Chamber and committees

I have not met with officials to discuss proposals to remove history as a ‘time-tabled slot’ in schools as there never have been any such proposals.

As I have made clear on a number of occasions, I consider history to be a subject that has a huge contribution to make to the purposes of education. There are no plans to remove history from the curriculum.

A report on progress made and views to date of the programme board taking forward A Curriculum for Excellence will be published in the spring. This report will be designed to promote further and deeper discussion on the principles for determining the future shape of the curriculum as a whole, including history.

The available information on how many history teachers have been employed and total secondary pupils broken down by local authority area is provided in the following table. A meaningful pupil: teacher ratio cannot be calculated as there is no information available on the time individual teachers teach history or the number of pupils taking history. There is no evidence to suggest that there are insufficient numbers of history teachers to deliver the subject.

Local Authority	History Teachers				Total Secondary Pupils
	Teaching as Main Subject		Teaching as Main or Other Subject
	20031	2004	2003	2004	2003	2004
Aberdeen City	24	24	35	35	10,552	10,457
Aberdeenshire	37	40	44	53	15,670	15,881
Angus	22	25	30	25	7,104	7,082
Argyll and Bute	18	16	20	21	5,739	5,853
Clackmannanshire	13	13	14	15	2,991	3,074
Dumfries and Galloway	32	34	49	53	9,564	9,585
Dundee City	24	28	28	37	8,585	8,501
East Ayrshire	22	25	28	33	8,181	8,255
East Dunbartonshire	18	19	21	24	8,991	8,690
East Lothian	6	5	8	7	5,640	5,777
East Renfrewshire	19	17	23	21	7,591	7,625
Edinburgh City	61	68	69	82	20,220	20,140
Eilean Siar	3	6	8	14	1,952	1,921
Falkirk	27	25	36	32	8,933	9,147
Fife	55	57	78	80	22,701	22,424
Glasgow City	57	65	77	94	29,318	28,914
Highland	46	54	59	67	14,807	14,928
Inverclyde	20	18	21	19	5,640	5,571
Midlothian	17	18	24	22	5,647	5,550
Moray	14	17	22	26	5,949	6,022
North Ayrshire	26	26	33	38	9,276	9,205
North Lanarkshire	59	57	72	72	22,474	22,363
Orkney Islands	5	4	7	7	1,441	1,427
Perth and Kinross	10	18	19	19	7,831	7,919
Renfrewshire	24	27	28	40	11,791	11,657
Scottish Borders	22	21	25	25	6,928	6,991
Shetland Islands	8	7	12	13	1,669	1,668
South Ayrshire	19	16	31	21	7,495	7,384
South Lanarkshire	28	32	31	47	19,956	20,018
Stirling	21	24	28	31	5,918	6,043
West Dunbartonshire	20	18	20	26	6,467	6,397
West Lothian	19	15	19	15	10,818	10,842
Grant Maintained	2	2	2	2	588	589
Scotland	807	841	1,020	1,112	318,427	317,900

Note: 1. Using 2004 data we were able to estimate main subject taught for a number of teachers who reported “other” as their main subject in 2003 but then reported a main subject in 2004. Using this method, the estimate of extra history teachers across all authorities was 11 full-time equivalent, which explains the discrepancy between the Scotland total, the sum of its parts and previously published figures.

In the development of early intervention programmes for children under three such as Sure Start Scotland and the national demonstration project Starting Well, as well as Working for Families which incorporates significant support for children under three, the Executive consulted a wide range of relevant professionals across several sectors.

In the case of Sure Start, these included social work, health and voluntary sector professionals; in regard to Starting Well, a wide range of health and related sector professionals, as well as the voluntary sector, and in relation to Working for Families, professionals from the education, child care, employability and poverty, development and regeneration sectors were consulted.

The Scottish Executive carries out a regular programme of monitoring for early intervention programmes for children under three. Though several extensive mapping reports have been undertaken, no formal evaluation of Sure Start Scotland has yet taken place; we are currently seeking to learn transferable lessons from the evaluation of Sure Start in England in order to inform any potential evaluation process in Scotland. The final report of the independent evaluation of Phase One of the National Demonstration Project, Starting Well, was published in April 2005, and an independent evaluation of Phase Two is planned. Evaluation of Working for Families (which while not strictly an early intervention programme incorporates significant support for children under three) is currently being carried out independently by the Employment Research Initiative at Napier University.

Funding for early intervention programmes for children under three, broken down by programme, is as follows:

Sure Start Scotland

1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
£9 million	£14 million	£19 million	£19 million	£23.1 million	£35 million	£52.9 million

 

Starting Well

2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	Phase 1-2 Transition (2003-04)	2004-05	2005-06
£1 million	£1 million	£1 million	£1.7 million	£0.8 million	£0.8 million

 

Working for Families

2003-04 (Piloting)	2004-05	2005-06
£0.57 million	£10 million	£10 million

Note: Working for Families, while not strictly an early intervention programme, incorporates significant support for children under three; figures relate to the overall programme.

The objectives of early intervention programmes for children under three, such as Sure Start Scotland, the national demonstration project Starting Well and Working for Families (which while not strictly an early intervention programme incorporates significant support for children under three) differ significantly and it is therefore not possible to compare degrees of success across programmes.

The response to the Kerr Report, Delivering for Health (Bib. number 37847) is explicit on work underway with all concerned to involve patients, carers and the wider public in the consideration of options for change. This applies for all services, including mental health. The aim is to ensure the interests of patients and carers are both gathered and considered in the design of services.

The establishment of Community Health Partnerships and their Public Partnership Forums from April this year will provide further opportunities for public influence in the design of services.

All NHS boards should demonstrate year-on-year improvements in involving the public in service delivery and in individual decisions about personal health care including mental health care. The Scottish Health Council has a central role in holding the NHS to account for its performance in this regard.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-22659 on 6 February 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

There are no specific funds allocated for this purpose. NHS boards will fund attention to this priority from the record resources available to them.

All NHS boards should demonstrate year-on-year improvements in involving the public in service delivery, including mental health care, and in individual decisions about personal health care. The Scottish Health Council has a central role in holding the NHS to account for its performance in this regard.

The Scottish Health Council is applying the frameworks within Informing, Engaging and Consulting the Public in Developing Health and Community Care Policies and Services (Bib. number 38769) and the National Standards for Community Engagement developed by Communities Scotland (Bib. number 38770) for measuring local progress. Their assessments are informed by Local Advisory Council members who engage with local people and networks.