Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-25795

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 11 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government with which stakeholders it plans to engage as part of its process of updating guidance on home schooling.

Scottish Government officials have engaged with the key stakeholder groups in the home education community, as well as local authorities, throughout the process of updating the home education guidance. Part of this engagement involved a consultation exercise with stakeholders, of which the published analysis and a list of stakeholders who responded can be found here: Home education guidance: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Officials continue to develop plans for engagement ahead of publication this year.

Question reference: S6W-25815

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 11 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects that its digital strategy for education will be published.

Question reference: S6W-25236

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 8 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement mechanism has replaced the (a) Family Support Commissioning and Procurement Short Life Working Group and (b) Parental Involvement Act Statutory Guidance Working Group.

The Family Support Commissioning and Procurement Short Life Working Group was a subset of the Family Support Advisory Group, set up to provide recommendations on the key theme of holistic family support. Following task completion, engagement on this issue has reverted to the Family Support Advisory Group, as well as engagement with broader stakeholders as part of delivery of the Whole Family Wellbeing Programme.

The Parental Involvement Act Statutory Guidance Working Group was set up to refresh statutory guidance. The group met four times over the course of 2019, and developed draft amended guidance. Due to COVID-19, the Group decided to pause this work given the limited capacity of education authorities and schools to prepare for and implement refreshed statutory guidance at this time. Officials are considering how best to strengthen parental engagement following the OECD PISA 2022 results and the respective Muir and National Discussion reports, which highlighted a growing appetite for more “meaningful engagement” opportunities for parents.

Question reference: S6W-25640

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many home-school link workers there have been in each of the last 10 years.

Data on the full time equivalent home-school link workers from 2017 onwards can be found in the School Support Staff Statistics, here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

Prior to 2017, this data can be found in the Teacher Census Supplementary Statistics tables 'Teacher Census 2016' and earlier editions, here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/

School support staff statistics from the 2023 school staff and pupils census are due to be published on 19 February 2024.

Question reference: S6W-25644

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-24951 by Jenny Gilruth on 20 February 2024, whether it has reviewed the independent report, Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education, and, in particular, the section on support for curriculum and assessment, which refers to feedback received that Education Scotland "did not provide equity in support across the profession", and whether it is carrying out any follow-up work in relation to such feedback.

The Scottish Government has carefully considered Professor Ken Muir’s report Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education which produced important recommendations for Scottish education. In response to a wide range of reports and evidence, the Education Reform Programme will deliver significant changes for the education system, including a new national agency and a Centre for Teaching Excellence.

Providing equitable support to the profession, including in relation to curriculum and assessment, is a fundamental consideration of all aspects of the Education Reform Programme. Education Scotland continues to deliver its functions while the new organisations are being developed, and continually reviews its support offering to ensure it is effective and fit for purpose.

Question reference: S6W-25683

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are on the Co-Production Group for the Centre of Teaching Excellence, and how many of these are serving teachers.

There are currently 25 members of the Co-Production Group. Six are serving teachers, and two additional secondary teachers have been invited to join the group, which will bring the total to eight. The following stakeholders are represented:

Teachers and practitioners
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
Education Scotland
Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)
Scottish Council of Deans of Education (SCDE)
General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS)
Association of Directors of Education (ADES)
Education Institute of Scotland (EIS)
NASUWT
School Leaders Scotland (SLS)
AHDS
Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCiS)
Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA)
CLD Standards Council
Early Years Scotland
Scottish Social Services Council
National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture

The Co-Production Group is one part of the overall co-production process. Ongoing additional engagement with teachers and stakeholders will take place as part of the design process.

Question reference: S6W-25233

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-21777 by Maree Todd on 24 October 2023, what analysis it has undertaken of any reduction in the number of young people participating in sport.

The Scottish Government and sportscotland passionately believe that sport is for everyone. We should all feel included, and able to take part and access the benefits of sport.

An ongoing priority for the Scottish Government is to support participation across all groups and tackle inequalities in participation.

Currently available Scottish Health Survey data shows that 11-15 year old’s participation in sport appears to have remained stable since pre-covid levels at 65%. Other data that we use to track participation in sport is published by sportscotland.

Recent data published by sportscotland in 2023 shows significantly increased participation levels in their national Active Schools programme, across the past academic year (2022-23), with over 4.6 million visits (a rise of 34% on 2021-22) made to almost 247,000 Active Schools sessions. The number of Active Schools participants (over 269,000 children and young people), deliverers (over 17,900 with 90% of those being volunteers), and school/club links (over 2,500) also increased from the previous academic year as the recovery from covid continued.

Question reference: S6W-25682

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates that the Centre of Teaching Excellence will launch in 2024.

Question reference: S6W-25172

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S4W-29691, S5W-22664 and S6W-01165 by Angela Constance on 2 March 2016, by John Swinney on 1 May 2019 and by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 July 2021 respectively, whether it will provide the figures for each year since 2020-21.

Table 1 provides information on average gross revenue expenditure in Scotland per child attending pre-school, and primary and secondary pupil alongside allocations (accounting for teaching and tuition fees funding) per college and university place.

Table 1: Average expenditure per place for each education level in cash terms
Education level	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Pre-School	£9,366	£10,435	-	-
Primary School	£6,130	£6,550	-	-
Secondary School	£7,906	£8,174	-	-
College	£4,878	£4,952	£5,054	£5,506
University	£7,316	£7,433	£7,558	£7,613

Table 2 provides the same information in 2023-24 prices. Real terms conversions are based on HM Treasury’s GDP Deflator series, December 2023.

Table 2: Average expenditure per place for each education level in real terms (2023-24 prices)
Education level	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Pre-School	£10,526	£11,824	-	-
Primary School	£6,890	£7,423	-	-
Secondary School	£8,885	£9,263	-	-
College	£5,482	£5,612	£5,362	£5,506
University	£8,222	£8,423	£8,019	£7,613

Methodology

The methodologies used to determine the average expenditure per place for each education level are provided in more detail below.

Pre-school: average gross revenue expenditure per child in pre-primary education is arrived at by taking the total gross revenue expenditure on pre-primary education, adjusted for inter-authority transfers, as reported by local authorities to the local financial return. These figures are then divided by the number of pupils in funded early learning and childcare as per the statistics reported in the early learning and childcare (ELC) census. The figures for per child expenditure on pre-primary education are likely to be overestimates due to the fact that September (when the figures for the ELC census are collected) is a point in the academic year when ELC registrations are at their lowest. This is because children starting funded ELC (usually when they turn three) start at the beginning of the term which starts after their birthday – so, in the Autumn term only some of the children who will become eligible for funded ELC during that academic year have already taken up their funded place. However, this issue applies every year, meaning that the above time-series comparison is reasonable.

Primary and Secondary school: average gross revenue expenditure per pupil in primary and secondary education respectively is arrived at by taking the total gross revenue expenditure adjusted for inter-authority transfers, reported by local authorities on primary and secondary education to the local financial return, divided by the number of pupils in primary and secondary education as per the statistics reported in the pupil census.

Colleges: The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) have supplied detail of the average cost of a College place (expenditure per full-time equivalent (FTE)). This is calculated by taking funding provided to Colleges for core teaching and assumed tuition fee income (see supplementary note 3) and dividing this by the number of student places.

Universities: The cost of an average University place, also provided by the SFC, is estimated by taking the total teaching grant awarded to Universities (excluding teaching grant associated with rUK students studying expensive strategically important subjects, who are not eligible for funding) and assumed tuition fee income associated with those places (see supplementary note 3) and dividing this by the total number of SFC funded places for Scottish and EU domiciled FTEs. Expenditure figures exclude funding for student support, and SFC’s research and strategic funds. Total FTE figures are SFC/SG funded places and do not include fees only and international places.

The methodology used in this PQ is similar to S6W-15187 answered on 7 March 2023 in that the average amounts for universities and colleges include assumed tuition fee elements and exclude certain funding elements related to rUK students studying expensive strategically important subjects for universities. Therefore, the answer is not comparable to PQs S4W-29691, S5W-22664 and S6W-01165.

Supplementary notes

1. “-“ indicates that there is no available data for this year.

2. 2022-23 figures for pre-school and primary and secondary school will be available after the publication of the 2022-23 Scottish local government finance statistics on the 5 th of March 2024.

3. Assumed tuition fees include income from SAAS, SDS, employers and students paying their own tuition fees for SFC funded programmes.

4. For 2020-21 the university allocation includes funded places and funding for childcare that were announced after the publication of the final funding announcement, to ensure consistency with other years.

5. For college and university figures, the funded places/weighted SUMS/credits figures used are taken from the final published main grant letters or outcome agreements, and do not take account of any subsequent adjustments.

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 .

Question reference: S6W-25650

Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to reviewing the teaching bursary in order to improve the uptake of Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PDGE) courses in eligible subjects.

The Teaching bursary advisory group is reconvened at the end of each year’s scheme. The role of the group is to review the implementation of the bursary scheme and provide advice on any necessary changes for the following year’s scheme.

The 2023-24 Teaching bursary advisory group is due to meet in March. Members include the Scottish Government, Skills Development Scotland, COSLA, Universities and the Scottish Council of Deans.

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