Support Planning Meetings

A Support Planning Meeting is a meeting between your teachers, parents or carers, and any other people who support you. The goal of the meeting is to make a plan to help you do your best in school and beyond.

Other names for a Support Planning Meeting include just ‘Planning Meeting’ or a ‘Child’s Plan Meeting’.

Making a plan is an important part of making sure you get the right support. 

Find out more about the types of plans used for pupils in Scotland on our Planning Your Support page.

Advice

Help in School

Planning your support

Making a plan is an important part of making sure you get the right support. Find out more here.

In a Support Planning Meeting, the main people there will be your teachers, parents or carers. There might also be other people who help you with your education or support, like an educational psychologist, speech and language therapist or social worker.

During the meeting, everyone will talk about your needs and strengths, and what help you are already getting. They will also figure out if you need any extra help and decide how to give it to you. The meeting will usually result in something called a ‘support plan’ being created. This will tell everyone what they need to do to help you and what their responsibilities are.

If you don’t want to attend a Support Planning Meeting then you don’t have to. Nobody should try and force you to do so. If you don’t want to attend there are other ways that you can have your say. For example, you could chat to an adult who can share what you think at the meeting on your behalf. You could also write what you think down, or do something creative like draw a picture to communicate how you feel.

Support Planning Meetings are important because they are designed to make sure that you get the help you need. They bring everyone who is involved in your education and support together. This gives everyone the chance to talk about what you need and make a plan to help you.

Support Planning Meetings can take place in person or online.

When meeting in person, it’s most likely your Support Planning Meetings will take place at in an office at your school.

If it is an online meeting, then it would most likely take place on Microsoft Teams or Zoom. The people taking part in the meeting would join the call either from home or their office. If you are attending your Support Planning Meeting online you can appear on screen. However, if you don’t feel comfortable with this then you can switch your camera off.

There is no set length of time for Support Planning Meetings. This is because how long a meeting lasts depends on how much the people attending the meeting have to say. In general, a Support Planning Meeting can take anywhere between 45 minutes and 1 hour 30 minutes.

If you would like to attend to have your say, but don’t want to stay for the full thing, then you can ask to join the meeting for a short time.

The frequency of Support Planning Meetings can vary. For example, sometimes it can be a one-off meeting, where a ‘review’ date is set. This review is to find out how well the support that has been put in place is working. However, some schools may decide to schedule more regular Support Planning Meetings that take place every 6 weeks or so.