Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is continuing to consider how eligibility to free school meals will be determined in the context of the UK Government’s programme for welfare reform. As an interim arrangement, the Education (School Lunches) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2013 prescribed the receipt of universal credit as an eligibility criterion for free school meals to ensure that no child will lose their entitlement during the early stages of the universal credit roll-out. The Scottish Government is currently working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to consider the eligibility criteria for free school meals under universal credit in the future.

The Scottish Government has also committed to extending universal free school meals to all two, three and four year olds in funded early learning and childcare as part of the expansion to 1140 hours of early learning and childcare by the end of this parliament.

Information on local authority instrumental music tuition charges can be found at the attached links:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/curriculum/InstrumentalMusic/ImplementationGroup

The Scottish Government supports a number of music initiatives for young musicians, across a range of organisations.

The Youth Music Initiative (YMI) programme is receiving £10 million of government support in 2016-17. Reporting indicates that this level of investment in 2014-15 enabled music opportunities for 225,000 children across Scotland and independent evaluation published last year indicated that the YMI fosters and develops children's and young people's musical skills and supports more than 300 projects each year across all 32 local authorities.

All of the five Scottish Government-funded National Performing Companies also have initiatives to encourage cultural activity and participation, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Ballet and Scottish Opera orchestra musicians and creative learning teams providing a range of programmes to encourage young musicians.

We are also providing support to give children greater access to cultural opportunities – as evidenced by the announcement, in March 2016, of an additional £2.5 million of funding for Sistema Scotland and the recent launch of the Theatre in Schools Scotland Project supported through the National Theatre of Scotland.

On 5 January 2015, free school meals were extended to primary 1 to 3 children in Scotland to help ensure every child has the best possible start in life and gets every chance to succeed at school. The policy has had a huge take up with latest figures showing that over 134,500 primary 1 to 3 children (81.7%) across all 32 local authorities in Scotland are taking a nutritious free school meal, saving families around £380 a year for each eligible child. The Scottish Government is fully funding this policy and is providing £54 million revenue funding in 2016-17, building on the £70.5 million of revenue funding provided over 2014-16 and the £24.8 million of capital funding which was provided to support implementation.

The criteria to qualify for free school meals is provided for in section 53 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980. A summary of the criteria can be accessed from the Scottish Government website at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/HLivi/schoolmeals/FreeSchoolMeals.

A number of changes have been made to the criteria in recent years:

One of the criteria to qualify for free school meals is the receipt of child tax credit (and not working tax credit) where the award of child tax credit is based on an income not exceeding an amount specified by Regulations under the Tax Credits Act 2002. The Tax Credits Up-rating Regulations 2015 increased the first income threshold for the receipt of child tax credit from £16,010 to £16,105 on 6 April 2015. The increase in this threshold resulted in a change to the qualifying criteria for a free school meal.

Prior to that, on 5 January 2015, amendments to section 53 of the Education Act (Scotland) 1980 made via the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 commenced giving education authorities new powers to provide school meals free of charge to pupils who satisfy such conditions as the authority thinks fit. On the same day, universal free school meals were introduced to children in primary 1 to 3. This policy is being delivered in partnership with local government.

Young children registered for their early learning and childcare entitlement are also entitled to a free school meal, in the middle of the day, under the same criteria as those children from primary 4 onwards. This criteria, was extended on 1 August 2015 through the Education (School Lunches) (Scotland) Regulations 2015 in early learning and childcare only, to include children who are or have been at any point since their second birthday looked after by the local authority or subject to a kinship care or guardianship order, as well as those with a parent in receipt of incapacity or severe disablement allowance or state pension credit. This was to bring the free school meal criteria in line with the eligibility criteria for a funded 2 year old early learning and childcare place. The extended free school meal criteria applies to all two, three and four year olds who meet the criteria in funded early learning and childcare.

In 2016-17 the Scottish Government is providing grant funding of £3.96 million to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) based in Glasgow and £1.99 million to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra based in Edinburgh, two of the five Scottish Government-funded national performing companies who both perform regularly throughout Scotland, the UK and internationally. In addition, the orchestras have received capital funding allocations, most notably £9.2 million for the new RSNO home at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall which opened in 2015.

The Scottish Government also support Sistema Scotland which has three Big Noise centres in Raploch, Govanhill and Torry and our recently announced £2.5 million four-year funding package will enable the youth orchestra programme to sustain and build on its work to enhance the health, wellbeing and prospects of young people in the communities of Stirling, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

In addition the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland (NYOS) both receive Regular Funding from Creative Scotland who also support various orchestral activities through project funding including:-

Support for recording projects – an award to the RSNO and NYOS to record the symphonic music of Sally Beamish

Support for new commissions – an award to voluntary group Peebles Orchestra for commission from Esther Swift

Support for sector development and research – an award to Association of British Orchestras for research into youth ensembles

<>Each of the Big Noise centres deliver an intensive, immersive and inclusive programme with Sistema Scotland working with the relevant local authorities and identified schools and nurseries in the areas that Big Noise centres operate in Raploch, Govanhill and Torry to select the children for the programme. You may wish to contact Sistema Scotland directly for more detailed information:-

Colin McKerchar

Interim Chief Executive

Sistema Scotland

Raploch Community Centre

Drip Road

Raploch

Stirling

FK8 1RD

<>There are nearly 1,800 children and young people engaging regularly with the three established Sistema Scotland Big Noise centres. Big Noise Raploch works with almost 500 children and young people on a regular basis, Big Noise Govanhill works with almost 800 children and Big Noise Torry works with almost 500 children and young people. In addition to the Big Noise orchestras attended by children, Sistema Scotland run Baby Noise and Adult Noise programmes which enable the Sistema Scotland programme to reach across the communities where they are based.

Based on the methods of Venezuela’s ‘El Sistema’ movement, Sistema Scotland develop orchestra centres which are known in the community as ‘Big Noise’. The Scottish Government is supporting Sistema Scotland over the next four years with £2.5million investment to extend the programme's reach at the Big Noise Centres at Raploch, Govanhill and Torry. The four-year funding package will enable the youth orchestra programme to sustain and build on its work to enhance the health, wellbeing and prospects of young people in parts of Stirling, Glasgow and Aberdeen. The funding breakdown of the Scottish Government's support over the next four years is as follows though a breakdown for each centre is not available:-

2016-17	£415,000
2017-18	£455,000
2018-19	£780,000
2019-20	£850,000

The Scottish Government has regular discussions with Creative Scotland on a wide range of subjects including developments around the Youth Music Initiative which allows young people to take part in music in and outside of school in all 32 local authorities.