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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 26 November 2024
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Displaying 1196 contributions

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Education, Children and Young People Committee

Budget 2023-24

Meeting date: 22 February 2023

Michael Marra

You have already said that, cabinet secretary; you are repeating your first answer. I want to try to understand how you moved within that period. You cannot think that the situation is optimal and desirable. There is chaos in councils following the decision to take a third of the entirety of their budgeting options. We could have a discussion about whether we think that that is a good thing for teacher numbers, but councils are left having to make massive cuts in other areas.

I will give one example. Dundee City Council is about to cut its funding for Big Noise Douglas in Dundee, which is an education programme that works with kids in the most impoverished area. The council has been left in that position in which it is making that cut. Is that a reasonable position for you to have put it in with just days to go before it sets its budget?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michael Marra

I wonder whether Louise Storie has any comments on that, almost from an external view.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michael Marra

Is that though a school-college partnership programme?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michael Marra

Do you have any indication of how many young people who seek to access college defer entry owing to a lack of support being in place?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michael Marra

Does Universities Scotland have that information? I have been told that a significant problem for young people who are trying to make the transition that we are talking about is a lack of the type of support package that they require.

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michael Marra

That would be useful.

Reflecting on school-college partnerships, I understand that the challenges for universities around acceptance points are being explored. Do universities run that kind of programme as part of a school-university partnership for children with disabilities?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michael Marra

There is no real longer-term plan for students with disabilities. It sounds as though there is a real rush, in the period that is identified in the written evidence that colleagues have explored with you, to address the issues of application within a very contained timescale. Are you constrained by capacity, not in dealing with that process but in dealing with students with complex needs?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michael Marra

Is the concept of transitions embedded in the culture of the way in which disabled young people are dealt with across all organisations? It feels as if a lot of the words that you are using, such as adaptation and addition, are more about coping, rather than dealing with the transition phase, which has to start prior to arrival or acceptance. Does the sector understand the concept of transitions and see that as central to what it does?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michael Marra

My question follows on from that reasonably closely. It is about the gap between the implementation of policy and duties. Following the discussion that we have just had on policy, whether we speak about clutter or a search for clarity, do the witnesses recognise that the outcomes are not currently good enough?

Education, Children and Young People Committee

Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 8 February 2023

Michael Marra

That is useful. I will come back on some areas. I am interested in how we bridge the gap between implementation and experience, and in longer-term planning, given that the bill deals with young people from the age of 14.

Anne-Marie Sturrock, what proportion of young people with disabilities entering college do so through a school-college partnership? Do you have any information on that?