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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-26778

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has reduced the average spending per pupil with additional support needs by £1,934 since 2012-13.

All children and young people should receive the support that they need to reach their full potential. Local authorities are under a statutory duty to identify, provide for, and review the additional support needs of their pupils.

Spending on additional support for learning by local authorities has reached a record high of £926m in 2022-23. The Scottish Government has continued to invest £15m per year since 2019-20 to help authorities respond to the individual needs of pupils and provides over £11m of funding each year to directly support pupils with complex additional support needs and services to children and families.

It should be noted that between 2012-13 to 2022-23, the real terms average spend per pupil in both primary and secondary schools has increased from £6,170 and £8,349 respectively in 2012-13 to £7,075 and £8,766, respectively.

The number of pupils identified with additional support for learning needs has increased markedly since 2010 and there continue to be year on year increases. This is partly driven by a change to how ASN statistics were gathered in 2010.

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on education, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Question reference: S6W-26779

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 23 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address concerns raised at the meeting of the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy External Strategic Working Group on 29 February 2024 that "families are struggling to secure a social worker and, in turn, access support for transitions".

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the experience of the social work workforce to ensure it is more sustainable in the longer term.

Whilst the social work workforce is primarily employed by local authorities who have a statutory duty to maintain an adequate workforce to meet the needs of their population and to fulfil their statutory duties in respect of social work, the Scottish Government has introduced measures to help address the challenges facing the profession.

This includes working jointly with COSLA and other key stakeholders to address the acute recruitment and retention challenges facing the profession; forming a joint Social Care & Social Work/Services Workforce Taskforce to explore opportunities to deliver improvements for the adult and children's social care and social work workforce; and creating a National Social Work Agency to provide a single national body with oversight of social work education, training and professional development, and the improvement of social work services.

Question reference: S6W-26625

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason some secondary schools have reportedly opted not to take up the offer of grants for investing in computer science hardware for schools.

The Computing Science Hardware grant was offered to all Local Authorities to submit a bid to Scottish Government for schools in their Local Authority area and claims were received from a total of 304 schools, representing 85% of all secondary schools in Scotland. Since the scheme was operated at local authority level we are unable to comment on the reasons why individual schools chose not to take up the offer.

Question reference: S6W-26282

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 18 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish a plan to progress the reform recommendations set out in the report, Lessons Learned – resetting national collective bargaining in the colleges sector, in light of it being two years, on 25 March 2024, since the finalised report was published.

While the Scottish Government commissioned the Lessons Learned Report, the recommendations are for those involved in the National Bargaining arrangement to take forward. The Scottish Government has no powers to impose an implementation plan on stakeholders.

However, to encourage the taking forward of the findings of the report, I met with a range of stakeholders on 13 March to commence a dialogue around next steps for the Sector. I will continue to engage with this group as they, I hope, are able to work towards finding a better way forward than currently exists.

Question reference: S6W-26865

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 29 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it is giving to the development of a modern apprenticeship and graduate apprenticeship framework for the games industry.

Question reference: S6W-26654

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what powers it has to amend the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 to reduce or amend the distances from home to school before free school transport is provided.

Question reference: S6W-26837

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what role mentors provided by MCR Pathways play in improving outcomes for children and young people, including pupils from a care setting.

Question reference: S6W-26836

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 10 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the importance of MCR Pathways coordinators in delivering the MCR mentoring programme in schools.

Question reference: S6W-26786

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 8 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported concerns that, in 2023, the number of teachers in permanent, full-time employment fell to its lowest level since 2012, while the school role increased.

Question reference: S6W-26784

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 April 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 8 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of the reported failure to recruit target numbers of student teachers in languages.