Chamber and committees

Due to the ongoing challenges currently facing schools and local authorities I have relaxed the guidance on Attainment Scotland Funding streams to support Local Authorities in deploying this funding flexibly to best support vulnerable children from the most deprived backgrounds. There are already a number of such examples, including the provision of laptops and tablets to support digital learning at home, purchase and delivery of books and other learning material to children at home, providing transport to enable some learners to attend LA Hubs, and supporting home-school link workers to maintain regular contact with children.

We recognise that digital exclusion is a particular issue for some of our most disadvantaged learners. To help ensure as many children and young people as possible are able to connect with their schools, continue their learning, access support and engage with their peers, we are investing an initial £9 million which will provide devices and connectivity for 25,000 learners across Scotland. This is the first phase of our £30 million commitment to support digital inclusion for children and young people, which we are working closely with local authority partners to deliver.

Education Scotland is providing a range of additional resources to support parents and practitioners with providing learning at home and to deliver continuity for learners across Scotland. This includes: a newly created resource bank of learning activities for a variety of ages; the continued provision ofa bank of online resources featuring collated materials across curriculum areas and sectors; a range of webinars to help practitioners get the most of out of Glow, and practical advice and tips for parents through the Parents’ Club online resource and the Parentzone Scotland website.

The SQA has provided Frequently Asked Questions around the provision of estimates for candidates who are studying at home or with a private tutor on their website at: https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/93797.html . For learners studying from home at present, within the Parent and Carer support section of their website, the SQA has referenced resources around National Courses as well links to support from partner organisations which can be found at: https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/93825.9757.html .

Closing the poverty related attainment gap is the defining mission of this government, with equity remaining a key principle of the strategic framework on re-opening of schools and early learning and childcare centres which was published on 21 May.

That is why we are continuing with our commitment to invest £182 million from the Attainment Scotland Fund in 2020/21, including Pupil Equity Funding. For the first time, Pupil Equity Fund allocations have been confirmed for two years, with over £250 million committed to schools across 2020/21 and 2021/22. This will help to provide more certainty for head teachers and aid learning during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. This Pupil Equity Funding will benefit 97% of schools across every local authority in Scotland.

Due to the ongoing challenges currently facing schools and local authorities I have relaxed the guidance on Attainment Scotland Funding streams to support Local Authorities in deploying this funding flexibly to best support vulnerable children from the most deprived backgrounds. There are already a number of such examples, including the provision of laptops and/tablets to support digital learning at home, purchase and delivery of books and other learning material to children at home, providing transport to enable some learners to attend LA Hubs, and supporting home-school link workers to maintain regular contact with children.

We recognise that digital exclusion is a particular issue for some of our most disadvantaged learners. To help ensure as many children and young people as possible are able to connect with their schools, continue their learning, access support and engage with their peers, we are investing an initial £9 million which will provide devices and connectivity for 25,000 learners across Scotland. This is the first phase of our £30 million commitment to support digital inclusion for children and young people, which we are working closely with local authority partners to deliver.

The national online learning environment, Glow, is freely available to all learners and teachers from any internet connected device. Officials are working hard to make sure the platform is able to cope with increased demand and have provided a range of advice, guidance and support to local authorities on how best to make use of the Glow services.

Over and above the technical platform, Education Scotland are currently working on collation of a wide range of curricular resources which will be located in a single online source, to help teachers find the resources they need to deliver continuity of education.

In the run up to and following the formal closure of the Orkney Abattoir myself and my officials met and discussed the future options available for slaughter on Orkney with many local stakeholders. This included meeting with the Council leader, council officials, local MSP’s, butchers, NFUS, livestock market and farming representatives. At these meetings it was stated that the Scottish Government stood ready to work with any party who came forward with a viable and sustainable plan for the future.

Unfortunately, and following the Orkney Island Council launch of an ‘abattoir challenge fund’, no interested party came forward to reinstate slaughter provisions in Orkney. The Scottish Government remains open to discuss options with any potential provider.

This information is not held centrally. The University College Admissions Service (UCAS) collects information on applicants and acceptances to all UK Universities but does not publish at this level of detail.

Travel support is based on an individual’s circumstances. This support includes rural delivery models’ eligibility for a rural uplift, and assistance with travel and/or overnight accommodation.

Skills Development Scotland have advised that their annual spend on travel and subsistence for Modern Apprentices in both of the last two full financial years is as follows:

2017-18: £1,091,538

2018-19: £1,055,840

Expenditure for the current year will be reported in due course.

Skills Development Scotland are able to provide the precise figures for travel and subsistence spend in 2017-18 and 2018-19 as the introduction of the Funding Information and Processing System in 2017-18 has given the functionality to extract this cost in isolation.

Due to a system change Skills Development Scotland are unable to provide the annual spend on travel and subsistence for Modern Apprentices in the years preceding 2017-18.

Details of what was budgeted for in the years preceding 2017/18 are available, but this does not reflect expenditure so cannot be directly compared to years after. The contract value for travel and subsistence for years 2009/10 (the first year that SDS put into place contracts for the delivery of Modern Apprenticeships) to 2016/17 is laid out below:

2009-10: £1.1m

2010-11: £940k

2011-12: £940k

2012-13: £960k

2013-14: £940k

2014-15: £950k

2015-16: £1.3m

2016-17: £1.3m

Throughout the Foundation Apprenticeship programme support has been available to fund participant travel. For the 2016-18, 2017-19 and 2019-21 cohorts, travel costs were included within the total funding awards. It is therefore not possible to provide travel costs for these cohorts. Travel costs are separate for the 2018-20 cohort. As delivery of this cohort is still ongoing and the total amount of expenditure is not yet available.

14,645 full-time EU domiciled students across all years of study received tuition fee support from the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) in 2018-19 to study at university in Scotland.