As Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills I engage with the SQA and Education Scotland regularly on a range of business, including on education reform. This involves meetings with the SQA Chair and Chief Executive and with Education Scotland’s Interim Chief Executive. Additionally, I have undertaken direct engagement with staff in both organisations, by attending an all-staff session with SQA on 4 September 2023 and an Education Scotland all-staff event on 22 August 2023.

We are committed to reducing the cost of school uniform and supporting families so that every child in Scotland can attend school feeling comfortable, confident, and ready to learn.

The Scottish Government, in partnership with local authorities, has already delivered on our commitment to increase the level of school clothing grant in Scotland. This vital support for families has increased to at least £120 for eligible primary school pupils and £150 for eligible secondary school pupils. As part of action to further reduce the cost of the school day for families, we have committed through the 2023-24 Programme for Government to increase funding to local authorities for school clothing grant in the next financial year.

To further support families, we will introduce national guidance on school uniform. This will support schools to work with families to develop and implement affordable and sustainable uniform and clothing policies that recognise the individual needs, circumstances and identities of all pupils. It is anticipated that the guidance will be published in spring 2024.

These measures are being taken forward as part of our wider action to tackle child poverty and protect people as much as possible during the ongoing cost of living crisis.

The number of post probationers in each local authority on temporary contracts will be published in the Summary Statistics for Schools publication in December.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the proportion of temporary contracts offered to post probationers, as the recruitment and employment of teachers including recruitment practices are matters for individual councils.

Ministers and Scottish Government officials have met representatives of the college sector frequently since 1 April 2021 through in-person meetings, visits and online meetings.

The information requested relates to Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) data and is not held by the Scottish Government.

SQA has advised that this information is available on their website, including historical data for all courses including those specifically listed. The data can be accessed at https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/105159.html .

A programme of communications and engagement is planned to promote the launch of the General Practice Armed Forces and Veterans’ Recognition Scheme. This will include working with key stakeholder groups, and through their networks, raising awareness of the scheme and encouraging take up by General Practices.

We recognise the value of this scheme and are working to ensure that awareness of the scheme is optimised among both General Practices and their patients.

General Practises keen to be involved can contact [email protected] for more information.

Young Scot are provided with core funding from the Scottish Government. The funding comes from the Children's Rights team and the Health Inequalities team. They have received £975,000 annually since 2014.

The Scottish Youth Parliament are provided with core funding through the Scottish Government’s Children Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) Fund. This fund is administered by the CORRA Foundation on behalf of Scottish Ministers. They received £325,000 in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 and received £341,250 in 2022 and 2023.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Individual local authorities may gather this data.

The Scottish Government commissions six-monthly reports from local authorities on school counselling services which asks for number of young people accessing counselling, broken down by gender and year groups. The reports also seek information on outcomes, inward and outward referrals as well as the issues young people are presenting with.

Within the reporting form there is a free text box where authorities are encouraged to share additional information, such as information on waiting times if they have that data available. Although some authorities have reported that services are at capacity, no concerns have been raised about young people’s needs not being met.

We recognise the importance of Glasgow and the Scottish Events Campus as one of the world’s top conference and events venues. It is clear that Glasgow and the SEC make a vital contribution not just to the local economy, but to Scotland’s economy as a whole.

Glasgow City Marketing Bureau restructured, with the Glasgow Convention Bureau intact. The lead for researching, bidding for and securing UK and international conferences to Glasgow sits with the Bureau. This is the same approach for all of Scotland’s cities with a convention bureau. The concept of the city leading its conference business enables events to be established at the behest and preference of each city, rather than it being delegated to cities by VisitScotland.

VisitScotland supports Glasgow in its efforts to secure business events via the provision of Scotland-branded marketing platforms including tradeshows, enabling Glasgow and Scotland to promote itself to global markets.

In the past 7 years, Glasgow and has been exhibited on the VisitScotland stand at IMEX Frankfurt, IMEX America, The Meetings Show London, IBTM World and the Conference Hospitality Show. VisitScotland has also directly supported business events to come to Glasgow through the match funded National Conference Bid Fund. In the life of the fund 68 conferences have been supported through this route.

Glasgow has also been profiled at international industry events solely through, or jointly with VisitScotland in the past 7 years including: PCMA Convening Leaders; PCMA EduCon; MPI; Destinations International; PCMA Convening EMEA; ICCA World Congress; M&I Forums; and VisitScotland Association Receptions in Washington DC and Brussels.

The Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group (TWPAG) considerations are based on an annual statistical model which estimates the number of ITE students required to achieve particular pupil teacher ratios. TWPAG includes representatives from local authority employers, as well as university providers of ITE, teacher unions and the General Teaching Council for Scotland.

TWPAG’s considerations are based on annual statistical model which estimates the number of ITE students required to maintain pupil teacher ratios. This model is based on a number of inputs including projections about the number of pupils in the system, churn in teacher numbers (for example recruitment, maternity leave, retirements, returners,) and the retention rates of ITE students.

To ensure effective and evidence-informed longer-term teacher workforce planning, the Scottish Government has commissioned an external analysis and research exercise that will bring together a range of factors including current teacher numbers, pupil teacher ratios and the projected decline in the number of school-aged children. This analysis will inform decisions on education workforce planning for future years.