- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 June 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 18 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent Child Health 27-30 Month Review Statistics, what steps it is taking to close the child development gap between young children in poverty and their peers who are not in poverty.
Answer
Investment in Early Learning and Childcare Nurseries, the increase in Health Visitor numbers and the implementation of the Universal Health Visiting Pathway are among the steps the Scottish Government is taking to ensure children and families get access to the right support in their earliest years. The Universal Pathway, published in October 2015, recognises that poverty is one of the biggest risk factors linked to poorer health and development outcomes. It includes three Child Health Reviews which assess children’s growth and development. These contacts provide an opportunity for health visitors, children and their parents to build a strong relationship, in which health visitors can appropriately support all families, including acting as a gateway to other services.
Additionally from August 2020, we are near doubling the statutory entitlement to funded early learning and childcare from 600 hours to 1140 hours each for all 3 and 4 year olds and around a quarter of 2 year olds. Evidence shows that high quality ELC has a positive impact on children’s outcomes. Our offer of funded ELC for 2 year olds is targeted towards those children who are most likely to benefit from early access to high quality funded ELC. Our commitment to funding 435 Equity and Excellence leads in ELC settings serving Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities means that many of the eligible two year olds are also benefitting from access to an extra graduate-level practitioner who can further support their development.
The broad range of action we are taking to tackle child poverty is set out within our first annual progress report due under the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act – published on 26 June 2019. This sets out the clear steps we have taken towards genuine reductions in child poverty levels, including plans for the new Scottish Child Payment.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 June 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 18 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Save the Children's briefing, Thriving at two and beyond, what steps it is taking to improve (a) the uptake of funded early learning and childcare for, (b) awareness and understanding of the funded childcare offer for families with, and (c) the quality of funded early learning and childcare for eligible two-year-olds.
Answer
The Scottish Government welcomes the focus on 2 year olds from Save the Children and their briefing "Thriving at two and beyond" which rightly draws out the key themes of our own ongoing work with local authorities and stakeholders to increase uptake, awareness and quality of the 2 year old funded early learning and childcare (ELC) offer.
We are working with the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative to support 9 multi-agency Local Authority teams to increase awareness and uptake of the 2 year old offer in their areas. We are also working with the UK Government and UK Parliament to secure a legal gateway and data sharing agreement so that Local Authorities in Scotland can also access accurate information about eligible populations.
We are improving the information available to parents and carers to help them make informed decisions about ELC, in particular through our new ELC Hub on Parent Club. We are continually looking for opportunities to promote the offer through other services such as Health Visiting Pathway and Financial Health Check, as well as making best use of new systems and capabilities, such as Best Start Grant, to join up our messaging about the services available to support families.
Quality is at the heart of our ELC offer. From August 2020, all ELC providers will have to meet our National Standard, to ensure that all children benefit from a high quality funded ELC experience. We are also refreshing the national practice guidance 'Building the Ambition' and increasing access to graduate-level practitioners in our most disadvantage communities through our funding for 435 Equality and Excellence leads.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 June 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 18 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government on what date it expects uptake of funded early learning and childcare for eligible two-year-olds to exceed 70%, which is the figure in England.
Answer
The Scottish Government and local authorities are focussed on our shared commitment to increasing uptake of funded early learning and childcare (ELC) among eligible 2 year olds, whilst also nearly doubling the offer from August 2020, from 600 hours to 1140 hours.
Our multi-year funding agreement with COSLA secures the resources for local authorities to increase uptake and nearly double the offer. Our ongoing work with the UK Government to legislate for a data-sharing gateway is critical to local authorities' ability to promote the offer to potentially eligible families and ensure all eligible 2 year olds have the opportunity to benefit from extra funded ELC.
Uptake levels in England are higher due to a number of factors, including a larger cohort of eligible children, and the fact that English authorities have benefitted from a legal gateway for data sharing since 2011. The latter was cited by the Department for Education as a key reason for the significant increase in uptake of their 2 year old offer between 2015 and 2017.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 June 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21121 by Fergus Ewing on 8 February 2019, how many units in Shetland received payment in 2014 from (a) the Basic Payment Scheme, (b) the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme, (c) greening measures and (d) other agri-environmental schemes, also broken down by the amount allocated.
Answer
2014 payments to businesses in Shetland by scheme and amount:
Scheme Amount of Businesses Amount Paid
Single Farm Payment (Predecessor to BPS) 898 £3,500,000
LFASS 800 £2,538,718.44
RP 149 £1,183,217.60
LMO 144 £218,830
Please note;
- BPS/Greening - Not applicable as BPS scheme only came into existence in 2015.
- AECS – Not applicable as AECS scheme only came into existence in 2016.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 June 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21226 by Fergus Ewing on 15 February 2019, what the total eligible hectarage claimed under agricultural and environmental support schemes in Shetland was in 2014.
Answer
Total Hectarage claimed in Shetland in 2014 by scheme:
Scheme | Hectarage Claimed (Ha) |
Single Farm Payment (Predecessor to BPS) | 86,884 |
Please Note:
- BPS scheme only came into existence in 2015
- AECS scheme only came into existence in 2016
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 June 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 June 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) Historic Environment Scotland, (b) Orkney Islands Council and (c) Highlands and Islands Enterprise contributed toward the upgrade of the car parking facilities at the Stone of Stenness in Orkney.
Answer
The upgrading of car parking facilities at the Stones of Stenness was one of three pilot projects supported by the Scottish Government's Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund. The Scottish Government has provided £80,000 towards the total cost of the work which is being delivered by Orkney Islands Council. Historic Environment Scotland has contributed an additional £100,000. Highlands and Islands Enterprise has not contributed towards this project. In addition to the contribution that Orkney Islands Council are making in delivering the project, we understand that it intends to utilise a portion of the residual funding from a fund it established to support its World Heritage Sites.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 19 June 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how many of the participants on the P1 Practitioner’s Forum were (a) from organisations that are allied to schools, (b) school management staff, (c) P1 teachers in (i) 2017-18 and (ii) 2018-19 and (d) academics.
Answer
The number of participants in the Forum varied from meeting to meeting, depending on members’ availability. In total around 30-35 people were involved over the four meetings of the Forum. Details on the make-up of the P1 Practitioner Forum were provided in response to S5W-22894 n 9 May 2019. As this sets out, information on whether the teachers on the Forum were teaching P1 in 2017-18 and 2018-19 was not gathered. The published information does however make clear that the vast majority of teachers on the Forum had taught P1 classes and had been involved with SNSA within schools. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 June 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 19 June 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comment by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on 26 June 2018 that “if sufficient progress is not made over the next 12 months to deliver the empowerment of schools we have agreed with local authorities, I will return to Parliament and introduce an Education Bill”, whether the Bill will be discarded.
Answer
I will make a statement to the Scottish Parliament later this month, setting out the progress that has been made and outlining the Scottish Government's next steps for ensuring the delivery of Scotland's education reforms.
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 June 2019
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made in developing coach park facilities for the Jarlshof site in Shetland.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 13 June 2019
- Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 May 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 30 May 2019
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will instruct Education Scotland to carry out an assessment of the impact on pupils of (a) consortia arrangements between schools and (b) multilevel classes in schools.
Answer
These issues were the subject of discussion when I gave evidence at the Education and Skills Committee on 29 May. The Scottish Government will consider this issue once it receives the Committee report.
