In recent weeks, the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) Bill went through its stage 3 process in Parliament. Most of the really good work that I have seen in schools has been around those who are disconnected from their education and are put on to a foundation apprenticeship. That bill abolishes foundation apprenticeships, which I know is a key concern for many members.

Whether or not some of the aspects of your report have been taken forward, do you think that there is a total vision for different models of learning in school, especially for those who will not necessarily be put forward for exams, or is it only piecemeal? A lot of good work is happening with the school-college partnerships, but it is not universal, which is where we are missing a great opportunity. Some of your report, in which you said that you wanted to see that work taken forward, does not really seem to have been prioritised by Government.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us. I have a quite open question to start with. Is there a clear understanding of what school education is seeking to achieve for all learners in Scotland? I ask that question because of some of the evidence that we have heard in different inquiries over the past year. For example, we heard about schools having part-time timetables of 15 minutes. I put that question out there: is there is a clear understanding of what we are trying to achieve in schools?

It is about final outcomes. I have met a lot of young people who have had a great school career and gone to university but are now working in Starbucks here in the capital. The jobs are not there for them. I have also met young people who were about to drop out of school but were given access to construction skills through apprenticeships or training and are now earning £36,000 a year working on building sites here in the capital. Aligning opportunities in school to where there are jobs in our economy is working sometimes, but, sometimes, it is clearly not. That is a big area that any vision needs to work backwards from.

However, that is me on my high horse.

11:30

:The committee has been undertaking work on the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill, which the Government introduced following the Promise. We have been doing some really good work on that. Many of those who have given us evidence are care-experienced individuals who reported their vulnerability and abuse, much of it historical.

I have been concerned that, in our work on the bill—which the Parliament is considering in order to improve outcomes for care-experienced young people—we have not looked at the mandatory reporting and criminal justice elements that could be in it. A number of the witnesses have raised the issue of mandatory reporting. Have any of you considered the bill as an opportunity for Parliament to do something about that? Have there been any conversations on that? Parties are still working on stage 3 amendments. The bill provides an important opportunity. We know the levels of reported abuse of care-experienced young people, and there is an opportunity to do more on that in the bill.

:That is grand. As I have said, meetings are on-going with ministers on having some framework for all this. Thank you.

:Detective Chief Superintendent Taylor talked about historical abuse and the on-going inquiry. What is the witnesses’ assessment of the on-going abuse within public bodies, and of the fact that it is not being investigated at this time?

A petition is going through Parliament at the moment—I am pleased to see that some of the petitioners have come to this session—that calls on the Scottish Government to establish an independent inquiry and an independent national whistleblowing officer to investigate such concerns, specifically the mishandling of child‑safeguarding inquiries by public bodies. However, the suggestion seems to be that we should look only at historical cases, when in fact this is often a live issue. Professor Jay outlined some of the concerns in that regard.

I just wonder whether, in your professional capacity, you think that there is any point in looking at a historical case if we are not also going to examine what is happening today and take action on that. I will put that to DCS Taylor first.

:Do you think that having a national whistleblowing officer would add to that?

:We know that a number of local authorities are dealing with complaints concerning individuals who are still working in education departments. When reports on live cases are made, how does Police Scotland decide whether to investigate them?

10:45

Also, what about the wider picture of prevention? I sat on the Health and Sport Committee in the previous session of Parliament, and one of our inquiries looked into disclosure checks of people working with young people in sports organisations. The findings were pretty shocking. We discovered that there was a backlog of applications and that, at that point, the Scottish Football Association was letting people work with young people before the checks had been completed. Luckily, that situation was investigated and completely turned round. However, sometimes such situations are allowed to carry on—safeguards are not properly put in place, and people are allowed to work before being investigated.

What is Police Scotland’s position? Reports are often brought to us as MSPs, and we send people to the police, but it often does not feel like a proper, active investigation process is taking place.

I have a couple of questions. The first is about the 18-month timescale for the national review to be undertaken by the four inspectorates. What is the reason for taking that amount of time to make a recommendation?

:Thank you for that clarification. The Scottish Government now says that, until that review comes back, it cannot take a wider view. There is therefore concern that it will take quite a long time to get the Government to take a decision.