- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 July 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that teachers are not required to work beyond a 35-hour working week.
Answer
While employment practice is a matter for local authorities as employers, the Scottish Government values teachers and recognises concerns around teacher workload. That is why we remain which is why we remain committed to reducing class contact time by 90 minutes giving teachers more time out of the classroom.
We continue to explore with the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) how we can best progress the commitment to reduce class contact time.
To help inform this discussion the WPI report which was published on 7 May contains a number of high-level future scenarios and assesses their broad compatibility with any changes to teachers’ contracted class-contact time. These scenarios will help to facilitate our discussions with SNCT partners on how we can best deliver this commitment and ensure effective and evidence-informed workforce planning.
Any changes to terms and conditions for teachers in Scotland are a matter for the SNCT.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 July 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) research suggesting that, on average, teachers in Scotland work 46 hours per week.
Answer
While employment practice is a matter for local authorities as employers, the Scottish Government values teachers and recognises the concerns around teacher workload that are identified in this research.
We are committed to working with COSLA and the teacher unions, through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers on matters such as teacher workload.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 July 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that teachers are spending an average of 11.39 hours a week outside contracted hours on work-related activity, undertaken in the morning before work, into the evening and at home at the weekend.
Answer
While employment practice is a matter for local authorities as employers, the Scottish Government values teachers and recognises the concerns around teacher workload that are identified in this research.
We are committed to working with COSLA and the teacher unions, through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers on matters such as teacher workload.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 July 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is planning to take to streamline the lesson planning process for teachers.
Answer
The provision of education is the responsibility of Local Authorities and so the detailed approach to lesson planning is a matter for individual schools – however it has always been the case that Scotland’s teachers are entrusted to plan their lessons as they see fit. There are a variety of different approaches which may be deployed in the development of lesson plans and it would not be the role of central Government to dictate how that might look in individual classrooms.
In relation to avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy, the Statement from HM Inspector of Education from 2016 remains in place. That Statement sets out what teachers and practitioners are expected to do to effectively plan learning, teaching and assessment for all pupils, and also suggests what should be avoided. The guidance is available at the following hyperlink: https://education.gov.scot/media/m1nlboum/cfe-statement.pdf
To further support effective lesson planning, Education Scotland continues to provide advice and support to educators on lesson planning with the provision of resources on the Education Scotland website and using their subject-specific networks, professional learning events and professional support visits.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 July 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how it is tackling any work-related stress in the teaching sector that results from teachers working beyond the 35-hour working week.
Answer
The Scottish Government values teachers and is committed to understanding their needs and providing them with the right support.
While teacher wellbeing is ultimately a matter for the employer, since 2020 we have invested more than £2 million specifically in supporting wellbeing in the education workforce. In 2023-24 we provided £0.2 million to Know You More, to offer free wellbeing coaching to teaching staff and educational professionals across Scotland.
We also worked in collaboration with the Association of Directors of Education Scotland to fund an Education Workforce Support Project, to gain a comprehensive understanding of how we support the wellbeing of our education workforce. We are currently considering the outcomes of this work and next steps to improve the existing wellbeing support that is provided by local authorities and teaching unions.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 July 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don on 16 July 2024
To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S6W-27078 by Natalie Don on 9 May 2024, whether "the data from that exercise" was submitted to the Scottish Government in June 2024 as anticipated in order to inform the Scottish Government's approach, and, if this is not the case, for what reason, and when it anticipates that the data will be submitted.
Answer
The Scottish Government has been working with AssistFM and Improvement Service to map existing breakfast provision across Scotland, including a survey to all primary and special schools to understand the scale and uptake of provision.
A report with the findings from the mapping exercise was submitted to the Scottish Government in June 2024.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 18 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the conclusions of the UK Parliament Education Committee regarding a consultation on a total ban on smartphones for under-16s and a statutory ban on mobile phone use in schools, what its position is on the committee's conclusions and any relevance that these may have in Scotland.
Answer
The findings of the UK Parliament Education Committee are noted. It is recognised that the Committee's considerations and recommendations are rightly focussed on the interests of the UK Government and that the legalities around ‘banning’ mobile phones elsewhere in the UK differ from those in Scotland. This is because in Scotland our Local Authorities have statutory responsibility for the delivery of Education and it is consequently a decision for our Headteachers currently, whether or not they would wish to enforce a ban in their school estate.
Nonetheless, the Scottish Government is committed to bringing forward national guidance on mobile phones in schools in Scotland. The guidance has been informed by a range of research and evidence and will make clear that should Headteachers wish to do so, they are empowered to ban mobile phones within their school estate.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2024
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 19 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to tackle long ambulance turnaround times.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 19 June 2024
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what the average reduction in journey times has been on each of the national train routes across Scotland in each year since 2016.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.
The Scottish Government’s High Level Output Specification (HLOS) strategy requires Network Rail to take full advantage of maintenance and renewal works and timetable development processes to enable ScotRail to achieve improved journey times. It is also a requirement of the ScotRail Policy Compendium and Grant Agreement that ScotRail works with Network Rail to deliver a high performing railway, with competitive journey times.
Office of Rail and Road's Annual Assessment of Network Rail, which is published on its website, provides information on average national journey time for year 2022-23:
Annual Assessment of Network Rail - April 2022 to March 2023 (orr.gov.uk) , which the member might find of interest.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 7 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what data it has on the (a) uptake and (b) outcomes of support from the Mode Shift Revenue Support scheme in each year of its operation.
Answer
The following table shows the level of Mode Shift Revenue Support grants awarded by the Scottish Government since the introduction of the scheme plus details of the committed traffic.
Year | MSRS - Grants Awarded | Containers Moved by Rail or Water |
2010-2011 | £753,751 | 121,100 |
2011-2012 | £739,280 | 115,740 |
2012-2013 | £759,801 | 114,930 |
2013-2014 | £751,575 | 121,280 |
2014-2015 | £727,327 | 132,453 |
2015-2016 | £636,899 | 103,148 |
2016-2017 | £638,157 | 122,565 |
2017-2018 | £688,480 | 129,537 |
2018-2019 | £776,484 | 140,441 |
2019-2020 | £597,714 | 124,143 |
2020-2021 | £574,903 | 151,224 |
2021-2022 | £477,423 | 85,099 |
2022-2023 | £539,853 | 129,872 |
The Scottish Government has a range of annualised data on the uptake and outcome of the Mode Shift Revenue Support Scheme including the value of Grants Awarded and the number of containers moved by rail or water. In total, between 2010-11 and 2022-23, £8,661,647 of awards were made leading to 1,591,532 containers moved by rail or water.
