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As Lord Advocate, I am responsible for the investigation and prosecution of all criminal matters which occur in Scotland. Where a matter requires investigation, this is undertaken by COPFS on behalf of the Lord Advocate. The Crown provides advice, support and direction to investigators from Police Service of Scotland, throughout the course of the investigation.

The investigation is ongoing. The Crown does not provide information about the evidential position in ongoing investigations, with a view to maintaining confidence in the integrity and confidentiality of the Crown’s functions, including confidence on the part of those who provide, or may provide, information to the Crown.

Education authorities have duties under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act (2004) to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. This includes needs arising from the disruption caused by the mobility and deployment of a parent or carer in the Armed Forces and would include mental health and/or pastoral supports as appropriate.

We continue to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing through the provision of counselling through schools. This is now in place across secondary schools in Scotland. We have also introduced new guidance to support whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing, complementing the work that education authorities and schools already do to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Children of service personnel in Scotland will have their needs met by the supports outlined above and as such there are no plans to introduce a Service Pupil Premium.

The Scottish Government empowers Head Teachers to make local decisions that are best suited to the needs of their communities. This includes engagement with their own parents and children. As outlined in the refreshed 2022 PEF National Operational Guidance, a key principle of Pupil Equity Funding outlines that headteachers should ensure that parents, carers and children and young people should be meaningfully involved throughout the processes of planning, implementing and evaluating any approaches. Schools must have plans in place at the outset to evaluate the impact of the funding. These plans should outline clear outcomes to be achieved and how progress towards these, and the impact on closing the poverty-related attainment gap, will be measured.

PEF National Operational Guidance is intended to help schools plan how they will most effectively invest their Pupil Equity Funding allocation to improve the educational outcomes of children affected by poverty. Local authorities also issue complementary guidance about how the funding will operate locally.

The PEF National Operational guidance includes key principles which state that ‘Headteachers must develop a clear rationale for use of funding, based on a robust contextual analysis of relevant data which identifies the poverty-related attainment gap in their schools.’ Schools must also have plans in place at the outset to evaluate the impact of the funding. These plans should outline clear outcomes to be achieved and how progress towards these, and the impact on closing the poverty-related attainment gap, will be measured.

To be clear, this should be done within existing local authority reporting processes to their Parent Council and Forum, including in their annual School Improvement Plans and Standards and Quality Reports. These plans and reports must be made publicly available so that parents and carers can easily access, understand and where appropriate, challenge, what is happening in their school with regard to Pupil Equity Funding. The arrangements for publication are confirmed by the relevant local authority.

One specific example of the effectiveness of collaboration with the Police can be found in Education Scotland’s ‘Pupil Equity Funding: Looking inwards, outwards, forwards’ publication. It cites evidence from Eastbank Academy in Glasgow where the school reports that a PEF-funded partnership with Police Scotland has contributed to increased participation and engagement of identified young people. A link to that publication can be found here: Pupil Equity Funding: Looking inwards, outwards, forwards (education.gov.scot)

A key principle of the refreshed 2022 Pupil Equity Funding National Operational Guidance states that: ‘Teachers, parents and carers, children and young people and other key stakeholders should be meaningfully involved throughout the processes of planning, implementing and evaluating approaches.’

Headteachers are accountable to their local authority for the use of Pupil Equity Funding within their school. We have been clear that schools should consult and engage effectively with teachers, parents and carers, children and young people and the wider community when implementing approaches to closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

To ensure transparency, schools are expected to incorporate details of their Pupil Equity Funding plans and explicitly report on the impact on outcomes for learners impacted by poverty. This should be done within existing local authority reporting processes to their Parent Council and Forum, including in their annual School Improvement Plans and Standards and Quality Reports. These plans and reports must be made publicly available so that parents and carers can easily access, understand and where appropriate, challenge, what is happening in their school with regard to Pupil Equity Funding. The arrangements for publication should be confirmed by the relevant local authority.

This is a matter for headteachers and local authorities to consider, if appropriate. Decisions on how to use Pupil Equity Funding are taken by headteachers in an empowered education system. We trust schools and headteachers to know their pupils best, and to take decisions that are in the best interests of children and young people, including undertaking appropriate risk and impact assessments.

I reaffirm the answer provided in S6T-00784 on 14 June 2022. Specifically, that local decisions are taken by headteachers in an empowered education system. We trust schools and headteachers to know their pupils best, and to take decisions that are in the best interests of their children and young people.

Where there are projects involving Police Scotland in place, schools find these to be of great benefit. They are highly engaged in proactive and preventative work in communities with families – working alongside Social Work and third sector organisations.

All answers to Topical Questions are available on the Parliament's website at the following link: Meeting of the Parliament: 14/06/2022 | Scottish Parliament Website

I reaffirm the answer provided in S6T-00784 on 14 June 2022. Specifically, in the small number of areas where there are projects involving Police Scotland in place, schools indicate that they find these to be of great benefit.

The Scottish Government has had no specific discussions about this issue with these local authorities. It is for headteachers, who know their children best, to decide on how to invest their Pupil Equity Funding, based on their local contexts and they should work in partnership with each other, and their local authority, to agree the use of the funding.

The following table provides an overview of P1 learners who have undertaken (a) one or (b) both parts of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments since 20 September 2018, broken down by (i) school year and (ii) local authority.

Please note that figures less than five have been suppressed to prevent the potential identification of individuals.

The row "n/a" denotes publicly-funded schools outwith local authority control.

Table 1 - Number of P1 Children undertaking SNSA since 20 September 2018 - by year and local authority