Chamber and committees

We have heard a lot, rightly, about teachers. Teachers co-ordinate and lead the planning and delivery of teaching and learning in the classroom, but they are not the only individuals in the classroom. We spoke a bit about pupil support assistance, and I had an exchange earlier with Mr Greer about what the board might or might not have done to support the continuous professional development of pupil support teachers. I have a couple of questions on that, but do witnesses have any comments at this stage about what they feel the board has done to promote continuous professional development to date?

Okay, convener. I am just trying to get as much benefit out of the session as I can.

Do any of the witnesses have a view on how the 16,606 PSAs are deployed in each local authority? We heard earlier about the different parts of the transitions to primary school, and S2 and S3 in secondary school and about tracking additional support needs. Are PSAs deployed consistently within each local authority and across local authorities? If so, could you say a little bit more about that? If not, do we have to do more about that?

This is important. Is there cultural resistance from parents who do not wish to forgo the additional support once it has been put in place?

That is really helpful, Fran. I do not want to put words in your mouth, but it appears that you are saying that that should be tracked and that there should be more and more consistent opportunities for continuous professional development for pupil support staff or assistants. I do not want to misrepresent what you said, but it would be helpful if you let the committee know if that is what you are saying, and whether the project board would be involved in that.

My final question is a general one about culture, so it is moving away from the previous topic. How will the work of the board deliver the culture change that we are hearing about more generally, which was envisioned in the Morgan review? Laura Caven, quite rightly, chastised me earlier in relation to terminology and language, which are quite important when trying to deliver a culture change.

I think that you are saying that the data for pre-school children is pretty consistent with what you are seeing elsewhere. There is some confusion about whether that is anecdotal for that nursery or for Glasgow, or whether you are seeing that across the country. It would be really helpful if someone could address that.

I will sneak in a second question while the convener is looking away.

That is really helpful, but I want to drill down on pupil support assistants. All those jobs are really important, but pupil support assistants are at the coalface every day. They are directly involved in pupil interaction, and they work directly with other education professionals, mostly teachers, to support pupils who have additional support needs. Do we track how many of the 16,606 are given professional development opportunities each year and how many of them avail themselves of that opportunity?

I will bring in Scott Mulholland, but I am a wee bit frustrated—although it is no one’s fault—because I thought that the board would have a view on that, as it is the meat and potatoes of what it is doing. However, I will leave that hanging.

Did you say 16 per cent?

I note what you said about pupil support staff, but I am interested in those who are not teachers but are still professionals in the classroom and the wider school environment. We heard from Laura Meikle that there are 2,803 more of those in recent years. How many of them do we have in total, and how many have taken the opportunity of continuous professional development in the past two years?