Chamber and committees

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS does not hold the information in the format requested for the period 2007-08 to 2013. We do however hold data from 2013 onwards and this is provided in the following table.

The table provides cumulative data on all qualifications achieved by prison based learners for the periods 2013-14 to 2017-18 inclusive and also includes details of qualifications achieved since 2018 broken down by Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) which is not available for previous years.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

A wide range of educational programmes are available in Scotland’s prisons to help rehabilitate prisoners and prepare them for future employment opportunities and community reintegration. Educational programmes are structured around stimulating engagement and addressing the presenting and disparate educational needs of distinct population groups e.g., women, young people, long-term prisoners etc. Moreover, we have recently implemented a new screening process to identify the possible presence of a learning difficulty/disability for those who require additional support for learning.

Literacy and numeracy programmes provide core activity and are often embedded within the fabric of vocational training courses to highlight the relevance of core skills within the context of delivery in practical activities and employment. Small group work, therapeutic arts and specific 1:1 tuition is also available to help learners enhance their communication abilities, improve confidence and self-esteem and to develop critical thinking skills.

Project themed learning has proved an innovative and effective means of stimulating engagement across a range of ability levels. Such themes will often tackle offence related attitudes such as racism, sectarianism, domestic violence, bullying etc. which helps learners develop empathy and also an appreciation of the impact their negative behaviours have on others.

A range of distance learning modules further expands curricula choice for mid-range learners while a number of degree level studies are provided to a small number of learners in partnership with the Open University Scotland. Our range of visual and expressive arts have also proved extremely useful in stimulating engagement, developing confidence and esteem and identifying latent talents and skills.

Our focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) has been enhanced through our ongoing collaboration with Scottish universities providing award winning educational courses that enrich curriculum choice and stimulate engagement.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

A wide range of educational programmes are available in all Scotland’s prisons to help rehabilitate prisoners and prepare them for future employment opportunities and community reintegration. These programmes range from basic skills through to university degrees and are available to all those in our care depending on educational need and sentence length.

Courses will vary in education units across the estate to meet the distinct requirements of particular prisoner groups: short-term, long-term, women, young people and elderly. In general terms course types will be available in Core Skills SCQF Levels 2-6 (Communications, Numeracy, ICT, Working with Others & Problem Solving); a wide range of social science subjects and arts and humanities. Moreover, a range of basic life-skills including health and hygiene, financial management and employability skills will be available to assist prisoners with accessing and sustaining employment.

While SPS believe all of the educational programmes contribute to rehabilitation and personal change, SPS also provides a range of specific offence focused interventions. These interventions are designed to directly address a wide range of offending behaviours and aim to provide risk reduction strategies to assist with future management and progression to the community.

These interventions target high and medium intensity violence and sexual violence offending needs, problem solving and substance related offending. The programmes aim to build life skills, improve self-management and coping strategies and increase self-efficacy and self-worth. The interventions are designed with specific offence related criteria and are identified through generic programmes assessment and delivered by SPS programmes and psychology teams.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS does not use the services of volunteers to deliver educational programme in Scotland's public sector prisons.

Annual Learning Plans (ALPs) provide the detail of educational provision and responsibilities required at each individual establishment. Accordingly, SPS need to ensure that the skill sets of those delivering educational interventions are consistent with the presenting educational needs of distinct populations within our care.

Contractual obligations also include requirements and assurances that all staff delivering educational interventions are appropriately qualified and have successfully undertaken the range of mandatory training programmes to ensure compliance with health and safety and other relevant considerations working with vulnerable groups. These requirements include: Enhanced Disclosure; Personal Protection Training (PPT); Suicide Awareness Training, Health and Safety Training; Professional Boundaries Training and Key Training.

These essential and detailed requirements cumulatively demand a significant resource investment by SPS and are consistently in high demand by the agencies who work across Scottish prisons. Accordingly, it is not feasible to provide this type of intensive training to volunteers on a regular or ad hoc basis.

The Scottish Government and local authorities are fully focused on our national response to the Covid-19 pandemic. There is a vital role for the childcare sector in that response.

We are working to ensure that key workers who have no option but to access childcare to allow them to attend work can continue to do so. This will be based on local need and implemented by the local authority, who may set slightly different criteria to meet the needs of their local communities. The Scottish Government has published the following guidance on this: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus---school-and-elc-closures-guidance-on-critical-childcare-provision-for-key-workers/ . This makes clear that local authorities will decide what learning and childcare arrangements for the children of key workers are most appropriate for local circumstances.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government were in the process of developing an implementation plan for delivery of all the Women in Agriculture Taskforce recommendations and actions including those relating to rural childcare. There are also unique challenges our island communities encounter in accessing childcare, as was highlighted in the recently published National Islands Plan. The Scottish Government will come back to implementing the actions and recommendations from the Women in Agriculture Taskforce and National Islands Plan in due course.

The Scottish Government promotes the use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which aims to help land managers in all sectors, including agriculture, reduce their reliance on the use of pesticides, including those containing glyphosate. IPM is a site specific approach that integrates a full range of measures to manage pests, weeds and diseases, while minimising risks to people and the environment.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with land managers to further reduce reliance on pesticides as outlined in our recent Programme for Government.

The Scottish Government is aware of the significant impact non-renewal of chlorothalonil will have in the farming sector, however this must be balanced against the ability for growers to use products safely without endangering themselves or consumers.

The renewal of authorisation was not approved due to several critical areas of concern, including the European Food Safety Authority’s classification of the substance as a carcinogen.

The Scottish Government promotes the use of Integrated Pest Management, a site specific approach that integrates a full range of measures – including cultural, biological, chemical and design strategies – to manage pests, weeds and diseases, while minimising risks to people and the environment.

As outlined in our recent programme for government, we will continue to work with land managers, including those in the agricultural sector, to increase uptake of IPM and with the Plant Health Centre to identify the impact to Scottish growers from the loss of chemical controls.

Curriculum for Excellence empowers individual settings and practitioners to make the decisions needed to provide a coherent, flexible and enriched curriculum that is responsive to the diverse needs of individual learners and which reflects the uniqueness of their communities. This includes the study of agriculture. For each curriculum area, a series of “Experiences and Outcomes” set out what young people are expected to learn and how they are expected to progress in their learning.

For example, the Social Studies “Experiences and Outcomes”, enable young people to explore the variety of foods produced in Scotland, discuss the importance of different types of agricultural production and draw conclusions about environmental impact and sustainability.

Rural Environmental Science and Analytical Services (RESAS) is investing around £47 million this financial year and next in Strategic Research Programmes, providing advice and research services on climate change, water, plant health and animal disease outbreaks .

The Scottish Government welcomes the Grassland Improvement Programme that has been set up across the UK by the three levy bodies, Quality Meat Scotland(QMS) Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC), and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) along with a number of other partners. In total across the UK there are 27 pilot beef and sheep farms with nine in each of the three administration.

We recognise that this pilot has the ability to provide a range of benefits in the push to decrease emissions from agriculture with grassland management improving the potential for carbon sequestration. This aligns with the Scottish Government’s PfG commitment of promoting and encouraging the multiple benefits of good grassland (and livestock management) in Scotland including the protection of our historic carbon sinks . We therefore look forward to working with QMS on how learning from this pilot can be shared across the wider industry.