Europe, External Affairs and Culture
Gaelic (Adult Learning)
As the member is aware, adult Gaelic learning is central to Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s action plan to increase the number of Gaelic speakers, which was prepared for the bòrd at the request of the Scottish Government. We are working with the bòrd to ensure that there is a wide range of effective support in place for adult learners of Gaelic. The bòrd announced on 13 October additional support for the ulpan method of learning. The bòrd is now providing an additional £112,000 for Deiseal in 2010-11, taking the level of support to £202,000 in total, so that the rate of provision can be accelerated. In addition, the bòrd has also approved in principle support of £250,000 for each of the two years after that.
Perhaps even more important than adult learners are our children. Will the minister update us on the progress that Bòrd na Gàidhlig is making on provision for pre-school children when Taic’s contract ends after March next year?
It is important to stress that Taic’s funding is in place until the end of this financial year and support from that organisation to local Gaelic pre-school groups should remain in place until then under the terms of Taic’s agreement with Bòrd na Gàidhlig.
Scots Language
The Scottish Government has put in place a range of measures to support the Scots language. That includes an audit of Scots language provision, a survey of attitudes to Scots, funding of two Scots language bodies, the introduction of a census question and the establishment of a Scots language working group. Those actions are based on the pre-election commitments that we made in respect of the Scots language. I acknowledge the member’s personal contribution to many of those actions.
I thank the minister for that. Is she aware that in the early 16th century Gavin Douglas translated Virgil’s “The Aeneid” into Scots and that that was the first translation of such a major Latin work into any of the languages of these isles? Will she join me in welcoming the further edition of that great work, launched by Scottish Language Dictionaries and now online, which was started by John Law and finished by Caroline Macafee following John’s untimely passing earlier this year? Will she encourage as far as possible recognition of the value of our historical and current Scots tongue?
I am indeed aware of the launch of the book, and although I was unable to attend the official launch on 21 October, I have heard that the event went well. I look forward to reading the book in the near future, having translated parts of “The Aeneid” from the original when I studied Latin at school.
Roman Heritage (Economic Benefits)
I note the member’s interest and support for the promotion of our Roman heritage in general, and in Perthshire in particular.
I welcome the minister’s response. Along with members of the Antonine Guard, I visited Ardoch fort at Braco in Perthshire on Monday. It is the best-preserved Roman site in Scotland, if not the whole United Kingdom, yet people could drive past Ardoch and not know that it is there. As a result, we are missing a great economic opportunity.
Some might ask,
Notwithstanding the current economic situation and Murdo Fraser’s campaign to have a heritage centre for Scotland’s Roman history located in Perthshire, does the minister agree that a far more sensible location for such a centre would be in the vicinity of the Antonine wall, which is in my region of Central Scotland?
Instead of Scots—or perhaps Picts and Celts—fighting Romans, as happened in ancient times, we have Scots fighting over the Romans. The concept is there. Great resources are available, such as the Scotland’s history initiative from Learning and Teaching Scotland, which makes a fantastic array of Roman heritage items from all our collections and museums available to our young people.
Creative Scotland
Plans to relocate Creative Scotland will be carried forward as announced by Creative Scotland on 19 October 2010.
Will the minister give us a timetable for the relocation and the estimated costs of relocation?
As I said in an answer to a parliamentary question from Pauline McNeill, relocation will take place around mid-January 2011. The relocation costs are less than those in the business plan that was produced earlier this year. We understand that they will not exceed £70,000 from the funds that are earmarked for the purpose in 2010-11.
Theatre
The Scottish Government supports and promotes theatre through our partner Creative Scotland, through our direct funding relationship with the National Theatre of Scotland and through our Edinburgh festivals expo fund.
The minister knows that the Byre theatre in St Andrews is an important venue for touring theatre companies in Scotland, and that it provides significant partnership working that benefits the community of St Andrews and Fife as a whole. She also knows that the theatre lost its flexible funding in the last funding round from the Scottish Arts Council. Will she assure me that Creative Scotland will work with the Byre theatre and Fife Council to try to ensure that the theatre has a sustainable future as a cultural provider and creative catalyst for artists in Fife and beyond?
The short answer is yes. We need to value the importance of the Byre. I know that there will be disappointment at the two-year flexible funding, which is neither core funding nor five-year funding. However, it is important that we look across Scotland to see how we all within culture and the arts can support different institutions. I am very pleased that both Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet have visited the Byre over the past month and that the Scottish Chamber Orchestra is due to collaborate with the Byre.
Does the minister accept that, if community theatres such as the Byre are not to have some kind of continuity of funding, they are likely to go under? Indeed, that is a very real possibility for the Byre. Will she make representations to Creative Scotland that, in considering future grant applications from vulnerable small theatres such as the Byre, an element of roll-on funding should be awarded for an agreed production output over—let us say—a three-year minimum period?
I will relay the suggestion to Creative Scotland. However, we also have to recognise that in making funding decisions vulnerability itself has to be addressed. The organisation has to address vulnerability issues, whether of the business model, artistic interpretation, relationships or other matters. It has to address the issue and make improvements.
Does the minister agree with me, as a graduate of dramatic studies—I refer to myself, not to the minister—that theatre has more to offer than simply entertainment? Does she agree that theatre can be an invaluable tool in empowering people and communities? If so, will she join me in welcoming Glasgow-based Theatre Nemo to the Parliament tonight for a reception to celebrate its 10th anniversary? Will she congratulate the company on the invaluable work that it does with prisoners, children of prisoners and people with mental health problems?
Indeed, I will. I am not sure that I have the opportunity this evening to attend the event, but I will do so if I can. I am travelling to Glasgow tonight for the Fairbridge film gala evening 2010. Fairbridge is using film and theatre to help to support young people. Indeed, the work that is happening across Scotland in relation to prisoners should be brought to the attention of the Parliament. I saw a very powerful women’s production at Greenock prison in which empowerment and re-evaluation of lives was clearly visible. Seeing prisoners revisiting their previous lives in theatre form and asserting their desire not to repeat the problems of the past was one of the most dramatic performances that I have seen.
Creative Scotland
Since the establishment of Creative Scotland on 1 July, there have been nine formal meetings with staff representatives from Unite and PCS. Topics covered at these meetings included job matching of existing staff, redeployment and recruitment, voluntary early severance arrangements and pay and grading issues.
The minister will be aware of concerns and uncertainty about the direction of Creative Scotland since its establishment; indeed, Robin Harper lodged a motion on the subject. What discussions has the minister had with Creative Scotland on its overall strategy and direction, and what action is she taking to oversee that? If such discussions have taken place, what comfort and assurance can she give Creative Scotland staff in terms of their future?
I am aware that concerns have been raised by some people and I think that discussions have been taking place with Robin Harper. James Kelly may wish to ask Robin Harper about that. As Minister for Culture and External Affairs, I have issued a letter of guidance to Creative Scotland, as part of which I said that I expect to see a clear strategic plan.
Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop
First, I offer my congratulations to the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop for winning the arts funding prize for Edinburgh. Its ambitious project will create a centre of excellence for visual arts for Scotland with a local, national and international impact. We have supported the now fully funded phase 1 of the redevelopment through our partners Creative Scotland with lottery funding and recent grant in aid, and I understand that work is due to begin on this exciting development in early 2011.
I thank the minister for her answer and her congratulations to the workshop. I also thank her for the helpful letter that she sent me when I wrote to her about the matter some weeks ago. I join her in congratulating the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop—which, as it happens, is based in my constituency—first because this week it won the prestigious arts funding prize for Edinburgh, as the minister said, and secondly because it has almost completed the long process of fundraising that will enable it to build a new sculpture workshop to replace the existing one on the same site. Does the minister agree that the new centre, enhanced by the creative laboratories to be funded by the arts funding prize, will make the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop an international destination for culture?
Indeed. I think that it will do that, which is why I mentioned in my first answer that it will have an international perspective. I recognise Malcolm Chisholm’s support for the project. I am looking forward to visiting it to see the work as it progresses.
Question 8 was not lodged.
Museums
The Scottish Government recognises the significant contribution of Scotland’s museums to education, health and wellbeing, and cultural tourism. We will continue to work with the museums sector in the difficult economic climate ahead.
Visitor numbers to Scotland’s museums and galleries in the first four months of the calendar year were down by some 6.2 per cent compared with the similar period in 2009. The reduced visitor numbers at paid admission venues were down by a greater extent than those at free admission venues, yet in the past year visitor numbers at one paid admission venue, the Scottish football museum, increased by 6 per cent. Does that outstanding performance persuade the minister of the view, which is shared by the 33 MSPs of all parties who signed my motion earlier this year, that she should consider funding free admission to the best national football museum in the world?
I am aware of the member’s passionate support for the football museum. I will write to him about the figures that he quoted, but I think that he is quoting United Kingdom figures and not Scotland’s figures, because Scotland’s museums have seen very good progress. Indeed, Edinburgh castle had almost its best performance for seven years—it was only a couple of hundred thousand off that—and one of the most successful Augusts for some time. I think that Scotland has been bucking the trend of the rest of the UK in terms of museum attendance. However, that is not to belie the very successful work of the football museum.
I want to get in all members who have a question, so I would appreciate brief questions and answers.
Will the cabinet secretary undertake to maintain the principle of free admission to the national museum and to the national galleries of Scotland?
I am a supporter of free admission. However, the member will be aware of the funding problems that we are experiencing, some of which are the responsibility of the previous Labour Government. Once we see the opportunities in the budget, we will have to make assessments. One of the successes of Scotland’s museums is the free access to the museums that currently have that.
Built Heritage
The Scottish Government recognises the importance of supporting the nation’s built heritage. Our commitment this year is an investment of £12 million. We have also introduced the Historic Environment (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill to the Parliament.
Is the minister aware of the situation at Cumbernauld house, which is an important building that was designed by William Adam in the 18th century, and where there are plans for luxury flats to be developed? Will the minister send her best wishes to the Cumbernauld House Trust, which is campaigning for a public use for the building, perhaps as a national Roman heritage centre?
I understand and appreciate the trust’s concerns. I also appreciate and am encouraged by the trust’s attempts to protect part of the community’s built heritage. However, I hope that the member appreciates that the Scottish ministers cannot get involved in specific cases at that stage and that his concerns should, for the moment, be addressed through the planning system. I am appreciative of the trust’s commitment.
Education and Lifelong Learning
Scottish Education Quality and Improvement Agency
There will be savings, but savings are not the main driver. The prime reason for establishing the new agency is to ensure that we have the best possible national structure in place to support and challenge our education system. Nonetheless, the creation of the new organisation provides an excellent opportunity to ensure that it will deliver its services as efficiently as possible, making savings whenever it can.
If the purpose is not to effect savings but to create the best possible structure, will the minister concede that it is an inherent conflict of interest to combine a body that has the task of appraising policy with one that has the purpose of developing and promoting policy?
No, I do not agree with that, because that is not what will happen in the organisation.
Will the cabinet secretary publish the business case for the merger and a record of the consultation that took place prior to the merger being announced?
I hope that the member will welcome the changes in Scottish education that are dictated and driven by the introduction of the curriculum for excellence. I hope that, as we develop the merger, he will not nit-pick or try to destroy the opportunities that it presents. I hope that he will support whole-heartedly the idea that, when we have bodies that support, encourage and develop Scottish education and allow Scottish education to reflect on and judge itself, the merger is the right thing to do. I will publish the information that it is necessary for us to publish to take forward the process. It will be an open and transparent process. It would be nice if members of the Labour Opposition supported Scottish education, rather than constantly wishing it worse than it is so that they can warm themselves on that possible view—a view that turns out not to be true.
Curriculum for Excellence (Implementation)
As a result of the commitment of teachers and other professionals to raising the standard of education and learning in Scotland, the curriculum for excellence is now a reality in our nurseries, schools and colleges across Scotland.
Although everyone remains committed to the curriculum for excellence and wishes to see its effective implementation as the cabinet secretary said, does he not agree that when major concerns are still being expressed by the very teachers who have to deliver it, he should listen to them rather than acting like the school bully and kicking them off the management board? Will he tell Parliament just what it was that the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association did or said that was so bad that it led him to discontinue its involvement in the management of the implementation of the curriculum for excellence?
There is a basic incompatibility between being involved in developing the curriculum for excellence, advising, assisting and challenging—that is what members of the management board do—and calling for strike action in those local authorities that continue to implement the curriculum for excellence. It is impossible for one body to do both. I have made it clear that I value the SSTA’s contribution to the process and I would like it on the management board, but it must choose whether it wishes to challenge, support and take part in the process or to wreck it. That is its decision, and it must make it.
Further Education Colleges (Funding)
This Government has provided record levels of funding for colleges to help them address the pressures brought by the recession. Our 6.9 per cent increase this year, compared with last year, recognises the additional demand for places and the role of further education in building skills for the future.
Mr Welsh, I know that your supplementary will be rather long and I will be listening very carefully. I want you to be quick because two other members wish to ask questions.
I will be fast. I commend to the minister the tremendous work being done by Angus College, which is the second-biggest east of Scotland provider of engineering modern apprenticeships. It is designing new, revolutionary qualifications for North Sea oil and gas industries and has increased student numbers by 6 per cent this year. In addition, its total student activity is 19 per cent above the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council level and is funded from its own resources, allowing 2,400 Angus students a springboard to the future and an opportunity that otherwise would be denied to them.
I am being encouraged just to say yes, but I will forgo the opportunity. I visited Angus College recently and was able to sit in on one of its skills classes—an award-winning class that helps to develop the soft skills of those who are furthest from the labour market. The project has been recognised by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education as providing a sector-leading innovative practice, and the more choices, more chances work that is done by Angus College is truly remarkable. I do not disagree with anything else that Andrew Welsh said.
As the minister is aware, there are plans to merge three Glasgow colleges. If he can give me a yes to this, I will say thank you to him. Will he give me an assurance today that the capital budget is secure to make the merger plan a reality?
I have to say to the member that, as yet, the process has not begun because the business case has not been lodged with the funding council. That has to happen first. It is only at that stage, and if, as seems likely, the prospective cost is in excess of £50 million, that the case will come to ministers. We will have to wait and see what is brought about by that process as well as by the spending review and the spending decisions that will be taken by the Government over the coming weeks.
Clackmannanshire Council (Meetings)
I met Clackmannanshire Council on 16 July 2009 to discuss a number of key issues relating to education and children and young people. At that meeting we signed the single outcome agreement.
Has the minister had discussions with the council about the maintenance of the primary and special school estate in Clackmannanshire, where only one of the 19 primary schools and one of the four special schools are A grade, two primary schools are C grade and one is D grade, and one special school is C grade? Can he assure us that he is taking steps to protect the maintenance budgets so that those schools do not deteriorate, to the detriment of our children’s education? Will he confirm that the funds to build one new primary school in Clackmannanshire are still guaranteed to be in place, if the current consultation on a merged school campus is successful?
I will take Richard Simpson’s last question first. The money for a new primary school is secure. A decision on what will happen to the two existing schools will be reached after we have received the council’s proposals, which we still await. For that reason, I have not had specific discussions with the council about the primary school estate; I am not able to get involved in such discussions when there is likely to be a proposal to close a school, which may ultimately be referred to ministers. However, I have spoken to the council previously on many occasions. Over a number of years, I have pointed out to it the folly of its public-private partnership burdens, which will put pressure on the maintenance budgets for all schools.
Newly Qualified Teachers (Employment)
As I said in committee yesterday, the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s surveys of post-probation teachers show that a significant number of teachers gain employment in the course of the school year. However, the employment of teachers is a matter for local authorities, and the extent to which new teachers find posts is greatly dependent on local authority recruitment decisions.
The cabinet secretary has alluded to the fact that this week he has apologised on record for the high number of teachers who are unable to find jobs, while blaming local authorities and universities. However, in August he wrote to me stating that the situation had arisen as a result of his Government’s workforce planning for teachers and that it was necessary to ensure that sufficient teachers remain available throughout the school year. Given that he seems to be claiming that he planned that so many newly qualified teachers would be unable to find work, will he now take full responsibility for the situation, apologise to unemployed teachers and mean it this time?
I hesitate to accuse the member of shedding crocodile tears, but I am close to doing so. Labour’s attitude on this matter has been shameful. There is a real problem in teacher employment, the roots of which lie in many different places. One of the most significant and strongest roots is the foolish, unjustifiable decisions that were made by the previous Administration. Another difficulty that has arisen is in the employment policies of local authorities, especially Labour local authorities.
That was an aggressive soundbite right there.
My point has been made for me by the shouting member who has just contributed. Not everything can be solved by the shouts of the Opposition. Problems must be solved by intensive work and a realisation that the Labour members who made the mistakes should take some responsibility for them.
City of Glasgow College Merger (Engineering)
Responsibility to fund a coherent system of high-quality college education lies with the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council, rather than with ministers. I have asked the chief executive of the funding council to write to the member to outline its approach to the future funding of colleges in Glasgow, including the new city of Glasgow college.
The minister will be aware that the city of Glasgow college merger went through substantially on promises from the Scottish funding council of £300 million of capital support for development of the college infrastructure, including a brand new engineering facility. He will also be aware that the proposal implied the snatching away of Stow College’s highly regarded specialism in engineering.
It is hard to give the reassurances that are sought, given that they are built upon false premises. On the point about the merger being agreed—I think the member said “promised” by the funding council—on the basis of a £300 million contribution towards the capital development of the new college’s estate, that was not the case. The colleges asked for the merger based on educational grounds, and the merger was supported by the funding council based on those same grounds. Subsequently, it was also supported by ministers on those grounds.
Further and Higher Education (Range, Quality and Relevance)
We expect institutions to work closely with one other and with the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council to ensure that further and higher education provision across Scotland is coherent, relevant and of high quality.
I confess to being slightly puzzled. Speaking as someone who does not think that the attainment of 50 per cent of school leavers going to university is a holy grail, I am interested in the quality and content of courses. In chapter 2 of the position paper that was published by the cabinet secretary’s department today, he says:
I am sorry that the member is confused. She clearly does not know that 20 per cent of higher education is already delivered by the college sector. She clearly does not know that articulation from college to university is a major factor of college development. I am sorry that the member has fallen into the trap, but that in no sense judges or invalidates the very strong vocational and skills education activities of the colleges. Those activities sit happily side by side.
On that note, is the Scottish Government pursuing any objectives to review the range and quality of examinations, and not just Scottish Qualifications Authority examinations? That might answer some of Margo MacDonald’s queries.
There is a good and constant question about assessment and examinations in the college sector. There is always keenness to ensure that the system works. The Scottish qualifications framework is well established, and it is a good template against which all examination activity should be measured. Review of the whole system is not necessary, but it is important to ensure that examinations speak to employers, in particular, about the quality and extent of achievement.