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Members have before them bids for civic participation research funding and a request to extend the advisers' contracts in relation to our purposes of education inquiry. Do members have questions or comments on the papers? In the purposes of education inquiry paper, I think that the list of organisations to whom we intend to distribute the consultation paper should include the Association of Scottish Colleges because of its interest in the link between school and further education.
In the Procedures Committee today, we spoke to representatives of the Scottish Civic Forum. They said that they are involved with people in the arena into which we are inquiring. They might write to us outlining what they can offer as an overview of education, but it might be useful to send them the consultation paper anyway.
I endorse your suggestion, convener. I also think that student teachers at the education colleges should be asked to comment, given that the issue into which we are inquiring will impact on their careers.
I was going to return to that. The minister, Cathy Jamieson, wrote to me asking for a discussion about that matter. I suggest that the deputy convener and I meet the minister and then come back to the committee with suggestions about how to progress. It is important that we avoid confusion and duplication of work. We could usefully do some work jointly, but other work will need to be done separately. Is it agreed that the deputy convener and I should follow that course of action?
When will you meet the minister?
Sooner rather than later. I wrote to the minister to say that, if the committee agreed to that approach, I would like to proceed within the next week to 10 days.
On the previous point, would it be appropriate to send the consultation paper to student representative councils and the National Union of Students?
We have to be clear about the remit of this committee. We deal specifically with school education and we do not have a locus on further and higher education. I suggested that we include the Association of Scottish Colleges because it will have a locus on the issue of how people move from schools to further and higher education. I have no problem with consulting the NUS, but I think that we should maintain a clear focus on school-based education. I am aware that the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee is conducting an inquiry into lifelong learning and we do not want to interfere in that piece of work.
I am interested in the recent announcement of the Minister for Education and Young People that she would like a debate on education. Party spokespeople often say that it would be useful to have a debate on the nature of education. Would it be possible to ask the minister informally what she envisages her role to be, both in the Executive and in the Labour party, in relation to this committee's role in the Parliament?
That is what is intended by the paragraph that is headed "Executive ‘National Debate'". We need to have that consultation. I think that the decisions were made from the perspective of the Executive rather than the Labour party. Frank McAveety and I will discuss that matter with the minister and report to the committee in due course.
Members have before them the pro forma document for the civic participation bid. We have discussed this matter at length previously and have decided that we want to engage as many people as possible in the debate. Obviously, we need to make specific bids for funding in relation to that. This paper examines ways in which we can do that to ensure that the inquiry's consultation paper is distributed as widely as possible.
I entirely support the paper. I am conscious that the bid is for the distribution of materials. I was not party to the discussion, so I wonder whether the committee considered running its own consultation event, in addition to the focus group work. I appreciate that it is late in the day, but it would bring the issues together in my mind if it were possible for people to attend a facilitated discussion on the consultation paper. That is just a thought.
That might be something that we can consider after the focus groups have been concluded. It would be a matter for next year's budget. We would submit a paper to the bidding round on 29 March to hold an event similar to the one that we held on the children's commissioner, which built on the work that had been done in focus groups and on consultation.
I am happy with that.
One of the possible outcomes of consultation with the Minister for Education and Young People is the opportunity to piggy-back on the Executive's funding. If we make strategic decisions in the light of the Executive's proposals, we might be able to get some things funded that we have a locus in, in a way that does not cost us directly.
I am always keen to use funding from sources other than our own. Do we agree to the civic participation bid?
Do we agree to the externally commissioned research paper?
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