Chamber and committees

Hunterson B nuclear power station is currently due to be decommissioned in 2023. A significant amount of planning and work with a range of stakeholders is required to ensure a safe and efficient transition of the site by that time.

To help Ayrshire’s three local authorities and their partners stimulate inclusive and sustainable growth across the region, including in the Hunterston area, the Scottish Government has committed £103 million of transformational investment over the next 10 years to the Ayrshire Growth Deal.

I am aware that, because it is generally accepted that it will not be possible for summer schools to go ahead this year, some institutions where students held conditional offers of a place in 20-21, with the condition being that they attend a summer school in Summer 2020, are converting these offers to unconditionals. However, others are asking the students to complete online activities instead of attending summer school. As autonomous institutions, universities do not have to follow the same pattern, although I do know that there is considerable engagement across the sector as institutions try to work together in these challenging times.

I have written to all University Principals seeking their support to ensure our sector continues to act in a way which maintains the stability of the university admissions system and ensures students’ best interests are safeguarded. They are already working with SQA and my officials to ensure that the admissions process works for this year’s applicants.

I also issued a statement to all university and college applicants reassuring them that this government, and partners, are doing all that we can to ensure the best outcome for learners. We have a website ( Student Information Scotland ) which is constantly updated with information for students and also has a dedicated COVID-19 section to help students during this time.

The Covid-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges for our education system. Our overriding priorities are ensuring the health and wellbeing of children, young people and staff and maintaining a continuity of learning wherever possible whilst schools are closed, as well as planning and preparing for a recovery phase.

We remain fully committed to publishing the review of implementation of additional support for learning which has been independently chaired by Angela Morgan. However, as we continue to focus on the overriding priorities in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are unable to give a clearer indication of when the report will be published at this time.

This will be kept under constant review and a further update will be provided in due course.

The Covid-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges for our education system. Our overriding priorities are ensuring the health and wellbeing of children, young people and staff and maintaining a continuity of learning wherever possible whilst schools are closed, as well as planning and preparing for a recovery phase.

We remain fully committed to working with partners to undertake a review of the use of co-ordinated support plans to ensure that children and young people with the most significant additional support needs are receiving the support that they need to reach their full learning potential.

However, we recognise that it is critical that we do not make any additional demands on the system at this time. Therefore, we will keep the situation under close review and take forward this important work when it is appropriate to do so.

This work will be undertaken within the wider context of the independently chaired review of implementation of additional support for learning which will be used to inform the review of the use of Co-ordinated Support Plans.

The Scottish Government’s response to each of the University and College Union's points is as follows:

Work around the financial impact of COVID-19 is being progressed as a priority and we are working with the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to build as full an understanding as possible of the scale of the risk facing the further and higher education sector.

The Deputy First Minister has highlighted that the Scottish Government will do everything possible to ensure Scotland’s institutions remain world leaders and key drivers of the economy in the wake of the disruption around COVID-19. We have also committed that whatever Barnett consequentials come to Scotland through funding announcements for particular sectors due to the impacts of Covid 19, will be passed on in full.

Ministers will also continue to ask the UK Government to recognise the scale of the impact of Covid-19 on the higher education sector, and for HM Treasury to ensure appropriate fiscal support is made available.

Requiring institutions to work cooperatively and cross-sectorally to protect the interests of students and local communities:

I have established the Further and Higher Education Covid-19 Ministerial Leadership Group to provide collective leadership to the FE and HE sectors’ responses, highlight and communicate action underway, agree and progress priority areas, and discuss longer-term impacts and recovery planning. This group is comprised of representatives from Scottish Government, its agencies, sector representatives from community learning, colleges, universities and unions, including the UCU.

The Group provides a forum for a collective view to be taken on both challenges and solutions, and allows us to take a collaborative approach to planning for the future of tertiary education in Scotland following this crisis.

Ensure access to properly resourced lifelong learning which ensures people of all ages can access the learning they need:

The Scottish Government is supporting the Community Learning and Development (CLD) sector - youth, adult learning and community development workers - to continue providing services and offer support to learners most affected by the pandemic.

To support people who have been furloughed or made redundant as a result of Covid-19 and are seeking to develop new and existing skills, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and the Open University have designed and established a new My World of Work portal, linked to a coordinated programme of open learning materials, which launched on Monday 27 April: https://www.myworldofwork.co.uk/learn-and-train/find-free-online-courses . This site will join up with the Welsh and UK Government sites and its material will be further developed with learning providers over the coming weeks.

Ensuring that staff working for outsourced companies providing services to higher education institutions receive the same protections as directly employed staff:

Central to our Fair Work approach is the expectation that employers should work to ensure workers are treated fairly and that concerns from employees are taken seriously. However, universities have autonomy on all staffing issues. Furthermore the bulk of employment law is reserved to Westminster and therefore cannot be changed by Scottish Ministers.

Protecting educational capacity by confirming that furlough arrangements will apply to all staff currently employed by universities, including those on insecure contracts:

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) is reserved to Westminster and operated by HMRC on behalf of HM Treasury. The Scottish Government has welcomed the scheme, as it potentially helps to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 and we encourage institutions to give full consideration to making an application to the CJRS. However, it is for each university to determine whether to apply and the nature of its own application.

Lobbying the UK government to extend the one-year visa extension scheme being offered to NHS staff to all current visa holders:

The Scottish Government recognises the crucial importance of non-UK citizens to Scotland’s economy and society.

On 24 March the Home Office announced updated guidance for visa holders both in the UK and abroad, in light of Covid 19 circumstances. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-for-uk-visa-applicants-and-temporary-uk-residents . The Scottish Government is continuing to engage with the Home Office and the devolved administrations regarding a range of migration issues, including extending leave to remain to all migrants, regardless of their immigration status.

The Scottish Government wants young people to be able to choose from the same learning opportunities regardless of background or circumstance.

Under paragraphs 5 and 6 of the Education Maintenance Allowances (Scotland) Regulations 2007, it is stated that all applicants who have been given some form of legal leave to enter or remain in the UK are eligible to apply for Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), provided they also satisfy the other EMA eligibility criteria, such as:

• having a household income under the EMA threshold (where the household income is £24,241 or less before tax for households with one dependent child or £26,884 before tax for households with more than one dependent child.
• being of age -recipients will normally be aged between 16 and 19 years (inclusive), and
• be taking part in an eligible course of learning.

Our response to the consultation on the masterplan was informed by our existing energy policy, and by our planning policies as set out in National Planning Framework 3 (2014).

We are currently preparing National Planning Framework 4. This will take into account more recent wider Scottish Government policies, including our climate change targets, and our energy policy which recognises that innovative use of hydrocarbons could play a role in reducing emissions including as part of a hydrogen future scenario. We expect to lay a draft National Planning Framework 4 in the Scottish Parliament for consultation and scrutiny in 2021.

(a) Additional Support Needs (ASN) Teachers - Full Time Equivalents

The following table sets out the full time equivalent of additional support for learning teachers in each authority in 2019.

As this is an operational matter relating to account management information, I have asked the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise to respond to you directly.