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The Scottish Government provides funding to local authorities to recruit Equity and Excellence Lead posts across all 32 local authorities, but does not monitor the movement of specific staff.

Scottish Government publishes snapshot figures of graduate level posts in funded Early Learning and Childcare in each local authority annually in ‘Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland’ report. The latest figures were collected in the week commencing 12 September 2022 and published on 13 December 2022, in Table 19 of the ‘Additional early learning and childcare tables’: Supporting documents - Summary Statistics For Schools In Scotland 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

This showed that 422 Equity and Excellence Leads were in post at that point in time, 376 Full Time Equivalent (FTE). This was an increase from 2021 when there were 356 (327 FTE).

Rail accessibility in Scotland is a reserved matter for the UK Government. In June 2022, the Department for Transport (DfT) confirmed, in writing, to Transport Scotland that nominated stations will be assessed primarily against similar criteria to those used in previous Control Periods. This criteria includes:

• Footfall, using figures published by the Office of Rail and Road.
• Stations where there is a particularly high incidence of disability in the area, based on Census data.
• A particular local circumstance such as the proximity of hospitals, a school for disabled children or a military rehabilitation centre for example, or stations with relatively high numbers of interchange passengers.
• The availability of third-party funding.
• Stations that would help to fill “gaps” in accessibility on the network such as in an area where there are no accessible stations.
• Letter of support from the constituency Member of Parliament (MP).

Transport Scotland work closely with Network Rail and ScotRail to agree the Scottish Government nominations, taking account of the criteria against which these will be evaluated by the DfT. The finalised submissions are approved by Scottish Ministers prior to submitting to the Department for Transport.

The Scottish Government does not gather or hold any data on the reading age of school children.

ACER UK last provided assessments (Scottish National Standardised Assessments) for the Scottish Government in June 2022. This included a reading assessment for S3, but that assessment did not assess reading age. ACER UK have not provided any assessments for the Scottish Government for young people in S1-S2 or S4-S6. National Standardised Assessments are now provided by AlphaPlus Ltd.

All local authorities in Scotland have a statutory responsibility to manage and maintain their school estate, including school playgrounds.

Since 2007, the number of schools in ‘good’ or ‘satisfactory’ condition has increased from 61% to 90.7% - seeing a 77% reduction in pupils educated in substandard conditions.

In partnership with local authorities, we are investing significantly in the school estate through our Learning Estate Investment Programme to build on that progress.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) accredit all initial teacher education programmes. This involves ensuring all programmes meet the GTCS Standard for Provisional Registration (SfPR). The SfPR sets out that student teachers are required to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of theory and practical skills required in curricular areas such as literacy.

Initial teacher education programmes ensure student teachers are exposed to a range of pedagogies to teach literacy and reading instruction. This can include systematic synthetic phonics, as well as other approaches.

The Scottish Government and COSLA agreed jointly in 2018 to a significant investment in the training of educational psychologists, to address a shortfall in numbers of practitioners across Scotland. This investment was made to secure a workforce for employment in Scotland, acknowledging that there are a range of career paths available including those who require part-time employment.

Under the grant terms and conditions of the Qualification in Educational Psychology (QEP), trainees must make every reasonable effort to secure employment as an Educational Psychologist with a local authority to begin as soon as possible after the completion of the Training Programme.

Failure to meet these requirements may result in default of the grant terms and conditions. In these circumstances the full Grant Funds received by or in respect of the Trainee, or a pro rata share, may be required to be repaid to the Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government have invested £16m per year in order to ensure that children and young people have quick and effective access to support for their mental health and wellbeing through counsellors in schools. Local authorities provide six-monthly reports to the Scottish Government on this commitment. The reports confirm that the overall picture on improving children and young people’s outcomes is positive.

A summary of the reports can be found here: Access to counsellors in secondary schools and children and young people’s community mental health services – summary reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . We will publish a summary of the 2022 reports in the coming weeks, which will include the number of counsellors local authorities reported were in post.