Chamber and committees

The Discretionary Funds are allocated out to individual colleges and universities to administer. Students apply direct to their institution for this funding, except in the case of private providers where students apply direct to the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS). Institutions are required to provide SAAS with audited verification of appropriate funds issued and the number of students receiving assistance at set times during the year. This information is not normally expected to be next received by SAAS until October.

However, due to the current exceptional circumstances, SAAS have committed to monitoring spend on the Discretionary Funds over the coming months and will ask institutions for an update at the end of July.

The Scottish Government has moved quickly to procure an initial tranche of devices and connectivity solutions in the face of huge global demand for digital technology which has impacted international supply chains.

There is no single dataset that articulates which learners are digitally excluded. Local authorities, schools and teachers themselves know their pupils and families best and officials are working closely with Cosla, SOLACE and ADES to determine who is most in need and how best to get the necessary support to them.

There is work underway at a national level to engage with children and young people on their experiences of the Covid-19 outbreak. These include:

• The LockdownLowdown survey delivered by The Scottish Youth Parliament, YouthLink Scotland and Young Scot. The survey results give a clear picture of what young people are currently worried about – and the impact it’s having on their lives.
• Monthly ‘How are you doing?’ surveys carried out by Scotland’s Children’s Parliament to engage with younger children.

Results are feeding into the work carried out by CERG workstreams as well as the development of the Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment.

In addition, the CERG and the relevant workstreams include representatives from third sector bodies such as the National Parent Forum of Scotland, which provide further insight into the impact of the current circumstances on such issues.

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 from 2010 to 2018.

The basis for classifying teachers as additional support for learning teachers ensured consistency across all school sectors (Primary, Secondary, Special and Centrally Employed). Special school teachers with main subject recorded as Primary were not included in the table in the same way that special school teachers with main subject recorded as a secondary specialist subject (e.g. Mathematics or English) were not included.

The Scottish Government has continued to progress work on the fee status of EU undergraduates who will be starting at Scotland’s universities in 2021-22. This work has been continued as we work to support the further and higher education sectors through the challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Scottish Government has already confirmed that EU students who commence a higher education course up to and including Academic Year 2020-21 will continue to benefit from tuition fee support for the duration of their course. This support also extends to those who then articulate to another higher education course immediately thereafter.

We will continue to progress work in this area and will aim to provide an update in the near future concerning EU students who commence their studies in 2021-22.

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.