Chamber and committees

The OECD had responsibility for stakeholder engagement.

The OECD’s Independent Review of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) was conducted using their Implementing Policies: Supporting Change in Education Framework.

Details of how the OECD conducted their independent review can be accessed at Independent+Review+of+Curriculum+for+Excellence+-+Remit.pdf (www.gov.scot)

You may also wish to note that the name of stakeholders who participated in engagement interviews are credited in the OECD’s final report.

A table has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib Number 62617) that provides ongoing maintenance and repair costs per vessel within the Clyde and Hebrides fleet for CalMac Ferries Ltd. contract years 2016-17 to 2021-22.

The Scottish Government recognises how important healthy meals are for boosting children’s energy, concentration and behaviour which, in turn, leads to improvements in academic attainment.

All children in primaries 1 to 3 have benefitted from access to free school lunches since January 2015, and from this month all children in funded early learning and childcare are receiving a free meal in every session. Ministers are now committed to going further by expanding free school meals to all pupils in primary and special schools during the course of this parliamentary session, as well as introducing free year-round breakfast and lunch provision to support children outside of the school term. We are also committed to piloting approaches to universal meal provision in secondary schools.

To start delivering on this commitment, we have provided local authorities with funding of £49.75 million to enable them to provide support to families who are eligible for free school meals during the school summer holidays, and to expand the provision of free school lunches during school term-time to all children in primaries 4 and 5, throughout the course of this school year. Further expansion of universal free school lunches will be delivered for children in primaries 6 and 7 by August 2022.

In addition to the free meal commitments, the Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme launched on 1 August 2021 replacing the existing UK Nursery Milk Scheme in Scotland. All pre-schoolers who spend two hours or more a day in eligible childcare settings registered with the scheme will be entitled to a serving of fresh milk. Unlike the UK scheme, a piece of fruit or portion of vegetables will also be offered and children who cannot drink cow’s milk for medical, ethical or religious reasons will be offered a specified non-dairy alternative.

This is a major programme of change during this Parliament that will deliver benefits for hundreds of thousands of children.

Current guidance for ear irrigation services is that patients should speak to their pharmacist for minor problems and patients with particularly troublesome symptoms should contact their GP to discuss the most suitable treatment. This guidance is available online at NHS Inform and was last updated on 22 December 2020.

How to treat ear wax is a clinical decision: ear syringing is not the current preferred procedure and is no longer routinely provided by clinicians.

NHS Lanarkshire has continued to provide services to patients throughout the pandemic. However, due to the pressures of the pandemic some routine condition management needed to be paused but only in those instances where it is safe to do so.

Patients who have sought private treatment will not be reimbursed.

Please find the requested information set out in the following table.

The Scottish Government is in discussion with key stakeholders involved in the provision of swimming lessons and water safety education. We recognise the importance of swimming lessons in helping to build water confidence and learning to be safe in and around water, as well as the benefits swimming provides to physical and mental health. We would encourage parents/guardians to contact their local swimming lesson provider to discuss when their children are able to attend lessons.

The new contract will see the continued provision of online assessments for children and young people in P1, P4, P7 and S3. The Specification of Requirements published as part of the Invitation to Tender identified the areas in which continuity of provision is required (general assessment principles, presentation policy and coverage; reports coverage; training coverage; branding), and highlighted some areas around which enhancements were sought. The primary difference between the phase 1 contracts and the phase 2 contract is that rather than continuing to deliver two online systems through two separate contracts, phase two will see the establishment of a single assessment platform, which will provide access to both the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA) and their Gaelic Medium Education equivalents, the Measaidhean Coitcheann Niseanta airson Foghlam tron Ghidhlig (MCNG).

The Scottish Government is not able to provide the information requested due to this level of data not being publically available. In particular, individual patients may be identifiable should such hospital level information be published.

Quarterly reports on Clostridioides difficile infection, Escherichia coli bacteraemia and Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia are published, with the data broken down by Health Board, and are available her

Additionally, validated data on Covid-19 hospital acquired infection is published weekly, with information broken down by NHS Health Board to protect patient identity. This information can be accessed here.