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That is absolutely the case. I was in discussions with Mr Arthur on that point yesterday, because we have a shared interest in the issue in relation to his responsibilities. We were reflecting that, when we were at school in the 1990s, there would have been pupils in the classrooms who had additional support needs. Their needs were not identified or met, and they probably left school without the support that they should have had. We are now much more attuned to additional support needs, and we need to get better at providing the support that goes along with that.

The review that Janie McManus is leading will be key to some of that work, as will the data work that I mentioned. We see variance across the country in all the categories. In November, we had a data summit at Murrayfield with local authorities, at which we looked at the variance among local authorities across the country in some of the categories. We need accurate reporting to make sure that the data that is gathered locally helps to inform funding that is targeted to need.

The final thing that I should mention on ASN is that Willie Rennie asked us for a national event. I am always keen to give Mr Rennie what he wants, as Mr Macpherson was yesterday. Therefore, we are having a national event, to which committee members will all be invited and which will look to share best practice. Great examples of ASN support are happening across the country just now. I know that there are challenges, but it is important that we lift up that good working where it is happening and give support to the profession where it needs it.

12:15

I think that I follow the point, and I will try to answer as best I can.

That goes back, in part, to the points that Mr O’Kane made earlier. We have a pretty devolved structure when it comes to the delivery of school education, with 32 local authorities doing their own thing, and the experience of young people’s support for ASN will differ by local authority. It will differ by school, too, and it will depend on the staffing structure that is used.

My view—I put on record the fact that this is my view—is that we should have much greater consistency for young people and for families. As cabinet secretary, I spend too much time meeting parents and carers when things have gone wrong. I listen, I am sympathetic, and I want to fix things, but that is very difficult, because the statutory powers rest with local authorities. I do not want to prise those powers away from local authorities—that is not the point that I am making—but there needs to be greater consistency. I have made the same point about data collection, but we need greater consistency of support, too.

I have previously mentioned this in the chamber, but one of the things that we have been exploring is a national staged intervention model, which would mean that support would look the same across the country, regardless of where a pupil was educated. People could expect to get that support in a local authority and on a school-by-school basis. That would be quite a radical shift, but I think that it would give some comfort to parents and carers who far too often have to fight against systems and battle for allocations of hours when their child moves school. That is disruptive, and it is not great for the young person.

I am thinking of one of my constituents, Niamdh Braid, whom you might have read about. She took Fife Council to court in the not-too-distant past, because she was not able to obtain the legal support that she should have had for British Sign Language provision. Her mum had to take the matter all the way to the tribunal, and poor Niamdh had to give evidence at the tribunal the day before one of her exams. They came to see me, and I thought, “This is not right.” That is just one example—I have had multiple examples on my desk over the past three years.

We need to think creatively, along with local government, about how to make things better. I have talked about targeted funding, but that is not how a young person with ASN should experience support. They need consistency, because that supports better outcomes for them, and it also help to support their families.

Okay. Let me find out and come back to you on that.

Convener, I have not even seen the correspondence in question.

We need to be mindful, though, of the fact that, 10 years ago, the percentage of ASN pupils in our schools was far smaller than it is today, so I am not necessarily sure that we can make such comparisons, given that the data at that time—

Yes, but if you look at the numbers, you will see that there are certain spikes that change when we look at the definitions. We broadened the definitions, which created some of that shift, but the pandemic also had an impact in that regard. I see that Alison Taylor is nodding at me in relation to the historical work, so I will bring her in.

I do not know—it did not seem to go down very well with Miles Briggs or the convener, so I will maybe not mention it again.

It is important to say that we have more options in education. The question for ministers and for me is whether they are politically palatable. The funding for teacher numbers is a good example of spend that is not legally committed. That extra funding of £145 million, which has now been uprated, was not legally committed, but I was pretty adamant that it was not being taken off the table, although it could have been.

As a Government, we need to take political decisions that say something about our priorities. For us, investing in education is important. I take Mr Greer’s point about the share of some of the reductions. He mentioned the origin of some of the reductions, so I do not need to go back over that ground. It is fair to say that it has been a challenging time in that regard, but we are now coming out of that, and I think that we have a strong settlement this year.

We have additionality for colleges, which is welcome, and I know that Mr Greer will welcome it. We have funding for breakfast clubs and wraparound childcare. We have funding that we have not touched on today in relation to free school meals. The changes relating to the administrative earnings threshold and pension credits are opening up more pathways for children and young people to access free school meals. That is really important work, and it is happening now.

I do not think that any funding comes from education to LGBT Youth Scotland—Alison Taylor or Clare Hicks will correct me if I am wrong—

Absolutely, but—

I will seek clarification from Andrew Watson, who is with me, but I remember that exchange and I thought that that detail was covered in the letter. I have subsequently checked what I said in the interview and what we said in our exchange in that meeting, and I can clarify that my officials and I are not aware that that were any issues in relation to the wording that was used at the time.