Chamber and committees

Under the Standards in Scotland's Schools Act 2000, every child of school age has a right to be provided with school education by an education authority. This includes children of asylum seekers within their area. Education authorities have a duty to provide adequate and efficient school education for their area.In relation to pre-school education, the children of asylum seekers have the same access to pre-school education as other children of pre-school age, resident in a local authority area. Local authorities currently have the power to provide nursery education for all such children and from April 2002, will be under a duty to secure a pre-school place for all three- and four-year-olds whose parents wish it.

Comprehensive information on the numbers of asylum seeker children currently in full-time school education is not held centrally. Special provision for asylum seeker children is made according the needs of the children and might include, for example, the appointment of teachers of English as an additional language. Details of the special provision made are not held centrally.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-20777 on 3 January 2002. Under the Single Status Agreement negotiated between local authority employers and relevant trades unions, the pay and conditions of almost all local government employees are being reviewed. A consequence of the agreement is that terms and conditions, including hourly rates of pay, will be set locally, taking account of the relative value placed upon jobs and the pay budget set by individual authorities.

The pay and conditions of nursery nurses are a matter for their employers, whether local authorities or operators in the private or voluntary sector. The Executive has no role in these negotiations. As part of wider discussions on childcare workforce development issues, COSLA has recently updated officials on the review of pay and conditions of nursery nurses being carried out under the Single Status Agreement.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-20246 on 17 December 2001.

The Executive has awarded the Piping Centre £550,000 in this period for this purpose (I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-21105). No other award has been made by the Executive directly, although Scottish Opera received £1.9 million in 2000-01 through the Scottish Arts Council in respect of its deficit.

In September 2000, the Piping Centre in Glasgow received a grant of £250,000 from the Scottish Executive. In November 2001 they were granted £300,000. Both grants were offered to reduce the debt of the centre and thus help it continue to provide tuition for musicians.

The Scottish Arts Council has provided funding to the the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) in the last two years as follows:

2000-01	£2,428,522 core revenue funding
2001-02 (to date)	£2,590,613 core revenue funding

Plus £3,500 towards the cost of composing a major work for the orchestra and £1,000 towards attendance at the National Arts Fundraising School.In addition, following council approval of the RSNO application for entry to the Lottery Advancement Scheme, a sum of £775,000 has been reserved for the company's planned process of change.The company has also accessed from the council a £500,000 advance of their 2002 to 2003 core revenue funding grant in order to assist in its management of cash flow.The Executive has given no direct financial assistance to the company.

The proposed closure of St Mary's Hospital is a matter for local negotiation. We understand that representatives from South Lanarkshire Council and NHS Lanarkshire recently attended a meeting with the Management Committee of St Mary's Hospital to discuss the practicalities of the proposed closure.

We have received one such representation.