Chamber and committees

Scottish Government has a Corporate Records Management Policy that is clear that everyone, including Minister and SpAds, are expected to ensure that material, regardless of its origin, is made part of the official record. Scottish Government systems are set up in a way that gives people time to move information to the official record before any auto deletion occurs.

From December 2022 to April 2023, The Scottish Government consulted on the proposal to introduce Highly Protected Marine Areas across 10% of Scotland’s seas by 2026. In June 2023, ahead of providing a fuller update, I announced that the Scottish Government would no longer seek to progress this proposal. A full analysis of consultation responses was carried out over the summer and on 7 November 2023, a detailed analysis report was published alongside the Scottish Government’s response .

Scotland already has one of the most generous childcare offers in the UK. In 2023-24 we are investing around £1 billion in the delivery of 1140 hours of high quality funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) to all three and four year olds and about a quarter of two year olds who face the most disadvantage.

The 1140 hours offer already equates to 30 hours per week during term time for all three and four year olds and eligible two year olds regardless of their parents' working status – putting children first.

The First Minister recently announced in the Programme for Government that over the next year we will work with local government and partners in the ELC sector to significantly expand our childcare programme, including our targeted offer for two year olds, focusing on those who will benefit the most.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22695 on‎ 15 November 2023 which will be communicated separately. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government supports the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) to offer a part-time PGDE Primary programme. UHI plan to extend this to their PGDE Secondary programmes. The Scottish Government has had discussions with universities about the need for flexibility in delivery of ITE programmes and will continue to engage with them on this issue.

The Scottish Government’s Teaching bursary scheme provides bursaries of £20,000 for career changers wishing to undertake a one year PGDE in hard to fill STEM subjects. These are Physics, Maths, Technical Education, Computing Science, Chemistry and Home Economics. The scheme has recently been extended to include Gaelic as a secondary subject, and Gaelic medium across all secondary subjects and in primary.

Additionally, the Strategic Board for Teacher Education, which is made up of a range of key education stakeholders, is considering issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail.

On 6 October 2023 Student Awards Agency Scotland wrote to colleges and universities confirming the 2023-24 Higher Education (HE) Discretionary Funds allocations and guidance. The funds were issued to the sector during the week commencing 9 October 2023. Approximately £8m has been issued. Colleges and universities were notified on 17 th October that a further £4m will be issued in April 2024.

Group membership has been identified through dialogue between Scottish Government officials and organisations representing carers, local carer centres and statutory organisations expected to be involved in implementing the proposed right to breaks from caring. Further members were invited following a discussion at the group’s first meeting, to help ensure a good spread of expertise to enable the group to fulfil its remit.

Local authorities in Scotland have a statutory duty to offer 1140 hours of high quality funded early learning and childcare (ELC) to all eligible children within their area. An ‘eligible child’ is described in the legal framework as all 3 and 4-year-olds from the relevant start date, and some 2 year olds are also eligible.

A range of research shows that while attending high quality ELC improves outcomes for all children, the children facing the most disadvantage benefit the most. Eligibility criteria for early access to funded ELC at age two currently target children in households that receive low or no income benefits, children with care experience, and children whose parents have care experience themselves.

Targeting eligibility for funded ELC at age two in this way ensures that those who will benefit most from high quality ELC provision, benefit first. While some two-year-old children of working parents will be eligible for this offer, eligibility is not dependant on the working status of parents. Currently, the offer of 1140 hours of high quality ELC is available to around a quarter of families with a two-year-old.

The Scottish Government has committed to work with local authorities and our partners in the sector to develop plans to expand access to funded ELC for two-year-olds. We will also continue to work closely with local authorities and providers to maximise uptake of the existing offer as we develop these plans. Further detail, including on the additional investment required to deliver the childcare expansion over this Parliament, will be set out later this year at the Scottish Budget for 2024-25.

Working families can access other support with childcare costs through UK-wide schemes like Tax Free Childcare or Universal Credit. Information about these schemes is available at the UK Government website Childcare Choices . This includes an eligibility checker.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22695 on 15 November 2023 which will be communicated separately. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government published data on children in temporary accommodation as returned via the HL3 collection alongside the annual Homelessness in Scotland 2022-23 publication. This can be found in the supporting documents webpage here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/homelessness-in-scotland-2022-23/documents/

This was the first time this data has been published as all local authorities have only been able to provide this data from April 2022. The data prior to 2022 has not been published as it is incomplete and not of sufficient quality.

The data published shows snapshot figures as at 31 March 2023 for a) all households in temporary accommodation, b) the number of households with children or a pregnant woman in temporary accommodation, and c) the number of children in temporary accommodation, by accommodation type and local authority. This replicates the headline figures that are published from the snapshot aggregate (HL2) data collection. To protect the confidentially of individuals and households, Scottish Government only releases aggregated statistics and not individual application level data. Additionally, figures have been rounded to the nearest 5 for disclosure control purposes.

Comparisons between HL2 and HL3 snapshot figures were published in the supporting document above. This showed differences between the two sets of data and confirmed that further quality assurance with Local Authorities is required. Further information on the quality assurance can be found on the “Additional information” worksheet in the children in temporary accommodation excel workbook in the link above.

The Scottish Government is currently undergoing Official Statistics quality assurance with local authorities to assess and improve the quality of the data that has been received since April 2023. The current plan is to publish snapshot HL3 data, with necessary caveats annually, with the next publication of this data due in Summer 2024.