Chamber and committees

We are in discussions and preparing guidance with sport scotland, Community Leisure Scotland, the Scottish Leisure Networking Group, Local Authorities, Leisure Trusts, Hospitality Sector, Trade Unions, Scottish Governing Bodies of Sport and other partners in the sporting system to assist us in understanding the needs of facility operators in the sector whilst adhering to social distancing and hygiene measures and where additional guidance will be required for indoor sports facilities to open safely, no earlier than 23 July.

We have recently established a sub-group to our COVID-19 Advisory Group that specialises on education and children’s issues. The group will provide advice to support and inform the development of operational guidance for providers of learning, childcare and children’s service. As part of a range of work addressing health and safety issues, the sub-group will look at the evidence for face coverings and other protective barrier mechanisms such as visors, both in school and on school transport.

Guidance on this will be published in full in advance of schools reopening.

We have recently established a sub-group to our COVID-19 Advisory Group that specialises on education and children’s issues. The group will provide advice to support and inform the development of operational guidance for providers of learning, childcare and children’s service. As part of a range of work addressing health and safety issues, the sub-group will look at the evidence for face coverings and other protective barrier mechanisms such as visors, both in school and on school transport.

Guidance on this will be published in full in advance of schools reopening.

Due to the efforts of people staying at home and remaining vigilant, we have recently seen Scotland make significant progress in suppressing Coronavirus. We therefore believe that, if we stay on track, we should now prepare for pupils to return to school full time from August.

I commend the work of local authorities and school and early learning and childcare staff across Scotland for the way in which they have responded to this emergency.

The Scottish Government has provided local government with almost £330 million in additional resources since the start of COVID response and have also encouraged local authorities to use the £508 million of Early Learning and Childcare expansion funding for 2020-21 and any underspends recorded against ring-fenced ELC revenue grant funding in previous years flexibly to secure the emergency provision they need locally.

On 23 June I announced an additional £100 million to be invested over the next two years to tackle the impact of lockdown on schools and pupils.

Public Health Scotland (PHS), working with NHS Boards, are leading activity to put in place a contact tracing system that will rapidly enhance existing capacity, and evolve into a sustainable service that can be in place for as long as is required. The priorities for delivering this includes the establishment of a national service alongside the contact tracing services in every Board. The following table details the number of contact tracing staff in place for each NHS Health Board at the following points:

? 12 March: Transition point between the containment and delay phase

? 28 May: The point at which a commitment was made to have 2,000 contact tracers ready to deploy across Scotland.

This Government is committed to supporting the most disadvantaged children and young people. I stated in Parliament on 23 June that the Government would invest “a further £100 million over the next two years to help support the return to school and help children recover any lost ground”. Additionally, £182 million from the Attainment Scotland Fund has been issued as planned to Local Authorities and schools in 2020/21 in the form of Pupil Equity Funding going directly to schools, Challenge Authority and Schools’ Programme funding and Care Experienced Children and Young People funding.

Using Attainment Scotland Funding, Local Authorities and schools determine the best approaches to supporting their children and young people. Amongst the approaches set out in plans are a range of supported study initiatives and summer programmes to support potential learning loss as a result of COVID-19.

Additionally, 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.

Our objective has been to control and suppress the virus and we are making real and sustained progress.

We published the Coronavirus (COVID-19): Scotland's Route Map through and out of the crisis on 21 May 2020, which sets out the criteria to be met for progressing through the route map phases. These criteria include required statistical measures of progress in suppressing the virus and broader requirements based on the World Health Organization's conditions for easing restrictions.

We must get as close as possible to elimination of the virus now and build confidence in our ability to control it in future through surveillance, testing, contact tracing and, where necessary, targeted suppression measures.

A safe, effective Covid-19 vaccination could provide a key stepping stone towards elimination, and we are delighted that the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow along with NHS colleagues are taking part in the human safety trials for the development of a vaccine by Oxford University.

There is no guarantee of success, but it is prudent that we plan on the basis of this becoming available and we are liaising with UK Government officials on all aspects of development including the work of the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.

The recruitment and deployment of teachers is the responsibility of the local authorities who have the statutory duty for education expenditure. Local authorities are responsible for providing a complement of teachers and other staff which meets the needs of each of their schools and its pupils within the resources available.

We are currently working with local authorities to establish what additional staff are needed to support COVID-19 education recovery. Once we know that, we will work with local authorities to meet that demand.

The COVID-19 Education Recovery Group, the group which is bringing together national and local government and key education and early learning and childcare stakeholders to provide advice on taking forward Scottish education in the light of COVID-19, has not received or considered any proposal for pupils to repeat a school year due to the COVID-19 crisis. That Group is focussed on supporting the education system so that pupils may resume attendance at schools and early learning and childcare at the earliest time it is safe to do so.

Local authorities, schools, teachers and practitioners have been working together to provide support to pupils since schools closed in March 2019, and that support will continue when young people return to school. In addition, local authorities continue to offer support for eligible children through their Hub provisions and the Scottish Government has published guidance on supporting learning in Term 4 and ensuring continuity of learning beyond that . Any concerns regarding individual pupils should be raised with their school and education authority.

All local authorities have put in place Hub provisions for young people who are vulnerable and/or children of key workers and these will remain open over the summer period.

In addition, Education Scotland will publish, on 2 July, a summer edition of Scotland Learns. This will provide parents with access to open-ended activities to use over the summer break.

At the end of July, a ‘back to school’ edition of Scotland Learns will focus on children and young people returning to school. This will centre around learning activities to support wellbeing, for example, friendships, new routines and keeping safe.