Chamber and committees

Smaller-scale farmers' and crofters' flocks are subject to the same risk from Avian Influenza circulating in wild birds as the larger, commercial flocks, therefore any exemption for certain keepers to the Avian Influenza Prevention Zone may reduce its effectiveness.

As laid out by the declaration of 6 December 2016 and the declaration of 6 January 2017, all poultry and captive bird keepers in Scotland are required to keep their birds indoors or, as this may not be practical for some smaller scale keepers, they should take appropriate steps to keep them separate from wild birds and apply heightened biosecurity measures.

We would encourage smaller farmers and crofters to speak with their private vets, or their local Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) office, if they have any specific questions about complying with these requirements.

The Scottish Government has supported all bird keepers by providing information and guidance (including Frequently Asked Questions) about the requirements of the Avian Influenza Prevention Zone on its website, within emails to stakeholders, societies and their members, and shared via social media.

As laid out by the declaration of declarations of 6 December 2016 and 6 January 2017, all poultry and captive bird keepers in Scotland are required to keep their birds indoors or take appropriate steps to keep them separate from wild birds and apply heightened biosecurity measures. Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) are also available to offer further advice and support if bird keepers have any specific questions about complying.

The Scottish Government will set out further details later this month as to how the commitment that nurseries in the most deprived areas will have an additional teacher or graduate from 2018 will be delivered.

Decisions regarding how teachers are involved in the delivery of early learning and childcare (ELC) are the responsibility of local authorities.

However, it is a requirement of the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) that every manager/lead practitioner of a daycare of children service must hold a relevant teaching qualification that meets the General Teaching Council (Scotland) regulatory requirements or must hold, or be working towards, a relevant degree level Childhood Practice award.

The BA Childhood Practice, which was launched in 2009, has been designed to ensure that practitioners have the specialist early years expertise and knowledge to support young children’s learning and to enable them to add value in early learning environments. There is now a greater mix of teachers and graduates across the ELC sector.

The Scottish Government is committed to going further and will ensure that nurseries in the most deprived areas will have an additional teacher or graduate from 2018.

We can see no finding in the UCAS 2016 End of Cycle Report which states that ‘university places will need to rise to meet demand’. However, the report does show an all-time record high number of Scottish domiciled students gaining a place at our universities through UCAS, as well as recording the highest ever entry rate to our universities for 18 year olds from Scotland’s 20% most deprived areas.

This record has been achieved as a result of substantial Scottish Government investment in Scotland’s higher education sector – with more than £1 billion invested each year for the past five years, and a further investment of more than £1 billion allocated in the 2017-18 draft budget. It has also been achieved whilst maintaining the Scottish Government’s commitment to ensure that access to university is based on the ability to learn and not the ability to pay.

The proposed 10% deduction is an individual arrangement discussed between the nursery and parents, which has now been rejected by the nursery in question. Local authorities are legally obliged to provide the mandatory amount of early learning and childcare free of charge. We expect nurseries to pass on the full entitlement of their partnership provider funding to parents. We have identified partner provider funding and parent charges as an area that could usefully be clarified through updating the statutory guidance on early learning and childcare, which will be carried out in 2017. Officials have spoken with Glasgow City Council who have confirmed that the issue with the nursery in question is resolved. My officials have also written to Fair Funding for our Kids to confirm this and to indicate that we will consider this issue when we update the statutory guidance to provide further clarity for all local authorities and partner provider nurseries.

Scottish Government does not collect information on financial arrangements between local authorities concerning cross-boundary early learning and childcare placements.

Through its high performance lifestyle programme, sportscotland, the national agency for sport, provides a tailored coaching and mentoring service that supports performance athletes to manage the changes, challenges and choices that enable them to focus on performance sportand also prepare them for life after sport. Working with clinical specialists, mental health is a key strand of work within the programme.In addition, the athletes benefit from sessions on resilience, including Mental and Physical Health, in conferences and personal development sessions.

The SPFL Trust’s Legacy 2014 Supporting Communities Programme was supported in 2013-14 by £500,000 of Scottish Government funding and demonstrated the power of football to reach out to people and change lives. Whilst funding for the programme ended in March 2014, one of the key developments within the programme has been the establishment of a dedicated SPFL Trust website at http://spfltrust.org.uk from which people across Scotland can find out what is going on at a club in their community and how they can get involved. In addition we continue to work closely with the Trust and member clubs to discuss shared priorities, including mental health, obesity and employability. This has included the development of, and support for, the successful Football Fans in Training programme since 2010.

Reducing the attainment gap

On 13 December 2016, the Scottish Government published the 2017 National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan for Scottish education, as well as the National Improvement Framework evidence report for 2016. The Framework is central to the Scottish Government’s commitment to raising attainment for all, and closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

The Improvement Plan brings together, in one place, all of the improvement activity from both the Delivery Plan and the Curriculum for Excellence Implementation Plan, and also incorporates the national improvement plan on parental and family engagement. From now on, it will serve as the single, definitive plan for securing educational improvement.

A suite of Interventions for Equity has been designed and developed to support schools in the process of selecting interventions and approaches which can contribute to closing the attainment gap between our most and least disadvantaged children. This initial framework to support the introduction of the Scottish Attainment Challenge - Pupil Equity Funding will continue be developed. Operational guidance to support the use of Pupil Equity Funding will be issued to all headteachers in January.

For the Scottish Attainment Challenge Schools Programme guidance was issued to all participating schools and their local authorities in May. This included a template for submitting improvement plans, a template for mid-year and end-year reporting and a Frequently Asked Questions section. Schools are required to submit improvement plans each year, as well as mid-year and end year reports, detailing their spend.

Challenge Authorities are required to submit Improvement Plans each year, as well as quarterly reports detailing spend and more detailed mid-year and end-year reports.

Implementing 1140 hours of early learning and childcare

The Scottish Government has engaged pro-actively with local authorities throughout the last year on the expansion of early learning and childcare (ELC). This engagement has been maintained through various channels - including local authority network meetings, the ELC Strategic Forum, the ELC National Summit held in February 2016, plus more recently through the creation of the ELC Managers Forum and Senior Leaders Forum, both of which met for the first time in November 2016 and will meet again in January 2017.