Chamber and committees

In my statement to Parliament on P1 standardised assessments on 25 October 2018, I announced the establishment of an independent review of these assessments. Following advice from Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, I have appointed David Reedy to lead this review.

David Reedy was Co-Director of the Cambridge Primary Review Trust from 2013-17 and has served as both General Secretary and President of the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA). He has also previously held the post of Principal Adviser Primary Schools in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Mr Reedy has a wealth of relevant experience and also I believe the necessary distance from the recent debate on P1 assessments in Scotland to bring a fresh and impartial perspective to the review.

Mr Reedy will be supported by a small review team who are familiar with the Scottish context. The team will be assembled by the Chief Inspector and will include Scottish practitioners, representation from the early years sector and a member of the Inspectorate.

The review will consider and provide recommendations on the following issues:

- the compatibility of the assessments with the play-based curriculum model in the early level of Curriculum for Excellence;

- the alignment of the assessments to the benchmarks for the early level;

- the effect on P1 children of taking an on-line assessment;

- the usefulness of the diagnostic information provided to teachers and how it supports their professional judgement;

- the implications of the review for the ongoing implementation of the national Gaelic-medium education standardised assessments; and

- the future of the assessments, considering in particular whether they continue in line with the current continuous improvement model; be substantially modified; or whether they should be stopped.

The detailed remit and terms of reference for the review will be agreed with Mr Reedy and published early in the New Year, along with the details of the review team.

The review will start in January 2019, with a report being submitted to the Scottish Ministers by the end of May 2019. This will allow time for the recommendations of the review to be considered by the Parliament ahead of the Summer recess.

The report will be published on the Scottish Government website later today https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781787814264 .

I am pleased to record that the Commissioner’s letter noted that the 13 September draft plan was thoroughly constructed and that he was content that the majority of the proposed actions will achieve the desired outcomes.

He asked for minor revisions to improve the clarity of three proposals and these were submitted on 30 October. He replied on 8 November, approving the plan, subject to one further minor change, which has been made. The agreed plan has been published on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/freedom-of-information-document-collection/ and we will now work with the Commissioner on its implementation.

I am also happy to report that the Commissioner noted the significant improvement the Scottish Government has made to our FOI response times and has formally ended his intervention on that aspect of our performance. He has asked that we continue providing monthly performance reports for the time being and we will, of course, do so.

I remain grateful for the Commissioner’s constructive approach throughout both his interventions.

A consultation document based on Lord Bracadale’s recommendations from his independent review of Hate Crime Legislation will be available to the public via Citizen Space from 14 November until 24 February 2019. In parallel we will be undertaking a series of consultation events across Scotland from December until early February to increase the opportunity for stakeholders and the public to respond to the consultation in part or in whole.

The consultation will also explore the findings of the Working Group on Defining Sectarianism in Scots Law, and the Working Group’s report will also be published on 14 November. The findings from the consultation exercise will inform the content of consolidated and modernised Hate Crime legislation.

Following the recent Ministerial reshuffle there are currently no parliamentary liaison officers. Any PLOs appointments will be notified to Parliament as normal.

Special Advisers are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a Special Adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers.

The total cost of the 14 Special Advisers employed during the financial year 2017-18 was £1,045,486. Total cost includes all salary costs, ERNIC and employer pension contributions. The level of the employer ERNIC and pension contributions is not a matter for the Scottish Government.

Their specific responsibilities are as follows:

I am delighted to say the first report on Corporate Parenting activity in Scotland ‘Turning Legislation into Practice Together’ has been published today at www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781788519311

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 encourages preventative measures, rather than reactive responses whenever a care experienced child, young person or their family needs help. The duties in Part 9 of the Act require Corporate Parents to be alert to matters which, or which might, adversely affect the wellbeing of looked after children and care leavers, to assess their needs, promote their interests, provide opportunities to promote wellbeing and take action to help children and young people access these opportunities as well as to improve the way the Corporate Parent exercises its functions. In addition, each Corporate Parent must prepare, keep under review, and publish a corporate parenting Plan and, report as required, on how corporate parenting responsibilities have been exercised.

This Report is based on information drawn from approximately 124 corporate parenting plans prepared by the 24 individuals and organisations named in Schedule 4 of 2014 Act. It offers an account of how corporate parenting has been embraced by the many different representative public sector individuals and organisations throughout Scotland and sets out to illustrate some of the different approaches to reflect the different statutory roles and unique circumstances of such a diverse group of organisations. Crucially, it reflects the views of children and young people on the different ways corporate parents have made a difference to them.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

Based on the current rate of inflation, the estimated unitary charge cost for the total of the 25 year contract period for HMP Addiewell is £955m. This projection is subject to any variation in respect of future rates of inflation.

In response to the recommendations made by the independent review of student support, the Scottish Government announced that over £21 million will be invested per year by the end of this parliament to improve the financial support available to students at college and university.

As part of that, in 2018-19, we will invest over £5 million to increase the bursary for care-experienced students in Further (FE) and Higher Education (HE) to £8,100. This brings care-experienced bursary support in line with the Living Wage as recommended by the independent review. The FE care-experienced bursary will increase from £4,185 to £8,100 and the HE care-experienced bursary will rise from £7,625 to £8,100 per year.

In 2019-20, we will invest £16 million to increase and expand access to FE and HE bursaries for students from the lowest income families.

This investment in student support is in addition to the Scottish Government existing policy on free tuition which benefits over 120,000 undergraduates each year studying in Scotland.

I am delighted to confirm that Scotland will host the UK Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (MMIC). The Centre, which has received tripartite funding from Scottish Enterprise (£15m) Innovate UK (£13m) and industry (£14m) will not only be a highly influential centre of excellence in medicines manufacturing but will also have a positive impact on the economy of both Scotland and the UK and will help to further cement Scotland’s reputation for excellence in research and development, life sciences and manufacturing.

Following detailed consideration of a range of potential sites in Scotland the operator of the Centre and industry partners chose Inchinnan in Renfrewshire as the best location for the Centre.

Whilst the Centre will be located within the Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation District in Renfrewshire, a key priority for the Scottish Government will be to ensure that the sector across the whole of Scotland is able to benefit from the project.