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The workforce voice must be heard and listened to, and the workforce must be actively involved in discussions on how that can best be achieved. I have asked the board to establish a workforce liaison committee, which will be made up of a cross-section of the workforce.
The group brings together senior leaders from across post-16 education—from principals to union leaders and student representatives—and we get round a virtual table regularly to discuss how best to respond to this significant crisis.
Everybody is dealing with and working through the issue, and everybody understands that, despite our best efforts, there will be a backlog that will have to be worked through.
Let me be clear: just as the UK Government has considered releasing prisoners and increasing the number who are on home detention curfew, we in Scotland cannot rule out releasing prisoners if doing so is in the best interests of keeping our establishments and those who work in them safe.
Tim Hopkins of the Equality Network suggested to the committee that the best way to deal with the issue would be to do things quickly and ensure that the act is commenced as fast as possible.
I take this opportunity to wish everyone the very best for the concert and to give members the chance to get a ticket, so that they can hear the group sing.
Secondly, we want to ensure that organisations learn from what is brought to them. The best way of doing that is for them to address the issues themselves.
We need to embed all pillars of the safe system approach, which I referenced earlier, at national and local level, and we need to be shining examples of evidence-based best practice, making sure that what we do makes a real difference.
Antony Clark can give you a bit more information about that. I will do my best. The committee will remember that the Scottish funding council funds a set number of places at Scottish universities for Scottish and EU students each year and that is determined largely by the level of funding that the SFC gets from the Scottish Government.