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I am pleased to announce the new rates of support for students in further and higher education for academic year 2009‘10. I am today placing in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre details of the rates of those loans, bursaries and grants, which will be available to eligible undergraduate and postgraduate students in full-time higher education.

A general uprating factor of 2.6%, in line with inflation, will be applied to the existing schemes of support in 2009‘10, thus maintaining their value in real terms.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has also agreed to maintain the alignment between the further and higher education sectors by, where appropriate, uprating the support available to further education students by 2.6%.

A copy of these rates is also being placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 47190).

I am pleased to announce that the Scottish Government and COSLA are launching the Early Years Framework today. The document is available at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/earlyyearsframework.

And a copy has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 47084)

The Early Years Framework represents a radical approach to improving a range of health, education and wider social outcomes and tackling the inequalities of opportunity which have plagued Scotland for too long. It has been developed as a partnership between national and local government and we are jointly committed to continuing this partnership as we proceed with implementation.

I have today written to representatives of employers and unions in the college sector to ask that they look jointly at how the relationship between the success of the sector and the reward process might be improved. I have also asked that they do so in a way which carries a genuine commitment to pursuing consensus.

While I have made clear that there is no question of government imposing new arrangements on the sector, I have asked that employers and unions also consider the implications of a national dimension in the remuneration of staff.

I will today launch 16+ Learning Choices, our new model for planning for the senior phase of Curriculum for Excellence. Through this vehicle, we will work with local partners to ensure all young people get an offer of appropriate continued learning, well ahead of their statutory school leaving date. Additionally, I will also announce a consultation proposing options for a coherent system of financial support for young people across a range of learning options, including school, college, work-based learning and non-formal learning.

The consultation document can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/246154.

I will launch the Scottish Government''s framework to tackle poverty and income inequality in Scotland - Achieving Our Potential - later today. A central element of the Framework is high level agreement between the Scottish Government and COSLA on priorities for action and investment to support those currently experiencing poverty, tackle income inequalities and address the long-term drivers of the poverty which has blighted Scotland for generations.

The taskforce met for the last time in September. We reflected on the views of stakeholders expressed over the summer and the work of the Scottish Funding Council to review its processes and procedures in readiness for its new role.

I am pleased to mark the successful conclusion of the taskforce''s work today by publishing four documents:

New Horizons is now formally confirmed as the taskforce''s final position and is being re-published today with a minor single amendment to clarify one of the universities'' challenges.

Taking Forward New Horizons builds on this by summarising the feedback received over the summer, clarifying a number of aspects and confirming the next steps.

The funding council have set out how they plan to respond to the new agenda described in New Horizons. This approach has been agreed by the taskforce and is published today in a separate document.

And finally, we have also published the terms of reference for the Tripartite Advisory Group.

These four documents are being published today on the government''s website here:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/UniversitiesColleges/16640/hetaskforce.

While today marks the end of the taskforce, it also represents a new beginning in terms of our approach and relationships. There is much work to be taken forward now “ by government, by universities and by the funding council “ to ensure our ambitions for the sector and for Scotland as a whole are met.

The report of the evaluation of the free school meals trial is being published on Thursday 2 October. I have introduced an Order to the Scottish Parliament which will allow all local authorities to provide free school meals for P1 - P3 pupils enabling this concordat commitment to be delivered as planned from August 2010 in all schools in Scotland.

The Scottish Government meets regularly with Glasgow City Council at ministerial and official level. The most recent ministerial meeting was held by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning on 18 June. I spoke with the Leader of Glasgow City Council on Thursday 19 June.

That would depend on how we define deprived areas, but for example if we consider schools where 40% or more of pupils are registered for free school meals, Glasgow has 84 such schools, of which 32 have P1 to P3 classes over 25.

I have arranged for the report to be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre today (Bib. number 45775) and will respond when I address the third annual National Chartered Teacher Conference tomorrow.