Chamber and committees

We are continuing to consider where the remainder of the Contingency Fund would be most effectively deployed in supporting businesses impact by restriction and an announcement on this will be made in due course.

Guidance on distributing the first phase of the Contingency Fund which awarded grants to nightclubs and pay to play soft play centres was issued to councils and included detailed eligibility criteria developed in partnership with local authorities and sectoral representatives. This guidance has enabled local authorities to contact eligible businesses directly negating the need for an application process.

Our updated guidance on reducing risks in schools is intended to keep schools safe, open and welcoming for staff and pupils. It has been updated to align with the levels under the Covid-19 Strategic Framework, and to keep schools as safe as possible.

The measures put in place across wider society at different levels of the Strategic Framework have been designed precisely to avoid any automatic move to school closures. However, the updated guidance makes clear that the use of targeted, remote learning remains an important contingency at all levels of the Strategic Framework where specific schools require either to close, or to implement remote learning for some children for a defined period of time, as a result of local outbreaks or staff self-isolating.

We have very clear evidence that time out of school can have a detrimental effect on children and young people’s wellbeing, including impacts on educational, developmental and mental health harms. A further evidence paper on school safety will be published alongside further information from Public Health Scotland, in the coming days.

We continue to work in close partnership with unions, staff and local authorities on ensuring protection measures are in place in our schools to reduce the risk of Covid-19 and preserve education for our children and young people.

Recent SAGE advice, based on ONS data and published on 13 November, indicates no difference between the positivity rates of pre-school, primary and secondary school staff, relative to other worker groups.

Our updated guidance on reducing risks in schools is intended to keep schools safe, open and welcoming for staff and pupils. It includes guidance on workforce planning, developed with input from local authority partners. This makes clear that local authorities and headteachers, working in close partnership with unions and staff, are best placed to make judgements about how to make best use of available workforce capacity safely and effectively.

To support these efforts, and ensure resilience in the school workforce ,the Scottish Government has made £80m available to local authorities for the recruitment of additional teachers and support staff. To date, local authority figures indicate they have already recruited 1,250 additional teachers and 155 support staff, with an estimated further 200 teachers and 100 support staff planned.

Guidance has also been updated to align with the levels under the Covid-19 Strategic Framework, and includes details of enhanced protection measures to keep schools as safe as possible. This guidance includes strengthened guidance for clinically extremely vulnerable staff, as well as details of testing and surveillance arrangements for school staff.

We committed £11 million to the Contingency Fund when it was announced as part of the COVID-19 Restrictions Fund. A first phase of awards through this fund was announced on 27 October which provided grants of up to £50,000 for nightclubs and soft play centres in recognition of the fact that, prior to the Strategic Framework coming into force, had been closed since March. The Contingency Fund has proven itself to be an effective mechanism for targeting funding towards these sectors.

In recognition of the changing nature of the pandemic and the variable impact of restrictions on different sectors we keep all of our funds under review to ensure that we can target financial support appropriately. This is of course contingent, however, on the Scottish Government having access to the funding that it requires to support businesses.

In order to support online remote learning, Education Scotland supports the Glow platform, which provides free access to a range of online tools and services for all school aged learners and teachers in Scotland. The National e-Learning Offer, launched in June 2020, aims to further widen the availability of online learning across live online lessons, recorded learning sessions and supported online learning and teaching materials. Further details on the e-learning offer are available at: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/national-e-learning-offer/

E-Sgoil is one aspect of the national offer. The e-Sgoil provision includes study support for learners in the senior phase which takes place after the school day. As at end October 2020, just over 1,635 young people from 233 schools across all local authorities in Scotland had signed up and were taking part in two or more sessions. Feedback from learners has been positive, with 85% wishing to see the e-Sgoil provision continuing beyond November and 80% indicating that they would recommend the sessions to a friend.

To widen access the digital devices, the Scottish Government is investing £25m to tackle digital exclusion amongst children and young people. Funding allocations for devices and connectivity have been made to all 32 local authorities who are now in the process of ordering equipment to address local needs. We expect that around 70,000 devices and 18,000 connectivity solutions will be provided to disadvantaged children and young people.

In order to support teachers' skills in online and remote learning, Education Scotland has delivered a wide range of professional development opportunities including webinars and support sessions for teachers and a community of improvement support via the digilearn.scot website.

Individual schools and local authorities are responsible for arranging learning for children who have to self-isolate or quarantine.

In order to widen the online learning options available to schools, the Scottish Government, Education Scotland and the Association of Directors of Education are delivering the national e-learning offer. Further details on the offer are available at:

https://education.gov.scot/improvement/national-e-learning-offer/

The offer has three component parts: live learning and teaching; recorded learning sessions, and; supported content, where learners use a variety of digital content. The e-Sgoil initiative, one aspect of the partnership, is providing live online study webinars for senior phase pupils as well as a Broad General Education offer to schools. Further work is being undertaken by the West Partnership, who expect to launch their package of recorded lessons during this term. In addition, Education Scotland has expanded the volume of digital learning and teaching resources, and will continue to do so throughout the year.

For wider learning and teaching materials, schools can draw from Education Scotland's National Improvement Hub and Glow website for resources, as well as the new Scotland Learns initiative.

During Term 4 2020-21, Education Scotland facilitated subject network discussions across all curriculum areas to ascertain and identify what was working for teachers and learners. This led to the current and ongoing work where Education Scotland is working with local authority and Regional Improvement Collaborative partners as well class teachers in order to source, curate and share online learning materials. This work is being taken forward under the supported component of the National e-Learning Offer. The first set of resources is available nationally and will be added to on a continuous basis.

The Scotland Learns website provides a range of learning activities that can be used to complement the activities that teachers plan for children and young people. The resources are grouped into the three curriculum themes of Literacy & English, Numeracy & Mathematics and Health & Wellbeing, and are available at:

https://education.gov.scot/improvement/scotland-learns/resources-for-practitioners/

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-33052 on 16 November 2020. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government is making available business support through the Strategic Framework Business Fund. Grants of £2,000 or £3,000, depending on rateable value, will be available for businesses required by law to close. Cinemas in Scotland will be able to access these grants.

During the COVID-19 pandemic the Scottish Government provided £3.5 million of support through Screen Scotland, the dedicated public sector agency for the film and television industry in Scotland, to the Independent Cinema Recovery and Resilience fund. This will provide vital support to 30 fixed venue cinemas and 2 touring cinemas in Scotland.