Chamber and committees

I picked up on a couple of things during the committee’s evidence sessions that are not currently in the bill. One specific thing concerns alignment with skills shortages. Has the Government looked at that? Another concerns target setting, because it has been raised with the committee that the bill does not include any minimum-level guarantees relating to, for example, rights for apprentices and for employers. There is potentially still quite a lot to be considered for stage 2 amendments—

Has the Government been listening? Has it picked up on some of that already?

We have had a couple of conversations about private sector investment in the college sector. It is interesting to consider the various approaches that have been taken by colleges—Ayrshire College, in particular—to bring in private investment. In relation to your previous point, that investment often involves equipment. Air-source heat pump fitting in Edinburgh has direct links to the manufacturers, and people leave college with the ability to fit a piece of equipment that they have worked on. There is very little in the bill with regard to opportunities to align more private sector investment to address skill shortages or to fund what will be needed by our college sector. Could you comment on that?

Yes. What transition arrangements are in place? Do you foresee the current arrangement continuing until the SFC has everything in place?

I thank Willie Rennie and the Liberal Democrats for using their party business time to hold the debate. It is important that we highlight the pressures that the teaching workforce faces. I am sure that everyone will remember a positive role that a teacher has played in their lives, from giving them a love for, or aspiration to study, a subject to providing the focus that is often needed to achieve their dreams.

We need to accept that the workforce challenge that Willie Rennie has highlighted in the motion is stark. That puts pressure on teachers and the school community, and it leads to an inability to deliver on and meet pledges that ministers have made on non-contact time.

When SNP ministers pledged to recruit 3,500 teachers, they did not make that pledge with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities; SNP ministers said that they would deliver that recruitment in this parliamentary session. With less than a year to go, it is clear that they have failed. That pledge was made after 14 years of the same party being in office, and it is now likely to be missed by the end of this parliamentary session.

I agree with the call on the Scottish Government to

“develop a new, urgent plan for the teaching workforce, working with stakeholders”.

That should have been done at the very start of the SNP’s time in office. The Scottish Conservatives support a national co-ordinated education workforce plan, to include the ASN workforce, that would deliver additional support workers and classroom assistants across our local authorities.

This morning, the Education, Children and Young People Committee heard about the skills gap that must be closed if we are to align the needs of our economy with subject availability and choice in our schools. That was a key part of Willie Rennie’s motion.

We have concerns about the sharp decline in the number of teachers in key subjects such as maths, physics and modern languages and about the targets that the Government has set to train and recruit teachers in those subjects. Yesterday, I met the Royal Society of Chemistry to discuss its report “Future Workforce and Educational Pathways”. I do not know whether the cabinet secretary has had a chance to meet the RSC, which has made a lot of positive suggestions for growing the number of teaching professionals in such subjects. That is where growth in our economy will come from and where subject choice is critical.

I hope that ministers will take on board from the debate the need to update Parliament on what will happen with STEM. I hope that we will get a commitment from the cabinet secretary or the minister to use Government debating time for that important issue, which should include the recommendations on how STEM targets will be met, as there seems to be very little focus on that—there certainly is not any focus on it in the Government’s amendment.

I have spoken with teachers, and the message is clear that they feel overworked and undervalued. They are facing pressures in the classroom that they never expected in their professional lives. Instead of receiving the support and resources that they need, they face rising workloads, growing pupil violence and pressures to plug gaps that are caused by ministers’ failure to plan.

With fewer people entering the profession and more feeling that they have to leave, the SNP has made teaching in Scotland increasingly unsustainable. I hope that the debate genuinely presents an opportunity to highlight the pressures that the teaching workforce faces across Scotland. The problems with our education system are piling high on the desks of the cabinet secretary and SNP ministers, but resolving the workforce challenges must be the first step in developing solutions to the issues.

I move amendment S6M-17669.2, to insert at end:

“; continues to be concerned at the levels of violence being reported in schools, including unacceptable physical and verbal attacks and threats being experienced by teachers and the wider school community; notes the significant concerns over high levels of work-related stress being reported by teachers and the health and wellbeing of the profession; calls on the Scottish Government to bring forward a national coordinated education workforce plan, including data on additional support needs (ASN) and projections on workforce capacity for additional support workers and classroom assistants across local authorities as part of the ASN review; recognises concerns that absence cover is not being consistently applied across schools and local authorities, and supports the better provision of access to resources and training, including the delivery of a new model of support alongside the NHS Education for Scotland trauma informed practice training on neurodivergence and autism.”

On Monday evening, I attended a packed public meeting, organised by Change Mental Health, to discuss the concerns of many service users. Given the well-established link between early mental health intervention and suicide prevention, what is the Scottish Government doing to address the potentially life-threatening consequences of cuts to community mental health services in Edinburgh? As mental health minister, is Maree Todd content that Edinburgh would become one of the only cities in western Europe without community mental health services?

I have listened to what the First Minister has said in a number of his answers today, but he needs to acknowledge the real and concerning trend that we are seeing in Scotland. The number of violent crimes among young people in Edinburgh has doubled in one year alone. Last year, 529 alleged offences were reported to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, with children as young as eight having been reported for alleged violent incidents here, in the capital. According to Police Scotland, a disturbing trend of gang culture is also developing. What impact does the First Minister believe significant cuts to youth services and centres have on the issue, and why is that trend not being acknowledged today?

Does anyone else want to add anything?

My second question is about the apprenticeship committee. We have heard some positive feedback about its current role in SDS, and the bill proposes that an apprenticeship committee should be established in the SFC.

You have touched on union involvement. Would you like to add anything else about how that proposal could change what is currently in place with the apprenticeship committee?

I note that the bill does not go into any detail about skills shortages. Paul Campbell has already touched on the skills strategy, but why do you think that there not been a focus on that issue? Are we missing an opportunity to look at, say, the renewables sector, at the possibility of new partnerships or private sector money coming into that space, and at what we need to do to get the workforce that will allow us to deliver on all these opportunities? Those things are not in the bill, but how can we link those aspects? Is the problem that apprenticeships are not available in that sector, or does the problem lie with the limited numbers that are coming through from the college sector?