Education and Skills
Good afternoon. The first item of business this afternoon is portfolio question time on education and skills. I invite members who wish to ask a supplementary question to press their request-to-speak buttons during the relevant question.
I advise members that there is a lot of interest in asking supplementaries, so I appeal for those not to have a lengthy preamble and not to have secondary and tertiary elements. I also appeal to members of the ministerial team for brevity, as far as possible, in their responses.
Asbestos Removal (Schools)
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support the safe removal of asbestos from school premises. (S6O-02045)
The statutory responsibility for the management of asbestos in schools rests with local authorities, and we expect local authorities to provide a safe environment for all school users.
As health and safety is not a devolved matter, the Health and Safety Executive is responsible for ensuring that local authorities comply with the legislation and requirements in relation to asbestos, and it offers information and advice on complying with those duties. In addition, HSE undertakes school inspections to assess the management of risks from asbestos in the school estate.
The presence of asbestos on school premises is a concern to me, as an MSP for a town with high levels of asbestos-related illness, because of our industrial heritage. Evidence suggests that the continued presence of and potential exposure to asbestos in public premises, especially schools, poses an on-going threat of contracting illnesses such as mesothelioma. Does the cabinet secretary agree that more needs to be done to quantify the scale of the problem? Asbestos campaigners, trade unions and others are calling for a phased removal of asbestos from all schools. Is the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities considering doing that?
We expect local authorities to provide a safe environment for all school users, and we recognise the hazard of asbestos. However, it is important to stress—in line with the Health and Safety Executive’s advice—that asbestos is dangerous only when disturbed. All HSE guidance should be followed when any removal of asbestos is planned or carried out. For example, local authorities must assess and manage the risk from asbestos, and they are required to know whether their school estate contains asbestos, where it is and what condition it is in.
Earlier this year, it was reported that asbestos is still present in more than half of Scottish schools. It is critical that the Scottish Government acts as quickly as possible to remove asbestos from schools, to ensure that pupils, teachers and staff are learning and working in a safe environment. What impact assessments have been carried out on the effect of asbestos in schools on the safety of pupils and staff?
For the sake of brevity, I will say only that pupils, students and all staff are working in safe environments in their schools.
Circular Economy (Education)
To ask the Scottish Government how the education system encourages a better understanding of circular economy principles and skills. (S6O-02046)
The education and skills system is essential in supporting the transition to a net zero, circular economy. Scotland was one of the very first nations in the world to embed sustainability education as a cross-curricular entitlement for all learners through our learning for sustainability programme. That programme brings together a range of themes, such as climate change, social justice and the circular economy.
In addition, the “Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan 2020-2025” makes it clear that circular economy skills will be critical for the transition to net zero, and we will continue to work with key partners, such as Skills Development Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council and Zero Waste Scotland, to deliver those skills in our education system.
In 2016, the Scottish Government said that Zero Waste Scotland would identify and support circular economy teaching champions. When I asked for an update on that in 2020, it turned out that there were fewer than 100 such champions out of 24,000 secondary teachers. When I asked about the issue again in 2022, the minister agreed that the Scottish Government had not done enough. Can the minister provide an update on what has been done over the past year and how many circular economy teaching champions there are now?
I cannot give the member the precise figure now, but I can say that we continue to look at the curriculum that is in place and the offer that is available through the learning for sustainability programme. We are currently in the process of looking to strengthen our approach to implementation, and we expect to publish an updated action plan shortly, which will look at those very matters.
Zero Waste Scotland provides a range of bite-size resources about the circular economy that are already aligned to the curriculum for excellence. Those range from a resource for pupils in primaries 1 to 3 about the life cycle of a strawberry—which pupils love—to one for pupils in secondary 1 and 2 about how to reduce energy use at home. Will the minister set out how those resources can benefit our young people’s education through links to the experiences and outcomes that are listed in curriculum for excellence?
Please be as brief as possible, minister.
Those resources give practical, interesting and enjoyable ways for young people to engage in learning about the challenges of moving towards a circular economy and I commend their use. They are available to teachers and we encourage all of them to engage in that area.
Our colleges are crucial in developing skills for the circular economy. During a debate earlier this week, the minister said that £26 million of funding would be
“provided to colleges in the usual fashion”.—[Official Report, 21 March 2023; c 69.]
Does that mean that the funding will be delivered without additional ties and that it can be used for mainstream budget purposes?
It means that the Scottish Funding Council will shortly make an announcement about indicative allocations, which is the usual process.
Examinations (Mitigation for Strike Action)
To ask the Scottish Government what mitigations the Scottish Qualifications Authority will have in place during this year’s exam diet for any senior phase pupils who have been adversely affected by targeted strike action. (S6O-02047)
The SQA confirmed in April 2022 that existing modifications to the national qualifications from 2022 are being continued in the 2023 academic session. Those modifications vary by subject and level, and they include reductions in course assessment, requiring less coursework than in a normal year and leaving more time for learning and teaching.
The SQA has also confirmed plans for a sensitive approach to grading, dependent on the impact of any disruption on exam and coursework performance. Although they were implemented to acknowledge the on-going impacts of Covid, those measures will also help to mitigate disruption arising from the industrial action.
The cabinet secretary will know that all pupils missed five days of school due to strikes but that pupils in targeted constituencies, including those in the First Minister’s constituency of Glasgow Southside, missed a further three days. Some Scottish Labour members, including me, have been contacted by pupils who are worried about how that will affect their exam performance and about how exactly the SQA will take that into account. When my colleague Michael Marra raised the issue with the cabinet secretary, she said that she was engaging with the appropriate local authorities to understand the impact of the action on their schools and to explore what further actions can be taken—
Please ask a question.
What exactly does that mean? Does it mean that pupils who lost out will be identified for further support?
The original question was about the work that the SQA has done, which is relevant to young people across Scotland. Education Scotland is also undertaking work. That includes the national e-learning offer, which provides learners with a searchable database of almost 25,000 regularly updated resources across hundreds of courses for senior phase learners.
I have also ensured that I am kept up to date with what is happening in each area where targeted strike action took place. I understand that two of the three targeted high schools managed to open to some extent during the strike days, which is important. Schools, local authorities and our agencies are working hard to provide support not only for pupils in the targeted areas but across Scotland. I am, of course, paying particular attention to the work that we can do to support children and young people who were impacted by that targeted action.
A number of members have supplementary questions. Those will have to be brief, as will the responses.
Will the cabinet secretary say something about the study support that is available through the national e-learning offer, the resources that are being provided for senior phase learners through the Perth and Kinross virtual campus and the extra support that is being provided over the Easter break as a result of the very positive recent budget decisions by the Scottish National Party Administration?
I have already mentioned some of the work that is happening in our national e-learning offer, including e-Sgoil. That work is available to our young people and includes a mix of live teaching and recorded lessons during the evenings as well as study support over the Easter break. Schools in Perth and Kinross have been encouraging young people to sign up to that.
I have also been advised that every school in Perth and Kinross has sought to provide a range of on-going support to young people using the mix of online and in-person approaches, and I welcome that.
Can I tempt the cabinet secretary to be even more specific about the nature of the support that is being provided? That was the subject of the original question. For example, is she offering councils some additional funding to pay for one-on-one tutoring or group tutoring? Is she advocating that schools actively create virtual interactive tutorials for pupils so that they can get additional support? How about a library of virtual lessons? What about some peer support programmes? What specifically are the Government and its agencies doing? These things do not have to cost much.
As I have already said, there is a searchable database of nearly 25,000 senior phase resources for learners. That support is of the same scale as the support that the Government ensured was there during the Covid pandemic. It is important to recognise that the Government has continued, through Education Scotland and particularly e-Sgoil, to provide support for children and young people at this difficult time. I thank everyone who is continuing to support our children and young people, both in schools and virtually, in the work that they do.
I ask Beatrice Wishart to be brief.
If the SQA is showing willingness to mitigate the impact of strikes, will the cabinet secretary indicate how it can take into account the double whammy that some senior phase pupils in Shetland have experienced with adverse weather resulting in school closures for up to 10 days as well as schools having chronic staff shortages, which has meant that, in some cases, pupils have had no dedicated subject teacher for a full school year?
The materials that I have mentioned—both the materials from the SQA and the national e-learning offer—are available across Scotland. That is important, and I am sure that there is a role for all members in encouraging their constituents to be aware of the support that is out there for them. There is also a role for councils. I recognise that, in some areas, there are challenges in attracting teachers in specific subjects, and we would certainly expect councils to provide support for schools in that regard, on top of everything that is already being provided by the national agencies that I have mentioned in my previous answers.
Bullying in Schools
Presiding Officer, thank you for giving me permission to leave portfolio questions early. I apologise to members in the chamber.
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce bullying in schools. (S6O-02048)
Bullying of any kind is unacceptable. It is for schools and local authorities to decide how to address bullying in each individual case and in their area.
However, with regard to national support, we continue to fully fund respectme, Scotland’s anti-bullying service, in order to build confidence and capacity to address bullying effectively. Education Scotland recently completed a thematic inspection of the recording and monitoring of bullying in schools. We take the findings of that work very seriously and we have immediately put in place a range of actions to respond to it.
We have begun a review of our national guidance, “Respect for All: The National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People”, and we have established a working group of stakeholders to support that. Inspectors will also undertake a second phase of the inspection work that will look at good practice in how schools are addressing bullying.
I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer, but if we cannot measure it, we cannot improve it. The data that we have obtained through a freedom of information request from schools in Aberdeen shows that there are huge disparities from school to school in how bullying cases are recorded. Some record only confirmed bullying incidents while others record all incidents prior to investigation.
I ask the Government to take the issue seriously and urgently issue guidelines to all local authorities so that we can start measuring the problem consistently and start improving the situation.
Douglas Lumsden makes a very important point. Every single teacher should be encouraged to record any bullying behaviour that is going on and it should be taken seriously in the school and the local authority setting. That is exactly why I set out in my original answer Education Scotland’s work on thematic inspections, because we recognise that there is inconsistent recording and monitoring of bullying in schools and we are now taking action to respond to that.
I ask Martin Whitfield to be brief.
At the heart of bullying lies the victim who has had their human rights abused. The sixteenth of March saw the second anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill waiting to become law in this Parliament. In a very helpful blog for young people, Clare Haughey has explained what the situation is. Can the cabinet secretary tell us when that bill will return to this Parliament?
As the member will be aware, and as the minister has already set out, we are continuing to work with the United Kingdom Government on proposed amendments to that bill. No one in this chamber disagrees with the view that the bill should be brought back to the Parliament as soon as possible, but it is important that we try to work together with the UK Government to ensure that we are aware of any concerns that it may have on the issue. It is an important issue that we need to get right. It is frustrating that action on it is taking the time that it is, and I very much look forward to bringing the bill back to Parliament.
Childcare Support
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve childcare support. (S6O-02049)
In 2023-24, we will invest around £1 billion in the delivery of our funded early learning and childcare offer. Scotland is the only part of the United Kingdom to offer 1,140 hours a year of funded early learning and childcare to all three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds, and we are progressing plans to expand the childcare offer in Scotland by expanding free early learning and childcare to one and two-year-olds starting in this parliamentary session with children who will benefit most. We have already started to design and deliver funded school-age childcare services in targeted communities across Scotland as part of our commitment to building a system of school-age childcare and to fund it for those on lowest incomes.
Last week’s United Kingdom budget certainly caught out leadership hopeful Humza Yousaf, who tried to pass off a plan to give 22 hours of free childcare a week to one and two-year-olds as a new announcement. In fact, that promise was made by the Scottish National Party before the 2021 Holyrood election. That was two years ago, and the SNP is no closer to honouring that pledge, while the UK Government will start rolling out free childcare in April next year. Will the minister commit to using the extra funding from the UK budget to match and accelerate the UK Government’s childcare offer for nine-month to two-year-olds?
As I said in my initial answer, we are progressing our plans to expand the childcare offer in Scotland to one and two-year-olds starting in this parliamentary session with the children who will benefit most, and it was good to see that the UK Government has finally caught up with the importance of investing in childcare, which is critically important to children and families and essential to our economy.
Ministers will look carefully at what consequential funding is available to Scotland as a result of the budget. My understanding is that it will be very limited—only around £20 million. Of course, it will be for the new First Minister to set out details of their plans for any further investment in childcare in this parliamentary session.
As the minister says, provision in Scotland is currently way ahead of anything that the UK Government provides in terms of childcare and we know where to look for instruction and example when it comes to childcare: independent states such as Denmark, which have the levers to fully provide for their childcare. Does the minister look forward as I do to the day when Scotland’s children can benefit from the investment and progressive policies of an independent Scottish Government?
Yes, and, as Joe FitzPatrick says, Scotland already has the most generous childcare offer anywhere in the UK, and we believe that all children should be entitled to high-quality funded early learning and childcare regardless of the working status of their parents or carers. Under UK Government plans, a child’s access to funded childcare will depend on the working status of their parent or carer.
Of course, in an independent Scotland, the Scottish Government would have access to the full range of levers through tax and welfare assistance to give children the best possible start in life and plan for their needs holistically.
Schools (Highlands and Islands)
To ask the Scottish Government how many school pupils in the Highlands and Islands are currently being taught in schools that are not of a “good” or “satisfactory” suitability. (S6O-02050)
Statistics on the suitability ratings of the school estate are collected on a local authority basis. Across the five local authorities that make up the bulk of the Highlands and Islands, a total of 11,989 pupils are in schools that are not of a good or satisfactory suitability.
The cabinet secretary will be aware that there are 64 primary schools across the Highland Council area that are in poor condition. I have been contacted about one school in that category—Dunvegan primary school, on Skye—in relation to which there are concerns over damp, mould and regular flooding, as well as a number of other conditions.
With fewer than one in five primary schools being ranked in good condition, it may come as no surprise to the cabinet secretary that the Highlands have the lowest levels of literacy and numeracy across the whole of Scotland. As the Scottish Government continues to squeeze council budgets across Scotland, can the cabinet secretary say when primary school pupils in the Highlands will be able to be taught in safe school buildings that help, rather than risk hindering, their learning?
It is important to recognise the work that this Government has already done on the learning estate. We have seen the learning estate investment programme, for example, which follows on from the successful £1.8 billion schools for the future programme, which delivered 117 new or refurbished schools. Of course, 37 projects have already been announced through phases 1 and 2 of that LEIP programme, including in the Highlands and Islands—for example, the Tain three-to-18 campus, Broadford primary school and Nairn academy. Those are important investments that are being taken forward in the school estate, and I am delighted that the Scottish Government can support local authorities in doing so.
Last month, ambitious plans for a new school and community facilities in Broadford went on display for the first time. Along with a replacement Nairn academy and a campus for Tain, that represents key investment in my region. Will the cabinet secretary give an update on the status of those projects and set out what improvements will be delivered through that investment in the education of young people in the Highlands and Islands?
The Tain three-to-18 campus is currently in construction and is due to open to pupils in early 2025. Both Nairn academy and Broadford primary school are in the development phase, with designs progressing. I was delighted to visit Broadford in October of last year to speak to the teachers and young people there and share their excitement and enthusiasm for the new school that is now being developed.
Free School Meals Eligibility (Income Threshold)
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to increasing the income threshold for free school meal eligibility for families not currently covered by any free school meal entitlement. (S6O-02051)
All primary school pupils in primaries 1 to 5, and eligible pupils in primary 6 through to secondary 6, can benefit from free meals in Scotland. That is the most generous provision anywhere in the United Kingdom, saving parents £400 per eligible child per year.
In December, we announced additional investment to fund the expansion of free school meals to primary school pupils in receipt of the Scottish child payment, as the next step towards universal provision for all primary school children.
We know from the last update that just over two thirds of those eligible for free school meals took them up. We also know that the Scottish Government has control over eligibility thresholds and could increase that further.
Free school meals are a flagship policy of this Government, but a third of those who are eligible are not using them, while children from low-income families are still going hungry during the school day, with Aberlour reporting that thousands of ineligible families have now accrued school meal debt.
Will the cabinet secretary therefore consider increasing the eligibility threshold beyond the already promised extension to P6 and P7 in order to tackle hunger and support low-income families in the South Scotland region and beyond?
There is, of course, an important role for councils in encouraging those within their schools to recognise the current eligibility settings and in encouraging take-up. We are making progress in our provision of free school meals.
We recognise that a number of local authorities are facing challenges in planning for that substantial expansion of free school meals. That is exactly why we have seen provision in the Scottish Government budget for 2023-24 for not only revenue funding but capital funding to support that.
Of course, that is not the only thing that the Scottish Government is doing to support families on low incomes who are struggling during the cost of living crisis. I point to the £3 billion that we provide through a range of measures that help to mitigate the impacts of the cost of living crisis, including the very important Scottish child payment.
A couple of members wish to ask supplementaries, which will need to be brief.
We already have the most generous provision of free school meals anywhere in the UK. Of course, we would like to go further, and we would do so but for the fiscal constraints of devolution—a situation that Labour endorses. Will the cabinet secretary set out how many children will benefit from the recent additional investment that will expand free school meals to all primary 6 and 7 pupils who are in receipt of the Scottish child payment?
Modelling carried out by the Scottish Government estimates that around 28,000 children will be able to benefit from our additional investment to expand free school meals to primary 6 and 7 pupils who are in receipt of the Scottish child payment.
Has the cabinet secretary given consideration to breakfasts when giving out free school meals? We know that the education establishment is the key battleground in tackling health inequalities, and perhaps tying that up with activities such as sport, art, music and drama at the same time would encourage children to come to school early.
Another aspect that we are working on, and which addresses that issue, is our wraparound childcare provision. It is important that we ensure that we provide not only breakfast but adequate childcare, which will not only assist that child or young person but also perhaps help their family to get into employment.
I take Brian Whittle’s other point on the importance of the provision of sport and of encouraging young people to exercise, and I recognise his continuing commitment to that.
Developing the Young Workforce (Fife)
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the developing the young workforce programme in Fife. (S6O-02052)
DYW Fife successfully piloted the implementation of DYW school co-ordinators and to date has signed up 19 employers to the young persons guarantee. Between April and December 2022, it reported around 12,000 interactions between employers and young people. A recent example of those was that 120 high school pupils from Fife took part in a traditional trades skills day.
The Scottish Government values the impressive work of DYW Fife and the DYW network in helping young people to achieve positive post-school destinations. In Fife, 94.8 per cent of school leavers in 2021-22 were in positive destinations such as work, training or further study three months after the end of the school year. That is up from the figure of 93.9 per cent in 2020-21 and is the highest figure since 2009-10.
I welcome the progress that is evidently being made. However, will the minister advise what steps are being taken actively to encourage more businesses in Fife to get involved in the programme and to stay involved, so that young people in my Cowdenbeath constituency have the best possible life chances?
That is part of the core purpose of our DYW regional groups, which is why we continue to fund them to undertake such activity. The schools co-ordinators whose funding we have now supported in all mainstream secondary schools will play an important role in that regard. One really good way to achieve that is to have business-to-business engagement, where those who are already involved in the network engage with others to talk to them about its benefits. In that regard, the Fife regional group will soon hold a session for new employers to hear from existing employers about the benefits of engaging with young people and to share best practice. I encourage Ms Ewing to ask businesses in her area to sign up and take part.
I thank members and ministers for their co-operation in getting through so many portfolio questions. There will be a brief pause while ministers change seats before we move to the next item of business.