- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 12 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the General Teaching Council, colleges of education, university education departments and teaching unions were consulted about its intention to appoint a consultant to report on professional development for teachers.
Answer
All stakeholders were consulted in 1998 regarding a framework for continuing professional development which was strongly supported. The invitation to tender for the contract to develop such a framework was advertised in November 1999 and all of the above groups were informed that a tendering process was underway.Consultation about the detail of the bids was restricted by commercial confidentiality. At the first meeting of the Ministerial Strategy Committee on Continuing Professional Development, on 4 October, was made known that a consortium of the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde led by Arthur Andersen had, on the 29 September, accepted the contract to develop the framework for CPD. The GTC, teaching unions, and others are represented on this committee.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 12 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how much the consultancy awarded to Arthur Andersen on professional development for teachers will cost.
Answer
The contract value is approximately £950,000. This is not a fixed figure and may change in the light of the outcome of the McCrone discussions and other changing circumstances.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 12 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the remit for the consultancy awarded to Arthur Andersen on professional development for teachers.
Answer
Under the contract awarded, the following tasks will be carried out:
1. Consultation on and construction of a framework for continuing professional development based on the principles to be determined by the McCrone Implementation Group.2. Development of a training and development programme for serving headteachers.3. Development of a common recording system for teachers undertaking continuing professional development.4. Development and management of a communications strategy.These will be undertaken by a consortium led by Arthur Andersen, in partnership with the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 11 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what resources it will apply to the implementation of the recommendations of the McCrone Committee report.
Answer
The budget for 2001-02 will be laid before the Parliament in the next week or so. The budget will contain funding for teachers' pay. A draft budget for 2002-03 will be presented to Parliament later in the year.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 10 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was of the current round of New Opportunities Fund ICT training for teachers and how much of the total cost was spent on the folder of materials provided to each course participant.
Answer
The New Opportunities Fund (NOF) allocated £23 million in Scotland to provide training for all serving teachers and school librarians in publicly-funded schools who want to undertake the training programme. Training is delivered by 12 approved training providers in Scotland, each of whom will have their own models of delivery. Schools choose training providers from a catalogue of training providers approved by the NOF. Any material given to participants will be a matter for the training provider concerned.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 10 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that the mileage rate for transport expenses paid to teachers when attending in-service courses and similar events reflects the present cost of petrol.
Answer
The payment of travelling expenses to teachers attending training courses and similar events is a matter for the relevant local authority as the teacher's employer. National rates for the payment of such expenses are agreed annually through negotiation between the representatives of the teacher unions and the employers. Local authorities can choose whether to pay more than the nationally agreed rate.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 10 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Scottish Qualifications Authority regarding any continuing dissatisfaction among pupils and parents with the results of the appeal process.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is in close touch with SQA about progress with the appeals process, and has arranged for it to be independently monitored by representatives of the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES). Decisions on individual appeals are for the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) as an independent awarding body but the Executive has discussed with SQA their arrangements for dealing with any concerns about the outcome of appeals.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 9 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how much New Opportunities Fund money will be distributed in Scotland in the current year and how much of this will be spent on school projects.
Answer
Since its first awards in July 1999, the New Opportunities Fund has made 201 awards totalling £16,248,000 in Scotland, of which £9.7 million has been committed under the Out of School Hours Learning programme. In addition over £32 million has been allocated for ICT training for teachers and public library staff and the building of the Public Library Network in Scotland. Information on the current financial year will be available at the end of March 2001.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 8 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to the Natural Heritage Lottery Fund to ensure that Tobar an Dualchais receives sufficient lottery funding to activate match funding for its project to conserve and disseminate the Gaelic and other material in its archives.
Answer
The Heritage Lottery Fund, like the other National Lottery distributing bodies, makes its decisions on applications independently. The Executive therefore does not make any such representations.
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-10350 by Iain Gray on 30 October 2000, what the "range of services provided" are which are in place for people with mental health problems in the South of Scotland; what support, financial and other, it has provided for such services in each of the past three years, and what advice and guidance it has made available to agencies providing or seeking to provide such services.
Answer
The resources available to Dumfries and Galloway Council and to Dumfries and Galloway Health Board in each of the last three years are as follows (£ millions):
| | Allocation to Local Authority1 | Allocation to Health Board |
1998-99 | 160.5 | 114.4 |
1999-2000 | 170.5 | 132.2 |
2000-01 | 176.0 | 132.9 |
Notes:
1. Total Grant Aided Expenditure allocation.
It is for the health board and the local authority to decide how much should be spent on mental health services and support, though the Scottish Executive expect a co-ordinated approach to be adopted. Comprehensive information on the range of services provided by the health board and the local authority from the resources made available to them are available from those agencies.
In the past three years 14 projects in Dumfries and Galloway have been supported by Mental Illness Specific Grant (£480,000 a year), and seven initiatives in the area have been funded from the Mental Health and Well Being Development Fund to a total value of £832,000.
Guidance on the best organisation of mental health services was published in the service elements section of the Framework for Mental Health Services in Scotland (bib. no.7392). A copy is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre.
