Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23878 on
‎ 8 January 2024. 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 minutes will be published on the Scottish Government website following their approval at the next meeting of the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools which is currently scheduled to take place on 31 January 2024.

The Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council continue to support universities in developing their own mitigating strategies to minimise any negative impacts on long-term financial sustainability. This includes any reduction in international student fee income.

Within the context of a challenging international environment and stricter UK Government immigration rules, the Scottish Government remains committed to working with the university sector to ensure that Scotland remains the destination of choice for international students, demonstrated by our commitment to launching Scotland’s International Education Strategy early in 2024. We have engaged closely with key stakeholders, including universities, to develop the strategy, which will focus on three key themes: attracting and diversifying the international student population; maximising the economic benefits of international higher education; and promoting Scotland as a world leader in research and knowledge exchange.

Over the next two years, the Scottish Government is investing in a programme of early intervention in speech and language for children and their families through the appointment of six full-time equivalent Regional Early Speech and Language Leads based within Education Scotland.

The funding is separate from the support that the Scottish Government has provided for the Regional Improvement Collaboratives.

Children and young people should learn in the environment which best suits their needs. Most children and young people’s need are met through a universal level of support in mainstream provision, however, there are clear exceptions to enable children and young people to learn in a special school or in a specialist unit. It is for local authorities to determine the most appropriate educational provision, taking account of their legal responsibilities and the individual circumstances and wishes of children, young people and their families. We are working with our stakeholders to refine the guidance available to local authorities on taking these decisions, including updating the additional support for learning code of practice.

Our support to local authorities for additional support for learning reached a record high of £830m in the year 2021-22. We have invested an additional £15m per year since 2019-20 and provide over £11m of funding to directly support pupils with complex additional support needs and services to children and families.

We currently have the highest recorded level of pupil support assistants. In 2022, 307 additional pupil support assistants were recruited, in addition to 1,036 recruited in the previous year, bringing the total number of pupil support assistants in Scotland to 16,606. This level of recruitment is a direct result of our continued investment of £15m each year to help schools and local authorities respond to the individual needs of children and young people and maintains our record levels of investment in these staff.

We have also recently outlined in our Programme for Government 2023-24 our commitment to work with teachers to provide additional professional learning opportunities while seeking to build on the Additional Support for Learning Action Plan.

On 6 November 2023 I updated Parliament that it is anticipated the Centre for Teaching Excellence will be hosted by a university, learning from the successful model of the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection better known as CELCIS.

The Scottish Government is committed to co-designing the Centre with teachers and practitioners, professional associations, local government, universities and Scotland’s national education bodies, to ensure it meets the needs of its users and stakeholders. The role and remit of the Centre, how it operates, its interaction with teachers, practitioners and stakeholders, performance measures, and associated costs and timescales will be considered as part of that design process.

The Scottish Government has had useful engagement with the Scottish Council of Deans of Education to discuss the overall approach to co-producing the Centre and, in due course, an appropriate process will be taken forward to establish it.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The assignment of probationer teachers to individual schools is a matter for each local authority.

As I set out in my statement, we have a record number of additional support assistants in our schools, and this has been supported by the £830m spent on additional support for learning in 2021-22. This level of spend on additional support for learning is a record high.

We have maintained our record level of investment in pupil support assistants by providing authorities with a further £15m per year since 2019-20 to specifically support schools and authorities to respond to the individual needs of children and young people. As a direct result of our continued investment, we now have the highest recorded level of pupil support assistants. In 2022, 307 additional pupil support assistants were recruited. This builds on the increase of 1,036 from the previous year (2021) and brings the total number of pupil support staff in Scotland to 16,606.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23878 on‎ 8 January 2024. 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23878 on 8 January 2024. 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