Chamber and committees

Scottish Government funding for active travel (a) nationally is £39.2 million in 2016-17. This figure includes both capital and revenue funding from the Support for Sustainable and Active Travel budget, capital funding from the Future Transport Fund and the Cycling, Walking and Safer Streets ringfenced budget within the local authority settlement.

Local authorities (b) will therefore receive an allocation of £5.681 million in 2016-17 to support improvements to walking and cycling infrastructure in their areas. In addition, local authorities are encouraged to bid for funding for walking and cycling infrastructure improvements through the Community Links and Community Links PLUS programmes administered by Sustrans.

The Scottish Government believes that educating young people about the benefits of cycling, and indeed of active travel and physical activity in general, is fundamental to the current and future health and wellbeing of the country. We support various organisations in Scotland to deliver a number of programmes that provide the knowledge and training required to live a safe, healthy and active life. These include:

Road Safety Scotland

Road Safety Scotland's free road safety learning resources, closely linked to Curriculum for Excellence and made available to schools and other educational establishments across the country. This is a lifelong learning approach to road safety for young people aged 3 to 18 years, with a view to developing responsible road use among young people. The learning resources encourage safer road use and good practice across all road user groups, including child cyclists.

Sustrans Scotland

I Bike is a programme working directly with pupils designed to increase rates of cycling and support all modes of active travel to and from schools. Sustrans officers work with teachers and parents, supported by local authority school travel planning initiatives, road safety and active school teams to deliver a tailored programme of curriculum led activities to encourage schools to deliver cycling activities over a three year period. Champions are identified within each school and bike crews made up from pupils who promote the activities to their peers.

The School cycle and scooter parking programme is a match funded grant programme available to local authorities. The programme installs new or improved cycle and scooter parking within school grounds. The new facilities are also subject to local promotion and campaigns so that the whole school community are aware of the benefits.

Sustrans manage the School Travel Professional Network; a forum for local authority officers to share experiences and learn from each other when rolling out school travel campaigns and activities. This also includes developing and rolling out school travel plan templates and other initiatives linked with ‘Healthier Routes’ which support teachers to involve pupils in the development of school travel plans and active travel promotion.

There are a number of free resources to schools to raise awareness about the benefits of cycling including the Big Street Survey; lesson plans and activities designed to encourage children to identify opportunities for cycling and walking infrastructure improvements around their school. The Big Shift is a six week programme designed for teachers to run activities to encourage cycling to and from school and this can culminate in taking part in the annual Big Pedal, a UK wide competition based on participation of pupils logging journeys to and from school, which is supported by curriculum linked resources. For younger pupils, Sustrans Superheroes provides inspiration for children to learn and practice skills essential for safe, fun and sustained active travel.

Cycling Scotland

Cycling Scotland manages the national Bikeability Scotland cycle training programme on behalf of the Scottish Government, funded through Transport Scotland and the Education Department. This programme is delivered across 29 local authority areas, to over 32,000 primary aged pupils. The most recent available data for 2014-15 shows that 40.1% of schools delivered an on-road training programme promoting confidence and skills to make trips by bike. In addition to practical cycle training, the scheme includes teaching resources and classroom packs to embed cycling across the Curriculum for Excellence. Bikeability Scotland aligns with the UK National Standard for Cycling.

The ‘Give Everyone Cycle Space’ is a road safety campaign asking drivers to give people on bikes enough space when passing – as much space as they’d give a car. Again, Transport Scotland is working in partnership with Education colleagues to jointly fund this campaign. Local activity including a range of classroom and participatory activities take place within primary schools. These activities include lesson plans around route planning, cycle safety and the benefits of cycling and guided rides in the local area.

It also runs the Cycle Friendly School Award programme for both primary and secondary schools. The award scheme promotes good practices and recognises schools that have make a commitment to promoting and increasing pupil cycling. The scheme highlights programmes available from partners including Sustrans and Scottish Cycling, as well as the Bikeability Scotland and the "Give Everyone Cycle Space" campaign. The Cycle Friendly School Award pack includes a teachers pack with lesson plans to promote the benefits of cycling to primary pupils. Since the launch of the scheme, 337 schools have attained the award, covering over 100,000 pupils.

Since 2014, the ‘Cycle School Camps’ programme, funded by Transport Scotland and Climate Change Division of the Scottish Government, has been available to secondary school pupils to develop as ‘School Cycle Champions’ and deliver projects to increase cycling within their schools. School teams apply for the ten spaces on the week-long residential camps where they gain skills in cycle instruction, first aid, maintenance and event delivery. The teams are then supported after the camps to implement projects within their schools – support includes grant funding and support from a Cycling Scotland Tutor.

Cycling as an activity in Physical Education (PE)

Cycling can play an important part in cross-curricular learning, providing the opportunity for pupils to learn about the benefits of cycling for their health, the environment and the wider community. The Cycling Action Plan for Scotland calls for cycling to be promoted as an activity in PE. Examples include:

Cumbernauld High School - a partnership project with Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) and Cycling Scotland to introduce a progressive mountain biking programme in PE for pupils in S3 upwards.

East Dunbartonshire Cycle Cooperative – a social enterprise working with a cluster of primary schools in Bishopbriggs to promote cycling in the community. All schools have a Cycle Friendly School Award and cycling is promoted as part of Inter Disciplinary Learning projects within each school.

Over 2012-13 – 2015-16 grants totalling over £1.2 million were awarded by Education Scotland, with 51 schools awarded grants to support the development of cycling as an activity in PE and the wider curriculum. This funding went towards purchasing bikes, teacher cycle leader training and promoting cycling as a means of transport.

All the above organisations and Scottish Government cross-portfolio policy areas work in partnership to complement and promote each others' programmes to ensure our young people have the access to information and training to gain the life skills to walk and cycle safely.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing high quality, flexible early learning and childcare that meets the needs of children and their families. That is why we have increased the amount of funded early learning and childcare to 600 hours a year for all three and four year olds, and extended this to over a quarter of all two year olds, through the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. The Act has also placed flexibility on a statutory footing for the first time, and has placed a duty on local authorities to consult with local groups of parents every two years on patterns of hours that will best suit their needs.

Increased flexibility will allow more parents to work, train or study, however the priority is to improve the outcomes of children so it is intended that children access their funded hours at a time of day that best suits their learning and development, as well as at times that provide consistency for the child.

The Act also introduced a requirement on education authorities to consult on ‘if and how’ they could best deliver or support additional unfunded hours of early learning and childcare and out of school care for school aged children. The purpose of this is to create an opportunity to co-ordinate consultation and planning of all mandatory early learning and childcare, day care and out of school care along-side discretionary provision which local authorities have powers to deliver or support.

The Scottish Government recognises the challenges facing parents who work unsociable hours and provides funding to organisations such as the Care and Learning Alliance who provide tailored solutions to childcare needs, including for those parents who work unsociable hours.

I refer the member to my answer to S5O-00046 on 15 June 2016.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to encouraging more girls, and young people more generally, to study STEM subjects. STEM is vital to Scotland’s future economic growth and prosperity. There are some very encouraging signs of greater participation by women in STEM subjects at college and university. For example, between 2007 and 2015 the numbers of entries by girls to the main science Higher qualifications, including computing, were up by 10%.We are supporting projects to tackle gender stereotyping in STEM education at school and equality projects across Scottish colleges and universities. These include the Improving Gender Balance initiative that aims to challenge STEM stereotypes from young people in the early years of their education through to S6.The Scottish Funding Council has prioritised STEM across the college and university sectors, including uptake by young women. There are many examples of colleges helping young women develop the necessary skills, ambition and interest to break down the barriers for those who, traditionally, had been put off by a male dominated environment. In 2014-15 there were 27% more female full-time equivalent science and maths students and 55% more full-time equivalent female engineering students in colleges, compared with 2006-07. Our forthcoming STEM Strategy will promote action to encourage a better gender balance of those studying STEM subjects and courses.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

 

The independent STEMEC group was set up to take forward work arising from the earlier Science and Engineering Education Advisory Group report on school science and to help improve Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and learning in Scotland’s schools. The group last met on 18 December 2015 in Edinburgh. The purpose of that meeting was to agree the committee’s final report to the government which has now been received. Further meetings of the committee are a matter for the chair to determine.

 

The ScotXed Unit within the Scottish Government provide guidance notes to schools in Scotland responsible for reporting on the school/pupil census. This includes the reporting of pupils with additional support needs.The Scottish Government is committed, through the Advisory Group for Additional Support for Learning, to improve guidance to authorities on the reporting of pupils with additional support needs. Work to agree this is ongoing.The Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland No.6: 2015 Edition indicates that 22.5% of pupils in Scotland's local authority primary, secondary and grant-aided schools were identified as having additional support needs.The current guidance notes can be accessed at the following link:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/ScotXed/SchoolEducation/SchoolPupilCensus/SurveyDocumentation

The published data for 2016 confirms that while outcomes for looked after children have been improving, the gaps are still big compared to all pupils and progress needs to be accelerated.

These differences are, in part, linked to the fact that looked after children tend to leave school at younger ages. In 2014-15 almost three quarters (73 per cent) of looked after school leavers were aged 16 and under compared to over one quarter (27 per cent) of the overall population of school leavers.

Since 2009-10 we have seen improvement in the proportion of looked after children achieving 1 or more qualification at SCQF level 5 (equivalent to a national 5 award), positive destinations, attendance figures for looked after children and exclusion figures. We also know that looked after children with the best outcomes tend to be those children in foster care, or with few placements, and looked after for the full year. However I acknowledge the gap between looked after children and other children is still too wide and regrettably children and young people looked after at home still have the worse outcomes.

Tackling inequality is at the heart of this government’s agenda. I informed Parliament on 27 June 2016 of our delivery plan for excellence and equity in Scottish education. This will help looked after children so they can reach their full potential during their educational journey and beyond. In addition, securing a safe, stable, loving and permanent home for every looked after child at the earliest opportunity is key to children succeeding in education. This means addressing our three priority areas, set out in our strategy ‘Getting it Right for Looked After Children’ (published November 2015) of early intervention, early permanence and improving the quality of care. These concepts underpin our work to accelerate recent improvements and close the outcomes gap that exists between looked after children and their peers, including those looked after at home.

Measures such as the launch of the Scottish Attainment Challenge, backed by the £100 million Attainment Scotland Fund, the development of a National Improvement Framework to improve the evidence available to us, and the introduction of the Education (Scotland) Act 2016, demonstrate our commitment to improving attainment. We want to ensure that action takes place at the right level - much of it local. To ensure this greater control will be given to head teachers and we will work to enable schools and clusters of schools to drive improvement. In addition, our policies aim to reduce the need for school exclusions; and since 2006-07 the rate of exclusions has halved. Whilst the rate of exclusions among looked after children is much higher than in the general school population it has been falling at a faster rate and continuing to fall.

Attainment is about much more than school: it includes early years opportunities, the experiences within and outwith the family, and youth work. We want every young person – whatever their background – to have an equal chance of attending university. That is why we established the Commission on Widening Access who have set bold proposals which we have committed to implement.

The Scottish Government has consistently maintained the employed status element of the modern apprenticeship (MA) programme here in Scotland, linking apprenticeship opportunities to real, sustainable jobs. The availability of places in any sector is therefore reliant upon demand from employers to participate in the MA programme.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) publish statistical information about the modern apprenticeship (MA) programme on a quarterly basis. Year end statistics for 2015-16 were published on 7 June 2016, and can be accessed here:

https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/41664/modern-apprenticeship-statistics-quarter-4-2015-16-2-1.pdf

From these published statistics, I can advise that modern apprenticeship starts in the construction and related framework grouping have increased since 2012-13, as shown:

2012-13: 3,787

2013-14: 4,435

2014-15: 4,409

2015-16: 4,894

Human rights are at the heart of Scotland’s constitutional settlement. They are fundamental to the work of the Scottish Government, our Parliament and all of Scotland’s public authorities. They are reflected in our national laws and directly inform public policy decisions.

The Scottish Government is already taking action in areas identified in submissions to the UN Committee, including tackling the gender pay gap, combatting poverty, mitigating the impact of welfare reform and improving access to housing.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to working with civil society partners through Scotland’s National Action Plan for Human Rights (SNAP), and with the people of Scotland as a whole, to give further and better effect to the internationally-recognised human rights to which we are all entitled, and to realise the shared vision of a Scotland where everyone is able to live with human dignity.

It is unacceptable in 2016 that a gender pay gap still exists and that women continue to be paid less than men for work of equal value.

It is encouraging to see however that Scotland is making progress in addressing the gender pay gap. At 10.6% for the mean and 7.3% for the median measurements, Scotland has a lower gender pay gap than the UK (13.9% and 9.4% respectively) and we have plans to reduce it further.

We are using the powers available to us to ensure greater transparency in equal pay reporting in the Scottish public sector. Until recently the law applied only to public bodies with more than 150 employees in Scotland. However, in February 2016 the Scottish Government extended the law and it now applies to public bodies with more than 20 employees.

In relation to public sector boards in Scotland, the Scottish Government will also use additional powers as part of the Scotland Act 2016 to introduce legislation requiring gender balance on the boards of public bodies. In 2015, for the first time, Scottish Ministers appointed more women than men (54%) to the boards of regulated public bodies in Scotland. The Scottish Government does not however, have power to extend these legal duties to the private sector in Scotland but we are encouraging employers to sign up to voluntary initiatives such as the partnership for change. since its launch, 180 public bodies, third sector organisations and private companies have signed up to the partnership.