Chamber and committees

Tim Hair, Turnaround Director of Ferguson Marine is preparing an update on the delivery timetable for vessels 801 and 802 to reflect the impact of COVID 19. The update will be published later in the year when the impact of COVID-19 becomes clearer.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) observation report, published on 1 February, summarises the impact of the pandemic across a range of factors including the impact on learners from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Our 2021 budget plans set out more than £127 million in pupil equity funding to go towards supporting learners from disadvantaged circumstances and a further £30m to support schools to cope with the ongoing effects of Covid.We will continue to engage with professional associations, teachers and education experts as we develop and refine our recovery plans. Our approach will be guided by a range of reports, including the Scottish Government’s Equity Audit (published in January 2021).

The IFS report itself does not refer to a "lost generation" and the Scottish Government does not view the current generation of learners as a lost generation. The government will continue to take every necessary step to ensure that all of our learners, whatever their background or circumstances, are supported to re-engage with their learning and to obtain the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to succeed.

Tim Hair, Turnaround Director of Ferguson Marine is preparing an update on the delivery timetable for vessels 801 and 802 to reflect the impact of COVID 19. The update will be published later in the year when the impact of COVID-19 becomes clearer.

Work on a Retail Strategy for Scotland has already commenced with a steering group established to help develop this. The Scottish Retail Consortium are a member of the group along with other trade organisations, businesses, academia, public sector and trade unions. All group members will have an opportunity to shape our vision for retail and the aims and objectives of the strategy.

Supporting the health and wellbeing of our teachers and lecturers, other school and college staff and learners is of paramount importance and we are committed to ensuring that learners can be fairly assessed this year. The National Qualifications 2021 Group has clarified that there is no expectation that schools or colleges hold prelims. It is for schools and colleges to decide on the best assessment approaches, and timings, for gathering learner evidence. This approach provides local flexibility to plan assessments against local circumstances in these unique times.

I am aware that some schools and colleges will already have held prelims, and these may contribute towards evidence and teachers’ and lecturers’ determination of the provisional results for National Qualifications courses. However, while results from prelims which have been held or which are planned can contribute to learner evidence, schools and colleges will be drawing on a wider range of evidence in arriving at the provisional results for individual learners this year. These results will be subject to local and national quality assurance. These provisional results are to be submitted to the Scottish Qualifications Authority by the later date of 18 June 2021.

The priority for schools and colleges at this time should be to maximise learning and teaching, and consolidate learning, with final assessments of learner attainment to inform the provisional results taking place later in the 2020-21 session.

The International and European Relations draft budget of £26.5m for 2021-22 will be spent pursuing our engagement at home and internationally to enhance Scotland's reputation and increase sustainable economic growth, and promote Scotland as a great place to live, visit, work and do business. A breakdown of how this has been distributed has been published on the Scottish Parliament website https://beta.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees
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The increase of £2.1m from the 2020-21 budget is due to the Migration Strategy budget moving from the Finance Portfolio into the Constitution Europe & External Affairs Portfolio.

Local authorities and schools have responsibility for delivering a curriculum that meets the needs of learners in their areas and running multi-level course classes is one approach that schools use to increase the amount of choice available to their pupils.

In 2019, the Scottish Government commissioned an Independent Review of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence, by the Organisation for Economic‎ Co-operation and Development (OECD). This review is intended to help us better understand how the curriculum is being designed and implemented in schools and to identify areas for improvement across the country. It is due to report in June 2021 and the recommendations from that report will be vital in helping us to ensure that Scotland’s education framework continues to deliver quality learning and positive outcomes for all young people.

The Scottish Government provides a bi-annual report to the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee on progress with the 1+2 approach. Our most recent report to the committee was considered on 14 January: https://www.parliament.scot/S5_European/Meeting%20Papers/20210114_MeetingPapers.pdf .

We continue to prioritise support for the 1+2 approach, with £35.6 m invested since 2013 to enable local authorities to implement it in schools. This includes £2.4 m announced on 1 February to support consolidation of progress so far.

We also provide over £1 m each year to partners to support professional learning for teachers, pedagogy and leadership, immersion courses, and the provision of language assistants.

Our 2019 survey of local authorities on 1+2 implementation showed good progress with delivering the entitlement to learning a first additional language. A report is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/12-languages-implementation-findings-2019-local-authority-survey/ .

To avoid adding to schools’ workload during the pandemic, a survey was not distributed in 2020. Officials are considering how and when a new survey should be issued.

Subject to local partners’ agreement, the Scottish Government plans establish increased symptomatic mobile testing unit coverage and further asymptomatic testing coverage across Ayrshire.

The legal requirements that apply to travel and, in Level 4 areas, to leaving one’s home without a reasonable excuse are set out in the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020. They are designed to allow, amongst other things, local outdoor exercise by permitting that to start and finish at a place in the local authority area in which a person lives or is within 5 miles of that area. Guidance stresses that people should stay as close to home as possible including by travelling no further than they need to reach to a safe, non-crowded place to exercise in a socially distanced way.