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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: S5W-06386

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many admissions there have been for a (a) BA in Childhood Practice and (b) Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (Primary) and, of those, how many people (i) completed, (ii) are still to complete and (iii) are no longer studying without completing the course in each of the last 10 years, also broken down by institution.

Question reference: S5W-06401

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its recent announcement on funding for additional graduates for early learning and childcare, what (a) funding and (b) other measures there will be to increase awareness of routes into childcare.

The Scottish Government will invest around £1 million in 2017-18 to increase awareness of routes into Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) and to attract new recruits in to the sector. This campaign will be informed by the research that we are currently undertaking with target audiences.

We are also currently working with stakeholders to develop a Skills Investment Plan (SIP). The SIP will set out an action plan on how we will address issues such as raising the profile of a career in ELC and promoting routes into the sector.

Question reference: S5W-06399

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its recent announcement on funding for additional graduates for early learning and childcare, when the commitment to have 435 additional graduates in nurseries will be met.

Question reference: S5W-06398

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its recent announcement on funding for additional graduates for early learning and childcare, how it will ensure that 100 of the 126 additional teacher training graduates choose to work in nurseries.

Question reference: S5W-06396

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact would be on the number of (a) graduates of a BA in Childhood Practice and (b) teachers who are employed in nurseries of a reduction of £327 million to local government funding.

Taking next year's local government finance settlement plus the other sources of income available through potential increases in council tax, and Health and Social Care Integration, the overall increase in spending power to support local authority services amounts to £241 million (2.3 per cent in cash terms) or over £91 million (0.9 per cent in real terms).

In addition the Scottish Draft Budget 2017-18 has allocated over £60 million in new investment to support the expansion to 1,140 hours of Early Learning and Childcare entitlement.

This includes investment in the training and employment of new staff as well as the upskilling of some of the existing ELC workforce to ensure those currently within the sector have an opportunity to progress their careers. For example in order to support delivery of the Additional Graduate commitment the Scottish Government will invest nearly £1.5 million in 2017-18 to fund additional places for teacher training and on the BA Childhood Practice.

Question reference: S5W-06395

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its recent announcement on funding for additional graduates for early learning and childcare, what funding will be provided to local authorities to meet the costs of employing additional graduates.

The Scottish Government will invest nearly £1.5 million in 2017-18 to fund additional places for teacher training and on the BA Childhood Practice degree.

The Scottish Government will also provide funding to support delivery of the commitment from 2018-19 onwards. The full costs of delivery will mainly reflect additional staffing costs, which will be determined by the mixture of additional teachers and graduates that local authorities and partner providers recruit.

Question reference: S5W-06394

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many graduates of a BA in Childhood Practice in each of the last 10 years were employed in nurseries, broken down by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation quintile of the location of the nurseries.

Question reference: S5W-06392

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its recent announcement on funding for additional graduates for early learning and childcare, how many (a) graduates and (b) teachers it expects to (i) begin and (ii) complete courses in 2017-18, and, of those who complete courses in 2017-18, how many it expects to go on to work in nurseries in the most deprived areas.

In order to support delivery of the commitment the Scottish Government will invest nearly £1.5 million in 2017-18 to fund additional places for teacher training and on the BA Childhood Practice. As a result of this investment we expect an additional 126 students to start their teacher training and an additional 270 students to commence BA Childhood Practice in 2017-18.

We are currently working closely with local authorities to progress this commitment, and will ask them to provide plans setting out how they propose to allocate, and fill, the additional places in their area.

Question reference: S5W-06402

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its recent announcement on funding for additional graduates for early learning and childcare, how many existing qualified teachers or graduates will be encouraged to work in nurseries in the most deprived areas, and what action it will take to ensure that this does not have a detrimental effect on schools or other nurseries where they are currently working.

Question reference: S5W-06400

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its recent announcement on funding for additional graduates for early learning and childcare, how it will allow local government flexibility on allocation of additional places and ensure that each identified nursery receives a full-time equivalent graduate at the same time.

Allocations of the additional graduates to local authorities were determined by their share of the nurseries located in the 20% most deprived postcode areas. Using the Care Inspectorate data on Early Learning and Childcare settings, and the latest Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), 432 nurseries were identified as being located in the 20% most deprived postcode areas. Each of the three local authorities (Orkney, Shetland, and Western Isles) without a nursery in the 20% most deprived postcode areas will also receive one additional full-time equivalent graduate.

However, to ensure that this commitment benefits as many children as possible local authorities will be given flexibility to draw on their local data to prioritise how they allocate these additional places.

We are currently working closely with local authorities on progressing this commitment, and will ask them provide plans setting out how they propose to allocate the additional places in their area.