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The Scottish Government is committed to working in partnership with our recognised trade unions. The decision on the revised hybrid policy was informed by a working group which included trade union representatives. Following a decision being made by the Executive Team, full consultation took place with the recognised trade unions ahead of the revised policy coming into effect, for core Scottish Government directorates, in October 2025. While PCS initially entered into a dispute with regard to the Executive Team decision on hybrid, this dispute was resolved through further detailed consultation and ahead of the new policy coming into effect.

We expect Health Boards to plan for their workforce in conjunction with their responsibilities under the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019. The Act places duties on Health Boards to ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent individuals are working in such numbers as are appropriate for the health, wellbeing and safety of patients, the provision of high-quality care and the wellbeing of staff.

On 29 October I announced the establishment of the Scottish Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce. The Scottish Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce will complement the existing audit and inspection system in place in Scotland, and provide support and expertise on implementation of policy, service standards, and improvement activity across NHS Boards. It will be chaired by the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health.

The Scottish Government is also taking action as part of the Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce (NMT) to drive lasting change to improve retention and attraction into these professions. The NMT recommended actions are designed to have a meaningful and lasting impact on workforce wellbeing. They aim to address key issues such as workload, professional development, and workplace culture—to create a more supportive and sustainable environment for Nurses and Midwives to work.

New figures show that the number of planned and performed operations in Scotland has reached its highest level since January 2020.

Data collected and published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) is unable to be broken down into the cancellation reasons (a) staff shortages, (b) flu outbreaks and (c) bed pressures. This is due to the aggregate nature of the cancellations data collection.

PHS publish cancellation data monthly, and you can find the latest release here.

We reached a formal agreement with COSLA in December 2024 which commits to freezing learning hours in 2025-26.

Through our announcement of a ‘New National Deal for Scotland’s teachers’, we have set out a range of proposed changes to the teaching and learning week, including exploration of new nationally agreed minimum standards on pupil learning hours.

This will include work to consider minimum standards on pupil learning hours and explore the legal, financial and operational considerations which will underpin any agreed approach.

The Scottish Government is supporting safety and violence prevention in schools by directly investing £4.3 billion in Scotland’s education system in the 2025-26 budget. This investment includes £186.5m to local authorities in 2025-26 to help protect teacher numbers and maximise the number of teaching posts available. It also includes £29 million to support the recruitment, retention and training of the Additional Support for Learning workforce, backed by an additional £29 million in 2025-26 in local and national programmes; and £16m a year to ensuring access to counselling services for all children and young people aged 10 and over.

In addition, we have invested more than £6 million since 2023 to support implementation of the Violence Prevention Framework, which supports the work of schools in relation to violence prevention. Through this framework we are working with partners such as YouthLink Scotland, Medics Against Violence, and Police Scotland to provide targeted education programmes for our young people on the risks of and impacts of violence.

In 2025-26 we are also providing £298,480 to respectme, Scotland’s national anti-bullying service, to provide advice and resources to schools, parents and carers to support and educate young people on the impact of bullying and build confidence and capacity to address bullying.

Local authorities are responsible for managing their statutory duties in relation to school safety and child protection.

The vast majority of funding allocated to councils is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on school safety and child protection services, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The 2025-26 budget delivered record funding of over £15.1 billion for Local Government, a real terms increase of 5.5 per cent.

Through our announcement of a ‘New National Deal for Scotland’s teachers’, we have set out a range of proposed changes to the teaching and learning week, which we plan to pilot and explore with local government and schools.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to assessing the impact of any proposal. We intend to gather data and evidence via pilots which will consider the impact of a range of potential changes to the teaching and learning week on timetabling, learners, families and school staff as part of the pilot period.

We recognise the challenges that many remote and rural schools face, including challenges with teacher recruitment.

Through our announcement of a ‘New National Deal for Scotland’s teachers’, we have set out a range of proposed changes to the teaching and learning week, which we plan to pilot and explore with local government and schools.

This will include working with Schools in remote and rural communities to pilot new ways of structuring the teaching and learning week, which take account of their local contexts and provide the flexibility they need to address these challenges. This work will allow us to asses impact, and build the data and evidence needed for future national approaches.

Scottish Government officials regularly meet with COSLA officers to discuss operational matters related to the delivery of education.

Through our announcement of a ‘New National Deal for Scotland’s teachers’, we have set out a range of proposed changes to the teaching and learning week, which we intend to pilot with the assistance of Schools and Local Authorities.

This approach will allow us to gather the data and evidence needed to fully consider issues such as the feasibility and funding implications of a restructured teaching and learning week and discuss these with local government partners.

The Scottish Government is represented at all committees and subgroups of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), including the SNCT subgroup on Reducing Teacher Class Contact Time.

Government officials regularly provide updates and table proposals to SNCT committees and subgroups, in line with Government policy positions and ministerial direction. It’s quite appropriate for ministers to signal a desired policy direction in advance of this being taken as a formal proposal to be discussed at the SNCT.