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Prior to establishing the framework for delivering counselling services, officials engaged with professional counselling bodies who advised that therapeutic counselling is not appropriate for younger pupils. In light of this advice, our commitment is specifically to make counselling available to secondary, primary and special school pupils aged 10 and over.

School counselling is just one of a range of services that schools may have in place to support the health and wellbeing of children and young people. We provide local authorities with £15 million per annum to fund community-based mental health and wellbeing supports for children, young people and their families.

We have also supported school staff to understand and recognise the range of mental health and wellbeing concerns that young people may experience in a new professional learning resource introduced in June 2021.

Whilst there is an expectation that Educational Psychologist trainees make every reasonable effort to secure employment within a Scottish educational psychology service, this does not preclude seeking other employment if it is not possible to secure local authority employment.

The Family Learning Scotland Programme (‘the Programme’) was successfully delivered by Peeple from March 2020 to December 2021 despite significant disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Programme was managed through a contract and Peeple provided reports throughout the contract period to provide assurance on progress and on the final outcomes.

The Programme offered training to early learning and childcare practitioners in an evidence-based family learning approach. A review of the evidence for the chosen approach can be found on the Peeple website here:

peep evidence base | www.peeple.org.uk

Training was offered to up to 432 practitioners in every local authority in Scotland and 383 practitioners undertook the training. Practitioners continue to offer family learning opportunities to children and families across Scotland and continue to be supported by Peeple. This support includes the Peep Champions Network, a termly meeting of representatives from each local authority in Scotland trained in the approach.

Through the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund, we have conducted a competitive grant process to build on the Family Learning Scotland Programme. ‘Families Learning Together’ will test widening out family learning training to all services that interact with children and families in a local area.

We will announce the partner for this new project shortly.

We recognise the financial challenges facing colleges and understand the need for greater flexibility in college sector funding. The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) implemented a series of flexibilities for colleges in both academic years 2022-23, and 2023-24.

The Scottish Government and SFC are working with the sector to explore whether there are further flexibilities that could assist the sector in the short to medium term, while ensuring robust public accountability is safeguarded.

On 28 June 2023, the Scottish Government published the Purpose and Principles for post-school education, research and skills setting out our long-term vision for the system and the outcomes that we want to achieve. This includes our focus on delivering a system that is financially and environmentally resilient, trusted to deliver, and subject to effective governance. In the Initial Priorities Paper that accompanied the Purpose and Principles we acknowledged that reform of current funding arrangements is needed to realise this ambition.

Drawing on the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Skills Delivery Landscape, the Scottish Government has committed in the 2023 -24 Programme for Government to lead development of a new funding model for post-school education and skills provision alongside setting out plans for implementing reform of our education and skills bodies. The Scottish Government are committed to continuing to work closely with colleges throughout the development and implementation of our programme of reforms to ensure that the changes that we put in place will deliver enhanced outcomes for people and places across Scotland.

Despite the most difficult public spending environment since devolution, we maintained college resource budgets for 2023-24 at 2022-23 levels. The Audit Scotland report highlights that challenges and opportunities lie ahead as a result. The Scottish Funding Council also provided greater flexibility in the funding for colleges for academic year 2023-24.

A Tripartite Alignment Group has been established to foster close, partnership working between the Scottish Government, the Scottish Funding Council and Colleges Scotland.

The purpose of this group is to focus on urgent pressures facing colleges and put in place the building blocks to tackle more complex, systemic issues which will be the subject of the wider programme of reform expressed through the Withers Review and underpinned by the Purpose and Principles.

Following on from recommendations made in recent reviews, the Scottish Government has also set out in the Programme for Government its intention to lead the development of a new funding model for post-school education provision. We will work closely with colleges, and others, in determining how we can use funding allocations to deliver improved outcomes.

We welcome Audit Scotland’s report on Scotland’s colleges. It recognises the opportunities coming from reform of post-school education, as signalled in the Purpose and Principles for Post-School Education, Research and Skills published on 28 June 2023, which can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/post-school-education-research-skills-purpose-principles/ .

The Scottish Government regularly meets with the Scottish Funding Council to discuss a range of matters.

We recognise the financial challenges facing colleges. We have committed to providing greater flexibility for institutions in how they use the investment that is available and autonomy to set ambitious, stretch targets for delivery. We are working closely with Colleges Scotland and Scottish Funding Council in a Tripartite Alignment group to seek constructive approaches to financial flexibilities. The Purpose and Principles for Post-School Education, Research and Skills published on 28 June 2023, developed in collaboration with stakeholders, sets out our long-term ambition for the sector. This can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/post-school-education-research-skills-purpose-principles/ .