Chamber and committees

Information on the number of classroom assistants in the years 2003-2020 is provided in the following tables. Data on the number of classroom assistants or other support staff from 1999-2002 is not held by Scottish Government.

The variability in categorisation of staff and the definition of full time equivalent means that caution should be taken if making comparisons over time or between local authorities. Full details on the use and comparability of the data are available in the background notes of the statistical publications.

Table 1: 2020 Pupil Support Assistants - Hours Worked per week

Table 2: 2020 Classroom Assistant and ASN Auxiliary or Care Assistant - Hours Worked per week

Data on school support staff was collected in the form of hours per week rather than the number of full time equivalent (FTE) staff in 2020. This is because different local authorities have different definitions of ‘full time hours’ so changing to measure hours rather than FTE allows for more accurate comparison between local authorities.

Statistics on hours worked per week of pupil support assistants in 2020 are provided in Table 1.

Management information on hours worked per week hours worked of classroom assistant and ASN auxiliary or care assistant are provided in Table 2.

Table 3: Pupil Supports Assistant - 2017 to 2020 – FTE

The use of the term 'classroom assistant' varies between local authorities and is sometimes used interchangeably with 'additional support needs auxiliary or care assistant'. Therefore these two categories of school support staff have been combined and reported as 'pupil support assistants' in the published statistics on school support staff since 2017. Statistics on FTE of pupil support assistants for 2017 to 2020 are provided in Table 3.

Since 2017 the categories of classroom assistant and additional support needs auxiliary or care assistant have been published separately as management information and have not been subject to the same level of quality assurance as the published statistics.

Calculations of full time equivalent (FTE) numbers of pupils support assistants for 2020 were published to allow a comparison to be made with data from 2018 and 2019. The data on pupil support assistants published in 2017 is not directly comparable because of changes to the method of estimating FTE in some authorities. Calculations 2020 FTE of classroom assistants and ASN auxiliary or care assistant have not been calculated.

Table 4 - Classroom assistants - 2003-2019 - FTE

Table 5 - ASN auxiliary or care assistant - 2003-2019 - FTE - (part 1)

Statistics and management information on the FTE of classroom assistant and ASN auxiliary or care assistant from 2003 to 2019 are provided in Tables 4 and 5.

Full details of Scottish Government budget allocations, including those to Local Government can found in the Scottish Government annually published Scottish Budget at Publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The provisional HMT fiscal underspend against total budget, for each funding type, in each year since 2007 is summarised in the following table:

Table: 2007-08 to 2020-21 Provisional Outturn Variances Comparison – HM Treasury Budgets

The Turing Scheme is currently signposted on the Scottish Government mygov.scot public services website, as well as on the website for the Scottish Funding Council.

Any action to promote the Turing Scheme will be for local authorities themselves to decide and report on.

It is the Scottish Government’s position that the UK Government’s Turing Scheme is not fit for purpose. It is a replacement scheme, which cannot match the breadth and scope of Erasmus+. With funding only guaranteed for one year, no provision for inward mobility to the UK, and no support being offered for adult education and youth work, Turing will see support for our most disadvantaged learners cut, and opportunities for our students, staff and young people reduced.

We will continue to engage with the UK Government to ensure Turing better reflect the needs of Scotland.

Information about number of school clothing grants issued by local authorities has been recorded centrally through the Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics returns since the 2017-18 financial year. Information about the number of school clothing grants paid by local authorities prior to 2017-18 is not held centrally.

The number of school clothing grants issued in each local authority since 2017-18 is contained within the following table:

In May 2018, we reached a joint agreement with local authorities to set the school clothing grant at a national minimum level of £100 per eligible child or young person.

The following table provides information about the value of school clothing grants provided by local authorities in 2017-18, the year before the national minimum school clothing grant was introduced, in comparison to the amounts paid for the 2020-21 school year.

In June 2021 we reached an agreement with local authorities to increase the national minimum school clothing grant level further. The new national minimum level has been set at £120 for each eligible child in primary school and £150 for each eligible young person in secondary school for the 2021-22 school year. Information about the value of school clothing grants set by local authorities for 2021-22 is not held centrally.

There is no statutory obligation for youth workers or for youth work activity to be recorded or monitored by local authorities, third sector organisations or voluntary organisations.

However, the CLD Standards Council for Scotland, reports that over two and a half thousand CLD staff and volunteers have signed up to the CLD code of ethics which includes practice for youth work and community based adult learning. The CLD Standards Council also reports in 2018 that there is an estimated paid workforce of twenty one thousand practitioners within the CLD sector.

Table 1 shows the median waiting time (in days) for individuals with first treatment type recorded as either (1) Community based support and/or rehabilitation or (2) Residential Detoxification/Inpatient Treatment. Figures are presented for each of the last 5 financial years and include Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) breakdowns as well as Scotland level data. Treatments can be for drug or alcohol clients, or clients with a combination of the two. Waiting times are calculated from date of Referral to date of First Treatment.

Table 1 Median Waiting Time (in days) from Referral to First1 Treatment for treatment types (1) Community based support and/or rehabilitation2 or (2) Residential Detoxification/Inpatient Treatment3 , drug and alcohol clients or clients with a combination of the two, by ADP and Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of ensuring that high quality, person centred bereavement care and support is available for those who need it. It is important to reflect that each individual and family’s experience of bereavement is unique as are their support requirements. That is why we undertake a broad range of work to improve the bereavement care and support available for those who need it, particularly at this difficult time.

Since 2016 the Scottish Government has funded Cruse Scotland and Child Bereavement UK through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund to provide support to individuals and families who have been bereaved. This Fund has been extended to end March 2022 to provide greater stability to organisations and we will announce in due course plans for funding the third sector from April 2022.

In 2020 we awarded a contract to Includem to establish a Scottish childhood bereavement co-ordinator who will ensure effective provision of bereavement support and care for children and young people.

Our Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan, published in October 2020, sets out a number of commitments to support the mental health of people following bereavement and we will continue to engage with providers of bereavement support, and people with lived experience, to design improvements. Through the work of our National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group we are supporting the piloting of suicide bereavement support services and pilots will launch in Highland and Ayrshire & Arran in the coming months.

We will continue to work closely with NHS Boards, Integration Authorities and third sector organisations to continually revisit our work in this area and respond to the additional needs of people and families arising from the pandemic and provide additional support where needed.