Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises the vital role English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) plays in supporting people whose first language is not English, equipping them with the communication skills necessary to contribute and integrate economically, culturally and socially in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to ESOL and welcomed the independent review of community learning and development (CLD) which followed with a report, Learning: For All. For Life report. The report provided 20 recommendations, including on ESOL, varying in complexity and scope.

The Scottish Government and CoSLA accepted recommendation 1.1 to set up a joint CLD Strategic Leadership Group (SLG). The SLG will play a central role in developing our detailed response to the remaining recommendations.

This academic year, Scottish Government provided £500k for ESOL in Glasgow. This is in response to the review report calling for immediate action to address the exceptional pressures and need for ESOL, which disproportionately impacts Glasgow.

I have also written to the Scottish Funding Council with supplementary guidance to ensure ESOL remains a priority for colleges in the forthcoming academic year 2025-26.

Colleges are responsible for decisions on course provision and are best placed to respond flexibly to local ESOL need alongside partners including local authorities and the third sector. Local authorities themselves play an important role in delivering their CLD Plans, which supports the provision of community based ESOL.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all students with a disability, long term medical condition or additional support needs are able to access further and higher education and are fully supported throughout their studies.

It is for institutions to make decisions on their intake but they are required under the Equality Act (Scotland) 2010 to provide equal opportunities and prevent discrimination.

It is worth noting that the retention rate for this group of students, which in the last four years has been above the sector average, is currently (in AY 2021-22 into AY 2022-23) 91.8% for FTFD Scottish Domiciled Entrants.

PERSISTENT INEQUALITIES

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are currently working together to enhance the SFC’s leadership and oversight role in tackling persistent inequalities in the tertiary system.

Through this, SFC and EHRC have established a set of National Equality Outcomes (NEOs) for the tertiary education sector through their Persistent Inequalities work. Disability, as a protected characteristic, is included as part of this work, and the following National Equality Outcomes related to disabled students:

• Disabled students report feeling satisfied with the overall support and reasonable adjustments received, including from teaching staff, while on their course.
• Disabled staff and students report feeling safe in the tertiary system.
• Where representation is not proportionate to the relevant population, increase the representation of disabled staff in the workforce and on college Boards and university Courts.

SFC will be reviewing progress made by the sector through the upcoming Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) reports as part of SFC’s Outcome Framework and Assurance Model.

DSA

The Scottish Government (via the Scottish Funding Council and the Student Awards Agency Scotland) provides various funding mechanisms in the form of the Additional Support Needs for Learning Allowance, the Access and Inclusion Fund, and the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA).

This vital support ensures that those with a disability or additional support needs are able to access further and higher education and continue to be well supported throughout their studies.

In 2023-24 the number of full-time students with disabilities or additional support needs who were supported by DSA increased to 5,855. This totals £14.1 million in support, an 18.4% increase.

Data also shows that we now have a record number of students at university with a recorded disability or additional support need (6,765).

HIV transmission elimination is funded as part of the wider Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus (SHBBV) budget. Many of the interventions which support this have wider impacts on sexual health improvement and blood borne virus elimination.

Prior to the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan 2023-26, the SHBBV Framework was supported by approximately £2 million, to support delivery of the outcomes between 2018 and 2021. This funding came to an end in March 2021.

Due to the pandemic, during 2021-22 interim arrangements were made for third sector organisations to continue to receive funding under the Framework from an SHBBV budget of around £0.8 million, with an additional £0.5 million allocated as part of COVID-19 planning to support recovery actions.

The SHBBV budget is approximately £1.7m per year since 2023-24. This supports delivery of the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan 2023-26, including a range of projects focused on HIV transmission elimination (details of which were published with the Plan).

Other specific projects the Scottish Government has funded include the national HIV anti-stigma campaign (£250,000 in 2022-23), the development of an ePrEP clinic (£400,000 in 2022-23), emergency department opt-out testing pilots (£145,000 in 2023-24), online postal self-sampling for sexually transmitted infections and HIV (£119,000 in 2023-24 and £300,000 in 2024-25), the Terrence Higgins Trust HIV self-test service (around £120,000 per year) and a workforce education project led by Waverley Care to reduce stigma in health and social care settings (£95,000 in 2024-25).

The Scottish Education Exchange Programme is a priority action within Scotland’s International Education Strategy and as such, progress is regularly discussed by IES Governance Group which is chaired by the Minister for HE/FE and includes representatives from colleges and universities. The minutes of these meetings are published online at International Education Strategy Governance Group. Updates to the programme are also published online at Scottish Education Exchange Programme: Test and Learn project - gov.scot and Scottish Education Exchange Programme: - Test and Learn: funded projects - gov.scot

As year 2 of the SEEP comes to a close at the end of March 2025, an external evaluation of the first 2 years of the programme has been commissioned and will be published this summer.

We have commissioned NHS National Services Scotland to establish a long COVID Strategic Network. This has a multi-disciplinary working group focussed on children and young people, which has worked to develop a clinical pathway to support the appropriate assessment, referral and management of children and young people with long COVID symptoms.

This pathway was completed in June 2024 and disseminated to territorial NHS Boards. Following the dissemination of the pathway, the working group has conducted a survey of NHS boards to identify the routes through which they are providing support to children and young people with long COVID. A report summarising the responses from NHS boards is being developed, after which appropriate next steps will be identified by the group.

The Scottish Government is committed to breaking down the barriers to higher education. To help towards achieving the widening access targets we are working with partners in the North-East of Scotland on a pilot to evaluate the impact of Free School Meal data sharing on university admissions. Partner organisations leading on the work are Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council, Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen.

Partners are responsible for their own data sharing arrangements, drawing on existing data sharing protocols they have in place. The Scottish Government continues to provide support where necessary in liaison with partner organisations.

We will provide evaluation of the pilot, due to take place later this year.

We did not expect to consider a change of ownership as part of the business case work, and this alternative approach has not been taken lightly. Transport Scotland and CMAL were formally advised to take forward initial discussions with Peel Ports Group in November 2024.

These initial discussions had progressed to a more advanced stage which allowed for the recent update to Parliament. Intensive commercial negotiations are ongoing.

Data on school nurses by sector and local authority is available from 2019 to 2023, here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-management-information/

from 2017 to 2018, here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

and from 2010 to 2016, here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementary-statistics/

Data prior to 2010 is not available.

Data for 2024 will be released on 25 March 2025.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

This was a 2-stage procurement process, and 4 contractors bid at the 1st stage Pre-construction phase of the process. These bidders were Balfour Beatty Group, Kier Construction, Robertson Group Ltd and Galliford Try Construction t/a Morrison Construction.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has received a submission through the Ultra-Orphan Pathway from the marketing authorisation holder, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, for exagamglogene autotemcel (Casgevy®) for the treatment of transfusion-dependent ß-thalassaemia in patients 12 years of age and older. A decision on whether Casgevy® is accepted on to the Ultra-Orphan Pathway for this indication will be published on the SMC website in due course.

The SMC has not yet received a submission from Vertex Pharmaceuticals for Casgevy® for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-34796 on 25 February 2025. 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.