Chamber and committees

Full details of the government financial support available to independent students studying higher education courses at university or college can be found on the Student Awards Agency for Scotland''s website www.saas.gov.uk. Independent students wishing to attend further education courses can receive full advice on what they are entitled to from their college.

Further details on what funding sources are provided for lone parents can be found at the following link www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Funding-Support-Grants/FFL/Publications.

Information provided by the managing agent, for the KY postcode area, on the number of applicants on the waiting list in each month during the period requested, is shown in the following table:

Month of Application	Number of Applicants on Waiting List
July 2008	306
August 2008	282
September 2008	193
October 2008	175
November 2008	226

 

Information provided by the managing agent, for the KY postcode area, on the number of applications and the number accepted, subject to survey, in each month during the period requested is shown in the following table:

Month of Application	Number of Applications	Accepted Subject to Survey
July 2008	60	23
August 2008	51	22
September 2008	72	29
October 2008	95	10
November 2008	182	135
Total	460	219

Note: 1. An initial assessment is made at the application stage (normally by telephone) and those applications are recorded as accepted, subject to survey.

Information on the number of students who applied for Lone Parent''s Grant and Lone Parent''s Childcare Grant is not held centrally.

The following table shows the number of higher education students who received Lone Parent''s Grant and the number receiving Lone Parent''s Childcare Grant from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) in academic years 2005-06 to 2007-08. These figures are published, for academic years 2002-03 to 2007-08, in Higher Education Student Support in Scotland 2007-08:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/11/21111027/0.

Academic Year	Number of Students Receiving Lone Parent''s Grant	Number of Students Receiving Lone Parent''s Childcare Grant
2005-06	3,230	1,450
2006-07	3,025	1,415
2007-08	2,920	1,375

Notes:

Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS).

Student numbers have been rounded up or down to the nearest five (e.g. one, two round down to zero, three, four round up to five).

Lone Parent''s Grant is available on an income assessed basis to students who are single, widowed, divorced or no longer living with a partner and are bringing up children. An additional grant, Lone Parent''s Childcare Grant, is available to recipients of Lone Parent''s Grant who have to pay for registered or formal child care.

The following table shows the amount of funding distributed through the Higher Education Childcare Fund by each Scottish institution in academic years 2005-06 and 2006-07. The childcare fund was introduced in academic year 2005-06. Prior to this funding was available through the Mature Students Bursary Fund though it was not restricted to assistance with child care costs only. Amounts distributed through this fund are shown for academic year 2004-05.

Funds distributed by Further Education Institutions (FECs)	Mature Students Bursary Fund 2004-05 Total Amount Issued by Institutions (£000)	Childcare Fund 2005-06 Total Amount Issued by Institutions (£000)	Childcare Fund 2006-07 Total Amount Issued by Institutions (£000)
Aberdeen College	126	133	90
Angus College	99	33	19
Anniesland College	39	24	26
Ayr College	129	60	67
Banff and Buchan College	18	23	22
Barony College	1	-	4
Borders College	2	13	9
Adam Smith College1	-	100	124
Cardonald College	124	43	43
Central College of Commerce	85	19	49
Clackmannan College2	13	0	0
Clydebank College	95	21	18
Coatbridge College	164	132	94
Cumbernauld College	47	26	34
Dumfries and Galloway College	60	26	16
Dundee College	199	58	67
Edinburgh''s Telford College	73	43	23
Elmwood College	35	11	19
Falkirk College2	174	-	-
Fife College1	75	-	-
Forth Valley College2	-	78	81
Glasgow College of Building and Printing3	124	-	-
Glasgow College of Food Technology3	-	-	-
Glasgow Metropolitan College3	-	70	81
Glasgow College of Nautical Studies	53	37	46
Glenrothes College1	53	-	-
James Watt College	355	187	174
Jewel and Esk Valley College	49	45	33
John Wheatley	14	8	4
Kilmarnock College	100	80	68
Langside College	64	30	54
Lauder College	64	30	39
Motherwell College	172	49	30
Newbattle Abbey College	-	-	-
North Glasgow College	58	31	13
Oatridge Agricultural College	7	5	10
Reid Kerr College	241	87	79
South Lanarkshire College	68	46	58
Stevenson College	66	50	34
Stow College	87	69	24
West Lothian College	92	61	42
Total FECs	3,222	1,727	1,593
Funds distributed by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)
Aberdeen University	41	40	73
Bell College of Technology	146	111	75
Dundee University	377	157	157
Edinburgh College of Art	30	29	21
Edinburgh University	244	59	104
Glasgow Caledonian University	323	50	162
Glasgow School of Art	22	4	11
Glasgow University	245	128	117
Heriot Watt University	22	35	27
Napier University	240	34	48
Queen Margaret University College	69	37	48
Robert Gordon University	181	86	73
RSAMD	1	3	4
Scottish Agricultural College	17	9	12
St Andrews University	62	24	17
Stirling University	120	82	86
Strathclyde University	296	196	237
University of Abertay, Dundee	198	80	106
University of Paisley	344	53	101
UHIMI	336	151	156
Total HEI	3,315	1,367	1,635
Grand Total	6,537	3,094	3,228

Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) management information collected from Scottish institutions.

Notes:

Monetary amounts have been rounded to the nearest thousand and are quoted in thousands. Cells containing dashes represent zero.

1. Fife and Glenrothes Colleges merged to form Adam Smith College.

2. Clackmannan and Falkirk Colleges merged to form Forth Valley College.

3. Glasgow College of Building and Printing and Glasgow College of Food Technology merged to form Glasgow Metropolitan College.

Academic year 2006-07 is the latest for which information on support distributed through the Higher Education Childcare Fund is available.

Full-time higher education lone parent students currently have an entitlement to apply for Higher Education Lone Parent Grant and Higher Education Lone Parent Childcare Grant.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to make other child care funding available through the Discretionary Funds a legal right for college and university students.

The Scottish Government published, on the 15 December, a consultation on student support for higher education. The consultation will consider the current support arrangements for higher education students and seek views on a number of proposals in connection with that.

The Scottish Government published on 10 December its Early Years and Early Intervention Framework which recognises that the cost and accessibility of child care is a major concern for parents in Scotland. At present, child care support for parents is a reserved matter, and is provided via the childcare vouchers and child tax credit schemes. In the framework, we set out a desire for a single, accessible and more progressive system of supporting the costs of child care.

This information is not held centrally.

The table below shows the number of applications for support from the Higher Education Childcare Fund, instances of assistance from the fund, the total amount of funding distributed and the average amount of support per instance of assistance. The Higher Education Childcare Fund came into being in academic year 2005-06. It replaced the Mature Students Bursary Fund which was not restricted to funding for childcare only. Figures for academic years 2002-03 to 2004-05 relate to the Mature Students Bursary Fund.

Academic Year	Number of Applications for Assistance	Instances of Assistance	Total Amount Issued (£000)	Average Amount Issued (£)
2002-03	7,085	6,815	5,018	736
2003-04	6,690	6,180	5,899	954
2004-05	6,360	5,855	6,537	1,116
2005-06	1,895	1,715	3,094	1,806
2006-07	1,405	1,260	3,228	2,562

Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland management information provided by Scottish institutions.

Notes:

Number of applications for assistance and Instances of Assistance have been rounded up or down to the nearest five (e.g. one, two round to zero; three, four round to five).

Total Amounts Issued have been rounded to the nearest thousand and are quoted in thousands.

Average amounts have been rounded to the nearest pound.

Individual identifying details of students receiving help from the Higher Education Childcare Fund (and Mature Students Bursary Fund) are not held centrally. As it is possible that a student may receive help more than once from the fund there may be a degree of double counting in the management information. We therefore report number of applications and instances of assistance from the fund rather than the number of students assisted. Academic year 2006-07 is the latest for which data is available.

The available information on the number of pupils of temporarily excluded from school in each Local Authority area for Substance misuse “ alcohol from 2003-04 - 2006-07 can be found in the answer to question S3W-18241 on 11 December 2008.

There were no pupils permanently excluded from school, also known as removed from the register, in mid Scotland and Fife for Substance misuse “ alcohol from 2003-04 - 2006-07:

Prior to 2003-04, although information was collected on the reason for exclusion, different categories were used and it is impossible to identify those excluded for Substance misuse “alcohol.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

At a strategic level, the Scottish Government published a discussion paper in June, setting out a wide ranging set of actions and proposals to tackle alcohol misuse amongst young people and the wider population.

Action includes supporting schools and local authorities in a number of ways. This includes the establishment of an expert steering group on substance misuse education in schools to produce advice, guidance and proposals aimed at helping schools and authorities to achieve the improvements sought through Curriculum for Excellence. The Scottish Government is developing new guidance, Included, Engaged and Involved: Part 2 which will focus on the prevention and management of exclusion from school.

Actions to tackle alcohol-related issues within schools in the mid Scotland and Fife parliamentary region is a matter for the particular individual local authorities concerned. Therefore, the information requested is not held centrally.