Chamber and committees

ScottishNatural Heritage advises ministers on matters relating to Scotland's natural heritage. This extendsto providing advice on Electricity Act applications. The final decision on theseapplications, however, rests with ministers.

Communities Scotland’s LearningConnections team are discussing with key organisations development of guidelinesfor local authorities, and their community learning partners, on supporting theliteracy and numeracy needs of individuals with dyslexia.

Education authorities are undera general duty, under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, to ensure that pupils with special educationalneeds, including dyslexia, are appropriately supported within schools. Circular4/96, Children and Young Persons with Special Educational Needs: Assessment andRecording, provides general advice for education authorities regarding the assessmentand recording of pupils with special educational needs.

This is a matter for NHS boardsand NHS trusts.

Although not involved in the“treatment” of dyslexia, the Scottish Executive Education Department is undertaking a number of initiativesto support school pupils with dyslexia, including providing project funding underthe Special Educational Needs Innovation Grant Scheme 2002-04. £102,000 has beenawarded to the Scottish Dyslexia Trust to improve practical support to parents andteachers of children with dyslexia, and £79,000 has been awarded to Dyslexia Scotwestto develop a dyslexia friendly schools award in East Renfrewshire.

(a) This is a matter for NHSboards and NHS trusts.

(b) I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-2018 today, which is available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at:

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

The Scottish Executive has taken a number of steps to promote activity-based education inschools, including the establishment of a PE Review Group, an Active SchoolsWorking Group and the Scottish Health Promoting Schools Unit. Funding has alsobeen made available to adapt and develop the School Sports Co-ordinatorProgramme as part of the Active Schools Programme.

Educationauthorities should have procedures in place to identify and provide for pupilswith dyslexia, and other support needs. A number of tools may be used to thisend, including routine monitoring and assessment of class work by classroomstaff.

In supportof this, in 2003-04 the Scottish Executive has provided£8.4 million for the training and development of staff working with pupils withadditional support needs. In addition, Dyslexia Scotwest and the ScottishDyslexia Trust have been awarded over £180,000 from the Special EducatiuonalNeeds Innovation Grants Programme 2002-04 in support of two dyslexia-specificprojects. Furthermore, over £20 million of inclusion programme funding has beenprovided by the Executive to local authorities to support pupils withadditional support needs.

Proposalscontained in the draft Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Bill aim to strengthen further theduties on education authorities to identify and address the needs of pupils whorequire additional support, including those with dyslexia.

The Executive has carefully considered the different options put forward in the report of the review team, and decided that the head office functions of Forest Enterprise Scotland will be delivered by its existing territorial offices in Inverness and Dumfries. The views of staff, the trade unions and external stakeholders were taken into account, and our decision is to retain both offices. We have decided that Inverness will be designated as the head office, with Dumfries playing a vital role in support.The retention of both offices will, therefore, be guaranteed for the forseeable future as Forest Enterprise Scotland maintains a dispersed organisation. It will allow for excellent services and a significant presence in both the north and the south of the country, reflecting the importance of forestry to both of these regions.

Pay scales for management grades in schools have not been affected by job-sizing. They remain as set out in the agreement: £31,299 to £40,401 for principal teachers; £35,500 to £69,300 for depute headteachers and headteachers; and the introduction of a new salary scale for chartered teachers, £29,601 to £35,199. These compare to the salary scale for classroom teachers of £18,000 to £28,707.The job-sizing exercise now allows values to be placed on specific management posts within schools. This contrasts with the previous system, where jobs were graded solely on the basis of school roll, resulting in one person department heads being paid identical sums to the heads of departments with large staffing and significant budgets. The flexibility job-sizing brings will mean local authorities can now design management structures to suit local circumstances in order to maintain and enhance the quality of education they provide. These changes to management levels are being introduced in parallel to the introduction of the new Chartered Teacher programme. In return for pursuing post graduate studies, considerable salary increases will be offered. In turn, this will increase the quality of education delivered in the classroom, and offer incentives for ambitious teachers to stay in teaching posts, rather than apply for management positions.

Responsibility for responding to incidents such as the sinking of the Jambo is reserved and rests with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), which is co-ordinating the current salvage effort.The Scottish Environment Protection Agency, and a number of other relevant organisations, is involved in an environment group which has been set up to monitor and advise on the situation in accordance with the National Contingency Plan for Marine Pollution from Shipping and Offshore Installations (a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre - Bib. Number 17730).The first priority was to identify the points of release, and stem the flow of, diesel oil leaking from the wreck and to undertake analysis of the cargo with a view to its removal as quickly as practicable. The MCA has advised that the recovery of the ship's diesel fuel bunkers and other pollutants was completed as far as practicable on 8 July. Salvage plans for the removal of the cargo have also been prepared and agreed. A number of strategies are also being considered to minimise the impact of any potential pollution on fish farms in the area.

Wild fish populations are regularly monitored by Fisheries Trust biologists, in collaboration with Fisheries Research Services.On marine salmon sites, weekly sea lice counts are carried out routinely by farmers to determine the trigger levels for treatments.There is better control of sea lice where Area Management Agreements are in place, and sea lice burdens on both farmed and wild fish appear to be reduced in the first year of production following a synchronised fallow. The Tripartite Working Group is currently reviewing sea lice monitoring arrangements to ensure that data collected from wild and farmed populations provides an accurate assessment of local sea lice burdens. The Executive is committed, under the Strategic Framework for Scottish Aquaculture, to keeping under review the effectiveness of these sea lice control initiatives.