Seòmar agus comataidhean

With that metaphor ringing in our ears—the postman never knocks twice. Is that the—

As there are no other suggestions, are we content to proceed on that basis?

Members indicated agreement.

The next petition is PE1968, which was lodged by Angela Evans. It calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to review existing legislation on family law and seek to stop perpetrators of domestic abuse causing further abuse and distress to partners and children by removing their ability to apply for contact orders under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020.

We considered the petition at our meeting on 8 February. At that time, we agreed to write to the Scottish Government, the Law Society of Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid, Shared Parenting Scotland and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland. Copies of the responses that we have received are in our meeting papers.

The then Minister for Victims and Community Safety’s response, which was submitted in March, provides details on the work that is under way to commence the various provisions of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020, with measures to regulate the provision of child contact centres expected to be introduced later in 2023. That minister also highlighted budgetary pressures in taking forward that work, noting that establishing a register of child welfare reporters might cost around £5 million a year.

The responses from Shared Parenting Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland all noted concern about the slow progress that is being made to implement the 2020 act, with the commissioner calling on the Government to make funding available to progress implementation. Shared Parenting Scotland suggested that more detailed statistical information on child contact cases should be recorded by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service in order to establish information about what happens in those cases. Scottish Women’s Aid also shared concerns that no routine data is available on courts’ practices and outcomes in disputed child contact cases in Scotland, emphasising that is not possible to monitor the implementation of children’s rights without that data.

The Law Society of Scotland’s submission notes that appropriate and sensitive procedural rules should address concerns that family courts can be a traumatising experience for victims of domestic abuse, with judicial training a vital component in ensuring that practitioners and the court can respond to the particular circumstances of each case. The response also notes the view of the child and family law sub-committee that there is already a solid framework in law that regard must be given in circumstances where there has been domestic abuse, and a full suite of powers is available to judges to deal with these matters.

Colleagues, do you have any thoughts?

If only Government ministers were like that.

Yes. That would make sense, too. Thank you.

Even while we close the petition?

Of course.

Has the Scottish Youth Parliament made that request itself?

Are we content to have evidence from Mr Hogg? It could take a little time. I am happy to do that, so let us set that in place.

Might we also write to the minister who delivered the statement, drawing attention to the contradiction between what we understood to be NatureScot’s advice and the statement, and then allying that to the Government’s response, in which it said that it valued the control of generalist predators as a way forward? In practice, the response from the minister undermined awareness of or confidence in that route. Let us see what response we get, because it would be helpful to have that, even as we hear from Mr Hogg.

Are members happy to do that?

Members indicated agreement.

PE2037, which has been lodged by Anne Glennie, is on improving literacy standards in schools through research-informed reading instruction. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to provide national guidance, support and professional learning for teachers in research-informed reading instruction, specifically systematic synthetic phonics; and to ensure that teacher training institutions train new teachers in research-informed reading instruction, specifically systematic synthetic phonics.

Members will have noted that the petitioner submitted a similar petition in the previous session of Parliament, which was discussed by our predecessor committee. That petition was referred to the Education and Skills Committee and was subsequently closed by the current Education, Children and Young People Committee on the basis that it had no plans to scrutinise initial training education. Additional details of the previous consideration are included in the SPICe briefing.

The cabinet secretary’s response indicates that work is under way by Education Scotland to develop a range of new resources relating to early reading, with part of that work outlining how systemic phonics approaches form one aspect of the overall pedagogy for early reading. The response goes on to state that it is the responsibility of the General Teaching Council for Scotland to ensure that initial teacher education programmes expose student teachers to a range of pedagogies to teach literacy and reading instruction and that it is important that Scottish ministers respect the independence of institutions that provide initial teacher education by not prescribing the detailed content of courses. The cabinet secretary has, however, written to the Scottish Council of Deans of Education requesting an update on the current provision of initial teacher education in relation to teacher skills and confidence to support children’s reading in primary schools.

We have also received a submission from the petitioner that welcomes the news that Education Scotland is working on new early reading materials but expresses concern that decoding skills, and specifically information on systematic synthetic phonics, remain absent from current teacher training programmes. The petitioner has also shared details of studies indicating that newly qualified teachers lack confidence and working knowledge to teach reading and phonics.

There are a few tongue twisters in there. Do members have any comments or suggestions for action?