Chamber and committees

The national COVID-19 Education Recovery Group is overseeing work being led by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) and supported by the Scottish Government, the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland and the Scottish Council of Deans of Education, to consider how we can best continue to ensure that opportunities for face to face learning and teaching are maximised for all student teachers over the remainder of this academic year. This work will also help to ensure students across Scotland are provided with additional support, where needed, to meet the registration requirements set by the GTCS by the end of the current academic year.

The Supply Chains Development Programme, announced in the Sept 2020 Programme for Government, is a key part of our economic recovery approach. It spans sectors where we see sustainable economic potential to grow Scottish supply chains and will explore how we can better leverage Scotland’s annual‎ £12 billion public sector procurement spend, by aligning strategic supply chains with enterprise and innovation support. The early focus is on identifying opportunities in three broad areas: net zero transition, built environment and health.

Increasing the economic impact of public sector procurement is also one of the actions in the Manufacturing Recovery Plan published in December 2020. A Scottish Procurement Policy Note, SPPN 9/2020, was issued to remind public bodies of practical steps that should be taken to support supply chains and address vulnerabilities to supplies in line with Scottish Procurement legislation. It also includes information on a range of procurement initiatives and a range of business support activity underway across Scotland to support supplier development.

As set out in the GTCS Professional Standards, it is the responsibility of individual teachers to identify, plan and develop their own professional learning needs. However, the Scottish Government will look to maintain an overview of professional skills and confidence where appropriate. For example, we chose to include Scotland within the 2018 PISA Global Competence Assessment. While the results are generally positive, they do show that Scottish teachers are less likely to cover global warming and climate change in their lessons when compared with the 17 other countries that participated in that part of the assessment.

We are continuing to look carefully at our response to this and other findings from the Global Competence assessment. However, we are already taking action to ensure professional learning around climate change. Since 2019 we have provided £300,000 to support the increased delivery of the Climate Ready Classrooms programme which helps teachers (and learners) gain the skills and knowledge needed to deliver learning in line with the global climate and ecological emergencies. The programme allows educators and learners to become carbon literate and able to more confidently cover climate education. We have also funded the Eco-Schools Scotland Programme over a number of years and in doing so we have seen schools and teachers across Scotland take action to tackle climate change. Furthermore, our Learning for Sustainability Action Plan commits us to working with the General Teaching Council for Scotland to ensure that Learning for Sustainability continues to be a specific requirement within the professional standards for teachers. Revised standards featuring a strong sustainability focus are to take effect from August 2021 and these will help to ensure that teachers continue to undertake professional learning in this vital area of education.

As recently set out in answer to question S5O-04966 on 27 January 2021, we are supporting education around the twin global climate and ecological crises through the implementation of our Learning for Sustainability Action Plan, which provides a very positive context to address climate education. We are always looking to strengthen and improve practice. With this in mind, the Scottish Government is currently considering its detailed response to all asks of the Teach the Future Scotland campaign and we will respond to the campaign representatives as soon as possible.

All answers to Oral Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=13081&i=118371

As recently set out in answer to question S5O-04966 on 27 January 2021, I have previously met representatives of the Teach the Future Scotland campaign who told me of their experiences of climate education. We are supporting education around the twin global climate and ecological crises through the implementation of our Learning for Sustainability Action Plan which provides a positive context to address climate education. We are always looking to strengthen and improve practice. With this in mind the Scottish Government is currently considering its detailed response to all demands of the Teach the Future Scotland campaign and we will respond to the campaign’s representatives as soon as possible. I have also committed to another meeting with the representatives in due course.

All answers to Oral Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=13081&i=118371

Recruitment of police officers and police staff is a matter for the Chief Constable and the Scottish Police Authority.

Scottish Government is not aware of an announcement of new civilian roles in Police Scotland. However Police Scotland’s Strategic Workforce Plan was presented at the Scottish Police Authority Board meeting on 22 January 2021. This plan has been developed to ensure that the service is best placed to meet changing demands, to best serve Scotland’s communities, and it makes reference to potential changes to the workforce skills mix.

This work will be subject to further discussion with staff associations, unions and partners as progress is made. Police Scotland will take steps to implement, monitor and regularly review the plan, with ongoing appropriate scrutiny from the Authority.

As the recruitment and deployment of police staff and officers is a matter for the Chief Constable, you may wish to contact him directly for further information.

The Single Use Carrier Bags Charge (Coronavirus) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 came into force on 29 January 2021 and exempt charges for single use carrier bags for deliveries, grocery collections and take-aways. It re-instates the previous temporary exemption from the single use carrier bag charge which we implemented in April 2020 and which expired in October 2020. The decision to reintroduce this exemption was made on public health advice that we should adopt mitigations to reduce the chance of surface or interpersonal transmission.

Because of the concern about litter and other negative effects arising from single use carrier bags, we do not want the exemption to be in force longer than is necessary. The temporary exemption ends on 31 May and this will be kept under review.

The Public Health Scotland report can be accessed via the link here PHS weekly report which includes the number of healthcare workers vaccinated (Table 2) and the numbers vaccinated in each NHS Board (Table 4). The breakdowns of healthcare workers by Board will be published in future.

Public Health Scotland plans to launch a new section on their public facing dashboard in early February providing daily vaccinations data, including data disaggregated by JCVI priority group, NHS health board and age. This dashboard release will develop over time and include additional breakdowns as the vaccination programme progresses.

We recognise the difficulties and challenges that new parents, particularly mothers, face during this pandemic. Measures have been put in place to ensure that families continue to get access to the support they need. For households with caring responsibilities (for a person of any age) there are exemptions to restrictions on household visiting and travel to provide care or support to a vulnerable person. Informal childcare rules also apply, where there is an essential childcare need. Further guidance on this is on the ParentClub website.

For social support, up to two people from two separate households can meet outdoors for social interaction. Children under the age of twelve from these households do not count towards the total number of people permitted to gather outdoors so a parent can still meet another parent with their babies, and any other children under 12.

New parents will continue to have access to universal services, such as maternity services and health visiting, to further aid access to community local supports. The health visiting service remains a particularly key source of support for families with young children; it remains available to support all families with preschool children by providing information, advice and help to access other services and supports. In keeping with the latest route map advice and in line with the Universal Health Visiting Pathway, where a home visit is not suitable, contacts over the phone or using video through services like Near Me or Attend Anywhere might be offered. The health visitor can be contacted directly by parents with any concerns about their child’s development or wider wellbeing.

The Family Nurse Partnership is an intensive, two and a half year home visiting programme available for first-time mothers aged 19 and under, and eligible 20-24 year olds. Family nurses support first-time mothers to give their baby the best start in life, and with their mental health, confidence and self-efficacy, education and employment. The three main aims of the programme are to improve pregnancy and birth outcomes, improve child health and development outcomes, and improve economic self-sufficiency of the family.

In recognising the particular needs of babies and young children, the Coronavirus (COVID-19): organised activities for children supplementary guidance was updated on 5 January 2021 for the safe running of organised activities for children and young people during lockdown. The guidance sets out the maximum number of adults who can attend parent/baby or toddler groups (under 5s) and associated organised activities at any one time, to provide more flexibility in this age group.

Parents can also access the new national Family Support Directory , available on ParentClub, for direct support and information on a broad range of issues, such as support on childcare, mental health and wellbeing and family relationships.

Driving instructors will be offered support through the £15 million mobile close contact fund that was announced as part of the £185 million sector support in December. More information on the Mobile Close Contact Services Support Fund and how to apply will be made available next week.