Chamber and committees

The Scottish HepatoPancreatoBiliary Network (SHPBN) is a key partner in improving cancer services and ensuring equitable access to treatment for liver cancer patients. Under the National Cancer Plan, the SHPBN has been awarded £653,000 over two financial years to redesign the pancreatic and liver cancer pathways. The key aims of this project are to shorten the time taken to stage and decide the best treatment for patients, streamline patient pathways and improve communication with patients, carers, primary care & health professionals.

Care for people towards the end of life has always been an important priority for the Scottish Government, and Scotland is already widely recognised for providing high-quality palliative and end of life care. There is always more we can do to improve our services and therefore we are committed to producing a new strategy for palliative and end of life care to achieve the very highest standards of care right up to the end of life, and ensure that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high quality palliative care.

Scottish Ministers and officials from the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland have been engaging closely with stakeholders in the hospitality, cultural and events sectors on the impact of the reduced Scotrail timetable. This has included discussions through the Events Industry Advisory Group. Officials have continued this engagement on the impact of the industrial action.

We expect all Councils to take appropriate action in response to any complaint from an employee through their policies and practices.

Councils are independent corporate bodies responsible for the management of their employees and the Scottish Government has no power to investigate reports or allegations of this nature.

The following table shows the number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) teachers with STEM subjects listed as their main subject as reported during the 2021 census of teachers in publicly funded schools in Scotland.

The figures exclude head teachers and deputy head teachers.

A total of 15,976 (31.5%) 2020-21 school leavers were in employment 9 months after the end of the school year. This included (a) 9,010 recorded as being in full-time employment (17.8% of all school leavers) and (b) 2,564 recorded as being in part-time employment (5.1% of all school leavers). A further 381 were confirmed as being in employment but the nature of that employment (i.e. whether part-time or full-time etc.) was not known. The remainder recorded as being in employment were engaged in a Modern Apprenticeship, or were self-employed.

The dataset used to produce Summary Statistics for Follow-Up Leaver Destinations does not hold information on the number of school leavers on (c) zero-hours contracts, or on the sector in which school leavers are employed.

Local authorities are responsible for the recruitment and deployment of their staff. They have the autonomy to provide incentives to attract teachers to their area, and we know some have offered initiatives like free housing for an extended period.

During their probation year, Newly Qualified Teachers on the Teacher Induction Scheme (TIS) choose five local authorities where they are willing to work to complete their probation year, and are allocated a place balancing their choice with local need.

The report of the study on goosander and cormorant diet on four Scottish rivers is being finalised and will be published shortly.

The recruitment and deployment of teachers is a matter for individual local authorities, as they are responsible for using available resources to provide a complement of staff which meets the needs of each of their schools and its pupils based on local needs and priorities.

However, the Scottish Government has a number of ambitions to address the lack of women in STEM occupations and settings, such as schools. These ambitions start early: the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan examines how schools have a key role to play in helping young women make transitions into a broader range of more successful careers, as well as setting out measures which address occupational segregation, which can lead to fewer women accessing STEM careers.

The Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning is also considering how best to ensure that girls and young women are able to freely choose activities, subjects and areas of study including those traditionally dominated by boys and men.

We have provided £240 million of additional investment, over two financial years and a further £145.5 million of permanent funding from April this year to support the employment of additional teachers and support staff.

In addition, we will also fund 3,500 additional teachers and 500 support staff over this Parliamentary term – over and above the 1,400 teachers recruited during the pandemic. We will also continue to work closely with COSLA regarding the employment of teachers, to maximise the number of jobs available.

The Scottish Government do not hold this information.

The idea for this book was instigated by the UK Government. The Scottish Government is not involved with the opt-in process being carried out by the UK Government with Education Authorities.

Existing National Qualifications in Art and Design already allow the option of submitting moving image pieces. The following National Progression Awards contain units based on moving image or options to work in a moving image context:

• Skills for Work: Creative Digital Media (SCQF level 4)
• Creative Industries (SCQF level 4)
• Skills for Work: Creative Industries (SCQF level 5)
• Film and Media (SCQF levels 5 and 6)
• Art and Design: Digital Media (SCQF levels 5 and 6)
• Television Production (SCQF level 5)
• NPA in Digital Media Animation
• HNC/HND 3D Computer Animation