Chamber and committees

I appreciate that, but some of the actions in the plan are for 2025-26, and by that time some children will either be out of education completely or will have lost significant time. Where do parents who come to members in our constituencies worried about their young people go to get some accountability?

Thank you—if you could.

I think that the figures included 83,499 recorded plans, 32,898 individualised educational programmes and 49,200 child’s plans.

There was another 100,000 figure in the middle that I have missed.

No, I think that you answered them both.

The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill, which is before this committee and is about care, support and justice for children and young people, would repeal the child’s plan. What would the impact of that be?

Okay.

It does not?

That would be helpful. Thank you for clarifying that.

If Laura Meikle could share the 100,000 figure that she gave, that would be helpful.

A lot of that relies on tenacious parents. My office has gone back to councils and has asked them to look at things differently, but they very rarely do.

The work with Audit Scotland on that is important, because it looks at the strategic answer, as opposed to relying on individuals who are already overstretched and, in some cases, burst, to be honest. How are the conversations with Audit Scotland progressing to ensure that it includes that work in its auditing of schools?

I want to ask a question about some of the findings of the Morgan review. First, I will read out a couple of quotes, which you will probably already have seen. Douglas Hutchison said:

“I might have Miss Honey this year as my teacher: she is a great teacher and I do not have any problems. Next year, however, I might have Miss Trunchbull. Suddenly, I have additional support needs, because she is not helping me to access the curriculum. I have not changed; the external environment has changed.”—[Official Report, Education, Children and Young People Committee, 19 January 2022; c 35.]

In her review, Morgan said:

“Where openness and transparency are not in place, the risks are of a culture of blame and/or a culture that lacks robust accountability for practice with vulnerable children and young people.”

In addition, at our predecessor committee, she said:

“I found that the system is overly dependent on those individuals, and it is fragmented and inconsistent.”—[Official Report, Education and Skills Committee, 18 November 2020; c 2.]

That does not feel like a sufficient system. To me, that is quite disappointing. Why is the system so varied, and what would need to change to address that?

I appreciate that. Do I have one more question?