Chamber and committees

I agree with the cabinet secretary on that. Being in the position that she is in, what does she intend to do about it?

Thank you.

Thank you.

The Government is considering the reasons why the numbers fell, but are you also considering what other things local authorities might have had to use some of that money for in relation to education, such as free breakfasts, writing off school meal debt or meeting the needs of pupils with additional support needs? We should remember that the budget increases the resource for that by only £600,000. Are you looking at how else they might have had to spend that money?

Thank you.

I will take the theme of support for teachers a bit further and talk about empowerment and a bottom-up approach. I am sure that, during your engagement with teachers, you will have heard about their concern that decisions are outwith their control and are taken far away from them, rather than on the front line, but they are then expected to deliver on those decisions in difficult circumstances. How is the Government balancing top-down leadership with a more bottom-up approach to curriculum reform?

Thank you. I appreciate that answer.

As you will be aware, part of the concern is about having the time to engage with reform. This is paraphrasing, and I am sure that you will set me right if I am wrong, but you said that support for the reforms among the teaching profession could be waning—that might be the most polite way to say it—from the eager appetite for radical reform that maybe existed in 2021. Might that have something to do with the fact that teachers are facing immediate challenges in the classroom?

I appreciate that, cabinet secretary, but the commitment was made in the manifesto to elect the current Scottish National Party Government in 2021. Teachers have already been waiting and looking for that for years.

I will move on to breakfast provision and free school meals. There does not appear to be anything in the budget for provision of breakfast in every primary and special school, which was another Government commitment. Does the cabinet secretary expect to deliver free breakfasts in all primary and special schools during the coming year?

Can I ask one final question?

Those conversations across Government will be very interesting, particularly those on local government budgets.

Finally, given what we have just discussed, is the cabinet secretary concerned, as I am, that there is a reduction of about £7.7 million in the support for teachers budget this year?

Thank you. Minister, you will be aware of the SFC’s report on the financial circumstances that colleges face. I do not think that it forecasts that it will improve in the way that you have described. The change mid-year has been significantly difficult for colleges, so I am not sure that they would characterise the situation in that way either. In order to respond to the Withers review in the way that you have described—much of which I am heartened by—might colleges need some additional funding at the outset, perhaps to make savings in the longer term, when all the changes have been made?