Chamber and committees

Accountability seems to be a recurring theme in most of our meetings just now. Exhibit 2 of your briefing sets out the role of Community Justice Scotland and says that it oversees and reports on the performance of community justice services. It appears that, although the 30 community justice partnerships must provide information to Community Justice Scotland, individual partners remain accountable through their usual accountability arrangements. Can you tell us what powers Community Justice Scotland has as part of its overseeing role? Is it correct to say that, should there be an issue with any of the partners, Community Justice Scotland would have no power to take any action other than to report the issue to Scottish ministers?

My next question is on positive outcomes. What work has been done to reduce the 4.6 per cent of young people who leave with an unknown classification? Also, what is classed as a positive destination? Does it mean going to a job, getting on a course or getting a qualification? Is any workforce planning done to ensure that courses that young people take will provide a job at the end?

Thank you—I look forward to reading that report.

Have they given any explanation at all of why there have not been any improvements?

It seems that the OECD’s report on its review of the curriculum for excellence has the potential to address many of the issues that the Auditor General raised. We understand that the Scottish Government has accepted the report’s recommendations in full, including the recommendation on improved data to deliver outcomes. In the absence of improved data, how is the Scottish Government addressing the educational outcomes of pupils who are currently in the senior phase of education and who will not benefit from future reforms?

The £20 uplift to universal credit was just one part of a £9 billion package of social security spending introduced by the UK Government to protect the most vulnerable in our society from the worst of the pandemic. When it was first announced by the chancellor in March 2020, it immediately provided financial relief to families affected by the pandemic and sat alongside other measures such as the uprating of child benefit, guardian’s allowance and relief thresholds, and a one-off £500 payment for the recipients of working tax credit. The DWP is not often praised, but it has really risen to the challenge during the pandemic.

An independent review of the UK Government’s temporary Covid measures by the Social Security Advisory Committee noted that

“the rapid response on a huge scale by the Department for Work and Pensions ... to support social security and tax credit claimants during the pandemic has been very successful”.

It added that the universal credit system performed

“remarkably well under pressure”,

with a number of critical successes such as

“rapidly adapting the claims process, suspending conditionality”

and speeding up payments. [Interruption.] Not now; I want to make progress.

We cannot escape the fact that the £20 uplift to universal credit, which has already been extended for six months, has always been a temporary measure. As the economy reawakens, the focus for any Government should be to get the country back to work. All UK Administrations face that challenge, but the UK Government is leading the way with its plan for jobs.

The kickstart scheme is just one prong of the strategy, with £2 billion invested and more than 63,000 young people now in kickstart jobs. More than 2,500 young people begin kickstart jobs every week. That is a remarkable number. [Interruption.] Not now. As a result, it is only right that my colleague Miles Briggs has mentioned kickstart in his amendment. It is a great programme and deserves more recognition from members here. [Interruption.] No, I gave way last week. I want to make progress today.

There is also the £2.9 billion restart scheme, which provides support worth around £2,000 to more than 1 million long-term unemployed people on universal credit. The number of work coaches has been doubled to 27,000 and £2.3 billion has been invested in recruiting them, and 1.6 million people have moved from unemployment into work since April 2020. The job entry targeted support scheme has been given £200 million and has supported almost 6,000 people in Scotland. A million people in receipt of pension credit have been given a £140 discount on their energy bills. The national living wage has been boosted to £8.91 per hour.

It is easy for the SNP to point the finger of blame when it comes to social security, even if its own system is far from perfect. To say, as many do, that the UK Government has not done enough to support those who need it most is just not true.

The decision to end the uplift in universal credit was not taken lightly by the UK Government—such decisions never are. However, as I have outlined, the UK Government and the DWP have gone above and beyond in standing up for the most vulnerable in our society.

No, that is fine.

I am an MSP for South Scotland.

The Auditor General for Scotland’s blog reports that many colleges

“continue to face significant financial challenges.”

We have a strong sense from the committee papers as to what those are, but I ask the participants to share their experiences of the challenges on the ground.

I have a couple of questions, so I will group them all together, and you can answer them all at the same time.

With major reform of the SQA and Education Scotland planned, how well do those Government agencies currently serve the needs of colleges? There seems to be a perception that they are very school focused. Do you feel that you get something of value from them? Do they really understand the challenges that you face? Have they supported the sector to respond flexibly to Covid? What changes, if any, would you like to be made?