Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-21423

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-20228 by Jenny Gilruth on 22 August 2023, whether it will provide the number of probationers that were bid for, and the number allocated, broken down by local authority.

The total bid figures reflect bids made by local authorities in February 2023. The total allocation figures reflect the allocation of probationers in May 2023.

Local Authority	Total Bid	Total Allocation
Aberdeen City Council	231	136
Aberdeenshire Council	166	116
Angus Council	50	36
Argyll and Bute Council	24	22
City of Edinburgh Council	244	215
Clackmannanshire Council	35	26
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	20	15
Dumfries and Galloway Council	80	59
Dundee City Council	139	101
East Ayrshire Council	93	69
East Dunbartonshire Council	148	135
East Lothian Council	93	72
East Renfrewshire Council	147	140
Falkirk Council	143	120
Fife Council	283	218
Glasgow City Council	360	368
Highland Council	108	78
Inverclyde Council	64	49
Jordanhill School	3	7
Midlothian Council	71	49
Moray Council	85	67
North Ayrshire Council	72	63
North Lanarkshire Council	310	183
Orkney Islands Council	9	7
Perth and Kinross Council	58	45
Renfrewshire Council	104	116
Scottish Borders Council	61	55
Shetland Islands Council	12	9
South Ayrshire Council	98	70
South Lanarkshire Council	221	219
Stirling Council	72	74
West Dunbartonshire Council	68	75
West Lothian Council	146	147
Totals	3818	3161

Question reference: S6W-21421

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of all school pupils have been provided with a digital device, in line with its commitment to do so, as of the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that every school aged child has access to a device by the end of this Parliamentary term and we continue to work with COSLA and local authority partners to develop delivery plans. Information provided by local authorities in early 2022, indicated that by that point almost 280,000 devices had been distributed. We will work with local authorities to provide further updates on the rollout in due course.

Question reference: S6W-21420

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what consequences there are for local authorities that do not meet its commitment to provide every school pupil with their own laptop or other digital device.

We are committed to ensuring that every school-aged child has access to a device to support their learning by the end of this parliament in 2026.

We continue to work with COSLA and local authority partners to develop delivery plans. This includes consideration of funding, monitoring and reporting, as well as the development of a digital strategy for education to ensure that digital provision supports the broader aims of the education system.

Question reference: S6W-20703

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-19780 by Jenny Gilruth on 31 July 2023, what proportion of the (a) £830 million spend on additional support for learning in 2021-22 and (b) £15 million per year in additional funding since 2019-20 was allocated to each local authority.

The total spend on additional support for learning in 2021-22 is set out in the following table.

Local Authority	Additional Support for Learning - £000s
Aberdeen City	29,575
Aberdeenshire	39,957
Angus	11,681
Argyll & Bute	11,830
Clackmannanshire	11,917
City of Edinburgh	81,342
Dumfries & Galloway	21,070
Dundee City	15,835
East Ayrshire	19,100
East Dunbartonshire	17,771
East Lothian	16,244
East Renfrewshire	13,481
Falkirk	25,603
Fife	39,493
Glasgow City	123,924
Highland	40,636
Inverclyde	12,628
Midlothian	20,140
Moray	16,032
Eilean Siar	5,625
North Ayrshire	13,163
North Lanarkshire	50,248
Orkney Islands	4,411
Perth & Kinross	19,589
Renfrewshire	24,570
Scottish Borders	11,765
Shetland Islands	8,423
South Ayrshire	19,861
South Lanarkshire	47,670
Stirling	9,968
West Dunbartonshire	19,046
West Lothian	27,729
Scotland	830,327

Source - Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics 2021-22 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The majority of funding available to local authorities, including the £15 million additional support for learning, is provided by means of a block grant from the Scottish Government and it is for locally elected representatives to manage the allocation of their resources and the level of services that are delivered to their local communities.

Question reference: S6W-20876

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what practical steps it is taking to address and reverse the reported findings of the national improvement framework interactive evidence report, published on 13 December 2022, that (a) literacy, (b) reading, (c) writing, (d) listening, (e) talking and (f) numeracy rates are falling in P1, P4 and P7.

Whilst performance in 2021-22 compared to 2018-19 was broadly lower indicating the continuing impact of the pandemic on learning, there was some encouraging evidence amongst for example, P7 pupils that performance was returning to pre-pandemic levels.

ACEL data is one of a range of measures captured in the National Improvement Framework. It is important to be able to measure the impact of the education system as a whole, rather than looking at individual measures. That is why the National Improvement Framework includes ACEL data for P1, P4, P7 and S3 as part of a broader basket of key measures of attainment. This avoids, as far as possible, a situation where looking at a single measure generates perverse behaviours by becoming the single focus of activity in schools.

Local education authorities have the statutory responsibility to provide school education. To support continuous improvement in literacy and numeracy in our schools nationally, the Scottish Government is:

Focusing on literacy and numeracy within the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) which has allocated over £550m in Pupil Equity Funding directly to primary schools up until 2022-23 and is investing a total of £1bn over this parliamentary term, including direct funding for all 32 local authorities.
Has agreed clear stretch aims within each local authority as part of the SAC which, if achieved, would narrow the poverty related attainment gap by over 7 percentage points in both primary school literacy and numeracy by 2022-23 compared to 2020-21.
Rejoining the “PIRLS” and “TIMSS” surveys, thereby further improving the evidence base on literacy and numeracy performance.
Taking forward the National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL) and the National Response to Improving Mathematics (NRIM) alongside Education Scotland and ADES, drawing on the available evidence to develop focused, “teacher-relevant” packages of professional learning, guidance and support.
Ensuring that Education Scotland provides a tailored local and school-level support offer via attainment advisers and Regional Improvement Collaboratives.
Funding and promoting Maths Week Scotland every year since 2017, transforming public attitudes to maths and promoting the value of maths as an essential skill for every career.
Funding additional national programmes which support high quality learning and teaching, including “Read Write Count with the First Minister”, Reading Schools and the School Library Improvement Fund.

Question reference: S6O-02586

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 October 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what role it will play in supporting the fishing industry over the next 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-21230

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of children identified as having an additional support need require support for (a) a specific language or speech disorder, (b) communication, (c) learning disabilities and (d) autism spectrum disorder.

Out of all pupils recorded with an additional support need in the 2022 pupil census:

(a) 8% were reported as having language or speech disorder as reason for support

(b) 5% were reported as having communication needs as reason for support

(c) 5% were reported as having learning disabilities as a reason for support

(d) 11% were reported as having autism spectrum disorder as a reason for support

Note that each pupil may be recorded as having multiple reasons for support.

Statistics on additional support needs are published in the pupil census supplementary statistics, available on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/pupil-census-supplementary-statistics/

Question reference: S6T-01559

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 September 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that students at Scottish universities receive their degree classifications.

Question reference: S6W-20875

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 August 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 25 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what practical steps it is taking to address and reverse the findings of the national improvement framework interactive evidence report, published on 13 December 2022, that fewer pupils in S3 are achieving the expected Curriculum for Excellence levels in literacy and numeracy than in 2018-19.

Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) “Achievement of a Level” (ACEL) data shows that attainment at CfE Third Level or better by S3 pupils has been over 85 per cent for both literacy and numeracy since 2016-17. In 2021-22, 86 per cent of S3 pupils achieved this level in literacy, with 89 per cent in numeracy which is slightly less than in 2018-19, demonstrating the ongoing recovery from the pandemic.

ACEL data is one of a range of measures captured in the National Improvement Framework. It is important to be able to measure the impact of the education system as a whole, rather than looking at individual measures. That is why the National Improvement Framework includes the ACEL data for P1, P4, P7 and S3 as part of a broader basket of key measures of attainment. This avoids, as far as possible, a situation where looking at a single measure generates perverse behaviours by becoming the single focus of activity in schools.

Local education authorities have the statutory responsibility to provide school education. To support continuous improvement in literacy and numeracy nationally in our schools, the Scottish Government is:

Focusing on literacy and numeracy within the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) which has allocated over £550m in Pupil Equity Funding directly to primary schools up until 2022-23 and is investing a total of £1bn over this parliamentary term, including direct funding for all 32 local authorities.
Has agreed clear stretch aims within each local authority as part of the SAC which, if achieved, would narrow the poverty related attainment gap by over 7 percentage points in both primary school literacy and numeracy by 2022-23 compared to 2020-21.
Rejoining the “PIRLS” and “TIMSS” surveys, thereby further improving the evidence base on literacy and numeracy performance.
Taking forward the National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL) and the National Response to Improving Mathematics (NRIM) alongside Education Scotland and ADES, drawing on the available evidence to develop focused, “teacher-relevant” packages of professional learning, guidance and support.
Ensuring that Education Scotland provides a tailored local and school-level support offer via attainment advisers and Regional Improvement Collaboratives.
Funding and promoting Maths Week Scotland every year since 2017, transforming public attitudes to maths and promoting the value of maths as an essential skill for every career.
Funding additional national programmes which support high quality learning and teaching, including “Read Write Count with the First Minister”, Reading Schools and the School Library Improvement Fund.

Question reference: S6W-20962

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 September 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 September 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its statement on 31 August 2023 that it had already “received returns for the majority of the school estate” and that it expected “to have full returns from all local authorities this week”, whether it will publish all of the returns that it has received from local authorities regarding the (a) presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in school buildings and (b) projected cost to remedy any issues, and, if so, when.

As the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice updated in her statement to Parliament, local authorities have a statutory responsibility to ensure that their schools are safe for pupils, staff and their users. In line with this responsibility, they continue to carry out assessments of their school buildings, and Ministers have been clear to authorities that those must be carried out as a matter of the highest priority. At present, I am meeting with COSLA on a weekly basis to review the position.

It is imperative that there is transparency around the schools where RAAC has been identified and the mitigations that are in place. This is why, on 8 September, a list of the 16 local authorities where reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) has been found in some schools was published in a Scottish Government news release ( Local authorities publish RAAC data - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ). Local authorities have now published a list of any schools where RAAC has been identified, and it would be for those individual local authorities to decide if they publish the projected cost to remedy any issues within their school estate.

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