\n<\/p>\n
\n And the number of pupils considered to be young carers has increased by 523%, rising from 1,653 to 10,302, while the figures also showed a 296% rise in children with communication support needs, from 4,894 to 19,374.\n<\/p>\n
\n It comes at the same time as the number of specialist ASN teachers in Scotland has fallen from 3,038 in 2015 to 2,864 in 2025 \u2013 with the number of educational psychologists having \u201cbarely shifted\u201d from 370 to 396.\n<\/p>\n
\n Read more:\n<\/p>\n
\n The SCSC, which brings together providers of specialist care and education for vulnerable children and young people, has now warned support \u201csimply isn\u2019t keeping pace\u201d with the rising demand.\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesman said: \u201cScotland\u2019s politicians must stop talking and start delivering. The scale of this increase in need is staggering \u2014 but the support simply isn\u2019t keeping pace.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cToo many children with ASN are being left without the help they are entitled to. That is failing them, their classmates, their teachers and support staff.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The organisation stressed that mainstreaming \u2013 where youngsters with ASN are taught in mainstream schools \u2013 would not be successful \u201cwithout the resources to back it up\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n He added: \u201cThe next Scottish Government must act decisively, providing adequate support for children and young people with ASN, who disproportionately come from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Miles Briggs, the education spokesman for the Scottish Tories, accused SNP<\/a> ministers of \u201cdismally\u201d failing to address the surge in children with an ASN.\n<\/p>\n \n He said: \u201cIn fact, they have presided over a fall in specialist ASN teachers which has created intolerable pressures in Scotland\u2019s classrooms.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cTeachers cannot give pupils the support they require without sufficient assistance themselves. That\u2019s why the Scottish Conservatives<\/a> have long called for an urgent review of the implementation of mainstreaming, as well as pledging at this election to recruit 1,000 additional classroom assistants.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s imperative that young people and teachers alike are supported in the classroom.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Read more:\n<\/p>\n \n Paul O\u2019Kane, Labour\u2019s education spokesman, said his party would increase staff capacity in ASN classrooms, with 300 new pupil support assistants placed in specialist ASN units or schools.\n<\/p>\n \n He said: \u201cFar too often, children with additional support needs are being left to fall through the cracks, with successive SNP ministers failing to address the rise in the number of those identified with ASN.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Mr O\u2019Kane said children with an additional need would not be \u201cexcluded\u201d from the system, with the party pledging a new national pathway so that neurodivergent people can get support rather than be \u201cstuck on inappropriate waiting lists\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n Willie Rennie, education spokesman for the Lib Dems, said the figures show the \u201cstaggering rise in demand for child mental health services\u201d, adding early help and diagnosis was key.\n<\/p>\n \n Claire Haughey, SNP candidate for Rutherglen<\/a> and Cambuslang<\/a>, said while a \u201clarger number of people than ever before require mental health support\u201d, the SNP had ensured a \u201crecord number of staff employed to do just that with our mental health budget set to exceed \u00a31.5 billion this year\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n She said CAMHS waiting times targets had been met for more than a year, saying SNP ministers were also \u201censuring funding for counselling services throughout schools across Scotland\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n She continued: \u201cWe have also committed to investing over \u00a357 million in additional support for learning in the Scottish budget because we are clear that all children and young people should receive the support that they need to reach their full potential.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Ms Haughey accepted there was still \u201cwork to be done\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Figures described as \u201cstaggering\u201d by campaigners showed the number of pupils with mental health difficulties had increased by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-531202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}