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The “live” aspect of the National e-Learning Offer (NeLO), which includes interactive, online classes and study support from early years to senior phase, is evaluated via Annual Evidence of Impact Reports published by e-Sgoil. The latest report which covers academic year 2022/23 was published in June 2023, and is available at: https://www.e-sgoil.com/downloads/e-sgoil_Impact_Report_2023.pdf

Key highlights from that report included the following:

19,000 webinar registrations for evening study support

16,100 webinar registrations for Easter Study support

44,915 learner attendances at “Developing the Young Workforce Live” sessions

170 “interrupted learners” who are unable to attend school onboarded and engaging with live, interactive programmes of learning.

The “recorded lessons” offer from NeLO is hosted by West Online School (West OS) and their reports are available at: https://www.westpartnership.co.uk/evaluating-and-reporting/ . In 2022-23, 90% of schools and over 40,000 learners accessed WestOS recorded lessons, podcasts and masterclasses.

The “supported” offer is hosted by Education Scotland in the form of a repository of online resources with a single search tool and usage is captured as part of Education Scotland’s own reporting.

NeLO partners continue to gather learner and educator feedback through focus groups and questionnaires.

I understand that local authorities are keen to get clarity on Phase 3 of the Learning Estate Investment Programme.

We previously wrote to local authorities to explain that consideration of potential Phase 3 projects was still ongoing. It is important to recognise that we are trying to make these important investment decisions against a backdrop of market volatility on current projects, the need to keep Scottish finances on a sustainable trajectory and most recently, RAAC prevalence in school buildings.

These are big decisions, and it is important we get them right. I hope to announce successful projects as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government continues to keep Preference Waiver Payments (PWP) under review through the Teacher Induction Scheme Ongoing Review Group, and the Strategic Board for Teacher Education will also consider this issue as part of its wider work on teacher recruitment and retention.

However, it is worth highlighting the original intent of the scheme, which is to incentivise teachers to undertake their probation in those parts of Scotland where recruitment and retention is the greatest challenge. We know that those pressures are generally felt more in secondary schools than they are in primary schools.

The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme was launched in December 2022 and offers homeowners in Scotland a grant, interest free loan or a combination of both to support the installation of zero direct emission heating systems and energy efficiency measures.

The scheme is open to all domestic homeowners in Scotland who live in the property they own.

Further information regarding scheme requirements is available on the Home Energy Scotland website: https://www.homeenergyscotland.org/funding/grants-loans/detail/

Whilst there is an expectation that Educational Psychologist trainees make every reasonable effort to secure employment within a Scottish educational psychology service, this does not preclude seeking other employment if it is not possible to secure local authority employment.

The Scottish Government last met with representatives of the Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health as part of the ETC (Environmental Health and Trading Standards Officers Group) on 25 August 2023. Officials from the Scottish Government provided an update on the New Deal for Business Group (NDBG) recommendation report published on 29 June 2023, its acceptance by Scottish Ministers and work planned to consider the cumulative impact of regulations.

There was specific discussion of the Subgroup for Regulation recommendations, including the role that Local Authority regulators will play in the re-established Regulatory Review Group (RRG) and in the development of the policy cycle and Business Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) processes.

Waiting times for medical procedures that require anaesthetic are monitored by new outpatient national standards and the Treatment Time Guarantee for inpatient and day-case.

Over 2.8 million inpatients and day cases have benefited from the 12-weeks treatment target since it was introduced – with 81.7% of these being seen within 12 weeks. Further information about waiting times can be found on the PHS website.

Every person recovers differently and how quickly someone can return to work depends on a number of things, including the type of surgery and the type of work they do. The surgeon will advise how long it's likely to take to recover.

The Scottish Government is committed to transitioning to a zero waste and circular economy and is taking steps to do so within the legislative options available. The Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill and extended producer responsibility for packaging are distinct reforms which together will contribute to support that transition. The Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill will establish a further legislative framework to support that transition, and will significantly increase reuse and recycling rates, and modernise and improve waste and recycling services.

Using existing powers under the Environment Act 2021, we are taking a four-nations approach to implement the extended producer responsibility scheme for packaging, ensuring that producers are responsible for the full net disposal costs of their household packaging and incentivising more environmentally-friendly product design. The impacts of these packaging reforms will be taken into account and inform a co-design process with households and operators for future household waste recycling and reuse service standards, and a future statutory code of practice made using powers in the Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill. This will modernise recycling in Scotland, putting people at the heart of how services are designed and delivered, and support local authorities to meet future local statutory targets from 2030.

The greenhouse gas impacts of all forest operations, including the effects of ground disturbance, are accounted for in the modelling used for the GHG Inventory, both for the UK and for Scotland. The Inventory is published annually although impacts of specific operations such as clear felling are not reported separately. Recent work by Forest Research shows that the production cycle associated with timber adds significantly to the net greenhouse gas benefits of woodlands.

Whilst performance in 2021-22 compared to 2018-19 was broadly lower indicating the continuing impact of the pandemic on learning, there was some encouraging evidence amongst for example, P7 pupils that performance was returning to pre-pandemic levels.

ACEL data is one of a range of measures captured in the National Improvement Framework. It is important to be able to measure the impact of the education system as a whole, rather than looking at individual measures. That is why the National Improvement Framework includes ACEL data for P1, P4, P7 and S3 as part of a broader basket of key measures of attainment. This avoids, as far as possible, a situation where looking at a single measure generates perverse behaviours by becoming the single focus of activity in schools.

Local education authorities have the statutory responsibility to provide school education. To support continuous improvement in literacy and numeracy in our schools nationally, the Scottish Government is:

• Focusing on literacy and numeracy within the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) which has allocated over £550m in Pupil Equity Funding directly to primary schools up until 2022-23 and is investing a total of £1bn over this parliamentary term, including direct funding for all 32 local authorities.
• Has agreed clear stretch aims within each local authority as part of the SAC which, if achieved, would narrow the poverty related attainment gap by over 7 percentage points in both primary school literacy and numeracy by 2022-23 compared to 2020-21.
• Rejoining the “PIRLS” and “TIMSS” surveys, thereby further improving the evidence base on literacy and numeracy performance.
• Taking forward the National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL) and the National Response to Improving Mathematics (NRIM) alongside Education Scotland and ADES, drawing on the available evidence to develop focused, “teacher-relevant” packages of professional learning, guidance and support.
• Ensuring that Education Scotland provides a tailored local and school-level support offer via attainment advisers and Regional Improvement Collaboratives.
• Funding and promoting Maths Week Scotland every year since 2017, transforming public attitudes to maths and promoting the value of maths as an essential skill for every career.
• Funding additional national programmes which support high quality learning and teaching, including “Read Write Count with the First Minister”, Reading Schools and the School Library Improvement Fund.