Chamber and committees

Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid programme is delivered as a face-to-face training event. In order to comply with the Scottish Government’s COVID-19 guidance and to protect public health, the delivery of these training courses was paused by Public Health Scotland (PHS), which holds the licence for this training to operate in Scotland. A range of online resources was made available by PHS and NHS Education for Scotland throughout the pandemic. In recognition of the changing context, PHS is working to ensure that the delivery of the Mental Health First Aid programme can resume safely. These courses will restart in November 2021.

Charges for National Qualifications have remained unchanged since 2012-13 despite changes in costs. While charges contribute towards the cost of awarding National Qualifications they do not cover the full costs. In addition, 2020 and 2021 late entry fees have been waived and there have been no charges for appeals. There are therefore no plans to reimburse National Qualifications payments.

For 2021, SQA estimates that the costs of providing certification for national qualifications was £41.7m, while income from local authorities, colleges and independent schools is expected to be £30.5m. The remaining cost is covered by SQA’s grant in aid budget from the Scottish Government.

ACER UK Limited was one of three companies to submit a tender for the contract for phase two delivery of the national standardised assessments in Scotland – incorporating both the Scottish National Standardised Assessments and their Gaelic equivalent, the Measaidhean Coitcheann Niseanta airson Foghlam tron Ghidhlig.

ACER’s tender did not progress to the Price Analysis stage of the evaluation as it did not achieve the minimum requirements for the Quality Analysis stage. Cost comparisons with the successful tender cannot therefore be drawn.

As the contract for delivery of phase one of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments is due to expire in July 2022, the Scottish Government was legally required to compete the ongoing service.

Returning to the market to compete public contracts enables us to maximise value for money and secure the benefits of technical (and in this case education, assessment, psychometric and accessibility) developments over the period since the last contract was awarded. In conducting a regulated procurement exercise the Scottish Government is required under procurement legislation to treat all potential suppliers equally and without discrimination. Tenders are evaluated on the basis of the information contained therein, and no other factors.

The contract for phase two delivery of National Standardised Assessments for Scotland effectively combines two existing contracts, for phase one delivery of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments and their Gaelic equivalent, the Measaidhean Coitcheann Niseanta airson Foghlam tron Ghidhlig respectively. As such, there is no one current provider and a transition of services would have been required whatever the outcome of the procurement evaluation. The risks and opportunities associated with that transition have been carefully assessed and will be closely monitored and managed through the governance structures established for the National Improvement Framework Programme. Outgoing service providers are contractually obliged to support the smooth transition of services to a new service provider.

The Evaluation Guide and Award Criteria published as part of the Invitation to Tender determined the Quality: Price ratio for the evaluation process as 75:25. The emphasis placed on quality reflects the importance the Scottish Government attaches to delivering a high quality assessment resource to schools, and recognises the requirement for a range of technical, educational and psychometric expertise to deliver the complex and multi-faceted Services associated with the Contract.

The Award criteria for the Quality Analysis element of the evaluation identified a series of questions across a range of areas, including Assessments and Reporting; Technical; Service Management; Security; and Transition, Implementation and Business as Usual. Some of these questions were identified as mandatory, requiring a minimum score of 2 in order for the tender to progress to the Price Analysis. The rationale for this approach is that if suppliers are unable to fulfil particular aspects of the service, the service would not be viable, irrespective of cost. Mandatory items are clearly identified within the published Evaluation and Award Criteria.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 Statutory Guidance (amended 2021) states that regulated contracts must be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender. The Guidance clarifies that this means contracts cannot be awarded on the basis of lowest price or lowest cost alone.

The vaccination programme uptake in Scotland is highly successful overall with around 90% of the adult population (18+) having received their first dose - far beyond our planning assumption of 80% - and so far 73% have received their second dose.

To ensure good uptake amongst younger age groups the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland are undertaking a wide range of initiatives.

Drop in clinics are widely available for people who want a first vaccination or are 8 weeks or more from their second vaccination – regardless if they have an appointment in the system. Drop-in mobile centres are attending a range of sites such as football grounds, parks, workplaces and shopping centres.

Young people within the eligible Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) age cohorts will still also receive a scheduled invitation which they may attend if the time and date suits. A dedicated self-registration portal allows SMS notification to take account of the greater turnover of registered addresses amongst young people.

We continue to engage with young people in a variety of ways, including through social media outlets, to make sure they have access to the correct information on vaccines. To this end the Scottish Government has developed a comprehensive set of public information campaigns across TV, radio, print and online to disseminate quality information on vaccines and positive encouragement to take up vaccination invitations.

We are presently strengthening communications targeting the 18-29 age group, such as the Roll Up Your Sleeves campaign, to ensure we vaccinate as many people in this cohort as possible.

All NHS Boards have dedicated inclusion plans within the vaccination programme, outlining how they will actively offer vaccination to people who may face barriers in taking up the vaccine. Some examples of outreach include offering vaccinations in places of worship, in other community settings, providing concessionary bus travel to appointments and working with community leaders to promote uptake.

We are continuing to discuss a range of measures with universities and colleges to help ensure students get vaccinated as soon as possible before arriving on campus. We remain in regular dialogue with Universities Scotland and Colleges Scotland and have agreed with Health Boards and Higher and Further Education Institutions to appoint Single Points of Contacts in universities and colleges. Additionally, we are engaging with the Health Boards to support vaccine delivery for both international and home based students where there is local need, including the possibility of on-campus pop-up clinics.

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).