Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-25680

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it will engage with stakeholders, including educational institutions, industry partners and international organisations, in order to implement its International Education Strategy effectively.

Continuing the collaborative approach to developing the International Education Strategy (IES) the Scottish Government will establish an Implementation Group to oversee its implementation, with representation from partners across the sector. This Group will provide leadership and strategic oversight and ensure the strategy’s actions are delivering our shared ambitions for international higher education.

Question reference: S6W-25674

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-07275 by Patrick Harvie on 22 March 2022, whether it will provide an updated table regarding the number of children who have undertaken cycling proficiency training, based on the latest information available.

Further to question S6W-07275, the latest Bikeability Scotland participation statistics are as follows:

LOCAL AUTHORITY	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Aberdeen City	21%	25%	31%	57%	68%	62%	68%	42%	47%	9%	27%	67%	100%
Aberdeenshire	93%	93%	76%	91%	91%	63%	80%	79%	85%	27%	51%	65%	65%
Angus	74%	72%	74%	57%	43%	45%	50%	67%	78%	41%	71%	88%	94%
Argyll & Bute	45%	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	Pilot	Pilot	22%
Clackmannanshire	11%	11%	37%	37%	39%	44%	17%	33%	100%	33%	100%	100%	100%
Dumfries & Galloway	70%	73%	47%	30%	29%	41%	43%	38%	36%	4%	5%	29%	69%
Dundee	0%	0%	3%	23%	29%	17%	11%	53%	91%	67%	82%	97%	100%
East Ayrshire	7%	9%	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	Pilot	Pilot	10%
East Dunbartonshire	5%	3%	5%	24%	14%	8%	22%	15%	67%	76%	94%	100%	100%
East Lothian	0%	0%	11%	26%	29%	23%	29%	41%	49%	24%	47%	94%	100%
East Renfrewshire	33%	40%	70%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	0%	100%	67%	83%
Edinburgh	29%	40%	52%	72%	70%	48%	68%	60%	53%	7%	26%	40%	41%
Falkirk	4%	6%	10%	8%	22%	12%	4%	6%	8%	19%	6%	2%	21%
Fife	31%	21%	16%	16%	18%	21%	36%	22%	29%	23%	24%	33%	35%
Glasgow	4%	4%	15%	28%	25%	34%	29%	35%	34%	22%	33%	31%	22%
Highland	34%	28%	16%	29%	28%	29%	36%	21%	30%	12%	15%	22%	32%
Inverclyde	4%	21%	35%	10%	30%	30%	20%	15%	26%	0%	5%	5%	10%
Midlothian	10%	40%	63%	87%	63%	63%	81%	75%	69%	22%	41%	65%	67%
Moray	96%	65%	58%	47%	62%	49%	37%	40%	56%	27%	62%	76%	93%
Na h-Eileanan Siar	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	5%	96%	100%	0%	100%	100%	100%
North Ayrshire	0%	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return	No return
North Lanarkshire	0%	7%	5%	0%	4%	No return	9%	10%	11%	15%	29%	50%	82%
Orkney	40%	40%	65%	95%	90%	65%	68%	63%	58%	37%	90%	65%	100%
Perth & Kinross	91%	61%	40%	37%	34%	62%	52%	51%	61%	26%	67%	87%	90%
Renfrewshire	6%	8%	22%	29%	20%	22%	20%	22%	29%	10%	59%	72%	84%
Scottish Borders	54%	54%	43%	8%	27%	29%	31%	31%	8%	2%	25%	41%	100%
Shetland	100%	53%	45%	90%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	25%	100%	100%	100%
South Ayrshire	79%	55%	73%	76%	83%	76%	81%	83%	88%	44%	34%	41%	59%
South Lanarkshire	0%	10%	17%	28%	39%	34%	39%	39%	43%	15%	10%	40%	40%
Stirling	17%	18%	5%	43%	65%	68%	50%	72%	66%	26%	58%	74%	87%
West Dunbartonshire	9%	12%	9%	21%	44%	41%	49%	56%	59%	13%	38%	28%	31%
West Lothian	21%	0%	15%	15%	15%	15%	17%	11%	26%	9%	9%	22%	30%
TOTALS	32%	32%	35%	37%	40%	38%	42%	42%	47%	20%	37%	50%	60%

	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Number of pupils trained across all levels of Bikeability Scotland	25,974	30,800	32,105	33,082	36,711	36,314	43,700	16,327	41,046	52,604	60,228

Question reference: S6W-25667

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether all one- and two-year-olds in low-income families receive free early years education.

The Scottish Government funds delivery of 1140 hours of high quality funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) to all three and four-year-olds and around a quarter of families with an eligible two-year-old, who experience the most disadvantage, across Scotland. This entitlement is regardless of the working status of their parents - putting children first.

We recognise how important both early learning and school age childcare are for families, especially those experiencing poverty and that is why within this year’s Programme for Government we have committed to work with local government and partners in the ELC sector to expand our childcare offers.

We recognise that younger children have different needs to those aged three or four and therefore our new offer will be guided by what the evidence tells us about what is best for children and families depending on the age and stage of the child.

We also know that for children aged under three, how much they benefit from Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) is determined by crucial factors such as their family background, what age they start in ELC, the quality of services and the balance of hours they spend between care at home and in ELC settings. That is why we are committed to listening to families and to putting quality at the heart our work on both the Early Adopter Communities (EACs) and the expansion for two year olds.

We have recently completed and published two key pieces of research to help us understand and identify what models of ELC are best for younger children. The first is a summary of work to map current ELC provision for younger children in Scotland and the second a literature review undertaken by Public Health Scotland. Evidence from this early insights work supports taking a considered approach to policy development in 2024-25, so that we understand what is right for families with under three’s.

Over the next year we will continue to build on this early insights work by piloting new approaches via funding from the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund to test models of holistic family support and by engaging with the ELC sector to understand what is required to support an expansion.

We are already engaging with families through our work with EAC’s and are working to expand our reach to include Fife and Shetland and also to broaden the work to include younger children. This work will provide us with a clearer picture about what approaches deliver the greatest impact for families with younger children.

In parallel we will continue to work with local authorities and our partners in the sector to support up-take of the existing two-year-old offer, to ensure as many children as possible receive the benefits of high quality ELC, as well as planning for a further expansion.

Question reference: S6W-25789

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it supports children and families that are affected by domestic abuse.

Our Equally Safe strategy, Scotland’s strategy to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls, acknowledges the significant impact domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG) can have on children and young people and their families lives, including impacts on their health, education, wellbeing and future life chances.

Through Equally Safe, which is co-owned by COSLA and the Scottish Government, we are working collaboratively with key partners to ensure that its principles are embedded into the work we do that supports children, young people and families who have experienced VAWG. This includes ensuring support is available through Child Protection and Adult Support and Protection systems, housing and homelessness support services and community justice support services amongst others.

We are also investing £19 million a year in specialist services and projects through the Delivering Equally Safe (DES) Fund, £18.5m for specialist advocacy support for victim/ survivors of gender based violence from the Victim Centred Approach Fund and £573,300 through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention Fund & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund for improving children and family wellbeing.

The DES fund supports 83 projects that undertake work with children and young people who have experienced or witnessed VAWG, including funding to projects delivering the CEDAR programme, which aims to help mothers support their children in their recovery from domestic abuse. Funding is also given to support the role out of Safe and Together, an internationally recognised suite of tools and interventions designed to help professionals in children and family services become domestic abuse informed.

We will continue to ensure support for children, young people and families through our commitment to the Equally Safe strategy.

Question reference: S6W-25672

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its estimate of the future potential costs of delivering a new national digital academy.

Question reference: S6W-25678

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many Gaelic-medium education teachers have been employed in each year since 2016.

The following figures, drawn from the Scottish Government’s annual school census show both the number of primary and secondary Gaelic medium teachers that have been employed in each year since 2016 and the number that would be able to teach through the medium of Gaelic.

Primary school teachers by ability to teach through Gaelic medium

	Able to teach through Gaelic	Teaching through Gaelic
2016	299	188
2017	313	208
2018	326	217
2019	335	221
2020	359	223
2021	370	244
2022	400	266

Secondary school teachers by ability to teach through Gaelic medium

	Able to teach through Gaelic	Teaching through Gaelic
2016	155	95
2017	154	89
2018	145	88
2019	149	89
2020	166	103
2021	174	112
2022	178	111

Question reference: S6W-25668

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many schools currently pay the costs of school trips and extra-curricular activities for pupils from lower-income families, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S6W-25671

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what plans it has to deliver a new national digital academy.

Question reference: S6W-25669

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the percentage of the total number of schools that have abolished fees for school trips and extra-curricular activities for pupils from lower-income families.

Question reference: S6W-25673

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when it expects to deliver on its reported commitment to establish a new professional teaching qualification related to climate change.

In Scotland, climate change is part of the cross-curricular entitlement of Learning for Sustainability (LfS).

As part of the 2021-22 Programme for Government the Scottish Government committed to work with the General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS) to: “ensure the climate emergency is properly reflected through initial teacher education, growing our strong existing suite of professional development resources to ensure our teaching workforce has all the up to date knowledge and skills they require to be able to offer young people the in depth education they need on the global climate crisis.”

To achieve this, LfS was further strengthened in the refreshed and restructured General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS) Professional Standards for teachers, which came into mandatory use for all teachers on 2 August 2021. In June 2023, the Scottish Government published the refreshed LfS Action Plan which contains several further actions in relation to professional learning for educators.

There are already a number of teaching accredited professional qualifications on LfS which can be found on the GTCS website at the following link: , https://www.gtcs.org.uk/professional-update/professional-recognition/accredited-professional-recognition-programmes/

The GTCS Hub also provides freely-available resources, self-evaluation tools, professional learning, professional reading, curated resources, and regular opportunities for educators to connect and network with each other.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the GTCS to ensure that LfS is embedded in teaching practice. The Scottish Government also continues to work with the Scottish Council of Deans of Education to develop an LfS Framework for Higher Education institutions to better support them in embedding LfS into their initial teacher education programmes.

Additionally, Education Scotland is developing a new dedicated LfS online portal to provide examples for educators on good practice approaches to embedding LfS.

Tell us your views

Chamber and committees