Chamber and committees

Grant funding allocations were made to councils based on levels of deprivation and rurality within their areas, allowing them to purchase devices and connectivity for learners to align with local digital strategies. Local authorities have been responsible for securing and distributing devices, and for reporting to Scottish Government on progress. Global pressure on supply chains (primarily as a result of the pandemic and the move to home learning and working) has resulted in delayed delivery times for some devices.

The following table shows the number of devices ordered, received and distributed at end-March 2021 (immediately before the Easter break after which in-person learning resumed), as reported by individual local authorities.

The guidance to support the provision of the £400 one-off payment to teachers is available on the Scottish Government website at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-employers-on-one-off-gbp400-payment-for-teachers/

This exceptional payment is being made in recognition of the additional workload for teachers who have supported the delivery of the Alternative Certification Model (ACM) in the unique circumstances brought about by Covid-19 in 2020/21.

This will be paid through a grant arrangement to education authorities and directly from the Scottish Government through a grant to independent and grant-aided schools, further to claims being received.

The Improvement Service has been commissioned by the ELC expansion programme to collect data from local authorities on progress towards delivery of 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare, and to report on this data. The most recent report, on data returned by Local Authorities in April 2021, was published on 15 June and can be accessed via the Improvement Service and Scottish Government websites. This provides detail on progress with both recruitment and construction work.

I gave an update to Parliament on 16 June 2021, a transcript of my statement can be found here . This included updates on both the Advance Payment Scheme and the development of the statutory redress scheme for survivors of historical child abuse in care.

During the pre-election period Scottish Ministers only met with SQA when both attended the the COVID-19 Education Recovery Group (CERG): https://www.gov.scot/groups/covid-19-education-recovery-group/ . I continue to attend these meetings alongside SQA Chief Executive Fiona Robertson.

I attended a meeting which Fiona Robertson also attended on 24 May. We had a brief phone call on 3 June. We will have a formal introductory meeting on 24 June.

Officials meet regularly with SQA on a range of matters relating to the delivery of SQA’s functions.

An Equality Impact Assessment to support the decision to replace the National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher examination diet in 2020-2021 with an Alternative Certification Model will be published on the Scottish Government website shortly.

SQA has undertaken an Equality Impact Assessment of the 2021 Alternative Certification Model that was co-created by the National Qualifications 2021 Group. It is available on the SQA’s website at: Equality Impact Assessment - National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher Alternative Certification Model 2021 (sqa.org.uk) .

Probation can be completed through either the one year full time Teacher Induction Scheme (TIS) or a flexible route. Probationers entering via a flexible route are not included in this analysis as they are not identified separately in the teacher census. These probationers account for a very small proportion of all probationers.

The following tables show the number of Teacher Induction Scheme teachers who, at the time of the September teacher census following their probationary year were (1) in permanent teaching posts in publicly funded schools in Scotland, (2) in temporary teaching posts in publicly funded schools in Scotland, or (3) not teaching in a publicly funded school in Scotland.

These figures are broken down by the local authority in which the individual carried out their probationer year.

Table 1: Post-induction scheme teachers in permanent posts in the following year’s teacher census (headcount)

It is crucial that the decisions we take are based on the latest available evidence and are aligned to clinical guidance.

Our approach is for people to have access to the support they need for assessment, diagnosis, care and rehabilitation in a setting that is as close to their home as possible.

NHS Boards across Scotland are co-ordinating and providing local pathways to ensure a multidisciplinary and person-centred approach in their area.

Additionally, we invested over £460,000 in Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland to enable them to deliver their ‘Long COVID support service’ which complements the support being provided by NHS Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office has also committed around £2.5 million to fund nine projects to improve our understanding of the long term effects of COVID-19 on physical and mental health and wellbeing in Scotland, and help with developing effective clinical interventions to support recovery and rehabilitation.

The Gateway Review into the Deposit Return Scheme began on 14 June 2021. We will provide an update to Parliament on the go-live date following summer recess.

A copy of all local authority returns and an analysis of the returns was published in May 2021. The material was published as part of a Freedom of Information release and the local authority returns and analysis can be found in parts 1 and 2 of the released documentation at: Correspondence relating to counsellors within schools: FOI Release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)