Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-06405

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the letter from the Minister for Childcare and Early Years to the Education and Skills Committee on 18 January 2017 on the additional graduate commitment, of the 432 nurseries identified, how many directly employ (a) qualified early years teachers, (b) qualified graduates, (c) staff working towards a graduate-level teaching qualification and (d) staff working towards a Childhood Practice qualification, broken down by (i) headcount and (ii) full-time equivalent.

Allocations of the additional graduates to local authorities were determined by their share of the nurseries located in the 20% most deprived postcode areas. Using the Care Inspectorate data on Early Learning and Childcare settings, and the latest Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), 432 nurseries were identified as being located in the 20% most deprived postcode areas. Each of the three local authorities (Orkney, Shetland, and Western Isles) without a nursery in the 20% most deprived postcode areas will also receive one additional graduate.

However, to ensure that this commitment benefits as many children as possible local authorities will be given flexibility to draw on their local data to prioritise how they allocate these additional places.

We are currently working closely with local authorities on progressing this commitment, and will ask them provide plans setting out how they propose to allocate the additional places in their area, including how many of the additional training places they wish to access.

Question reference: S5W-06407

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what planning and reporting requirements will be placed on local authorities to (a) assess how they allocate nursery places and (b) monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of additional graduates to nurseries within the authority areas, and when it will report on these findings.

Question reference: S5W-05923

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 1 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many members of staff each of the locations for the second round of the programme of trials for the expansion of early learning and childcare expansion require, and how many have been recruited.

Trial area	Projected additional staff, including childminders (FTE)	Number recruited to date
Angus^1,3	2.0	0.0
Argyll and Bute^1,3	10.0	0.0
Dumfries and Galloway^1,3	4.0	0.0
Dundee²	-	-
East Ayrshire²	-	-
Eilean Siar^{1, 3}	1.9	0.0
Glasgow	6.1	5.6
Midlothian³	1.0	0.0
North Ayrshire	2.0	2.0
Shetland¹	TBC	0.0
South Lanarkshire³	3.0	0.0

Notes

Local consultation is underway on the design of these trial services, including desired patterns of delivery, which will determine the final staffing model. Recruitment will commence following this period of consultation. These trials are currently on track to admit children on time.

These trials focus on redesigning existing services with registered childminders.

These trials are seeking to recruit new registered childminders.

Additional staff include local authority employed staff and registered childminders.

More information on each of the approved trials can be found at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/early-years/ELCTrials/ELCTrials

Question reference: S5W-06194

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-05809 by Mark McDonald on 13 January 2017, what is meant by 395 registrations "could not be assigned to a local authority", as noted in Table (a); how many registrations in this category there have been in each of the last five years, and how the cost of these registrations is met.

For the 2011 census the information received from certain local authority run centres could not be assigned to a local authority as during the quality assurance process, the identification number provided by the centres involved had been deemed invalid. This resulted in 395 registrations being excluded from the census results.

The census process has changed since 2011 and this problem can no longer occur. We conduct a pre-survey prior to the main census in September, checking which centres should be involved in the census, and returns are now validated by the local authorities.

Question reference: S5W-06193

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has carried out an assessment of the cost of collecting nursery registration information at the start of each new term, instead of the annual September census that it currently carries out.

The Scottish Government has not assessed the cost of collecting nursery registration information at the start of each new term. Currently the data is collected from Early Learning and Childcare centres and although we do not have a cost for them to complete the census, it is estimated that it costs local authorities £27,000 for their involvement to validate the data collected. We are currently reviewing the timing of the Early Learning and Childcare data collection, and are considering the most beneficial time to capture this information.

Question reference: S5W-06075

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to ensure that teachers in areas with low or negligible internet connections will be able to access new online materials aimed at addressing the attainment gap.

To support the use of digital technology in schools, the Scottish Government offers to fund a high speed broadband connection via the Scottish Wide Area Network to a central point in every Scottish local authority for use by education establishments. Onward connectivity to education establishments is the responsibility of local authorities. Attainment Advisors are active in every local authority area and are proactively promoting effective practice in reducing the attainment gap. They are available to provide advice and support where necessary.

Question reference: S5W-06092

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have taken part in an early years workforce recruitment and training apprenticeship since 2011-12 and, of those, how many were employed as early years staff after the apprenticeship.

Question reference: S5W-06093

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been provided through apprenticeship funding for early years workforce (a) recruitment and (b) training in each year since 2011-12.

The following table provides information on Modern Apprenticeship spend drawn down by learning providers for early years related frameworks.

	Spend
2011-12	£4,766,889
2012-13	£4,529,871
2013-14	£4,936,317
2014-15	£4,993,634
2015-16	£4,987,672

Please note that Skills Development Scotland make funding contributions towards training only. Recruitment costs are covered by employers.

For Foundation Apprenticeships, there was spend of £34,723 to one provider to deliver a 2015-17 pathfinder for the Children and Young People Foundation Apprenticeship Framework.

Question reference: S5W-06174

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the finding in the Civil Service People Survey 2016 that suggests that 11% of Education Scotland's staff consider that "change is managed well in Education Scotland", what its position is on how the organisation manages change.

Question reference: S5W-06192

Asked by: Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 26 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-05809 by Mark McDonald on 13 January 2017, whether it will consider updating the way in which information for nursery registrations is collected in order to take account of the three terms, instead of figures just for term one as currently recorded.