Guide

A hate crime is any criminal offence that is motivated by hostility or prejudice based on the victim's:

• disability
• race
• religion or belief
• sexual orientation
• transgender.

We believe that there is no excuse for any form of hate crime: it is simply not acceptable and it will not be tolerated.

When it does happen, we want the justice system to deal with such crimes effectively so that victims have the confidence to report it, secure in the knowledge that they will receive a good level of service from the police and other agencies.

Disability hate crime

A crime becomes a disability hate crime when it is 'perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by malice or ill will based on a persons disability or perceived disability'.

Anyone can commit a disability hate crime.

They can be a:

• young person who shout abuse when a disabled person walks by
• carer who takes advantage of a disabled person by taking their money
• student who bullies another disabled student
• retired person who harasses their disabled neighbour because they have a disabled parking bay.

Mate crime

There are also some people who might make friends with a disabled person so that they can take advantage of them. 

They use their friendship to cover the fact that they are committing crimes at the disabled person's expense. Some disability organisations call this 'mate crime'. 

'Mate' covers a wide number of people including friends, family and carers. 

Sometimes the exploitation may not be an illegal act but still has a negative effect on the individual.

Why you should report it

It is important that all hate crimes are reported to the police. It helps Strathclyde Police in tackling hate crime. 

Challenging these people can stop this from happening to someone else.

Anyone can report a hate crime - whether they are: 

• the victim
• someone who witnesses a hate crime
• someone the victim or witness tells about a crime. 

No matter how trivial or unimportant you think it is, your complaint will be taken seriously when you choose to report it.

The information you provide is valuable because it helps the police to identify areas of concern or patterns of behaviour and could lead to the prosecution of offenders.

How to report hate crime

You can report a hate crime to the police:

• in person at a police station or speak to police on the street
• by phone - call 101 for non-emergencies or 999 if it's an emergency
• online on the Police Scotland (Poileas Alba) website
• in a third party reporting centre such as a library.

You do not need to know the victim or give their name when reporting a disability hate crime.

Types of needs ASN  

Your child may have an additional support need if they are struggling with their learning or have barriers to learning such as:

Health needs  

• having a disability
• being in hospital recovering from an illness  
• mental health needs  
• having asthma or an allergy  
• having speech difficulties or a hearing impairment.

Care and protection issues

• a young person being care experienced  
• being a young carer.  

Learning support needs

• having dyslexia  
• learning at a faster or slower pace than classmates  
• having fallen behind in classwork because they were off school.  

Wellbeing needs

• having difficulties managing their emotions  
• being socially isolated  
• emotional distress  
• addiction issues.  

Family circumstances  

• experiencing divorce, separation, or loss in family  
• dealing with the death of someone close  
• having a member of your family or someone close them who is ill  
• being a school-aged parent  
• speaking English as an additional language.  

This list only contains some examples of barriers to learning. You should speak to your child's school if you feel they need additional support for any reason not listed.

How ASN are identified  

Schools and nurseries regularly check how your child is progressing through everyday observations and classroom tasks. This ongoing tracking helps staff understand how your child is getting on and what support they may need.

Additional support needs are identified through a process called Staged Intervention. This is a framework that helps schools and partner agencies provide support that is appropriate, timely, and as least intrusive as possible.

If you think your child has additional support needs, ask your child’s head of establishment about the Staged Intervention process and for more information on what support may be available.  

Sometimes, staff may seek advice or assessments from other professionals such as speech and language therapists, occupational therapists or educational psychologists. This support is provided through a staged approach, which helps ensure that the right support is offered at the right time.

A teacher, or a health care provider, might also identify a child who may need an assessment for additional support.

Your child does not need a diagnosis to be entitled to extra help with their learning. 

If your child is struggling at school or nursery for any reason, that establishment will try and find out the reason for this and put the appropriate support in place.

What support we provide

Children and young people with an identified additional support need are supported in our schools and early learning and childcare (nursery) settings.

How the nursery or school supports your child will depend on the barriers they are facing to learning.

Support can include:

• advice for parents on ways to support learning at home
• changes to a child's timetable or education programme in school
• changes within the classroom environment, curriculum, or learning with groups of children with a specific focus
• arrangements for a child at lunch or during breaks
• adaptations to buildings or equipment to help with physical or sensory disabilities
• referral to a speech and language therapist, a physiotherapist, or other health professional
• training for staff members by relevant professionals.

Support plans

For longer-term or particular support, your child may require a support plan.

A support plan will formally record the help that is needed and who will provide it. This means your child's school can provide an individual and targeted level of support.

There are 3 types of plans:  

• a child’s plan
• a multi-agency child’s plan
• Coordinated Support Plans (CSP) - an action plan for children and young people who need significant additional support with their education from a number of agencies.

The decision on which plan is best for your child will depend on:

• if the additional support need may be short or long-term
• the effect it has on your child's learning
• any other agencies the school will need to work with to support your child's learning, such as the council or NHS.  

When a support plan is being developed, we’ll invite you and your child to a meeting at the school or nursery so you can give your views on the support required.  

Your child can also bring along a supporter to help them express their views, such as a friend or an adult they are comfortable speaking for them.  

The plan will detail what support will be provided. You and your child will be involved in decisions made about the support.  

Support will be regularly reviewed to make sure it’s working and that your child’s needs are still the same.

Reviewing a support plan  

Reviews of your child’s support plan will depend on their needs.  

When reviewing a plan, we’ll invite you to a meeting where we’ll look at your child’s progress and ask you and your child:

• how the support is helping  
• is it meeting the identified needs
• is it no longer needed
• does it need to change.

At the meeting, we’ll agree to provide the same level of support, make changes, or end the plan if support is no longer needed.

Starting, moving and leaving nursery and school (transition support)

A transition is when your child moves into a new stage of their education.  

There are 4 major transitions:  

• starting nursery  
• starting primary school  
• starting secondary school
• leaving school.  

Children and young people with ASN may need more support when they transition from one stage to another. In general, this is likely to require an enhanced level of transition support. There may be planning meetings where staff from the current establishment and the new establishment meet with you and your child to plan the move.

If you have an agreed support plan this will move with your child to the new school.

Our nurseries and schools have robust planning to support each child or young person. 

You can speak to your child's education establishment to discuss any concerns you may have when they are about to start at a new school, or when their time at school ends.

Find your child’s education establishment contact details:  

• Renfrewshire Council nurseries
• primary schools
• secondary schools.

How to request additional support for your child 

If you have concerns about your child’s learning or development, the best place to start is by talking to their early learning and childcare centre (nursery) or school.  

Staff may already have noticed the same things and may be providing support. If not, they will discuss with you what options are available to help assess your child’s needs.

You also have the right to ask us to:

• assess whether your child has additional support needs
• carry out a specific type of assessment, such as an educational, psychological or health assessment.

It’s important to know that while you can request an assessment, you cannot insist on a particular test or method, or request that a specific professional carries it out.  

We’ll decide the best way to assess your child’s needs based on professional judgement.

You can find out more about identifying and assessing needs with the Supporting Children's Learning - Code of Practice: statutory guidance (Scottish Government website).

How to resolve disagreements about ASN support

Speak to your child’s establishment

If you disagree with how your child is being supported for their ASN, you should speak to your teacher or head teacher.  

If your child has a support plan, you can refer to the plan to check whether the agreed actions are taking place, or if they need to be changed to meet new or additional needs.

Mediation  

If you feel the support has not improved after speaking to the education establishment, you can try to use an independent mediation service. 

A mediator listens to both points of view and helps to bring both of you to an agreement.  

You do not have to use mediation, but it may help increase understanding as you both listen to each other and agree a way forward.  

ASN Tribunal

You always have the right for your case to be sent to the Additional Support Needs Tribunal (Health and Education Chamber website).  

Code of practice  

We follow the national Code of Practice as directed by the Scottish Government (Scottish Government website).  

You have a right to request assessments are made for your child's medical or psychological needs. If any needs are established, we’ll review any learning barriers and detail the appropriate measures to be taken.

We must meet the deadlines for completing and informing you of the results of any assessments, including any additional support you child may need.

All children and young people need support to learn at an early learning and childcare centre (nursery) or school, but some may require extra or specialised support than what is usually provided. This is known as having an additional support need (ASN).

Some examples of why a child or young person may need additional support with their education include:

• a disability or health issue  
• family or care circumstances  
• accessing the learning environment  
• wellbeing needs.

Children and young people can have an additional support need at any time.  

A child’s support need may only last for a short time. In some cases, their needs might be more complex and require additional support throughout school.

Additional support needs are also known as additional support for learning (ASL).  

You can find out more about additional support for learning at:

• Enquire website – Enquire is the Scottish advice service for additional support for learning
• Reach website - Reach offers advice about rights to education and support for children in Scotland. 

Who will get replacements

We’ll survey every council home. If your kitchen, bathroom, wiring, heating or boiler is worn out, we’ll replace it. Not all homes will get upgrades.

Home survey

We’ll survey your home with the contractors we’re working with. 

We’ll go through any proposed works with you in more detail during the survey. You can ask us any questions or tell us anything we need to know, like any relevant medical conditions, or times and dates when you won’t be at home. 

Once we have surveyed your home and decided it needs replacements:

• we’ll write to you with a date for when the contractor will start work in your home
• you’ll get at least 7 days’ notice of the date the works will begin.

You must confirm if this date is suitable or tell us of any times where you will not be available because of holidays, appointments, or other reasons, and ask for another date and time. 
 

What replacements you’ll get

Kitchen replacements

Kitchen replacements will include:

• a stainless-steel sink and taps set into the countertop, new kitchen units, and worktops
• installation of a splashback above worktops and a stainless-steel splashback at your cooker space – a splashback is a layer attached to the wall to protect your kitchen walls from spills, stains or marks
• installation of (non-slip) vinyl flooring
• electrical rewiring, and repositioning of sockets if necessary.

This means there may be some changes to the layout of your kitchen.

If your kitchen is being replaced, the kitchen supplier will also visit your home   to discuss the plan with you.

You’ll get a choice of two different colour schemes for kitchen drawer fronts, doors, worktops, and flooring. The splashback will match your worktop. 

Depending on the layout of your new kitchen, we may need to reposition radiators and switch off your central heating during this time.

Bathroom replacements

Bathroom replacements will include:

• a new bath or shower with waterproof wall panels
• a new electrical shower unit
• a new handwash basin and associated pedestal
• a new toilet and attached cistern
• installation of non-slip vinyl flooring.

Where a specific need is identified, or where the size of the bathroom does not allow for a full-size bath, we may need to install a shower cubicle instead. 

Electrical rewiring

The rewiring of your home will include:

• all new switches, sockets, light fittings, and back boxes (containers behind switches and sockets that hold wires)
• running new electrical cables throughout your home
• replacement of the fuse box (the box that controls electricity in your home), also called a consumer unit.

We’ll need access to all the rooms in your home, including under the floorboards. We recommend you’re not at home during the day while this work is being done.

If you have your own light fixtures and fittings   installed on the walls or ceilings, we’ll need to remove these and replace them with standard light fittings. We cannot put them back. 

If you want to keep your own your existing light fittings or fixtures, let the contractor know in advance and they will leave them aside for you. Otherwise, they will dispose of them. 

Full central heating and boiler replacements

A full central heating system replacement will include:

• installation of a new energy-efficient combination boiler
• all new radiators and pipework
• a new thermostat.

We’ll need access to all the rooms in your home, including under the floorboards. We recommend you’re not at home during the day while the work is being done.

It may also be necessary to change the locations of your radiators to maximise efficiency of the system and reduce your running costs. We’ll let you know if this needs to be done when we survey your home. 

If you’re only getting a new boiler, this should be a straightforward process with minimal disruption. However, we’ll deal with any issues if they occur when the new boiler is being installed. 

Costs

There are no costs for council tenants to have kitchen, bathroom, wiring, heating, or boiler replacements. If your decoration, such as painting or wallpaper, is damaged during the work we’ll make a payment to help with redecorating costs.

Before the works begin

You must allow the contractors access to your property to carry out the works. Tell us about any times or reasons we cannot access your home, such as holidays or hospital appointments. 

Make sure everyone in your home, including any visitors, knows the works are going on, and advise them to be careful.

Let us know when we survey your home if there are any elderly, infirm, or disabled persons who need special assistance or care elsewhere while the work is being done.

Before the contractor arrives, you must:

• remove all bathroom accessories such as mirrors, pictures, toilet roll holders, soap  dispensers, soap dishes, or toothbrush holders
• move any small, portable kitchen appliances such as your kettle, toaster, microwave, bread bin, food storage containers, utensil holders or other items
• empty out any storage or furniture, like cupboards or cabinets, which we’ll need to move or get access to, and move small items and ornaments to a safe location.

Contact your liaison officer if you need help moving items or packing. Do not lift or move anything that would cause you an injury.

Contents insurance

The contractor carries all required insurance. However, we recommend you have your own contents insurance to represent you in any claim or dispute. We advise you to take all reasonable measures to protect your belongings from accidental damage.

If you’re a council tenant, you can join the AVIVA contents insurance scheme or make your own arrangements for home contents insurance.

What happens during the works

Access to your home

The contractor will arrive each day between 8am and 9am so all places we need access to must be clear. 

You must allow the contractors access to your property to carry out the installations. If they cannot access your property at the agreed time, or there is no one at home, we’ll have to reschedule the works in your home. You may have to wait until we finish works in other homes before we can do yours.  

All contractors and council employees carry identification (ID), and they must show this to you before they enter your home.  

They can only work in your home between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, unless they have permission from you and the council to work outside of these hours.

During the work

The contractors will work through the day, and there may be times when you will not have access to cooking, heating, water, or toilet facilities. 

They may need to lift floor coverings and remove and replace heavy furniture to allow the works to be carried out.

They will 

• make sure any lifted floorboards are not left up overnight
• display all required warning signs
• screw down all lifted floorboards on completion of the works.

However, you take responsibility for carpets, laminated flooring or vinyl that is glued or nailed down and cannot be lifted by the contractor without damaging it. If you ask the contractor to lift it, the Council does not take responsibility for any damage caused to it.

They will protect your home as much as possible during the work with clean dust sheets and will clean up at the end of each working day. 

You’ll have a contact person throughout the works who you can phone, and an out-of-hours emergency contact number if needed.

Always supervise children and pets while the work is in progress.

How long it’ll take

These are the timescales for how long each installation will take:

• 7 working days for full kitchen, bathroom, and rewiring
• 5 working days for kitchen and rewiring
• 5 working days for bathroom and rewiring
• 2 working days for a new full heating system
• 1 working day for a boiler-only replacement.

A working day is Monday to Friday and does not include public holidays.

These timescales are for guidance only and while we aim to finish within the planned timescales, it may take longer if we identify unforeseen works. 

The contractor will make sure you are kept up to date on this at the end of each working day.

After the work is done

When the work has been finished, we’ll will inspect it to make sure they are completed to our satisfaction. 

We’ll also complete a customer satisfaction survey with you. You can provide us with feedback on your experience of the process and the quality of the completed work.

Once we’re satisfied the works are complete and all snagging (renovations with small faults or unfinished jobs, like chipped paint) has  been addressed, a Liaison Officer will visit to see if there’s been any damage caused to the décor of your home.

If there is, they’ll advise how much you will receive towards redecorating costs   and will pay it directly into your back account. This can take between 5 and 10 working days from when they process it.

We’re replacing kitchens, bathrooms, boilers, central heating systems, and electrical wiring in council homes where the current facilities are reaching the end of their life span.

We’re upgrading council homes to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS), which ensures homes are energy efficient, safe, and in good condition.

We know that making these improvements to your home will be disruptive, but we’ll make sure support is available where it’s needed during the works.