Chamber and committees

Education authorities are responsible for identifying and meeting the additional support needs of their pupils. They have responsibility for securing appropriate resources, including teaching and support staff, to meet children and young people’s long or short-term needs.

All teachers are responsible for supporting pupils with additional support needs, not just those teachers whose role is specifically related to additional support for learning.

The number of secondary school teachers by main subject is published on the Scottish Government website here: see https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementarystatistics/.

Statistics on school support staff are published on the Scottish Government website here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

The three regional cancer networks continue to make operational improvements to service provision across Scotland to reduce ovarian cancer surgery waits. Improvements taken to date include increasing surgery provision, by increasing surgical teams and theatre capacity; improving theatre scheduling and joint working across surgical teams; and expediting pathways to expand capacity for these complex, multidisciplinary surgeries.

According to the most recent published data (October-December 2024), 98.4% of women are receiving their first treatment for ovarian cancer within 31 days of a decision to treat. The maximum wait during this quarter was 43 days, a decrease from 90 days in the same quarter in 2023. This may be a range of treatments, including surgery.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing a long-term strategic approach to skills and careers in the culture and creative industries sectors across all roles. In 2020 the Culture Strategy for Scotland was clear that if we are to harness Scotland's creative talents and support a diverse talent pipeline to support the future of the sector, it is important we increase access.

Creative Scotland has a wide programme of work focussed on increasing access to culture and creativity, supporting both those who want to engage with activity as audience members and participants and those who want to work in the sector. An external EDI Advisory Group supports this work, which includes:

• partnering with sector organisations to support accessibility to Creative Scotland funds on a localised/sector/network level;
• clarifying eligible costs for personal and project access in funded projects to remove barriers related to disability/communication difference, caring responsibility, mental health and wellbeing;
• partnership working across the UK Arts Councils to develop the All In access card; and
• addressing key driver of inequality and exclusion through work on health and mental health, including the Participatory Arts and Mental Health Fund.

Creative Scotland also monitors the success rates of those applying to its funds, including those accessing their access support services, and evaluated key development work, such as their 'Create:Inclusion' Fund.

The Scottish Government’s long-standing investment of over £150 million since 2007 in programmes such as the Youth Music Initiative and Sistema has made a huge impact helping young people across Scotland access music-making opportunities and develop their wider skills and learning, encouraging and equipping them to enter the talent pipeline if they wish.

Youth Music Initiative has helped young people in all 32 local authorities access music-making with every pupil offered a year’s free music tuition by the end of primary school. It tackles inequalities by providing music making experiences and wider cultural opportunities to children across Scotland, and particularly to those who otherwise would not be able to participate in these activities. Youth Music Initiative received a 3 per cent uplift in 2025-26, which takes the Scottish Government’s annual investment to £9.78 million. Sistema runs Big Noise education programmes across six communities in Scotland and received a 3 per cent uplift in 2025-26, which takes the Scottish Government’s annual investment to £2.68 million. As part of the Fairer Funding Pilot, the Scottish Government has also committed to fund Youth Music Initiative and Sistema at existing levels in 2026-27, further strengthening their sustainability and the talent pipeline.

In assisting individuals to move on from secondary education and further into the talent pipeline for creative industries, the regular skills assessments in the creative industries from Skills Development Scotland identify the specific skills required for various roles and help organisations and individuals understand areas of expertise and potential gaps. These assessments can be used to inform education and training programs, improve workforce development, and support individual career pathways.

The music talent pipeline is already supported through a very significant offer across Scotland’s Colleges at NC, HNC and HND level covering performance, production, sound engineering, music business and event management. There is also increased specialisation at degree level across Scotland’s Higher Education sector, covering classical, contemporary and traditional music disciplines.

More broadly, Creative Scotland plays a major role in talent development and supporting the creative talent pipeline through the National Lottery funded Open Fund for Individuals which offers early career funding to emerging artists. In 2023-24, the Open Fund made 164 awards totalling £4.2 million for leadership training and professional development.

Through their Targeted Routes and organisations funds, Creative Scotland support organisations and events such as Wide Days, the Scottish Alternative Music Awards, Showcase Scotland at Celtic Connections and Made In Scotland Expo, which provide opportunities and mentoring for young acts. Bursaries such as VACMA and the Stephen Palmer Travel Bursary Fund connected visual artists with peers and development opportunities. Go See Share helps creatives explore and share insights from international creative business models.

In the Screen sector, industry training initiatives supported by Screen Scotland include bursaries for the Edinburgh TV Festival, TRC's SuperSizer, Film FastTrack, and Reset 2023, alongside NFTS Scotland’s paid trainee programme and STV Studios’ Screw training scheme in 2023-24, which supported underrepresented entrants into HETV production.

GMAC Film’s Little Pictures and Short Circuit's Sharp Shorts provide vital support for emerging filmmakers. In 2024, Rising Stars Scotland highlighted new film talent, Screen Fringe fostered collaboration between stage and screen industries, and the YFF Skye Screenwriting Residency offered mentorship to aspiring screenwriters.

Supported by the recent uplift in Grant-in-Aid funding from the Scottish Government delivering the largest budget ever available to Creative Scotland, more than £200 million in support, across a broad spread of creative disciplines, is to be provided to 251 organisations over the next three years. The organisations funded through the Multi-Year fund support individuals in many ways – as employees, commissioned artists, programming of work, audiences and participants.

Organisations like Fèisean nan Gidheal and Fèis Rois create access to music opportunities, Alchemy Film and Arts ‘Film Town’ programme provides a year round programme of community filmmaking, skills development and creative learning, from their base in Hawick. Organisations like Shetland Arts and Eden Court, in Inverness, work with the Education sector to deliver educational courses, alongside other opportunities for artists and participants.

In addition The National Culture Strategy Action Plan updates on work to better understand local authority support for culture and explore future models of collaboration between local and national bodies. Research undertaken by Creative Scotland in partnership with Community Leisure UK and SportScotland was published in August 2024 and will further strengthen Creative Scotland’s efforts to work better together in partnership with local authorities, developing a wider understanding on all aspects that contribute to a healthy cultural ecosystem at the local level. Creative Scotland is now planning their next steps for this work, including a programme of engagement with local authorities.

Creative Scotland’s development work also supports various initiatives across Scotland targeted to the needs of the area. For example:

• Through Targeted (Place Partnership) and Open project National Lottery funding, Creative Scotland continues to support the work of the Creative Arts Business Network (CABN) in the Scottish Borders, which aims is to develop the professional creative sector in the Scottish Borders through a diverse programme of support, including mentoring, showcasing and funding; and
• Culture Collective is a Scottish Government supported programme where organisations, artists and communities work together, providing employment opportunities for creative practitioners and actively engaging people in shaping the future cultural life of their community. The programme initially ran from 2021-2024, and £4 million has been included in the 2025-26 budget to continue the programme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37609 on 27 May 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government does not receive data from Local Authorities on the inclusion of accessible or inclusive equipment in play parks renewed using the renewal funding. As noted in the answer to S6W-38036 on
13 June 2025, Local Authorities report annually every April on their play park renewals carried out as a result of the Scottish Government’s £60m play park renewal funding.

As noted in the answer to S6W-38037 on 13 June 2025 the Scottish Government has chaired quarterly network meetings of Local Authority play park leads. The network allows Local Authorities to provide updates and how funding is being used and to share best practice and common issues.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

We are not aware of any reports by the Accounts Commission that local authorities are facing unsustainable budget shortfalls.

Councils are statutorily required to set balanced budgets, and the Accounts Commission appropriately highlights that the use of one-off measures, such as the use of reserves, in place of established recurring measures and robust longer-term financial plans to bridge notional budget gaps is unsustainable.

The Scottish Government has a long history of working with COSLA and local authorities to make sure council finances are sustainable and that available resources can meet long-term commitments.

The record funding settlement for Local Government in 2025-26 provided a real terms increase in funding of 5.5 per cent, as confirmed by the Accounts Commission, and was the result of early and meaningful engagement between Scottish Government, COSLA and Councils. We remain committed to ensuring the sustainability of local services going forward and budget engagement ahead of the 2026-27 Scottish Budget has already commenced.

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate, therefore, the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The £60 million play park renewal funding is allocated to local authorities to use across their whole play estate. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them based on local needs and priorities. The Scottish Government recognise that the extent of renewal and refurbishment will be influenced by local plans and investment priorities and engagement with children and young people.

The Scottish Government does not hold data centrally on the geographic and socio-economic spread of play parks within local authority estates.

Statistics on the class sizes of P1 to P3 pupils are published in the pupil census supplementary statistics, available on the Scottish Government website at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/pupil-census-supplementary-statistics/

The Scottish Government does not hold figures on how many retail units are vacant in high streets and town centres across the country. Local authorities have responsibility for delivering local economic development and local regeneration.