SCOTLAND’s Education Secretary John Swinney was accused of “failing” kids with special needs today by a woman whose daughter was left covered in her own excrement.

A mum called Marie told him on a radio call-in that a shortage of support staff had left her child “with poo up her back and down her leg”. 

Marie said she is now home-schooling her daughter after a series of incidents.

Her daughter, who cannot go to the loo unassisted, had been told by the class teacher to leave the classroom accompanied by her twin sibling.

“She had a learning assistant in place because she was diagnosed aged two, so before she even started nursery she had one-to-one support because she can’t get dressed herself, she can't go to the toilet unaided,” Marie said on BBC Radio Scotland.

But when the support worker was not present, her daughter was “left in the changing room, the teacher never got her changed, her twin had to do that, then got in trouble for taking too long.”

Marie said this was part of an “endless” list of incidents that had affected her daughter, who then began refusing to go to school.

“I just feel, I don’t what the hell is going on, but ASN [additional support needs] children are really getting failed,” she added.

Mr Swinney said her experiences were “totally unacceptable” and pledged to look into the situation.

“Individual local authorities have got to make the assessment of how to fulfil the needs of individual children, but what you've recounted to me there is very clearly not acceptable,” he said.

Conrad Landin is Morning Star Scotland editor.