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Teachers in Scotland are required to spend 35 hours on professional learning per year and to engage in a Professional Update process every five years as a requirement for registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland.

As set out in the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers Handbook, it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure a wide range of professional learning development opportunities and the teacher’s responsibility to undertake a programme of agreed professional learning. This should be capable of being discharged within contractual working time.

In terms of the provision of professional learning for teachers at a national level, Scotland’s national education agency will have an important role in supporting a thriving professional learning sector through a national framework for professional learning and will build on the existing and well-regarded national leadership professional learning programmes.

Establishing the new Centre for Teaching Excellence will also ensure every teacher is supported in delivering high-quality teaching. Effective professional learning, development and dedicated time for collaboration is critical to improving performance in the classroom.

The Scottish Government values teachers and is committed to understanding their needs and providing them with the right support.

While teacher wellbeing is ultimately a matter for the employer, since 2020 we have invested more than £2 million specifically in supporting wellbeing in the education workforce. In 2023-24 we provided £0.2 million to Know You More, to offer free wellbeing coaching to teaching staff and educational professionals across Scotland.

We also worked in collaboration with the Association of Directors of Education Scotland to fund an Education Workforce Support Project, to gain a comprehensive understanding of how we support the wellbeing of our education workforce. We are currently considering the outcomes of this work and next steps to improve the existing wellbeing support that is provided by local authorities and teaching unions.

While employment practice is a matter for local authorities as employers, the Scottish Government values teachers and recognises the concerns around teacher workload that are identified in this research.

We are committed to working with COSLA and the teacher unions, through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers on matters such as teacher workload.

While employment practice is a matter for local authorities as employers, the Scottish Government values teachers and recognises the concerns around teacher workload that are identified in this research.

We are committed to working with COSLA and the teacher unions, through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers on matters such as teacher workload.

Whilst there are no current plans to update the Teachers’ Agreement 2001, any future changes to teachers’ terms and conditions would be matters for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers, which was established as part of the Teachers’ Agreement.

The Scottish Government is increasing funding to the culture sector by £15.8m this financial year to £196.6m. This is the first step on the route to investing at least £100m more annually in culture and the arts by the financial year 2028-29. In 2025-2026 we aim to provide an additional £25m to the culture sector.

I appreciate the need for clarity within the culture sector regarding the £100m and I hope to set out the trajectory of spend for the remainder of this Parliament in due course.

In line with normal budgetary procedure the Scottish Government will publish a draft budget for 2025-26 later this year.

Five local authorities have supplied NatureScot with cull return information in the past five years.

The Chief Nursing Officer post is a valuable and integral part of the leadership team within the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates and across the health and care system. In the coming years against a backdrop of continuing financial pressures, the post holder will focus on the reform agenda for health and care services, leading the work required to meet the Nursing Vision 2030, whilst also contributing to wider Scottish Government objectives in relation to reducing child poverty, improving the economy and addressing climate change.

With that in mind, my officials have been considering how to ensure we attract the right calibre of candidate to this post whilst also providing them with the time necessary to achieve those goals. The Civil Service Commission has recently confirmed that it has granted an exception for this post which allows it to be advertised as a five year secondment opportunity instead of the usual two years.

Officials are now finalising the recruitment process arrangements with the Commission to ensure fair and open competition, and expect to be in a position to advertise the post by the end of August.

We are aware of the following five local authorities overseeing and being actively involved in deer management:

• East Dunbartonshire
• West Lothian
• Aberdeen City
• Highland Council
• Perth & Kinross

This is a matter for local authorities. The information requested is not held centrally.