Chamber and committees

:These amendments are technical in nature, but they carry meaningful implications, by guaranteeing that all pupils are afforded the same protections by the bill. The issue was raised with Daniel Johnson by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, as has been mentioned, and shared with the Government for consideration. I am grateful to the commissioner and her team for raising that point. The bill’s original terminology risked unintentionally excluding four-year-olds who are attending school from the protections that the bill is designed to provide. I welcome Daniel Johnson’s proposed solution to use the term and definition of “pupil” used in the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 throughout the bill, and I encourage members to support the amendments.

Amendment 4 agreed to.

Amendments 5 and 6 moved—[Daniel Johnson]—and agreed to.

Section 1, as amended, agreed to.

Section 2— Guidance on restraint and seclusion in schools

Amendments 7 to 9 moved—[Daniel Johnson]—and agreed to.

:I welcome the amendments in the group, which strengthen the notification requirements in section 3, which were discussed during stage 1. They ensure that there are clear and robust timelines for reporting of incidents. At present, the bill requires schools to notify parents or carers as soon as possible and, in any event, within 24 hours, which differs from our 2024 guidance.

Concerns were raised at stage 1 that the notification provision does not sufficiently prioritise same-day notification. Amendments 15 and 18 address that by making it clear that parents or carers should normally be notified before the end of the school day, unless an alternative arrangement has been agreed to. An exception is included for circumstances in which same-day notification is not practicable, but notification must still occur within 24 hours.

Amendment 16 seeks to bring clarity in relation to looked-after children. It ensures that notification is made to the appropriate corporate parent or carer who is responsible for the child, preventing any risk of wrongful disclosure. I encourage the committee to support the amendments.

Amendment 15 agreed to.

Amendment 16 moved—[Daniel Johnson]—and agreed to.

I thank Daniel Johnson for working with me to lodge a package of amendments that will strengthen the bill. The amendments on the definition of restraint were requested by the committee and by stakeholders because the original one that was used in the bill was considered to be too broad.

The definition of restraint will continue to be based on restricting a pupil’s movement, as we have heard from Mr Johnson, but amendment 1 makes it clear that it must involve physical contact. Amendment 3 will ensure that the intention of that contact must be to significantly restrict the pupil’s movement, and that allows us to distinguish restraint from everyday supportive contact, as we have also heard from Mr Johnson. Amendment 7 provides for what is “significant” to be set out through statutory guidance.

The ministerial regulation power set out in amendment 23 will provide increased flexibility to adjust recording and reporting requirements in the future, to reflect developing policy.

These amendments strike the right balance, preserving the bill’s broad protective definitions and its presumption that restraint and seclusion should be recorded, while enabling future provisions to address any unintended over-reporting issues that arise. I invite the committee to support them.

Amendment 1 agreed to.

Amendments 2 and 3 moved—[Daniel Johnson]—and agreed to.

:I thank Daniel Johnson for these pragmatic amendments. Amendments 29 and 30 are standard provisions, ensuring that the bill works as intended in the light of changes made by other amendments. I am happy to support them.

I am also pleased that, having discussed the question of commencement with Mr Johnson, we have been able to agree on a practical and workable way forward. We agree with the committee’s recommendation from stage 1 that the act should not commence until the review of the current non-statutory guidance is complete. That review is currently under way, and we agree with the chosen backstop date of July 2028. I anticipate that commencement could take place before that date, as we would begin work to implement the bill as soon as it becomes law. I encourage members to support all amendments in this group.

Amendment 17 agreed to.

Amendment 18 moved—[Daniel Johnson]—and agreed to.

Section 3, as amended, agreed to.

Section 4—Duty to record and report on use of restraint and seclusion

:Amendments 19 and 20 make simple but important changes to the reporting arrangements in section 4. Under the bill as introduced, independent and grant-aided schools would be required to submit their data on restraint and seclusion incidents to the education authority in whose area they are physically located. That approach would create an unnecessary step in data handling and risk distorting local authorities’ statistical returns. Amendment 19 will address that by ensuring that independent and grant-aided schools will report directly to the Scottish ministers, streamlining the system.

The power for the Scottish ministers in amendment 22 will allow for the development and alignment over time of national reporting requirements for restraint and seclusion across children’s services. At present, the bill requires education providers to submit annual returns to ministers. Although that remains appropriate for now, we recognise that it may be desirable in the future to have more immediate incident-level reporting, thereby strengthening national oversight of the protection of children’s wellbeing. That approach will provide time to implement the bill’s annual reporting provisions and assess their impact before considering the next steps.

I hope that members can see the long-term benefits in these amendments and that they will be able to support them.

Amendment 19 agreed to.

Amendments 20 to 23 moved—[Daniel Johnson]—and agreed to.

Section 4, as amended, agreed to.

Section 5—List of approved training providers

:Amendment 10 is an important amendment that adds children and young people to the list of statutory consultees with whom ministers must engage before issuing or revising guidance under section 2. The bill already requires consultation with education providers, parents’ representatives, trade unions and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland. However, as I highlighted in my memorandum to the committee in June last year, children and young people themselves were omitted. I am pleased that the committee agreed with me on the matter in its stage 1 report and recommended that the voices of children and young people be explicitly recognised in the process.

Amendment 10 would ensure that all those affected by the statutory guidance are actively involved in its development. It also reflects our commitment to meaningful participation, in line with the expectations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In relation to this particular aspect, the wording “children and young people”, rather than “pupils”, ensures that the requirement captures those who have recently left school or who are temporarily not in school but whose experiences remain highly relevant. I encourage members to support amendment 10.

10:00

Amendment 10 agreed to.

Section 2, as amended, agreed to.

Section 3—Duty to inform parents of use of restraint or seclusion

Amendments 11 to 14 moved—[Daniel Johnson]—and agreed to.

:As drafted, section 5 would require ministers to maintain and publish a list of approved training providers and the details of their courses. However, there are already well-recognised and established national frameworks and training standards in place, including the Restraint Reduction Network standards, which are widely used and which are referenced in the 2024 guidance. It would be unhelpful for the bill to cut across good practice or to create an overly rigid system.

As we have heard, amendments 24 to 26 seek to address those concerns. I thank Daniel Johnson for lodging those amendments and explaining the intent behind them. The amendments will give ministers flexibility to develop new training standards or to adopt existing ones, and to publish information about providers in the most appropriate way. That approach will avoid unnecessary duplication while ensuring transparency and consistency, and it strikes the right balance between maintaining high standards and allowing the system to evolve as practice develops. I invite the committee to support the amendments.

Amendment 24 agreed to.

Amendments 25 and 26 moved—[Daniel Johnson]—and agreed to.

Section 5, as amended, agreed to.

10:15

Section 6—Interpretation

Amendments 27 and 28 moved—[Daniel Johnson]—and agreed to.

Section 6, as amended, agreed to.

After section 6

Amendments 29 and 30 moved—[Daniel Johnson]—and agreed to.

Section 7—Commencement

Amendment 31 moved—[Daniel Johnson]—and agreed to.

Section 7, as amended, agreed to.

Section 8 agreed to.

Long title

Amendment 32 moved—[Daniel Johnson]—and agreed to.

Long title, as amended, agreed to.

The Scottish Government’s budget for the year ahead focuses resolutely on the priorities of the people of Scotland. Accordingly, the education and skills budget for 2026-27 is more than £3.5 billion, with an increase of £136 million in resource spending this year. That will support the expansion of free breakfast clubs and wraparound childcare; the delivery of the real living wage in early learning and childcare and children’s social care sectors; and increased investment in our colleges and universities. That ensures that the education portfolio is focused on helping to eradicate child poverty.

For children and families, we continue to fund 1,140 hours of early learning and childcare. Last year, nearly every three and four-year-old took up their entitlement, meaning that more than 90,000 children benefited and families saved more than £6,000 per child per year.

We will invest an additional £15 million to provide free breakfast clubs in every primary and additional support needs school by August 2027. We are also investing £2.5 million of recurring annual funding to expand the delivery and reach of the extra time programme and provide wider after-school activities in areas with the greatest need. The £5.5 million that we are already investing in the extra time programme is delivering free after-school and holiday clubs for up to 5,000 children who are most at risk of living in poverty. We will work with the Scottish Football Association and other partners to test the delivery of wider after-school activities for primary school children, including testing a 3 pm to 6 pm wraparound activities model. Those measures help to improve outcomes, support school attendance and family stability, and reduce the number of children moving into and staying in care.

In school education, we remain absolutely committed to closing the poverty-related attainment gap. In 2026-27, we will build on what we have achieved regarding the number of children achieving record levels of literacy and numeracy, improvements in attendance, more teachers in our schools, lower class sizes and, perhaps most significantly, the poverty-related attainment gap being at its lowest level on record.

The budget protects teacher numbers and allocates funding for the development of local pilots that work towards the delivery of reduced class contact time. Up to £200 million will be invested to maintain the Scottish attainment challenge, including pupil equity funding. We will also do more to address the cost of the school day for families by uprating the school clothing grant, in line with inflation, and extending eligibility for free school meals to enable a further 5,500 pupils, from primary 5 onwards, to access nutritious and healthy food.

The schools budget will also support the on-going reform of our public bodies, and I am pleased to advise the committee that, subject to the completion of pre-appointment checks, I intend to recommend the appointment of Ruth Binks as His Majesty’s chief inspector of education in Scotland. Subject to those checks and the appointment being made by His Majesty by order in council, Ruth is expected to take up post on 30 March. Graeme Logan will continue to cover as interim chief inspector until that time.

Reform in the post-16 education and skills landscape also continues while providing stability for existing provision. We are providing an above-inflation investment for colleges, delivering an extra £78 million of investment and an additional £55 million for our universities. We will continue to protect free tuition, widen access and give more people more opportunities to take up apprenticeships.

Stability, sustainability, progress and delivery are the key themes underpinning the priorities in the education and skills budget for 2026-27. My ministers and I would be happy to take any questions that the committee may have this morning.

Because I think that there are a number of really positive things in the budget that we have provided for that were not provided for in the 2021 manifesto. We should be mindful of the fact that things have changed substantively since the manifesto was written, and there have been challenges for the Government, which I am sure that we will come on to discuss. I am not going to provide you with an exhaustive list of manifesto commitments from 2021, but I will talk about some of the really positive measures that we have put into the budget, not least the funding for free breakfasts.

If you want to talk about examples of policies in that manifesto that have not been delivered—which I said I would not do, but I am now going to do it—the provision of free breakfasts is one. We have not been able to get there during this parliamentary session, but we are now putting in funding to ensure that that will be delivered in every primary school and every special school across the country. We should welcome that. I totally accept that we should have been able to deliver that more quickly than we had originally planned for, but we also need to reflect on the substantive changes in the financial climate, which is now markedly different from that which existed in 2021.

You will well recall some of the challenges that we faced during my time in transport in relation to the roll-out of big infrastructure projects that we had promised to deliver and which were much more challenging to deliver due to soaring capital costs—of course, that has been the subject of other debate in recent weeks. The challenges that have been experienced in different portfolios have also been experienced in the education portfolio, and we have tried to mitigate those challenges as best as possible.

One of the things that we have had to respond to is the soaring cost of staff pay. We have met those demands, but that has been challenging for the portfolio, and I think that such challenges have been experienced across the piece in Government.

Let us wind our way back to May—