Chamber and committees

Thank you, convener, and happy new year to you and to committee members.

As the First Minister outlined on Monday, this budget is rooted in delivery and hope, and it has been drafted in response to the views of a multitude of stakeholders across Scotland and to those of members from across the chamber.

The education and skills budget is no different. Mr Dey, Ms Don-Innes and I have listened intently to the views and asks of teachers, schools, local authorities, early learning and childcare providers, universities, colleges and the wider skills system. The draft budget for my portfolio for 2025-26 reflects those views and seeks to go some way towards addressing the challenges that we face across the education sector, particularly following the pandemic.

I will begin by setting out the resource and capital position for the portfolio. The education and skills resource budget has increased by £158 million, which is equivalent to a 3 per cent real-terms increase. In addition, overall capital and resource has increased by £116 million. For early years, we continue to invest in a high-quality funded early learning and childcare offer and our wider family support offer. Overall, the Scottish Government will invest more than £1 billion in high-quality funded ELC from next year.

The 2025-26 draft budget also provides an investment of £8 million in our six early adopter communities in Dundee, Inverclyde, Clackmannanshire, Glasgow, Fife and Shetland. The draft budget also includes funding to provide local authorities with an additional £9.7 million from 2025-26 to increase pay for early learning and childcare workers delivering funded childcare, so that they earn at least the real living wage from April, as well as ensuring that children’s social care staff employed in the private, voluntary and independent sector will also receive the real living wage.

The budget invests in our schools, teachers and support staff. It includes £186.5 million for councils to maintain teacher numbers, and it speaks to the asks made by local government as part of the biggest recorded settlement made to local government in Scotland.

The budget includes £29 million of additionality for additional support needs, including funding to support the recruitment and retention of the ASN workforce. I know that that issue is of interest to the committee, so I hope that members will welcome the steps that the Government is taking through this budget to provide more support for ASN.

That funding is part of a wider package and deal agreed with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. That deal is predicated on trust and will see the Scottish Government and COSLA working together to restore and maintain teacher numbers at 2023 levels, freeze learning hours and make meaningful progress in reducing teacher class contact time. Importantly, that deal also includes a provision for the creation of an educational assurance board, which will allow local and national Government to collaborate better on educational improvement, noting the legal responsibilities shared by both.

In addition, we continue with our investment of £1 billion in the Scottish attainment challenge over the course of this Parliament to support closing the poverty-related attainment gap, with £130 million in this budget earmarked for the pupil equity fund being allocated directly to head teachers for activities on the ground that will close the poverty-related attainment gap in their schools.

Committee members will note that the most recent statistics, from December, show that we now have the narrowest attainment gap ever recorded between the most and least disadvantaged pupils. That should be welcomed, as should the statistics showing that we have the highest levels of literacy and numeracy since records began.

Lastly, we remain committed to supporting a high-quality post-school education, research and skills system with more than £2 billion of investment in further education, higher education and skills. I am sure that the minister will say more about that. We have listened to the asks of the sector and have responded as best we can and with as much flexibility as possible in the current fiscal circumstances. That has included protecting funding for apprenticeships while, at the same time, increasing our core funding for both higher and further education. We also continue to protect free tuition, which means that, unlike students elsewhere in the UK, Scottish students studying in Scotland do not incur additional debt. We have sought, where possible, to respond to specific asks from the sectors and to provide the flexibility that I mentioned.

Like every cabinet secretary, I have been concerned by the United Kingdom Government’s decision to increase employer national insurance contributions, which will hit ELC providers, colleges and universities hardest within my portfolio. We are also still faced with an incredibly challenging fiscal context. Nonetheless, this is a budget that protects education spending throughout the lifetime of a child’s education.

I will finish there, but I look forward to discussing the budget settlement with the convener and committee members in more detail.

You have made a number of suggestions, Ms Duncan-Glancy; I do not agree with all of them.

I am sure that you are au fait with the data on achievement of curriculum for excellence levels—ACEL—which we published in December. It showed a record narrowing of the attainment gap, particularly among our primary 7 pupils, which is to be welcomed. We are starting to see real progress.

Of course, if you look at some of the—

I can give you an answer on that. The reason why that is happening is an ask from COSLA. Our previous approach targeted funding at those local authorities with the greatest areas of deprivation. COSLA asked us to treat all local authorities equally, which is why we have had to taper the funding over a number of years. That is why the reductions that you are speaking about are occurring. We are tapering the funding as we spread it across Scotland’s councils, as opposed to targeting those areas that are most in need. That was an ask from local authorities. The decision pre-dates my time, but it has been happening over a number of years, so it is not a new thing. I think that this will be the last year in which that tapering happens.

I will just go back briefly to the member’s point about the 2 per cent real-terms cut, because that requires to be challenged. I am more than happy to write to the committee on it, but my understanding is that that is not what is happening in relation to that budget line.

Indeed it is, which is why a record amount is being spent on ASN across the country. In the most recent financial year—

I am engaged with Ms Somerville and her portfolio on our work in that regard. I have to say, though, that this is a cross-Government mission and—

We are working together on a cross-portfolio basis, and we are working to establish, through this budget, the targets that are needed to drive that progress.

I engaged with the member on that before Christmas. I do not have the detail in front of me on the current number of pupils; that would be a matter for the individual institutions. I will ask officials whether we can share that data with Mr Briggs.

More broadly, we have engaged with the UK Government throughout the process, and we agree with it on a point of principle around the policy. However, as Mr Briggs knows, and as I think I reflected in my correspondence to him, the private sector in Scotland is very different from that which exists in other parts of the UK. It is hugely important that the way in which the legislation is enacted in Scotland meets the needs of the Scottish system. I met representatives of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools over the summer last year to hear about those needs, and it is hugely important that they are reflected.

As I think was documented in the press over the Christmas recess, we asked for a number of changes to the way in which the policy would be enacted in Scotland. Some of our concerns and issues were listened to, particularly on how we measure the number of SEND pupils—those with special educational needs and disabilities. There is a measurement that is used in England, but those pupils are not classed in that way in Scotland, of course. It is important that the policy intent of the legislation is met in Scotland.

Mr Briggs asked specifically about the City of Edinburgh Council. I recognise that a higher proportion of pupils attend private schools in Edinburgh and there are therefore potentially more challenges in the city in that respect. Following our analysis and our engagement with the City of Edinburgh Council, I am advised that there is capacity within the system to absorb the additional pupils who may come into the system. We have carried out that forecasting across local authorities. I recognise Mr Briggs’s constituency interests because of the implications for the City of Edinburgh Council in particular, but we have had close engagement at official level to ensure that the city council has the right support in that regard. We will continue to work with the UK Government on how the policy is enacted on the ground in Scotland.

Neil, do you want to say more about our engagement with SCIS and about the numbers and whether we can share the data with Mr Briggs?

I believe that it is our commitment to work to close that gap, so yes.

Well, I look forward to it. I am more than happy to engage with him and the local authority directly on the issue.

For context, it is worth while reflecting that the LEIP has transformed the quality of Scotland’s school estate. I am sure that members have all heard the statistics but, when our party came into office, about 62 per cent of schools were in good or satisfactory condition and today the figure is 91.7 per cent. That additionality from the Scottish Government has transformed the quality of Scotland’s school estate. However, I do not want to detract from the local challenges that Mr Greer cites, and I am more than happy to engage with him and the local authority, which, of course, owns those schools.

The LEIP funding is a partnership approach between the Scottish Government and local authorities, and it relies on local authorities telling us where they want the investment to go. I am more than happy to engage with Mr Greer and the local authority on that, but the decision making on where the additionality should go is a matter for the local authority. I very much look forward to our visit in the coming weeks and to engaging with the local authority on that point.