Questions and answers

Question reference: S5F-00517

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 November 2016

To ask the First Minister, following the recent call by Save the Children, what action the Scottish Government will take to increase the number of teachers and other staff working in nurseries with specialist training in speech and language development.

Question reference: S5O-00361

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its and its agencies' staff earn below the Scottish Living Wage.

The Scottish Government and its agencies are covered by the Scottish Government’s public sector pay policy and as such are required to pay their employees the Scottish Living Wage as part of their annual pay settlements. This requirement has been an integral part of our public sector pay policy since 2011. The policy covers the Scottish Government, its agencies, and the non-departmental public bodies for which we are responsible. It also covers the subsidiaries of these bodies.

There may be a small number of staff in public bodies subject to Minister’s pay policy still to benefit from the 2016 Scottish Living Wage increase, but this is due to the fact that these bodies are still to conclude pay negotiations with members of staff and their unions this year and Scottish Ministers cannot intervene while these negotiations continue.

Question reference: S5W-04253

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what maximum level of (a) bursary and (b) loan has been available to higher education students in each of the last five years.

The following table shows the maximum amount of bursary available in the last five academic years.

	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Young Students' Bursary	£2,640	£2,640	£1,750	£1,750	£1,875
Independent Students' Bursary	£1,000	£1,000	£750	£750	£875
Students' Outside Scotland Bursary	£2,150	£2,150	-	-	-

The following table shows the maximum amount of living cost loan available in the last three academic years.

Analysis for 2011-12 and 2012-13 is not available because there were a large number of fluctuations on the maximum loan available, with amounts being based on the actual term length of each course and the location of study for students.

Maximum loan level
	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Young students	£5,500	£5,750	£5,750
Independent students	£6,500	£6,750	£6,750

Source: SAAS

Question reference: S5W-04246

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) teachers and (b) graduates have worked in nurseries in the most deprived areas in the country in each of the last five years.

The then Scottish Executive repealed the Schools Code in 2002, which had previously required all local authorities to employ a full-time teacher in every nursery. Local authorities were therefore given the flexibility to decide how best to involve teachers in the delivery of early learning and childcare, and this remains their responsibility.

The table sets out the number of Full-Time Equivalent teachers working in Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) centres situated in the 20% most deprived areas of Scotland. In each year over the period 2011 to 2015 FTE teachers working in ELC centres in the 20% most deprived areas have accounted for around 20% of all FTE teachers employed in ELC centres.

FTE of teachers working in ELC centres situated in the 20% most deprived areas

	2011	2012	2013		2014⁽¹⁾	2015⁽¹⁾
FTE in Decile 1 and 2	295	306	265		193	179

(1) Excludes centrally employed teachers.

A small number of teachers could not be allocated to an SIMD area.

With regards to the numbers of graduates; the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) hold some information on the qualifications of staff working in early learning and childcare settings. However, the qualifications of a significant number of staff is unknown.

As part of the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) data transformation project, the Scottish Government is working with the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Social Services Council to improve the data available on those working within the ELC sector, ensuring each of the statistical collections have a specific and clear purpose, and gather appropriate information to meet user needs. The project aims to reduce duplication and minimise burden on data providers, whilst ensuring the quality of the data available is of an appropriate standard.

In October 2015, the First Minister committed to ensuring that nurseries in the most disadvantaged areas will benefit from an additional teacher or graduate from 2018, which will bolster the level of support from highly qualified learning professionals for those children who we know will benefit most.

Question reference: S5W-04249

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) mean and (b) median debt for students on completion of a (a) first full-time undergraduate degree and (b) full-time postgraduate degree was in each of the last five years, broken down by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile.

Information on student loan debt is held and published by the Student Loans Company (SLC).

http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment/scotland.aspx

The latest publication, covering financial year 2015-16, showed that the average student loan debt for the 2016 cohort, which just entered repayment, was £10,500. The publication does not contain the other information requested.

Average Loan Balance on entry into repayment by repayment cohort

Average balance on entry to repayment (£)

	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Scotland	6,470	6,860	7,440	9,410	10,500

Source: Student Loans Company

Question reference: S5W-04248

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Mark McDonald on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the average annual cost of childcare has been for parents and carers in each of the last five years, and how it calculates this.

Question reference: S5W-04254

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many students from poor backgrounds were eligible for the additional £125 payment in 2015-16; how many claimed it, broken down by (a) income and (b) Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile, and what plans it has to incorporate similar payments in the future through bursaries or grants, rather than on an ad-hoc basis.

A total of 37,820 students received the additional £125 bursary in 2015-16. The bursary was payable to eligible students who were already in receipt of a bursary and were from a household with an income below £24,000. 30,930 students who received the bursary were from households with an annual income below £16,999.

The £125 additional bursary was embedded in the student support rates for 2016-17 which means all eligible students will receive this additional payment going forward.

The following table shows the students who received the additional bursary in 2015-16 by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2012.

SIMD 2012	BURSARY RECIPIENTS
1 - 20% most deprived	10,520
2	8,560
3	7,430
4	6,205
5 - 20% least deprived	4,790
TOTAL	37,820

Source: Student Awards Agency Scotland

Note: SIMD 2012 identifies small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland in a consistent way. The SIMD ranks small areas (called datazones) from most deprived (ranked 1) to least deprived (ranked 6,505). Analysis here is based on quintiles which split the ranks in to five equal sized groups, such as the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-04244

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many students (a) began and (b) completed an undergraduate degree in primary school teaching in each of the last five years, broken down by university.

The number of a) entrants and b) qualifiers to first-degree primary education courses at Scottish Higher Education Institutions is included in the following tables:

Entrants in degree-level Primary Education courses in Scottish HEIs by institution


	2010-2011	2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014	2014-2015
All	760	775	745	795	750
University of Aberdeen	155	150	110	110	110
University of Dundee	65	70	70	70	70
University of Edinburgh	130	120	120	120	115
University of Glasgow	150	165	155	220	180
University of Stirling	30	45	50	45	45
University of Strathclyde	150	155	165	155	150
University of the West of Scotland	85	75	80	90	75

Qualifiers in degree-level Primary Education courses in Scottish HEIs by institution

	2010-2011	2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014	2014-2015
All	615	705	785	655	675
University of Aberdeen	80	110	115	115	125
University of Dundee	60	75	70	65	70
University of Edinburgh	115	155	150	120	115
University of Glasgow	150	125	170	150	165
University of Stirling	0	15	45	35	40
University of Strathclyde	145	150	165	115	105
University of the West of Scotland	60	70	75	50	60

Source: Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA)

Notes:

Numbers have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 5. Values of 0,1,2 are all rounded to zero.

Totals may not add up due to rounding.

Figures are not weighted for Full-Person-Equivalent (FPE) - that is, individuals studying combined degrees of which a Primary education course is only a part of, are counted equally to those studying a Primary education course only.

Primary Education courses are defined in HESA data as those assigned JACS 3.0 code 'X120 - Training teachers - primary'.

Question reference: S5W-04251

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the total accumulated level of higher education-student debt has been in each of the last five years.

Information on student loan debt is held and published by the Student Loans Company (SLC).

http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment/scotland.aspx

The latest publication, covering financial year 2015-16, showed that the total balance outstanding (including loans not yet due for repayment) was £4.0 billion.

Total loan balance at the end of financial years 2011-12 to 2015-16

Outstanding Student Loans Debt (£ billions)

	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Scotland	2.6	2.7	3.1	3.5	4.0

Source: Student Loans Company

Question reference: S5W-04255

Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many people claimed (a) the maximum and (b) below the maximum level of higher education student (i) bursary and (ii) loan in each of the last five years, also broken down by how many claims were approved, and what information it has regarding how many eligible people did not claim.

The following table shows the number of students, who received the maximum amount of bursary in the last five academic years, and the number who received less than the maximum.

Number of Students Receiving Bursary
	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Total	51,275	50,055	50,465	49,230	46,560
Maximum	32,470	32,065	30,550	30,180	29,020
Less than maximum	18,805	17,990	19,915	19,050	17,540

The following table shows the number of students that were assessed by Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) for the maximum loan available and those that were assessed for an amount less than the maximum.

This information is only available for the last three academic years. Analysis for 2011-12 and 2012-13 is not available because there were a large number of fluctuations on the maximum loan available, with amounts being based on the actual term dates for each course.

Number of Students Receiving Loan
	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Total	85,655	88,985	92,005
Maximum	37,405	37,230	35,690
Less than maximum	48,250	51,755	56,315

Source: SAAS

Note: Analysis is based on those receiving the exact maximum amounts – there may be some who initially would have been entitled to the maximum, though what they actually received may have been adjusted to account for issues such as overpayments from previous sessions being recovered. Loans are based on what SAAS authorised, what the student actually took out through the Student Loans Company (SLC) may be different. The analysis does not cover those who “claimed”, only those who received support. We do not hold information on those who “claimed” a loan but did not receive one.

Information on the number of eligible students who did not apply for a loan or bursary is not available.

Chamber and committees