Chamber and committees

I still do not see how that will help, say, Plockton high school. If there is already a lack of physics teachers somewhere that isolated, how will they be able to get extra specialist support in physics?

Yes, but should we look at the issue differently? In other words, should different people be responsible? Should we have a different structure of responsibility for delivering care?

Family group decision making will not even be offered everywhere, will it?

John Wilson also says in his report that we are spending £1,700 more per pupil a year in Scotland and we are getting worse outcomes.

On the point that you began with, David, do you not warn in your submission that this move could narrow subject choice? Last week, there were 18 secondary schools that had only a part-time physics teacher. If teachers have to have less contact time with pupils, who is going to teach physics in that environment?

Alison Gordon, I am afraid that you are the last one. I am hearing that things would all be okay if we had more money, but, for me, the issue is about more than that. Far too many children and young people are being failed in the system. There are huge impacts on their life chances.

We look at the burgeoning prison population and the number of drug deaths we have had, and we know that there will be a correlation between those things and how we look after our care-experienced children when they are most vulnerable and when they are young. There has been massive impetus from the Scottish Government—for 10 years, the issue has been a priority—yet we are still struggling in this space. Is it not a leadership issue? What is one lever that we could concentrate on pulling in the three and a half years of the Promise that we have left?

10:45

I am sorry to interrupt, but I am conscious of the time. We are going to hit a budget black hole of potentially up to £5 billion by the end of this parliamentary session—within five years—and we are spending around £300 million on this initiative. I understand that there has been a lot of progress on artificial intelligence and other things that can help teachers to plan and develop resources. However, would it not be better to prioritise the spend on additional support needs and classroom assistants to alleviate some of the pressures on teaching staff, so that there is continuity of the core teacher in the classroom, with support around them?

Yes, they are going to be exacerbated.

I see that Andrea Bradley wants to come in, but I want to move on to a different, perhaps more collegiate, area.

One of the issues that we have in education, on which you might not be prepared to answer, is that, last year, only 23 per cent of probationary teachers secured a full-time, permanent contract in the year after graduation, which compares with more than 56 per cent in 2016-17. What has driven that deterioration, and what should the Government be doing to address that?

Good morning. It is good to see many of you again. The report from the Oversight Board is the fourth such report, and, last year, we had the Audit Scotland report. My conclusion from reading the Oversight Board’s report is that, given the struggle that we are having and the time that it is taking to change the culture, there seems to be a lack of leadership. When we do not have clear plans, it is not possible to understand who is responsible and accountable for different aspects, what action will be taken, how much it will cost and what impact it will make. We hear that, while the picture is good in some areas, in other areas it is not and, in some areas, the Promise has almost been forgotten. There is a lack of coherence in how it is being delivered and a lack of impetus.

Who should be responsible for delivering care? I realise that there are many layers to that, so you might need to say who should be responsible for that at national, regional and local levels. Who should be responsible for ensuring that each and every child has a lifelong stable and loving relationship? That last bit seems to get forgotten and to get left out of the narrative of the core purpose of the Promise, but it is one of the main things that children need, along with a lot of other support and specialist services.

I put this question to all of you, with your different hats on, and I ask you to be brief. Who should be responsible for delivering care? As far as I can see, that has got lost. We want the process to work, but it is not working for enough children.

Yes, within the current structures.

Simon Cameron—it is over to you. We have had over six years of this, and, in around two weeks’ time, it will be 10 years since Nicola Sturgeon said that she would, if necessary, rip up the system. More time is always the answer, but we have had a lot of time. Perhaps it has not been spent in the most efficient and effective way. This is about children’s lives, so it impacts future generations.