Questions and answers

Question reference: S6O-02560

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Fiscal Framework.

Question reference: S6W-20853

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 20 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of summer school programme funding that it made available in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023, also broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Government provided funding for summer programmes by calendar year below:

1. Total funding for the summer of 2021 - £15 million allocated to 32 local authorities via General Revenue Grant, and an additional £5 million provided to national public bodies and partners

2. Total funding for the summer of 2022 - £10 million allocated to 32 local authorities via General Revenue Grant

3. Total funding for the summer of 2023- £4 million allocated to 32 local authorities via General Revenue GrantThis funding provided in 2021 and 2022 was specifically aimed at developing additional plans for summer programmes on top of existing local provision to help children and families recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The additional £4million funding provided for the 2023 summer programme was to mitigate some of the costs, and to relieve financial pressures many local authorities noted they would experience associated with pre-planned summer activity.The detailed breakdown of funding made available to each local authority can be found in the following table:

Local Authority	2021 Allocation	2022 Allocation	2023 Allocation
Aberdeen City	£418,000	£279,262	£107,169
Aberdeenshire	£562,000	£355,229	£143,271
Angus	£335,000	£211,328	£83,227
Argyll & Bute	£232,000	£134,711	£55,450
Clackmannanshire	£162,000	£109,837	£46,553
Dumfries & Galloway	£529,000	£329,037	£135,492
Dundee City	£432,000	£293,671	£122,373
East Ayrshire	£405,000	£278,454	£107,297
East Dunbartonshire	£184,000	£105,186	£44,909
East Lothian	£277,000	£161,537	£64,931
East Renfrewshire	£187,000	£118,349	£46,851
Edinburgh, City of	£846,000	£575,459	£230,693
Eilean Siar	£78,000	£45,906	£17,994
Falkirk	£443,000	£286,300	£116,317
Fife	£1,160,000	£740,209	£299,516
Glasgow City	£2,249,000	£1,665,024	£662,910
Highland	£721,000	£465,403	£177,451
Inverclyde	£201,000	£131,096	£57,965
Midlothian	£252,000	£161,643	£65,939
Moray	£256,000	£173,447	£67,937
North Ayrshire	£452,000	£323,894	£131,670 2
North Lanarkshire	£1,104,000	£765,665	£294,095
Orkney Islands	£68,000	£40,589	£16,638
Perth & Kinross	£397,000	£242,363	£98,712
Renfrewshire	£436,000	£292,415	£120,655
Scottish Borders	£353,000	£208,377	£86,853
Shetland Islands	£53,000	£49,195	£13,852
South Ayrshire	£295,000	£189,380	£77,964
South Lanarkshire	£882,000	£576,816	£227,778
Stirling	£213,000	£138,819	£55,560
West Dunbartonshire	£276,000	£197,643	£80,212
West Lothian	£541,000	£353,756	£141,766

Question reference: S6W-20778

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it (a) currently works and (b) plans to work with local authorities to encourage students to take STEM subjects.

In accordance with the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, the provision of education is the responsibility of local authorities, meaning that each of Scotland’s 32 local authorities are responsible for ensuring young people in their area receive adequate provision of school and pre-school education; including in STEM subjects.

The Scottish Government leads on national policy, as set out in the STEM Education and Training Strategy, and helps to fund a series of national programmes which local authorities and schools can access. This includes:

the Raising Aspirations in Science Education (RAiSE) programme which has been in place since 2016 and is delivered in partnership with the Wood Foundation and Education Scotland. The programme aims to improve primary teacher confidence in delivering inspiring science learning.
the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (SSERC) which is a local authority shared service, available to all education authorities in Scotland. SSERC offers STEM professional learning courses for early years, primary and secondary teachers as well as technical support staff.

Local authorities are also involved, either directly or indirectly, in other STEM education development programmes supported by the Government including Maths Week Scotland and a professional learning programme for computing teachers.

In addition, the Education Scotland STEM Team work with local authorities to support a range of initiatives to encourage STEM leadership in the classroom, promote greater equality of access to STEM subjects and build on effective practice in STEM education. For example, grants have been provided by Education Scotland to Milnathort Primary School to help them develop a conceptual approach to teaching numeracy and Campsie View School has received funding to develop STEM teaching skills for young people with additional support needs.

Question reference: S6W-20773

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20065 by Jenny Gilruth on 15 August 2023, whether it will directly address the second part of the question and confirm whether or not there is a system in Scotland similar to the Early Help Scheme in England.

Getting it Right for Every Child is Scotland’s national approach to improving outcomes for children and young people. We are committed to investing £500m in Whole Family Wellbeing to improve holistic family support so that families get the right support, in the right way and at the right time. The GIRFEC approach is not directly comparable to the Early Help Scheme.

As set out in answer PQ S6W-20065 Local Authorities are expected to have robust processes and guidance for children who do not attend school from the first day they are absent until they are re-engaged with education. I have expressed concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on attendance and have asked Education Scotland to undertake work to better understand the current barriers and challenges experienced by schools, children and young people and their families and which influence school attendance, and to provide clear examples of effective strategies that are supporting improved attendance, and clarity on what further support or intervention is required in areas where attendance is not improving. I am welcome to learning from approaches to improving attendance from elsewhere.

Question reference: S6W-20779

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how often it has engaged with COSLA in the last 24 months, and how often it plans to engage with COSLA during the current school year.

I meet quarterly with the COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, Chair and attend further meetings and events where COSLA is represented, and meet directly with Councillors across Scotland to discuss mutual areas of interest. In the period since my appointment I have met with COSLA eight times, in a range of settings. In addition, officials across the Education & Skills portfolio are in constant contact with COSLA officials, frequently engaging on a daily or weekly basis and it is not possible to collate the total number of such engagements.

Question reference: S6W-20776

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether any local authorities have frozen recruitment of teachers and/or school staff, and, if so, for how long each local authority has advised that it intends the freeze to last, and for what reason each freeze has been implemented.

Question reference: S6W-20777

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support it (a) currently provides and (b) plans to provide to local authorities to enhance student engagement in the classroom.

The Scottish Government is committed to listening to the voices of children and young people across the education landscape. Learner engagement and participation are vital elements within Scotland’s curriculum, and these are further enhanced with the incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots Law.

Education Scotland has recently updated the Successful Young Leaders of Learning programme, which supports learners from P4 upwards to engage in school improvement activity, working in collaboration with other schools. Schools also have access to the ‘Learner Participation in Education Settings’ and the ‘How Good is OUR school?’ online resources, which support the engagement of learners in school improvement and decision making within the classroom, school and community. Education Scotland also provides professional learning to take schools through the materials, providing an opportunity for further dialogue and support.

Question reference: S6W-20775

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to engage with local authorities to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in primary and secondary schools during the school year 2023-24.

The Scottish Government COVID-19 guidance for schools remains in place and we know that schools continue to find the health protection principles in that guidance to be helpful in protecting the health of staff and pupils.

We have however been working with Public Health Scotland, local authorities and other stakeholders to develop updated guidance that better reflects current circumstances and will help schools continue to prevent the spread of COVID, other respiratory infections and infectious diseases in general.

This will provide a practical guide for staff on managing cases of infectious diseases across educational settings without placing additional significant burden or demands on staff. As has always been the case, Health Protection Teams and local NHS Boards will continue to work closely with schools to provide any advice and support needed to deal with specific situations that arise.

Question reference: S6W-20761

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority area of the 371 bursaries awarded to teachers in the last three years, and how many have been awarded in 2023 to date.

The breakdown for STEM bursaries awarded by local authority is available in the STEM Teacher bursary evaluation reports on the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) website: Search Results | Skills Development Scotland .

The previous STEM bursary scheme has been expanded this year to include Gaelic and renamed to the Teaching Bursary in Scotland bursary scheme. As of 31 August, 61 Teaching bursaries have been awarded.

Question reference: S6W-20964

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it plans to carry out an assessment of the cost of fixing any elements of the school estate that have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete present; whether any such costs will be met by local authorities or the Scottish Government; if they are to be met by local authorities, whether it anticipates that they will be met from existing funding or funding from other sources, and, if other sources, which sources.

Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to ensure that their schools are safe for pupils, staff and their users. Those local authorities affected have now published a list of any schools where RAAC has been identified, and it would be for those individual local authorities to decide if they publish the projected cost to remedy any issues within their school estate.

In addition, the First Minister has been clear, while we do not have contingencies within Scottish Government to spend on RAAC.

The UK Government’s Chancellor of the Exchequer recently committed to spend what was necessary, and we would expect to see new funding made available. Continual UK Government cuts to capital budgets make responses across the public sector more difficult.

This is an issue we have been alive to for some time. On 16 th August, the Deputy First Minister wrote to the UK Government’s Treasury seeking clarity on new capital funding to deal with RAAC. Then, on 3 rd September, I wrote to the Secretary of State for Education seeking clarity on funding. Thus far, neither letter has received a response.

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