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

SPS does not record this information. However, as defined in the Prison and Young Offenders Rules (Scotland) 2011, individuals must have, and do have, access to showering/washing facilities a minimum of every second day.

Scottish Government officials from the Gaelic and Scots team met with senior education officers of North Lanarkshire Council on 6 December to discuss matters relating to the recent consultation involving both Condorrat and Baird Memorial primary schools. Along with the meeting, the Scottish Government has also received correspondence from parents on this matter and officials have been following the consultation closely. There was an agreement to meet again in the new year.

Children and young people should learn in the environment which best suits their needs. Most children and young people’s need are met through a universal level of support in mainstream provision, however, there are clear exceptions to enable children and young people to learn in a special school or in a specialist unit. It is for local authorities to determine the most appropriate educational provision, taking account of their legal responsibilities and the individual circumstances and wishes of children, young people and their families. We are working with our stakeholders to refine the guidance available to local authorities on taking these decisions, including updating the additional support for learning code of practice.

Our support to local authorities for additional support for learning reached a record high of £830m in the year 2021-22. We have invested an additional £15m per year since 2019-20 and provide over £11m of funding to directly support pupils with complex additional support needs and services to children and families.

We currently have the highest recorded level of pupil support assistants. In 2022, 307 additional pupil support assistants were recruited, in addition to 1,036 recruited in the previous year, bringing the total number of pupil support assistants in Scotland to 16,606. This level of recruitment is a direct result of our continued investment of £15m each year to help schools and local authorities respond to the individual needs of children and young people and maintains our record levels of investment in these staff.

We have also recently outlined in our Programme for Government 2023-24 our commitment to work with teachers to provide additional professional learning opportunities while seeking to build on the Additional Support for Learning Action Plan.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The assignment of probationer teachers to individual schools is a matter for each local authority.

The term additional support needs under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 applies where for whatever reason children or young people are unable to benefit from school education without the provision of additional support. Therefore, the information requested in relation to colleges and universities is not applicable.

In 2021, we published a Whole School Approach Framework to assist in supporting children and young people’s mental health in schools. This complements earlier work to provide a professional learning resource to support school staff.

We also continue to support local authorities with £16 million a year to ensure that every secondary school has access to counselling services, which are now in place across Scotland. School counselling is just one of a range of services that schools may have in place to support the health, emotional and social needs of young people.

Under section 14(1)(b) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, education authorities have a statutory duty to make special arrangements for pupils of any age and stage of school education, who are unable to attend school due to illness, to continue receiving their education elsewhere than at an educational establishment.

The Scottish Government published guidance on the education of children unable to attend school due to ill health in June 2015. This guidance is available on out website through the following link: Introduction - Education of children unable to attend school due to ill health: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Where any pupil is not receiving education due to their absence from school as a result of ill health, we would urge their parents or carers to speak with the school’s head teacher at the earliest opportunity to ask that alternative arrangements be put in place for their child to receive education whilst they remain absent.

The term additional support needs under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (the 2004 Act) applies where for whatever reason children or young people are unable to benefit from school education without the provision of additional support. Therefore, the information requested in relation to colleges and universities is not applicable. In addition, the information requested on current average waiting times is not held centrally.

To support children, young people and families, the Scottish Government has invested in a range of additional supports – including providing councils with an additional £30 million over the last two years to fund community mental health and wellbeing supports. Local authorities have reported that these supports have benefitted over 38,000 children, young people, parents and carers in the first six months of 2022 alone.

Record high investments in CAMHS, including £48.6 million of supplementary funding to health boards this year, are helping to improve the quality and delivery of mental health services to ensure all children and young people receive the right support, at the right time.

Occupational health therapy services are provided by NHS Boards in Scotland, therefore there is no school staffing impact in respect of these services.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 places NHS Boards under a duty to support the identification, provision of support and review of additional support for learning. The arrangements for the provision of support to education authorities in undertaking their duties is set out within the Additional support for learning: statutory guidance 2017 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Updated guidance on the use of mobile phone technologies in schools is expected to be published in Spring 2024. The current guidance to education authorities and schools on this issue remains available from Guidance on Developing Policies to Promote the Safe and Responsible Use of Mobile Technology in Schools (www.gov.scot).

The projects which form Phase 3 of the £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme continued their development activities while the funding process was being assessed.

This included a range of work specific to each location, for example, site selection, surveys and tests, community consultation, brief development and early design work.

As there is no reason for this work to have been delayed by the announcement, no additional anticipated costs have been reported.

All projects have confirmed that they are working towards the same Phase 3 operational completion date of December 2027 as previously required.

To maximise the efficiency of delivering the Phase 3 projects, collaboration has been encouraged. For example, 5 local authorities in the north of Scotland have formed a group to share learning. In addition, a joint workshop with all local authorities who have Phase 3 projects has been held to ensure they have knowledge of all projects and can identify common challenges and opportunities.