Chamber and committees

I want to ask Stuart Bain about the cost of maintaining teacher numbers. The Government said that it was going to put in £186.5 million, whereas COSLA said that it would cost between £250 million and £310 million. What do you think about the differences in those estimates?

Also, on Laura Moodie’s point about rural schools, you said that one of your concerns is limited subject choice. I know, both from my experience as a parent and from constituents who come to me, that there is already limited subject choice in secondary schools. What has the impact of the teacher numbers policy been on that?

The first part was about the difference in the cost estimates. I want to understand why there is a difference.

Sheena Devlin spoke to a lot of my questions in her reply to Duncan Dunlop, but I want to reiterate this point because we have had a really good conversation and it is clear that there are concerns about the policy, which does not seem very child centric.

As you said, Sheena, we are not thinking about the number of different people who will be involved in a child’s day. You spoke about transitions. We have seen a huge rise in the number of children with additional support needs, and, for those children, transitions are where there are crisis points. You answered this question a bit, but, if we are wedded to reducing class contact time, what are we going to do to ensure that children with additional support needs are not—I do not want to use the expression “left behind”—challenged by this.

Apologies—I thought that Duncan Dunlop would be first.

Sheena, thank you very much for your answer. You said that reduced class contact time will increase the number of adults who children have exposure to over a given week. That jumped out at me when I was reading the papers. Can you bring to life for us what a child’s week will look like? They will have 25 hours, but teachers will have 21, so there is a gap of four hours. What are your thoughts on how those four hours will be made up? Will there be timetabling changes to chunk up a child’s day a bit with physical education or music?

I am interested in what that will look like from a child’s point of view. You are right that there must be consistency, including from a teacher’s point of view, if they are going into a class of children who they have not spent as much time with.

Good morning, and thank you for the really detailed evidence that you have given so far. It is pretty clear that there is an issue with the implementation and delivery of the Promise.

My question is on whole family wellbeing. It is hugely important that we have early interventions and that we prevent children from going into care in the first place. According to Audit Scotland, £500 million was pledged for the Promise but only £148 million was spent. What prevented money from getting to the people who needed it? The paper outlines progress on the recommendations. Further, although there is no mention of whole family wellbeing in the programme for government, a £20 million whole family support third sector delivery fund is included. What does that mean? What is the change there?

Fraser McKinlay mentioned a cash-first approach. Would you agree with that, Ben? It sounds really interesting. Will you expand on what that might look like?

Bringing those pots of money together will not solve the problem of recruitment, which relates to your first point.

Do you want to add anything on barriers to whole family support, Kay?

Yes, I was going to ask what the challenges are in that respect. To go back to Duncan Dunlop’s point, I note that your launch was in East Linton, and I totally agree with him that that seemed a slightly odd choice. I presume that that primary was chosen because it is a small school. I am hearing from school leaders that this sort of thing is easier to do in a small school, while with larger schools, issues arise with the building, staff and so on. I want to get a bit of a sense from you, cabinet secretary, or anyone else of what you think the challenges are.

I will briefly return to the mobile phone ban. I think that we are all pretty much in agreement that we need to find a balance between flexibility and consistency. The 12-week consultation is out now. When do you think you will introduce the proposed legislation in the Parliament? I am hearing concerns from school leaders because, although we want to give headteachers flexibility on how the ban works in their school, we do not want a patchwork of implementation and procurement, especially with schools spending money on different types of pouches and everyone having a slightly different system. I am slightly concerned that, by the time the legislation comes, we will already have piecemeal implementation across schools. I want to get a timescale and hear your thoughts on that.

I will be very brief. In the programme for government, you mention a dyslexia passport, which is a fantastic idea. What are the lead times for children getting a dyslexia diagnosis? The passport will help only once the diagnosis happens, so do you know how long children are waiting? Anecdotally, I know that a lot of parents will pay for diagnosis, which leads to inequity.