Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government understands that any allegation made against a teacher whether found to be false or not, can be very stressful and upsetting to all those involved. Guidance was issued in 2011 which was designed to provide support for schools and authorities in dealing with allegations made against members of staff for whatever reason.

Schools and authorities must have procedures in place which meet the needs of both staff and children and young people and must ensure that any local procedures for handling allegations dovetail with local disciplinary and child protection procedures in accordance with the National Child Protection Guidance (2010) and inter-agency child protection guidelines.

Authorities and schools have available to them a range of strategies and approaches, for promoting positive relationships and behaviour. Support and training in these approaches is provided by Education Scotland’s Rights, Support and Wellbeing Team.

This information is not collated centrally. Teacher absences and the cause of these absences are matters for individual local authorities as employers. Each authority will have locally agreed systems in place for managing this.

Under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) 2004 (as amended) education authorities are required to take specific action to help prospective school leavers with additional support needs to make the transition from school to post-school life successfully.

The Act places a duty on the education authority to request and share information from an appropriate agency or agencies, if any, which are likely to be involved with the prospective school leaver on leaving school.

Appropriate agencies, all in Scotland, which may be involved are:

any NHS board, any other local authority, Skills Development Scotland, any further education college, the Scottish Agricultural College and any institution of higher education.

This information requested is not collated centrally. Teacher absences and the causes of these absences are matters for individual local authorities as employers. Each authority will have locally agreed systems in place for managing this.

The Scottish Government takes the matter of workload and stress seriously and has already taken steps to address the immediate issues surrounding implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. There are a range of support materials in place to aid teachers with the transition and Education Scotland inspectors have a clear remit to tackle any bureaucracy which detracts from pupils’ learning experience.

The recent publication of the Audit Scotland Compendium on Council Performance for the 2012-13 financial year, shows the number of days lost per employee for teachers as well as other local government employees in each Scottish Council area with a total average for Scotland.

There has been a slight increase this year in teacher absence however in the past five years teacher absence has been consistently less than that of other local government workers.

Local authorities have a duty under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 to make such arrangements as they consider necessary for the transport between home and school of pupils residing and attending schools in their area. In considering these arrangements, authorities are required to have regard to the safety of the pupil.

Local authorities are best placed to decide what constitutes a reasonable travel time based on their knowledge of their area.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde advised that the number of postponed episodes were: 599 outpatient appointments, 62 planned in-patient procedures and day cases and 48 chemotherapy treatments. Over this period approximately 10,000 procedures and appointments were unaffected and went ahead as planned.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has assured the Scottish Government that all patients who had in-patient/day case procedures or outpatient appointments affected by the IT issues were re-booked by the end of October; and that no patients failed to be treated within the 12 week treatment time guarantee period.

On 13 November 2013 Scotland CAN DO: Becoming a World-leading Entrepreneurial and Innovative Nation, was published. The framework builds on the Government Economic Strategy and details the Scottish Government’s current approach to, and future plans for, supporting entrepreneurship and innovation.

Scotland CAN DO can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/11/7675a, and is also registered with Parliament Information Reference Centre (Bib. number 55456).

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act 2004 (as amended) provides the framework for the provision of support to overcome barriers to learning in schools. The Act is supported by a code of practice which guides education authorities and other agencies on the delivery of their duties to identify, provide and review the additional support needs of their pupils.

Partnership Matters, published by the Scottish Government, provides national guidance on the roles and responsibilities of the various agencies who may be involved in providing the required support for a student with additional support needs to attend college or university. This includes the provision of personal care.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the numbers of students requiring full time carers at school, college and university.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the economic impact of ancestral tourism in each of the last five years or how much ancestral tourism is projected to contribute to the economy in 2013-14 and 2014-15. VisitScotland conducted research in 2012 which estimated the value of ancestral tourism to Scotland’s economy. A copy of this research is available at:

http://www.visitscotland.org/pdf/Ancestral%20Research%2016%20Jan%20vs.org_pptx.pdf.