Seòmar agus comataidhean

Welcome back. The next petition is PE2169, on facilitating a review and upgrade of the teaching resource “Palestine and Israel, understanding the conflict”.

Before we proceed, I indicate that parliamentary rules are clear that, if the convener is present at a meeting, the convener must convene that meeting. I declare my interests: I am the convener of the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group on building bridges with Israel and, in 2017, I undertook a visit to Israel that was funded by the Israeli embassy. I maintain regular contact with the Israeli embassy; indeed, we spoke earlier this week in relation to the release of a constituent who was part of a flotilla that got itself into some bother.

PE2170, which was lodged by Paul Blaker on behalf of Accountability Scotland, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to abolish the General Teaching Council for Scotland and replace it with a Government agency. The petitioner believes that the General Teaching Council for Scotland is not supporting teachers’ professional development, nor helping children to experience improved quality learning and teaching.

The statutory functions of the GTCS are set out in a 2011 order, the purpose of which was to establish it as an independent self-regulating professional body for teachers working in Scotland. Some of its main functions are to keep a public register, set standards for the teaching profession, investigate individuals’ fitness to teach and provide advice to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government does not see the ask of the petition as practical or achievable, as it considers the GTCS to be effective in its statutory role. The Government states that it cannot intervene in processes or decisions made by fitness-to-teach panels, and that panel members are independent and not GTCS employees.

The GTCS commissioned the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care to undertake an independent review of its fitness-to-teach process. The PSA’s findings highlighted some improvements that could be made, such as reducing the time that the GTCS takes to resolve cases, supporting vulnerable participants, simplifying public-facing guidance and documentation, and enhancing case management. The GTCS has committed to presenting an action plan to its professional regulatory assurance committee in the light of those recommendations.

The petitioner’s additional submission brings forth further examples to illustrate his concerns that the GTCS is not meeting its core mission to uphold professional standards and protect pupils. It is a very determined representation, but the Government clearly takes an alternative view.

That might be beyond the scope of the committee’s ability to properly explore.

In the first instance, are we happy to pursue Mr Ewing’s suggestion? Then, we will have a further opportunity to decide whether, as Mr Ewing is suggesting and as Mr Mountain is hoping, it might be one of our legacy petitions—or whether we think that it would be best served by a fresh petition in the next parliamentary session. We will write to the Scottish Government to seek a response to the petitioners’ latest submission. Are colleagues content to proceed on that basis?

Members indicated agreement.

The second theme is on diagnostic and treatment pathways. Marie McNair will lead us through those questions.

We are interested to know what the productivity of the national specialist services committee is and to know not only how many requests it has considered but what the process is to determine whether such services can be provided.

My mother’s bridge club meets quarterly, but that does not mean that it is very productive, and it is the productivity of these things that we are keen to establish. [Laughter.] She is in her 90s—she can hardly see the cards.

The committee is considering a petition on the regulation of private ambulance services. From petitions that we have received, it seems that these public-facing organisations should be subject to some sort of inspection and registration. That seems fairly straightforward, but why does something like that take such a long time to implement?

Very quickly.

The third of our thematic sections, which concerns capacity, skills and training, will be led by Davy Russell.

The next thematic section, which Maurice Golden will lead on, concerns the sustainability of funding and health service infrastructure.

That brings us to PE2116, which was lodged by Ellie Harrison on behalf of better buses for Strathclyde. It calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to improve the process for implementing the bus franchising powers that are contained in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 by introducing, without delay, the regulations and statutory guidance that are required to give bus franchising powers full effect; by amending the 2019 act to remove the requirement for proposed franchising frameworks to be approved by a panel appointed by the traffic commissioner, instead empowering regional transport partnerships to have the final say on approving proposals; and by providing additional funding to support RTPs in preparing franchising frameworks and to assist them with initial set-up costs once frameworks are approved.

I remind those who are joining us today of the remarks that I made a moment ago about campaigning material, which seems to have quietly moved into camera shot during that short interval. I like a bit of pantomime.