Seòmar agus comataidhean

The estates of independent schools are for those building owners to manage, however, the Registrar for Independent Schools wrote to all independent schools on 15 September 2023 to receive assurances that managers were aware if and where RAAC was present in their schools and, where present, to confirm that the appropriate mitigations were in place. The Scottish Government continues to monitor the numbers of independent schools who have completed surveys of their estates via engagement with the Registrar.

The Scottish Government has published guidance for local authorities and schools, Included, Engaged and Involved Part 1: Promoting and Managing School Attendance , as well as guidance for parents which reinforces the message that they should support children to attend school.

The guidance sets out how to promote engagement and motivation, including among those who may be at risk of poor attendance.

It also sets out action schools should take in response to a child’s or young person’s absence from school.

Earlier this year I asked Education Scotland to undertake work to better understand the current barriers and challenges experienced by schools, children and young people and their families which influence school attendance. Education Scotland published this report on 28 November.

We are currently reviewing the findings of this report and will consider the recommendations for any future work on addressing attendance in schools.

We are also considering the findings from our Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research, also published in November, which provides evidence-based information on the extent to which pupils are disengaging from learning. We are currently considering the findings of BISSR and plan to publish an action plan early in the new year.

The Equalities, Inclusion and Additional Support for Learning budget was £26.8 million in each of 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 which equates to 0.65%, 0.63% and 0.65% of the wider Education and Skills portfolio budget.

This budget includes the Scottish Government’s investment of an additional £15 million per year since 2019-20 to help local authorities respond to the individual needs of children and young people. This investment has helped contribute to the highest recorded level of support staff in schools, 16,606 in 2022.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of revenue funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on education, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The most recently available Local Government Financial Returns show that Additional Support for Learning accounted for a record high of £830 million of Gross Revenue Expenditure in 2021-22, equivalent to 12.1% of Gross Revenue Expenditure on education.

The term additional support needs under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (the 2004 Act) applies where for whatever reason children or young people are unable to benefit from school education without the provision of additional support. Therefore, the information requested in relation to colleges and universities is not applicable.

There are no national recommended standards or benchmarks for the caseload of school staff working with children and young people with additional support needs. School staffing decisions are the responsibility of individual local authorities. Therefore the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government.

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. The ratio of pupils to teachers has remained at its lowest since 2009.

World Expos are regulated by the Intergovernmental Organisation - Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) and membership is reserved. Scotland’s participation is reliant on invitation from the UK Government to be a sponsor partner of the UK Pavilion. Building on Scotland’s successful participation at Expo 2020 in Dubai, the UK and Scottish Government are in discussion about opportunities to showcase Scotland at Expo 2025 in Osaka.

In 2022 National Services Division (NSD) carried out an internal minor review specifically on the Scottish National Pain Management Programme. The Scottish Government does not hold information on its publication, this would be a matter for NSD.

The Scottish Government recognises the impact which the Covid-19 pandemic has had on children and young people in Scotland, particularly the closing of schools and learning lost as a result. This is in common with children and young people across the world and the pandemic continues to impact on educational outcomes for children and young people, here and elsewhere.

The Scottish Government and Education Scotland published the Equity Audit in January 2021 which involved an evidence review of local, national and international literature, along with a representative sample of 54 schools in Scotland. This helped our understanding of the impact that COVID-19 and school building closures had on children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and set clear areas of focus for accelerating recovery, including the refresh of the Scottish Attainment Challenge programme.

Plans to help Scotland’s education system recover from the COVID-19 pandemic were published by the Scottish Government in October 2021. The Education Recovery Strategy set out the significant additional investment of almost £500 million being provided, as part of education recovery . This additional investment supported the recruitment of additional teachers and support staff across Local Authorities to provide enhanced support for children and young people and £25m was provided to local authorities for the purchase of 72,000 digital devices and 14,000 internet connections - helping support children, young people and staff across the country.

The pandemic and current cost of living crisis has undoubtedly deepened inequity; but this further necessitates our relentless focus on closing the poverty related attainment gap. That’s why we continue to empower schools and local authorities to improve the attainment and wellbeing of children and young people through our £1billion investment in the Scottish Attainment Challenge. This is alongside a range of other investments to mitigate the impact of poverty on our young people’s education, such as the school clothing grant, and the most comprehensive free school meal offer in the UK, saving families taking those meals around £400 per child, each year. We are also working with Local Authorities to extend our current offer of free school meals to those in P6 and P7 who are in receipt of Scottish Child Payment, which will benefit around 26,000 children.

The Scottish Government recognises that we must do more to attract the investment required if we are to fulfil the potential that the heat network sector has in Scotland and create a sustainable market. Reducing demand risk is one of the ways of achieving this.

We are working to develop potential new legislation on public sector organisations regarding connection to heat networks. We aim to consult on this during 2024-25, having first engaged with public sector partners.

Additionally, on 28 November we published a consultation on a Heat in Buildings Bill in which we seek views on the proposal to: Provide local authorities and the Scottish Ministers with powers to require other buildings within a Heat Network Zone to end their use of polluting heating systems (by a certain date and with a minimum notice period).

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has previously written to the Scottish Government setting out a series of recommendations for the reform on Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs). In response to this advice, we published a consultation on EPC reform on 25 July 2023 which concluded on 16 October 2023. We will publish a response to this consultation in 2024.

The consultation proposed to revise the information displayed on domestic EPCs, expanding the current suite of ratings to introduce a fabric energy efficiency rating and displaying relevant information relating to the heating system. This aims to provide a more holistic view to current and potential homeowners and tenants.

On the 28 November 2023 we launched the Proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill: Consultation which set out a potential role for EPCs to provide evidence that could support building owners in complying with proposed standards. The consultation proposes that privately-owned homes across Scotland will be required to meet a minimum energy efficiency standard before the end of 2033, with homes in the private rented sector having to do so before the end of 2028.

We continue to develop the approach to long term rent control in support of the introduction of a Housing Bill later in this parliamentary year. This ongoing work is considering how improvements in the condition of rented properties, including energy efficiency, could be included.

During our regular engagement with the heat networks sector, the costs of planning applications has not been cited as a major barrier to new developments. The Scottish Government has therefore not undertaken any analysis into the effect that these costs have on the profit margin for district heating projects.

The fee for submitting a planning application is to be calculated in accordance with the provisions of The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications) (Scotland) Regulations 2022 and it is for the relevant planning authority to calculate the appropriate fee based on the nature and scale of any individual development.

Meanwhile, all local authorities are developing Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES) that will identify potential district heating opportunities. Local authorities can receive support in developing potential projects from Heat Network Support Unit which can help to commercialise such opportunities.

Our non domestic rates reliefs can also support the viability of district heating projects, and we continue to work to implement the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act which will provide new powers to some operators and developers that are designed to make it quicker and less costly to construct and maintain these systems.