Seòmar agus comataidhean

It is a substantial investment in children’s education to increase expenditure on it.

The most recent teacher census showed that we have an additional 2,000 teachers. We have committed to, and will deliver, an additional 3,500 teachers and 500 support staff during this session of Parliament. A recent report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies highlighted the fact that Scotland has had the highest spend per pupil of the four UK nations for the past 13 years and that our pupil-teacher ratio is now the best that it has been since 2009.

We are at a stage at which we have put in significant investment both to deal with the challenges of the pandemic—that relates to the £500 million expenditure on Covid recovery that I mentioned earlier—and to address attainment, and we are working on teacher recruitment and other areas. That shows our determination take the matter seriously.

The typical cost for a HEPA filter is not in the pack that I have with me. We looked at it when we were analysing the £5 million fund, so I can certainly get it to the committee very easily, but I do not have it with me today.

I am not yet aware of exactly when Ken Muir will report back. He is finalising that work just now, and the date is within his gift. We certainly expect to receive the report by the end of the year and will seek to publish it in due course after that. Obviously, at that point, the committee would be made aware of that.

I am always concerned about teachers’ wellbeing. During a pandemic, there is a particular responsibility on the Government to take that seriously.

I will take a few minutes to make a short opening statement. I will then be happy to take questions.

As the committee knows, the Scottish budget was introduced on 9 December. At that time, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy made it clear that the budget cannot deliver the resources that all our partners want. There are areas in which she and, indeed, the Government as a whole would have wished to go further.

Without Covid funding, our day-to-day funding for 2022-23 will be significantly less than it is in this year. The Scottish Fiscal Commission has said that the Scottish Government’s budget next year will be

“2.6 per cent lower than in 2021-22”

and that,

“after accounting for inflation the reduction is 5.2 per cent.”

That comes at a time when we undeniably need to invest in the economy and help public services to recover, and despite the real and on-going impacts of the pandemic. We have allocated our resources in the best way that we can in seeking to deliver our key priorities.

In the education and skills portfolio, our priority is to ensure that all children and young people, whatever their background, grow up loved, safe and respected so that they reach their full potential. The overall portfolio budget has increased from £2,814.9 million in 2021-22 to £2,927.1 million in 2022-23, which is a 4 per cent increase in cash terms.

The budget includes record increased investment in teacher recruitment—there is the biggest increase to support teacher recruitment since 2007. We are providing funding of £145.5 million for teachers and classroom assistants, which is enough to employ around 2,500 teachers and 500 support staff. That will enable local authorities to permanently employ additional staff who were recruited during the pandemic. We are also providing a further £2.5 million to deliver additional teacher training places.

We have provided £200 million for the Scottish attainment challenge. That is part of our commitment to provide £1 billion over this session of Parliament to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap and to achieve the best possible outcomes for all our children and young people.

We are providing funding to reduce the costs of the school day and remove barriers to children from low-income families. That includes £11.8 million to maintain the school clothing grant at the increased levels introduced in August 2021; £12 million for local government to continue to remove the charges for instrumental music tuition; and £8 million for local government to continue to remove charges that are sometimes associated with core elements of the curriculum, such as art or home economics.

We have allocated more than £72 million for the continued expansion of free school meals. That will provide lunches for all children in primaries 1 to 5 and in special schools, and it will support the infrastructure that is required to roll out lunches to all primary school children. We will invest £22 million to provide meals during school holidays for the children who need them most. Funding is also being provided to maintain the subsidy arrangements for the provision of milk. My officials will work with partners to develop a phased approach to the delivery of a universal milk scheme, which will be aligned to the expansion of free school meals.

Some £15 million in the budget supports the development of the infrastructure that is required to provide an electronic device for every school-age child. We have provided a further £5 million to tackle digital inclusion in colleges, universities and the community learning and development sector.

The budget includes £544 million for the delivery of free, funded early learning and childcare for three and four-year-olds and for two-year-olds from lower-income households. We are also investing £10 million in holiday childcare for low-income families and £3 million in the early phasing in of wraparound childcare.

We are providing a further £5 million to renew play parks in Scotland as part of a £60 million programme over the course of this parliamentary session to ensure that children have access to high-quality outdoor play.

As part of our commitment to keep the Promise, an initial £50 million has been provided to establish a whole-family wellbeing fund, which will provide person-centred holistic support for children and their families.

Next year’s budget maintains college resource funding at £675.7 million. Capital funding for colleges has increased by £41 million. Resource funding for universities has increased by £21 million, to £789.2 million, to meet the cost of on-going support for the additional places previously added for students affected by the Scottish Qualifications Authority’s alternative certification model.

Scotland has a moral imperative to address the wrongs of the past, while recognising that nothing can ever make up for the suffering that survivors of historical child abuse have endured. Some £41 million has been provided to make payments under the statutory redress scheme in 2022-23. That is an increase of £31 million from this year.

Improving the life chances of our children, young people and learners of all ages through excellence and equity in education continues to be a key delivery priority for the Government and this portfolio.

I am happy to take the committee’s questions.

We made a commitment that that funding can allow local authorities to deliver on permanent contracts. We know, to an approximate level, how many teachers that money will be able to recruit. For example, the £145.5 million that is in the budget is enough to employ 2,500 teachers and 500 support staff. We will be looking at the changing numbers of staff, given how much we know that money will be able to pay for.

Some local authorities may choose to spend more on permanent support staff rather than on permanent teachers. That is a local choice that they will be able to take, depending on what they think is right for their area. There may be some change to that, given local circumstances, but our analysis is based on how much money is going in and how much that funding should be able to provide for teachers and support staff. We will measure on that basis.

The census is annual. It comes out in December, so we have not had it long. In the interim period, we have to rely on our on-going discussions with local authorities. As I said, the official teacher census is published every December. We will monitor the situation very closely with local authorities in the interim, but that will not involve official statistics until that point.

The issue of supply staff is key and it ties into the point that you have made. Although there are teachers on temporary contracts who would wish to be in permanent employment—that is what the Government wants to see, and that is why I have made the funding available—there are some people who wish to be on a temporary contract and who want to work in that way. We will never change that entirely, because part of the workforce wants to be flexible. What is key is that we do everything that we can to encourage local authorities to have permanent contracts, where at all possible. The number of supply staff is exceptionally important to allow for a flexible workforce, particularly at this time.

I should make the committee aware that, earlier in the pandemic, we put a call out via the General Teaching Council for Scotland for retired teachers to come back into the profession for some time, should they want to. The uptake of that was exceptionally low—a very small number came forward from that call. I understand that the uptake was similarly low in other countries that have tried that method of approach. However, we are looking to do that again to see whether any difference can be made. We expect the numbers to be low again, as in other countries, but we think that that is something that should be approached.

The Government has provided a fair overall settlement for education and local government. I encourage Mr Rennie to put forward, perhaps for the first year, costed budget alternatives and to say whether he would like to take the money from health, justice, transport or our work on net zero. We have set out in the budget where the money is going. If Mr Rennie wishes more money to be provided, he has to say where it will come from, given that the entire budget has been spent. He can demand that more action be taken, but he has to suggest where the money will come from if he is not satisfied with the Government’s budget proposals.

We had the equity audit, which the Government published, and we have exceptionally regular discussions at the Covid-19 education recovery group—CERG—on the issue. The national improvement framework report that was published in December included evidence on the issue, too. Clearly, there were some gaps in what could be collated for that report because of the impact of Covid, but that is certainly one of the key areas where we will also be able to see the impact of the pandemic. We also keep in regular discussion with our international council of education advisers, and we learn what we can from that. I have regular contact with my teachers panel and the Scottish education council to ensure that, in the interim periods between the official statistics being delivered or NIFs being published, we discuss the impact of issues regularly with stakeholders.