Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government has been actively engaging with local authority partners, who have statutory responsibility for school buildings in Scotland, for some time.

Those schools where RAAC has been identified are taking mitigation steps in line with guidance from the Institute of Structural Engineers which has not changed. Any local authority which deems it necessary to close a school in their authority, in whole or in part, is empowered to do so. For example, Riverside Primary School in West Lothian fully closed its building over the summer holidays and moved pupils in to alternative provision.

COSLA have confirmed that safety is the central consideration and there is robust guidance which is followed by every local authority to ensure these settings are safe for the pupils, staff and the public to be in.

Public sector organisations may occasionally commission external consulting support where this provides value for money and there is a requirement for a specific skill or service that cannot be delivered within existing capacity.

As public bodies make their own independent arrangements with external contractors, the information requested is not routinely gathered or held centrally by the Scottish Government. Information of this nature can be attained by approaching individual public sector organisations accordingly.

Inspiring Scotland through the ‘Support in the Right Direction’ (SiRDS) programme, provides access to independent advice and advocacy in 31 local authorities, with a forthcoming scoping project tasked with identifying a SiRD partner to offer services in the Moray area from FY 2023-2024. SiRDS is supporting over 9,000 people and families.

The schedule NHS Scotland buildings included in the on-site phase of the survey programme was submitted as part of the answer to question S6W-19366 on 21 July 2023 and was published on the NHS Scotland Assure website on the 15th September 2023: RAAC -List of Properties v1 Jul 23 (nhs.scot) . All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

There have been 91 NHS buildings surveyed under the RAAC survey programme (as at 19th September 2023).

The number of full time equivalent pupil support assistants by Local Authority is available in the school support staff statistics: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

A summary of the changes from 2018 to 2022 is provided in the following table.

The MAT Implementation Support Team (MIST) was established to work with and support local areas to build improvement-based capacity and capability so that they would be able to implement and sustain the MAT standards locally.

MIST support is provided through networking and regular support visits with a range of stakeholders including ADPs and local Health Boards to facilitate improvement work such as the sharing of good practice. Ministers have commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to run a national learning system for implementing the standards which is mainly aimed at providing support to ADPs and Health Boards by sharing best practice.

So, MIST and HIS work together on this to support local areas. The HIS learning system includes networking and webinars as well as providing insights and materials such as case studies, resources and news stories which are shared across ADPs and Health Boards.

Local areas report regularly to Ministers on progress towards implementation of the MAT standards. Public Health Scotland publishes progress in an annual National Benchmarking Report each June based on the work of MIST, and in the second annual Report published in June this year included good practice case studies provided through the HIS learning system.

MIST are also holding thematic groups for each of the standards to bring stakeholders together, and there is a planned in person work shop for MAT Standard 3 – Assertive Outreach taking place in the Autumn.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving digital access for learners and ensuring that every school aged child has access to a device by the end of this Parliament. We continue to work COSLA to progress delivery of this commitment.

To inform this process we have committed to developing a digital strategy in partnership with COSLA. This will help ensure digital provision supports the wider aims of the education system. Development of this strategy will aim to deliver the right technology, in the right place, with a workforce that knows how to use it and supporting the work to continue the rollout of devices across Scotland.

Information from local authorities indicates that around 280,000 digital devices have already been distributed to learners across Scotland (including 72,000 funded by the Scottish Government in 2020-21). These devices have been distributed in line with our council’s own digital strategies and budgets, recognising it is they who hold delivery for education locally.

I would refer initially to the statement I made on this topic to Parliament on 7 September.

Where the presence of RAAC is confirmed in a public building, we expect the owner to take appropriate measures to assess and manage any risk identified, following the Institution for Structural Engineer’s current guidance on this process.

We remain in regular contact with organisations across the public sector to seek reassurance on this matter, directly and through our cross-sector working group.

Information on RAAC and the work of our cross-sector working group, as an activity of the Ministerial Working Group on Building and Fire Safety, will be published on our website.

The list of buildings to be surveyed was included in the answer to question S6W-19366 on 21 July 2023. NHS Scotland Assure published the list of buildings to be surveyed on the 15th September 2023: RAAC -List of Properties v1 Jul 23 (nhs.scot) . In response to part (b) of the Question; there have, as of the 19th September 2023, been 14 properties confirmed to contain RAAC, these will also be published in due course. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .