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.

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.

At no point does the UCAS 2016 End of Cycle Report state that a cap on Scottish university funded places is affecting Scottish applicants.

The report shows 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. Since 2006, the rate has increased by 3.7 percentage points to 10.9%.

The report also underlines that these figures do not include the many students who enter Scotland’s universities direct from college.

This has been achieved while maintaining the Government’s commitment to ensure that access to university is based on the ability to learn and not the ability to pay.

The Draft Scottish Budget announced on 15 December allocated £30 million of capital investment for new, expanded or enhanced early learning and childcare settings in preparation for delivery of 1140 hours from 2020. We are working closely with the Scottish Futures Trust to ensure that we invest in innovative infrastructure solutions that meet local needs. The Scottish Futures Trust has been engaging with local authorities on our behalf throughout this year to help them develop their infrastructure plans. We are also engaging directly with local authorities through our various networks and forums, including the Senior Leaders Forum which will meet again in early 2017. Scottish Government officials are engaging with local government representative bodies to consider how to deploy this funding and target it to the most appropriate schemes.

The Scottish Government believes that children must have access to highly qualified staff with expertise in early childhood learning and development – and that this is particularly vital for those facing particular disadvantages. That is why we are committed to ensuring that nurseries in the most deprived areas will have an additional teacher or graduate from 2018.

We will set out further details as to how this commitment will be delivered later this month.

The Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) census does not separate out nurseries from other settings providing the funded ELC entitlement that are covered by the census. Although information is not collected on childminders, the collection does include playgroups and childcare centres, and both local authority and partnership provider centres. Teacher access is not defined as full or part time, but by if it is a regular or non-regular support that is received. All information is based on the situation as at census week which, since 2010 has been September, and prior to this it was January.

Table 1 shows the percentage of centres that had regular or non-regular arrangements in place for teacher access from 2008 to 2016, and Table 2 shows the percentage of children who received access to a GTCS registered teacher during census week only, and does not include those who are under a regular arrangement with a GTCS registered teacher but they were not present in their centre at census week. Percentages are calculated based on the total number of children of all ages registered with early learning and childcare providers at census week, although some local authorities only ensure access for 3 and 4 year olds. Information on teacher access was not published prior to 2008.

'Regular arrangement' includes those receiving access from centre-based teachers or centrally employed teachers on a scheduled basis. 'Non-regular' refers to support received only on an occasional or ad hoc basis. Centres had difficulty recording centrally employed staff in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and often recorded them as 'non regular support'. In 2015 data on centrally employed teachers was collected directly from local authorities, leading to an balance between regular and non-regular support that is closer to that seen in 2011.

Table 1: Percentage of early learning and childcare centres with access to a GTCS registered teacher during census week 2008-2016

Table 2: Percentage of all children at early learning and childcare centres with access to a GTCS registered teacher during census week 2008-2016

This information is publicly available within various additional tables released alongside the 'Summary statistics for schools in Scotland' statistical bulletin.