Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you. I know—I speak on behalf of everyone in saying this—that the drafting errors that we see tend to be relatively minor, but they can have an influence if they are not corrected, so it is useful that you go back and correct them for us.

Minister, your officials provide our committee and the subject committees with helpful weekly updates on the instruments that are expected to be laid in the following two weeks. I mean it when I say that they are helpful because otherwise we would not know what we are doing. Can you provide an indication of the anticipated volume of the SSIs that are likely to be laid between now and the summer, and of the expected lead committees?

That would be very helpful, thank you. The committee appreciates the forward looks that you provide, which help us a lot. Given that some of the SSIs are much longer and more complex than others, it is particularly useful to this committee, as well as to subject committees, to be given as much advance notice as possible of large and complex instruments or large packages of instruments. Do you know whether there are any such instruments—other than the one that we know of—or sets of instruments in the pipeline, and are you able to keep us updated on their progress?

Thank you very much.

Thank you for that. You say that you are not seeing much coming forward between now and the summer. Is that right?

That is a good, positive attitude to have. Thank you very much.

Thank you, convener. I will try to make sense.

We have been told that spend per pupil in mainstream settings is increasing. How do you square that with the common perception among many people—this has been covered a wee bit already—that resources for children with complex needs are diminishing?

That is very positive.

I thank everyone for their in-depth replies. In order to provide direction to the committee, can the panellists tell us whether, following the pandemic and the difficulties that everyone, especially children with ASN, has experienced, they have seen good practice in which schools and families are working together to support re-engagement with learning that would act as a guide or a symbol for others in how to carry out their work?

That is interesting. I will cheat slightly and lift some information from somewhere else. You will no doubt have seen Glasgow City Council’s response. One element of it says:

“The Tribunal process could perhaps benefit from processes which would allow the revisiting of outcomes and impact on children, families and local authority staff to improve partnership working and support earlier resolution of conflicts.”

That would include processes in relation to costs, would it not?