- Asked by: Irene McGugan, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 June 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 17 July 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list all agencies that may be authorised to access the personalised information about individual pupils that has been collected in the Scottish Exchange of Educational Data.
Answer
The ScotXed (Scottish Exchange of Educational Data) project is a partnership of the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) with local authorities, schools, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), HM Inspectorate of Education and Learning and Teaching Scotland to promote the electronic exchange of educational information to common standards. The project will provide better quality information and link-ups between education partners in Scotland and will encourage the good use of management information by schools and education authorities.Each ScotXed partner will have access to different levels of information. Schools and the local authority will have access to all information which they require to carry out their administrative and management functions. The SQA will have access to limited personalised information required to carry out the functions associated with administering the examination process. SEED will have access to the information collected through ScotXed for its statistical surveys.
- Asked by: Irene McGugan, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 June 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 July 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive why it is making the changes set out in its Guidance on Involvement of Teachers in Pre-school Education on staffing requirements for pre-school provision and what the effect on the provision and delivery of the 3-5 curriculum will be as a result of these changes.
Answer
The Guidance on the Involvement of Teachers in Pre-School Education, which I launched in January this year, does not make any changes to staffing requirements. The guidance discusses how teachers and all staff involved in pre-school provision can contribute to the quality of children's experience by working as a team. The key message of the guidance is that local authorities now have the flexibility to decide how best to involve teachers in the delivery of pre-school education.
- Asked by: Irene McGugan, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 June 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 July 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what it considers the role of pre-school staff to be.
Answer
The role of pre-school staff is to help children to get the best possible start in life by promoting their all-round development during their crucial formative years.
- Asked by: Irene McGugan, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 June 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 July 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the "lack of adequate" data collection and processing systems for monitoring and evaluating the number of young people eligible for care services, as highlighted in its Central Research Unit report, Scotland's Children: Children (Scotland) Act 1995 Research Findings No.3 - A Study of Throughcare and Aftercare Services in Scotland, will be addressed.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-27092
- Asked by: Irene McGugan, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 June 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 July 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps will be taken to address the "significant variation in throughcare and aftercare arrangements across Scotland" as highlighted in its Central Research Unit report, Scotland's Children: Children (Scotland) Act 1995 Research Findings No.3 - A Study of Throughcare and Aftercare Services in Scotland.
Answer
As a result of the findings of that report the expert Throughcare and Aftercare Working Group is focussing on how to improve current services across Scotland. They will report to me in August with their recommendations.
- Asked by: Irene McGugan, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 June 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 July 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to produce more specific aims, objectives and timescales for throughcare and aftercare services in order to provide greater standardisation in provision across all local authorities.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-27092.
- Asked by: Irene McGugan, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 June 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 July 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what it defines as a recognised childcare qualification.
Answer
Annex A of the National Care Standards for Early Education and Childcare up to the Age of 16 recognises somebody as being qualified in childcare if they hold any one of the qualifications mentioned in the booklet Working With Children- A Guide to Qualifications and Careers in Early Education, Childcare & Playwork.
- Asked by: Irene McGugan, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 June 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 July 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what factors contributed to the differential in quality identified in the recent HM Inspectorate of Education report, Standards and Quality in Scottish Pre-school Education 1997-2001 and in Early Education and Childcare Workforce Survey Final Report which highlighted that local authority nursery schools performed consistently and substantially better in the quality of learning experiences and that 13% of their staff have a teaching degree compared with 6% in the private and 5% in the voluntary centres and how it will ensure that quality will not be diminished under the new staffing guidelines.
Answer
Local authorities have had a long history in the provision of pre-school education through nursery schools and classes. By contrast, most private and voluntary providers have only recently begun providing funded pre-school education. The report found that overall standards in the private and voluntary sectors have improved during the last four years. This is encouraging for new players in provision. The report did not define the percentages of staff in sectors who had teaching qualifications and no causal link could be drawn from the qualifications of staff in the different sectors.The new staffing guidelines should allow all providers - whether in the private, voluntary or local authority sectors - to deploy teams of staff in a way which uses their individual expertise and enhances the quality of children's experience. All pre-school education providers will be inspected annually under the New National Care Standards by the Commission for the Regulation of Care. The Commission for the Regulation of Care will also be undertaking joint inspections with Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education, in order to assess the quality of pre-school education. These inspections should ensure that quality is not diminished under the new staffing guidelines.
- Asked by: Irene McGugan, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 June 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 July 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive on what evidence or research it based its proposal to remove the requirement for the inclusion of nursery teachers in pre-school provision as addressed in its Guidance on Involvement of Teachers in Pre-school Education.
Answer
The Guidance on Involvement of Teachers in Pre-school Education was drawn up with the help of a working group of practitioners in the field. The working group considered the published research database, individual case studies, research carried out in America and evidence from inspections carried out by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Education. They also considered initial results from other research such as the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education project.
- Asked by: Irene McGugan, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 June 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 July 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether pre-school providers are currently fulfilling their aims and delivering a good service; if so, why it is removing the requirement for the inclusion of nursery teachers as addressed in its Guidance on Involvement of Teachers in Pre-school Education and, if not, in what way it is moving pre-school provision in a new direction and what any new targets and aims are.
Answer
Pre-school providers are delivering a good service but, as in most services, there remains room for improvement. The Guidance on the Involvement of Teachers in Pre-School Education offers advice on the provision of a more flexible and user focussed service which makes best use of the skills of all staff to meet the diverse needs of children and their parents.
