- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 14 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-24804 by Jenni Minto on 5 February 2024, how much of the £190 million of funding from the Primary Care Improvement Fund in 2023-24 was provided to each NHS board for the development of Community Treatment and Care (CTAC) services.
Answer
While the Scottish Government are responsible for the strategic direction of the NHS, territorial Health Boards and Integration Authorities are responsible for delivering services in their areas, including the amount spent on each of the service areas delivered by the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF). Integrated Authorities must work closely with local communities and other stakeholders to ensure that Primary Care Improvement Plans address specific local challenges and population needs while taking into account the guidance in the GP contract and accompanying MoUs as well as amended regulations.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2024
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support schools in rural communities.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 20 June 2024
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 7 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration Scottish Forestry has given to allocating funds from the Strategic Timber Transport Fund to support the full reopening of Aboyne Bridge.
Answer
Scottish Forestry maintains very close working relationships with the relevant Local Authority and timber businesses in this region. Whilst we are aware of the closure of the Aboyne Bridge, and there have been discussions with local forest businesses around the implications of further deterioration on the adjacent Dinnet Bridge, Scottish Forestry has not received a request from the Local Authority for support towards reopening the Aboyne Bridge currently.
Scottish Forestry recently awarded £101,000 from the Strategic Timber Transport Fund to support £202,000 of improvements to the nearby B976 Birsemore to Dinnet Bridge Road through collaboration with Aberdeenshire Council.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has plans to review the Teacher Induction Scheme to ensure that it is fully equipped to serve the needs of schools in rural areas.
Answer
The Scottish Government is aware of the challenges around probationer allocations in certain geographical areas and in certain subjects. We are therefore currently considering how the Teacher Induction Scheme can better address these challenges.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken to establish the extent of the use of part-time timetables in schools.
Answer
Information on pupils that are subject to reduced or part-time timetable is not reported centrally by the Scottish Government. Under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004, education authorities have duties to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. Education authorities are responsible for determining the most appropriate educational provision for children and young people in their area, taking account of their legislative responsibilities and the individual circumstances of children, young people and their families.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken to establish the extent of the use of informal exclusions in schools.
Answer
We are committed to ensuring that all children and young people get the support that they need to reach their full learning potential.
Our national guidance on exclusion, ‘Included, Engaged and Involved Part 2’ makes clear that exclusion should be the last resort. Where exclusion is used, it should be as a proportionate response where there is no appropriate alternative, and the wellbeing of the child or young person should be the key consideration. The guidance makes clear that the practice of “sending home” or “informal exclusion” is illegal and denies pupils and parents their rights. Following an incident where the decision is made that the child or young person cannot remain in school, for one of the reasons specified in regulation 4 of the Schools General (Scotland) Regulations 1975 as amended, this must be recorded as an exclusion. This will ensure transparency, allow for appropriate monitoring and enable support to be put in place through the education authority’s staged intervention system.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-16260 by Jenny Gilruth on 17 April 2023, whether it will provide an update on how many schools are currently mothballed, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not routinely collect data on mothballed schools in Scotland. The Scottish Government does collect data from local authorities in order to collate a list of schools regarded as rural for the purposes of the Schools (Consultation)(Scotland) Act 2010. The most recent rural schools list was published on 25 October 2021 - Rural schools in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The rural schools list includes those schools the relevant local authority has mothballed. The 2021 rural schools list shows that 21 schools were reported as being mothballed. The following table shows how many rural schools are mothballed by local authority area.
Local Authority | Number of schools reported as being mothballed |
Aberdeenshire | 4 |
Argyll & Bute | 2 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 1 |
Eilean Siar | 2 |
Falkirk | 2 |
Fife | 1 |
Highland | 4 |
Moray | 1 |
Scottish Borders | 1 |
Shetland Islands | 2 |
Stirling | 1 |
The Scottish Government has published statutory guidance on the Schools (Consultation)(Scotland) Act 2010 - Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) - which sets out the Scottish Government’s expectations in relation to mothballing schools.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work being carried out by the Strategic Board for Teacher Education.
Answer
The Board agreed its workplan in September 2023. The most recently published version of the workplan can be found on the Scottish Government website. https://www.gov.scot/publications/strategic-board-teacher-education-meeting-27-thursday-1-february-2024-10-00am-11-30am/pages/2/
The workplan contains three workstreams:
- Workstream 1 – Workforce Planning and Increasing Diversity of the Profession
- Workstream 2 – Improving the Promotion of Teaching as a Valued Career
- Workstream 3 – Continuum of Teacher Education
The Board has held meetings in November, February and March to progress these workstreams. The agendas, minutes and papers from these meeting are published on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/groups/strategic-board-for-teacher-education/
The Board last met on 15 May 2024, and the agenda, minutes and papers from this meeting will be published on the Scottish Government website following the next meeting of the Board, which is scheduled for 27 June.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what it anticipates the impact will be of Aberdeenshire Council reportedly receiving only 20 of the 44 newly qualified secondary school teachers it requested for the coming school year.
Answer
We recognise there is a challenge around the recruitment of teachers in certain geographical areas and in certain subjects. It is for this reason that we have manually allocated Preference Waiver Payment (PWP) probationers this year. Manually allocating PWPs will ensure those probationers are placed in the areas who have the most difficulties in securing probationers.
I recently met with Aberdeenshire Council to discuss their concerns about teacher recruitment and probationer allocations. The Council indicated that they welcomed the approach taken to probationer allocations this year, which has resulted in an increase on the number of PWPs allocated compared to last year.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 3 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to offer more training programmes in audiology to help tackle the reported workforce shortage.
Answer
The provision of education and training of audiologists is being considered as part of the National Audiology Improvement Programme. In addition, there is a review underway of Healthcare Science Education in Scotland to look at education and training provision in healthcare science more widely.
