Chamber and committees

This information can be found in the 'Summary statistics for schools in Scotland’ and ‘Pupils in Scotland’ publication supplementary documents.

Average class size of primary pupils

My meeting with Councillor Aitken on 8 August was our first opportunity to meet following her appointment as Leader of Glasgow City Council. We discussed and agreed that the Council's decision to rejoin COSLA would mean the start of a new, refreshed relationship between the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council working together for the benefit of both the people of Glasgow and the wider Scottish population.

There are strong rights for homeless households in Scotland, but we recognise that for some people, including those with mental ill health and addiction issues, additional support to address homelessness is required. We welcome the report of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland as an important contribution in helping to identify the barriers that we need to overcome in providing this support.

Most of those interviewed as part of this study were not experiencing homelessness for the first time. Improving outcomes for homeless people with more complex needs including mental ill health, who may be facing more entrenched homelessness, is a priority for the Scottish Government.

As recommended in the report, this will form part of our strategic approach to addressing homelessness in Scotland, which will be strengthened by the refresh and re-launch of our high level homelessness group, developing links between homelessness, mental health and a range of other policy areas.

The current development of a Housing Options training toolkit for local authorities and their partners, with support from the Scottish Government, will also be an important development in strengthening links between housing and health services, including mental health services, to help prevent homelessness.

The Scottish Government’s Mental Health strategy 2017-2027 also supports the provision of mental health training programmes for people in non-health positions, such as housing roles. This is against the background of NHS investment in mental health being projected to exceed £1 billion for the first time in 2017-18.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) publishes retention rates in their publication “Learning for All: Measures of Success”, which is defined as full-time first-degree entrants who are continuing into the next year or who qualified at the same Higher Education Institution (HEI). The retention rates show retention from the previous year, i.e. 2011-12 shows those who entered in 2010-11. The retention rates for the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland at Scottish HEIs since 2011 are shown in the following table:

Retention Rates for Scottish-Domiciled Full-Time First Degree Entrants 2011-12 to 2014-15

Source: SFC Learning for All: Measures of Success 2014-15 (HESA Data), Table 32

The most recent Learning For All was published in August 2016, and is available on the SFC website:

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/communications/Statisticalpublications/2016/SFCST062016.aspx

There are numerous reasons why students will not appear in the 'retention rate' highlighted above, which include moving into other positive destinations such as work or other forms of study.

The Commission on Widening Access' A Blueprint for Fairness includes specific recommendations to support the retention rates of access students. The Scottish Government committed to implementing the recommendations in full, which I reaffirmed in the 2017/18 Letter of Guidance to the Scottish Funding Council dated 30 March 2017. This is also available on the SFC website: http://www.sfc.ac.uk/web/FILES/AboutUs/SFC_Letter_of_Guidance_2017-18.pdf

The Scottish Funding Council is investing almost £15 million in 2017/18 to help students remain in higher education. The Widening Access and Retention Fund is allocated to universities that have the highest intake of widening access students. These universities will demonstrate and maintain commitment to the support, retention and successful outcomes of students from the most disadvantaged and deprived backgrounds, particularly in relation to those from the 20% most deprived areas.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) publishes retention rates in their publication “Learning for all: Measures of Success”, which is defined as full-time first-degree entrants who are continuing into the next year or who qualified at the same HEI. The retention rates show retention from the previous year, i.e. 2011-12 shows those who entered in 2010-11. The retention rates for Creative Arts and Design courses at Scottish HEIs since 2011 are shown in the following table:

Retention Rates for Scottish-Domiciled Full-Time First Degree Entrants 2011-12 to 2014-15

Source: SFC Learning for All: Measures of Success 2014-15 (HESA Data), Table 32 (online version)

The most recent Learning for All was published in August 2016, and is available on the SFC website:

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/communications/Statisticalpublications/2016/SFCST062016.aspx

There are numerous reasons why students will not appear in the ‘retention rate’ highlighted above, which include moving into other positive destinations such as work or other form of study.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the structure of the academic year at universities in Scotland. As autonomous institutions, it is for each individual university to determine the structure of their own academic year.

The Scottish Government has published the correspondence sent by Scottish Ministers to UK Government Ministers on DWP proposals to close job centres and DWP back office functions in Scotland. This is available at https://beta.gov.scot/publications/foi-17-01045. In addition, the DWP estate closure programme was discussed at the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare held on 20 February 2017. The note of the meeting has been published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/minutes-of-the-joint-ministerial-working-group-on-welfare-20-feb-2017.

The Scottish Government published an independent analysis of the consultation responses on 22 December 2015. This can be found at:

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/12/1435

The Executive Summary to this analysis summarises the range of issues raised that are all being considered by the Scottish Government. While there is no specific timescale for concluding deliberations, the Scottish Government views reform of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 as an important priority for this session of Parliament.

In 2013, the Scottish Government published a discussion paper to explain how the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 operated and to gather evidence and views from stakeholders to help consider what changes may be required to modernise and improve the legislation. Analysis of the responses received was published in April 2014. Using the feedback, a consultation paper setting out specific proposals for reforming the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 was published in 2015. The consultation closed in August 2015 and an analysis of the consultation responses were published in December 2015.

Although the analysis of the consultation revealed support for the general thrust of the proposed reforms, some issues were raised which require further consideration. The Scottish Government is committed to making appropriate reforms to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 in Scotland to ensure it strikes the correct balance between the rights of people not to disclose their previous offending behaviour and to move on with their lives while also ensuring the rights of the public to be protected are effectively maintained. It is anticipated that reform of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 will be taken forward in this session of Parliament and specific proposals will be announced in due course.