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The Scottish Government currently provides Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) with £341,250 core grant funding per year through the Children and Young People Early Intervention Fund to support Members of the Youth Parliament (MSYP). Scottish Government’s grant conditions include a requirement that all funded youth organisations must have robust safeguarding policies and procedures in place to protect vulnerable adults and children which comply with current national guidance in Scotland and that, upon request, they provide copies of their policies and procedures. The SYP safeguarding policies can be found here on its website: https://syp.org.uk/safeguarding/.

I also refer the member to the SYP Board statement from 2022. The statement provides details of action taken to strengthen safeguarding policies to ensure they are in line with legislation and also meet national standards. That statement can be found here: https://syp.org.uk/statement-from-syp-board/.

The organisation continues to review their safeguarding polices annually to ensure they are as comprehensive as possible.

The Scottish Government currently provides Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) with £341,250 core grant funding per year through the Children and Young People Early Intervention Fund to support Members of the Youth Parliament (MSYP) to become confident and resilient young people and develop the skills they need to influence change and reach their full potential. They also receive £30,000 for their role in supporting MSYPs to meet with the Scottish Cabinet and Executive team once a year.

My officials have sought reassurance from the SYP about its child protection and safeguarding procedures in the context of the management of these grants. In September 2025, SYP provided reassurance that they work continuously to strengthen their safeguarding guidelines and procedures in line with evolving national child protection policies.

All teachers are responsible for supporting pupils with additional support needs, not just those teachers whose role is specifically related to additional support for learning.

Statistics on teachers with a main subject relating to additional support needs are published in the teacher census supplementary statistics, available on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/

Statistics on school support staff in publicly funded schools in Scotland are published on the Scottish Government website at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Money laundering is investigated by Police Scotland alongside other partners including His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the National Crime Agency.

The 2021 SNP manifesto included a commitment to give teachers more time out of the classroom to prepare lessons, undertake professional development and tackle the challenges of closing the attainment gap.

The Scottish Government remains committed to delivering a reduction in teacher class contact time of 90 minutes per week, which we believe will create the conditions to achieve these improvements.

That is why we are working with teacher unions and COSLA through the SNCT to make meaningful progress towards delivering the reduction.

In October 2025 we were pleased that the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers subgroup on Reducing Class Contact Time agreed with our proposals to develop a workplan to deliver a route map towards reducing class contact time, at pace.

My officials are continuing work with COSLA and the teacher unions to achieve our joint objectives.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-41771 on 24 November 2025. 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.

We remain committed to working with COSLA and the teacher unions to make meaningful progress towards the implementation of the reduction as swiftly as possible.

While we respect union members’ right to withdraw their labour, we are disappointed that the teacher unions, including EIS, have announced they plan to take this action while these constructive discussions are ongoing.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-41723 on 24 November 2025. 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

Information on which developers signed the Developer Commitment Letter can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-safer-buildings-accord-developer-commitment-letter/pages/list-of-developers/

National Education for Scotland (NES) holds the contract with BJSS for the development of MyCare.scot. The estimated value of this contract for 2025–26 is currently between £4.5 million and £5 million, subject to change depending on the pace of delivery.