Questions and answers

Question reference: S5O-00418

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its priorities are for public transport.

Question reference: S5W-04518

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 23 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03782 by Mark McDonald on 3 November 2016, in light of the data in the response providing the information for children who are registered for the funding only, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding the number who are entitled to it.

As reported in the Financial Review, we estimate that there were around 16,000 two year olds entitled to free early learning and childcare in Scotland in 2015 under the terms of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. This does not include those children receiving free ELC under the terms of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 or those children who receive free ELC based on local priorities. Our Scotland-level estimate is based on information from various sources most of which are not disaggregated to local authority level.

a) Looked after children (including children formally looked after in kinship care but not those subject to a Kinship Care Order) - The table below contains a breakdown of looked after 2 year olds entitled to free ELC by local authority. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Some of these children may also qualify under other criteria eg because their parents receive qualifying benefits.

b) Kinship Care Orders / Guardianship - We do not collect data on 2 year olds eligible for free ELC through kinship care orders or guardianship. As explained in the Financial Review, to derive the estimate of overall two year old eligibility, we estimated that looked after children, children under kinship care orders and children in guardianship combined were around 3 per cent of the population and that the total population is around 60,000. Some of these children may also qualify under other criteria eg because their parents receive qualifying benefits. We estimate that this applies to 70 per cent.

c) Qualifying benefits – Information on households in receipt of qualifying benefits is held by Department for Work and Pensions and by HMRC. They do not provide the relevant information on two year olds to Scottish Government at a local authority level. For Scotland as a whole, we estimate that around 15,200 two-year olds are eligible for free ELC because they live in a household in receipt of qualifying benefits.

d) In need / local priorities - Scottish Government does not collect data on the number of children entitled to free ELC under the terms of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 or those children who receive free ELC based on local priorities.

Number of looked after two year olds, 2015

	LAC
Aberdeen City	30
Aberdeenshire	20
Angus	20
Argyll & Bute	10
Clackmannanshire	less than 10
Dumfries & Galloway	30
Dundee City	30
East Ayrshire	20
East Dunbartonshire	less than 10
East Lothian	10
East Renfrewshire	10
Edinburgh, City of	50
Eilean Siar	less than 10
Falkirk	20
Fife	60
Glasgow City	100
Highland	20
Inverclyde	10
Midlothian	10
Moray	10
North Ayrshire	40
North Lanarkshire	30
Orkney Islands	less than 10
Perth & Kinross	10
Renfrewshire	30
Scottish Borders	less than 10
Shetland Islands	less than 10
South Ayrshire	10
South Lanarkshire	20
Stirling	less than 10
West Dunbartonshire	20
West Lothian	20

Question reference: S5W-04517

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 22 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-03783 by Mark McDonald on 3 November 2016, in light of the requested information not being held centrally, what the evidence is for its claim in the report, Financial Review of early learning and childcare in Scotland: the current landscape, that there was "likely to be some overlap of children who are registered with more than one provider (estimated at around 2 per cent)".

We do not routinely collect information on the number of children who are registered with more than one provider. We contacted local authorities in June 2015 to ask them to provide data which would allow us to estimate the double count of registrations for 3 and 4 year olds. From the information received, we estimated that around 2 per cent of children are registered with more than one provider.

Question reference: S5W-04240

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many early learning and childcare settings have been inspected by Education Scotland in each of the last five years, broken down by type of setting.

ELC inspection numbers - Financial year April to March - All published April 2011 to March 2016

Inspection types	Figures
Full	Full inspection resulting in QI evaluations
Try out	Try out inspections not resulting in QI evaluations
Other	2 day notice inspections resulting in QI evaluations

Sector	Figures
Pre-school	Local authority & grant-aided Primary School, All Through Nursery Classes and Early Learning and Childcare centres
PSNC	Local Authority Primary School Nursery classes and All Through Nursery Classes
ELC	Private, Voluntary, Other LA/Family centre, LA Nursery class-special, LA Nursery school-not special
Independent School Nursery	Independent-in-partnership-with-LA Nurseries & Independent-not-in-partnership-with-LA Nursery

	Inspection type	2011-12	Inspection type	2012-13	Inspection type	2013-14	Inspection type	2014-15	Inspection type			2015-16
Sector	Full	Total	Full	Total	Full	Total	Full	Total	Full	Try out	Other	Total
Pre-school (PSNC + ELC)	199	199	162	162	194	194	130	130	130	4	0	134
PSNC	92	92	65	65	90	90	64	64	60	4	0	64
LA Nursery Class	87	87	62	62	87	87	63	63	58	4	0	62
LA Nursery Class (All through)	5	5	3	3	3	3	1	1	2	0	0	2
ELC	107	107	97	97	104	104	66	66	70	0	0	70
LA Nursery Class - Special	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	4	1	0	0	1
LA Nursery School - Special	1	1	2	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
LA Nursery School - Not Special	15	15	20	20	21	21	11	11	8	0	0	8
Other LA/Family Centre	4	4	3	3	4	4	4	4	7	0	0	7
Private	59	59	49	49	50	50	29	29	38	0	0	38
Voluntary	28	28	23	23	27	27	18	18	16	0	0	16
Grant Aided	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Independent School Nursery	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	1
In partnership	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	1
Not in partnership	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Grand total (PSNC, ELC & Independent)	201	201	162	162	194	194	131	131	131	4	0	135

Question reference: S5W-04235

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 22 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many children in each of the last five years have been (a) identified at birth as being disabled and (b) recognised as having additional learning support needs, broken down by local authority.

The Scottish Government does not hold information about how many children have been identified at birth as being disabled. The data that is available is from the 2011 Census, which relates to people with a long-term health problem or disability which limits their day-to-day activities. This data, broken down by age and sex, can be accessed here: www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ods-web/standard-outputs.html
People with a long-term disability or health problem may have responded in their census questionnaire that their day-to-day activities were not (or, in the case of under 5 year olds, likely judged by their parent/ carer not to be) limited as a result of their disability or health problem.

Under the Education(Additional Support for Learning) Scotland Act 2004 education authorities are required to provide appropriate additional support for certain disabled children under school age (generally children under 3 years of age) belonging to their area who have been brought to the attention of the authority as having additional support needs arising from their disability.

The number of children attending publically funded schools who are reported as having additional support needs is published each year as part of the pupil census. This information is available from Table 1.6 of the pupil census supplementary datasets: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/dspupcensus Note that those recorded as having Additional Support Needs includes a broad range of reasons for additional support, from ‘learning disability’ and ‘autistic spectrum disorder’ to ‘bereavement’ and ‘more able pupil’. See Table 1.8 of the supplementary tables for a full list of Reasons for Support.

Question reference: S5F-00517

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 November 2016

To ask the First Minister, following the recent call by Save the Children, what action the Scottish Government will take to increase the number of teachers and other staff working in nurseries with specialist training in speech and language development.

Question reference: S5O-00361

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its and its agencies' staff earn below the Scottish Living Wage.

The Scottish Government and its agencies are covered by the Scottish Government’s public sector pay policy and as such are required to pay their employees the Scottish Living Wage as part of their annual pay settlements. This requirement has been an integral part of our public sector pay policy since 2011. The policy covers the Scottish Government, its agencies, and the non-departmental public bodies for which we are responsible. It also covers the subsidiaries of these bodies.

There may be a small number of staff in public bodies subject to Minister’s pay policy still to benefit from the 2016 Scottish Living Wage increase, but this is due to the fact that these bodies are still to conclude pay negotiations with members of staff and their unions this year and Scottish Ministers cannot intervene while these negotiations continue.

Question reference: S5W-04253

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what maximum level of (a) bursary and (b) loan has been available to higher education students in each of the last five years.

The following table shows the maximum amount of bursary available in the last five academic years.

	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Young Students' Bursary	£2,640	£2,640	£1,750	£1,750	£1,875
Independent Students' Bursary	£1,000	£1,000	£750	£750	£875
Students' Outside Scotland Bursary	£2,150	£2,150	-	-	-

The following table shows the maximum amount of living cost loan available in the last three academic years.

Analysis for 2011-12 and 2012-13 is not available because there were a large number of fluctuations on the maximum loan available, with amounts being based on the actual term length of each course and the location of study for students.

Maximum loan level
	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Young students	£5,500	£5,750	£5,750
Independent students	£6,500	£6,750	£6,750

Source: SAAS

Question reference: S5W-04246

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) teachers and (b) graduates have worked in nurseries in the most deprived areas in the country in each of the last five years.

The then Scottish Executive repealed the Schools Code in 2002, which had previously required all local authorities to employ a full-time teacher in every nursery. Local authorities were therefore given the flexibility to decide how best to involve teachers in the delivery of early learning and childcare, and this remains their responsibility.

The table sets out the number of Full-Time Equivalent teachers working in Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) centres situated in the 20% most deprived areas of Scotland. In each year over the period 2011 to 2015 FTE teachers working in ELC centres in the 20% most deprived areas have accounted for around 20% of all FTE teachers employed in ELC centres.

FTE of teachers working in ELC centres situated in the 20% most deprived areas

	2011	2012	2013		2014⁽¹⁾	2015⁽¹⁾
FTE in Decile 1 and 2	295	306	265		193	179

(1) Excludes centrally employed teachers.

A small number of teachers could not be allocated to an SIMD area.

With regards to the numbers of graduates; the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) hold some information on the qualifications of staff working in early learning and childcare settings. However, the qualifications of a significant number of staff is unknown.

As part of the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) data transformation project, the Scottish Government is working with the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Social Services Council to improve the data available on those working within the ELC sector, ensuring each of the statistical collections have a specific and clear purpose, and gather appropriate information to meet user needs. The project aims to reduce duplication and minimise burden on data providers, whilst ensuring the quality of the data available is of an appropriate standard.

In October 2015, the First Minister committed to ensuring that nurseries in the most disadvantaged areas will benefit from an additional teacher or graduate from 2018, which will bolster the level of support from highly qualified learning professionals for those children who we know will benefit most.

Question reference: S5W-04249

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) mean and (b) median debt for students on completion of a (a) first full-time undergraduate degree and (b) full-time postgraduate degree was in each of the last five years, broken down by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile.

Information on student loan debt is held and published by the Student Loans Company (SLC).

http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment/scotland.aspx

The latest publication, covering financial year 2015-16, showed that the average student loan debt for the 2016 cohort, which just entered repayment, was £10,500. The publication does not contain the other information requested.

Average Loan Balance on entry into repayment by repayment cohort

Average balance on entry to repayment (£)

	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Scotland	6,470	6,860	7,440	9,410	10,500

Source: Student Loans Company

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