Chamber and committees

We are keen to gather the correct data. In many ways, this points back to some of the initial points that the convener made about gathering the correct data so that we know what the outcomes are from the educational spend that goes in.

The short-life working group is a response to the recommendations from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which said that we needed to see what more could be done to consider the other three capacities within curriculum for excellence, on which we do not currently have the same level of data. We have a wide range of other surveys, such as the health and wellbeing survey, that paint a picture of young people’s progress.

I am sure that the committee will come back to this area at some point in the future. I am happy to provide an update on the work around data that is being done in the short-life working group and on where it is going once we reach a point at which decisions and recommendations have been made.

With the greatest respect to Willie Rennie, I do not recognise or accept the figures that he has used. The 2022-23 local government settlement is £12.5 billion. That is fair, given the most challenging of circumstances. The figures that have been pointed to about cuts have been selective and misleading, as they do not take account of the complete funding that goes into local government.

When it comes to education, I point to the facts that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has calculated that school spending per pupil is higher in Scotland than it is in England, that we have provided extra resources to local councils, and that 2019-20 was the fifth year in a row in which there was a real-terms increase in local authority education expenditure.

With the greatest respect to Mr Rennie, I do not accept the premise of his question, and I propose—

Again, with the greatest respect to Mr Rennie, I do not accept the figures that he is using. The local government—

All teachers provide significant support to pupils with additional support needs, as do specialist support learning staff. The budget that we are discussing continues to provide additional support to local authorities, investing £15 million every year to enhance their capacity to respond effectively to individual needs. That money can be used for additional pupil support assistance.

The overall responsibility to provide sufficient support for every young person lies with schools, but we and COSLA are jointly implementing the ASL review outcomes. Some of that work has been impacted by Covid, but we are keen to move forward with a revised action plan, and I hope that that will deal with some of the issues that Stephanie Callaghan has raised.

It is obviously a serious issue, and the Government takes it seriously. Much of the responsibility will lie with child and adolescent mental health services, but I can point to two examples of how education can assist. The first is through the funding that we have given local government to allow for a counsellor in every secondary school. That is a new initiative and we are closely monitoring the demand for the service to see how needs are being met across the country. It is a reasonably new initiative, but it is available and it is an important addition to what is going on.

The other example is the whole family wellbeing fund. For that development, we are putting additional funding of £50 million from across Government into next year’s budget, although that will increase over the current session of Parliament. It is important that we look in a holistic manner at the challenges that young people and families face, which may include child poverty, challenges with educational attainment and issues around mental health or substance abuse.

Our development of the whole family wellbeing fund is another important step to ensure that we support families and use education establishments as a way to reassure people that support is available. There is no wrong door; if a family needs support, the intention behind the fund is to ensure that they get it, and mental health plays an important part in that.

I cannot speak on behalf of Councillor McCabe, but I think that, on the overall issue, local government and national Government are in agreement that we want to do anything that is required to be able to assist in this matter. We will, of course, take information from other sources if that is at all possible.

However, I point to the fact that we have the workforce issues group, which is chaired by COSLA. It considers many issues, including, in particular, ventilation. Unions sit on the group, along with Scottish Government officials, and are asked for specific examples that are not being dealt with locally and can be escalated if they need to be dealt with in another way. That approach has not proved to be fruitful, as we have not had material coming through in that way. That is why I have taken the decision to write directly to appeal to unions. Of course, I am happy to hear from other sources about particular concerns in any area. That avenue is open, and the workforce issues group is the place where those issues can be considered in great detail.

From memory, I think that 97 per cent of schools receive pupil equity funding. We have not yet published the allocations for each school, but we will seek to do that in due course and Mr Mundell will be able to see them at that point. Free school meals have been used as a proxy as well. I hope that that is as relevant to small rural schools as it is to larger schools and other areas, as it is based on the number of children who present for free school meals.

There do not require to be any changes to the budget to ensure that exams will take place. The SQA’s central planning assumption is that they will take place and it is moving that planning forward. The budget for the SQA is set out on that basis.

If you let me answer the question, Mr Mundell, you will hear what I am about to say. The only reason why exams would not take place would be that there was public health guidance on the prevention of gatherings. Clearly, if there was such guidance, it would be irresponsible for the Government to say that exams should take place. The SQA is continuing to work to ensure that exams can take place safely.

Within the wider educational settlement, a great deal of work is continuing around what support can be given while learning is disrupted, so that there is a wider pool of material in relation to the e-learning offer, increasing study support sessions and so on. A great deal of work is continuing, albeit not within the budget that we are discussing. Clearly, we need to be delivering that work now, and increased support has gone into the e-learning in the current calendar year.

We are also working closely with local government colleagues on what they are putting in place for Easter revision and on whether further support can be given in relation to that. The reason why I have not made an announcement on that to date is that we need to know what local authorities will be doing in order to ensure that what we do is in addition to what is already happening. However, a great deal of work is being done to ensure that young people are being supported while their learning is disrupted at this time.

We increased the funding for the Scottish attainment challenge from £750 million in the previous parliamentary session to £1 billion.