Chamber and committees

Ministers regularly reviewthe Care Commission’s performance against the targets in its corporate plan, inaccordance with its management statement and financial memorandum. Thatdocument also requires the Health Department to conduct a financial managementand policy review of the Care Commission at least every five years or at suchother intervals as the department may determine. The commission was establishedin April 2002, and so the first review is due in 2007. The initial stages of the review will focus on the continuing need for the organisation, itsconstitution, organisation and delivery of its functions and whether they arebeing delivered and financed in the most effective manner.

The partnership agreementfor a better Scotland contains a commitment to increase the number ofspecialists working across the primary secondary boundary by 2007. The Schools ScotlandCode 1956 sets out the qualifications required to teach in the primary andsecondary sectors. A consultation on the future of the Code was held in 1999.The then Deputy Minister for Education and Young People, in response to questionS1W-30420 on 9 October 2002, announced the repeal of the code in 2 phases on 9 October 2002.Teacher unions were consulted at all stages of the process.

All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The interest rates for eachyear since 2000 are as follows:

2000	2.6%
2001	2.3%
2002	1.3%
2003	3.1%

 

The value of outstandingstudent loan amounts is uprated annually, by the Student Loans Company, in linewith inflation in order to maintain the value of the amount borrowed constantin real terms. The method of calculation is set out in part V of the Education(Student Loans) (Scotland) Regulations 2000 as amended. The new rates areannounced by a press release and on borrowers’ annual account statement.

The Scottish Executive has allocated £30 million, over 2004-06 to local authorities to fundcommunity wardens and other community based anti-social behaviour initiatives.In addition, we are making available a further £65 million, over the sameperiod, to tackle anti-social behaviour.

The Executive has alsoprovided £10 million this year to local authorities to help support the work oflocal youth justice teams and enable them to improve the range and quality ofcommunity based services for young offenders that are available. This willincrease to £13 million in 2004-05 and £15 million in 2005-06. Furtherresources are also available to support local authority implementation of themeasures in the Youth Crime Action Plan.

Teachers in educationauthority schools are subject to national terms and conditions of serviceagreed within the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers. The national conditionscontain remote schools and distant islands allowances. There are no plans tointroduce “golden hellos” or other local incentive schemes.

Recruitment of teachers is amatter for education authorities as employers. Teachers in local authorityemployment are subject to national terms and conditions of service.

It is open to the universitiesthat provide initial teacher education and local authorities, in discussionwith the General Teaching Council for Scotland and the subsequent approval of Scottish ministers,to make bespoke arrangements for training teachers.

Pupil:teacher ratios havedeclined in primary schools from 19.1 in 1999 to 18.0 in 2002. In secondaryschools they have declined from 12.9 to 12.7 over the same period. Therefore previouscirculars on staffing levels issued by the Scottish Office now have littlerelevance to today’s schools. This is now a matter for individual educationauthorities taking into account local circumstances and workforce planningassumptions now take place against actual pupil:teacher ratios rather than anyhistoric staffing standard.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-4155 on 1 December 2003.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/search_wa.

As part of the annualteacher workforce planning exercise guidance is offered to the Scottish HigherEducation Funding Council (SHEFC) on priority subjects. The allocation of fundingfor teacher training places to higher education institutions is a matter forSHEFC.

The requirement for supplystaff is discussed with members of the Teacher Workforce Planning AdvisoryGroup which includes representatives of education authorities, teachers’organisations and the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC). Thepurpose of the group is to offer advice on the requirement for newly trained teachersto Scottish ministers who in turn provide guidance to SHEFC. Intakes to coursesof teacher training are a matter for SHEFC. An allowance of 7% in primaryeducation and 6% in secondary education has been included within thestatistical model from 2004 onwards, together with further additional supplycover in maths and English. This compares to an average teachers absence ratedue to ill health of 4.0% in 2001-02.