Seòmar agus comataidhean

May I bring in Bill Kidd before you move on to your next question?

For the benefit of those listening, I note that SEF and PEF are, respectively, strategic equity funds and pupil equity funds. We are in a world of jargon, so I am just making that clear.

Ruth Maguire will ask the next questions.

Would Vivienne Sutherland or Kerry Drinnan like to comment on adaptations to existing buildings in their local authority areas? You do not need to comment if you do not wish to say anything.

Please do.

That is helpful. I will bring in Lynne Binnie and then Kerry Drinnan.

That has been helpful. Thank you.

I am going to change tack a bit. One of the impacts of the pandemic was on attendance. Education Scotland has published a deep dive into issues around attendance, and one of the groups that were reported as being most vulnerable to low attendance was pupils with additional support needs. What are local authorities doing to support children and young people who continue to be anxious about attending school? What are the challenges of developing teaching and learning in a curriculum that is flexible to meet the needs of all learners?

Thank you. We will move to questions from Ross Greer.

Good morning, and welcome to the eighth meeting of the Education, Children and Young People Committee in 2024. We have received apologies from Michelle Thomson.

Our first item of business is consideration of a Scottish statutory instrument under the negative procedure. The regulations make several amendments to the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 and will increase the current maximum annual income level for eligibility for free school meals from £8,717 to £9,552 to take account of the forthcoming increase to the national living wage from 1 April 2024.

Do members wish to make any comments about the regulations?

This has been a really enlightening morning so far, particularly on the subject of masking and how the tribunal can extrapolate what some of the needs are.

Given what you are seeing and experiencing, does the tribunal consider that the legal framework around the presumption of mainstreaming, and its interaction with placing requests, should be changed? Also, if I may be so bold as to ask, how do you think that that might happen?

Stuart McMillan has a question on that theme.