Education, Culture and Sport Committee, 14 Jun 2000

Meeting date: Wednesday, June 14, 2000

Official Report 285KB pdf

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Committee Business

The final item on our agenda is an update on outstanding committee business. Do members have any questions, or are there issues that members wish to raise?

I have had a discussion with Gillian Baxendine on the timetable for the Argyll and Bute inquiry, which seems to be very tight. The more people who have heard about my involvement in the inquiry, the more e-mails and letters I have received. I am striving to get the draft report to Gillian by the end of next week; we are looking for it to come before the committee on 27 June. It is a struggle to collect all the information and to find a way through it.

Is the local authority aware of the time scale?

It is not happy with the time scale and would rather that something were available next week. However, that is simply not possible, as the issue is consultation. It was important that I spoke to anyone who wanted to speak to me about the issue, not just to the local authority. I have visited schools, met parents and school boards and so on. There are people whom I have not yet seen and whom I may not be able to see.

Cathy Peattie has done very well to get through this task as quickly as she has. It is important that we speak to as many people as possible, because this is about the consultation process rather than the principle of the closures. I would be happy to accept the suggested timetable, despite knowing that the local authority is pressing for the report to be ready sooner. Is that acceptable to the rest of the committee?

Members indicated agreement.

Last week, the report of the McCrone committee was published, and the committee will want to take some views on that. However, there will be some consultation on and discussion of the report over the recess. I suggest that we invite Sam Galbraith to come before the committee early in September, so that we can have an informed discussion on the comments that the Executive has received on the McCrone report and on the way forward. The committee could feed into the discussion at that stage.

You mentioned asking the minister to come before the committee. Will we invite other witnesses to appear before us?

I suspect that we will. I want us to invite the minister so that we can hear the Executive's views on the report. We can then decide who else we may need to speak to.

Written evidence that has been received on Hampden will be brought to the committee's next meeting on 21 June. Given that a number of those who have submitted written evidence have asked for it to be considered in private, can we agree to do that? If we are to get honest and transparent responses, we might have to respect that request.

Members indicated agreement.

A parent of a special needs child attended today's meeting. I do not know whether she spoke to you, convener, but quite a few parents of special needs children have asked me whether they can come before the committee to give evidence in our inquiry. Is there any way of fitting that into the timetable?

I am aware that a number of individual parents have submitted written evidence, and it would be impossible to invite them all. I said to the parent who attended this meeting that I will first have further discussions with Gillian Baxendine about how we would handle that practically, and then ask the committee whether it believes that it would be helpful to speak to parents. We need to get the practicalities sorted out before we can make a decision.

I suggest that each time we go out on a visit it is made clear to the schools that we would like an opportunity to speak to parents.

I suggested that some time ago. It is important that, when we visit schools, we get an opportunity to speak to parents. Like Fiona McLeod, because I have a particular interest in special needs education, I come into contact with many local parents, and I know that their experience is sometimes very different from what we hear. Occasionally I get a bit cross, because I know that what I am hearing does not correspond with people's experience. I do not know how we can best get to hear parents' views, as we do not want to be drawn into discussing particular cases. However, we need to listen to what parents are saying.

That came across strongly and we will take further advice on it.

I thank the members who have stayed until the end of the meeting.

Meeting closed at 12:25.