The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 1153 contributions
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 4 December 2024
Miles Briggs
I will continue on the same theme. Back in 2003, Angela Constance, the minister at the time, told the Scottish Association of Social Work conference that the Government aimed to establish a national agency and that it would be operational by 2025. Fraser McKinlay, you have said that you think that systemic barriers are getting in the way of delivery. If we are being completely honest, halfway through delivering the Promise, the necessary scaffolding of the workforce is not there, is it?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 4 December 2024
Miles Briggs
The plan to deliver the Promise keeps referencing the national care service, but, three weeks ago in the Parliament, the minister could not rule out ditching the care service, and I do not think that there will be a functioning NCS bill before the end of this parliamentary session. What is your view on that, with regard to all the promises around the workforce?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 27 November 2024
Miles Briggs
Regarding the 45 sports governing bodies, BBC Scotland undertook an inquiry into how many youth football coaches were working with children before they had received a PVG check. Is the Scottish Government confident that that has been rectified since 2017, and that no one will have been working with young people without having gone through a check?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 27 November 2024
Miles Briggs
Good morning, minister, and good morning to your officials. I want to go back to work that the Health and Sport Committee did in 2017, when I was a member of that committee. Specific concerns were raised in relation to the Scottish Youth Football Association. A BBC Scotland inquiry found that 2,500 youth football coaches did not have full disclosure background checks but were working with children. Can you update us on that? I take it that, since the regulations were passed, that has not been the case. Can you give the committee your assurance on that today?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 27 November 2024
Miles Briggs
Okay—thank you for that.
Finally, has the Government explored the potential feasibility of local authorities having central teams to support the universal provision of outdoor education? Would the Government propose or support staffing around that if the bill is passed?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 27 November 2024
Miles Briggs
It is agreed service delivery through integration joint boards.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 27 November 2024
Miles Briggs
In, I think, the first evidence session, we heard about the additional benefits that young people experience from three days of residential outdoor education. You said that you had looked at the evidence, so do you recognise that?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 27 November 2024
Miles Briggs
I will return briefly to the public trust question. The delivery of hospices across Scotland provides a model of charitable funding being used by the Government to deliver vital services that are additional to the national health service. Do the minister and her officials recognise that as a different model of funding services?
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 27 November 2024
Miles Briggs
Yes.
Does the minister think that pupils and teachers experience a better educational experience by having access to outdoor education in the five councils that have such services? Obviously, the bulk of the young people and children accessing outdoor education that we are aware of are in those areas.
Education, Children and Young People Committee [Draft]
Meeting date: 27 November 2024
Miles Briggs
I have a couple of questions on staffing. Specifically, what is the Government’s view on the effect on teachers’ contracts of placing a duty on local authorities to provide residential outdoor education? You referred to the letter that the committee sent to the five councils that are already delivering the policy in their own facilities.