 I move straight on to save time. The next item of business is a statement by John Swinney on education reform. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of his statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions. Presiding Officer, in June I set out our vision for education and our proposals for reform. The Government's clear ambition is to create a world-class education system closing the gap between our least and most disadvantaged children a llungell gwydigol wych yn lleol. It is an ambition that is shared widely across the system and across the chamber. There are many strengths in Scottish education, but we also have to recognise that, right now, our system is still too variable. We want excellence in every school for every child. That is what these reforms are designed to do. They are based on the simple, well-evidence premise. Those closest to children and young people, those who know them best, their parents', teachers and head teachers, gyda'r best place to make decisions about their education. I recognise that if schools are to fully deliver on this leadership of learning role, then they must be supported by the entire education system. We must work together across school, local authority and national boundaries to provide that support. That is what the OECD called on us to do when they assessed our education system in 2015 and that is what our reforms will deliver. I'm therefore pleased to be able to update Parliament today on the progress that we have made on our reform plans. As promised, as part of the next steps report that I published on 15 June, my officials, along with Education Scotland, COSLA, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland entered into a joint process to deliver this new way of regional working. In June, we set out the key functions of the regional collaboratives. They were to support teachers through dedicated teams of professionals drawing on Education Scotland staff, local authority staff and others, to provide focus across the delivery of an annual regional plan and work programme and to deliver collaborative working, including sharing best practice. We have now reached agreement with COSLA on the collaboratives and these functions have been agreed to provide the enhanced support of schools' need in order to raise attainment and close the poverty-related attainment gap. Our partners in local government have agreed that the task that we have set out in the regional bodies, that list of functions that we set out in June, is the right way forward, will deliver out for our school pupils and support Scotland's teachers. Our schools and teachers need consistently excellent support to secure the improved outcomes that we all want and Scotland's children and young people deserve. The regional improvement collaboratives focus on meeting local needs, putting getting it right for every child at the heart of their work and delivering a relentless focus on improvement. We will ensure the provision of excellent educational improvement support for head teachers, teachers, managers and practitioners through dedicated teams of professionals. Those teams will draw on Education Scotland staff, local authority staff and others. They will share expertise, innovation and best practice across the collaborative and will draw on knowledge from other regions where and when it is needed. They will ensure the provision of specialist support and advice across all eight curriculum areas with a clear focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing, reinforcing the approach set out by the chief inspector of education in August 2016. They will also identify the particular areas for improvement in their region and ensure that interventions are put in place to address them. They will facilitate access to sector-specific support and advice, working with partners across the system to ensure that we get it right for every child. They will build capacity and support in improvement methods, helping schools to implement key educational developments and learn from other systems and research. Our programme for government set out our intention to bring forward an education bill this session. Our agreement with local government means that we will not have to wait on that bill to make progress on reform. I can tell Parliament today that the regional collaboratives will be up and running this year supporting our schools and teachers with pace and with focus. To deliver this regional improvement leads will be appointed in six regions by the end of this month, and each collaborative will have a detailed improvement plan in place by January 2018. Those plans will be bottom-up drawing on the needs that schools identify and delivering a clear focus across all partners. They will bring rigor and structure to the work of the collaboratives and will empower local partners to identify local priorities and develop local practices. The leadership of the collaboratives will therefore be critical to enhancing the support that our schools receive. I have agreed with COSA that the regional improvement lead will be selected jointly by the chief inspector of education and the local authorities that make up the individual improvement collaboratives. The improvement plans and the workforce plans will be formulated at local level but will require to be agreed with the chief inspector of education. I am clear that those reporting arrangements will ensure that there is a system-wide responsibility to support our schools in closing the attainment gap and providing excellence and equity for all. Education Scotland's announcement today that they are deploying their staff to work alongside teachers through the regional improvement collaboratives is a significant element in the early implementation of this reform. This is a radical and welcome step to ensure that the resources of Education Scotland staff are used to create a cohesive and effective package of support to deliver improvement where it matters in our schools. This is the first time that such an approach has been taken and it will maximise the improvement resources available to our schools. I am determined to ensure that the formation of regional improvement collaboratives moves ahead with pace. Therefore, I will commission an external review of our progress in establishing those bodies and in assessing progress in fulfilling their potential, firstly in April 2018 and then 12 to 18 months thereafter. The second aspect of this update is on teachers. I recognise that some councils face challenges in teacher recruitment as do universities in recruiting teaching students and I am committed to tackling those challenges. We are delivering our teaching makes people recruitment campaign, increasing the number of places available in teacher education programmes and funding a series of new routes into teaching. What is more, I believe that our commitment to work with the profession to enhance the teaching career structure will help to attract and retain talented professionals. New and exciting courses have already been made available to attract teachers. Masters degrees allow teachers to work across both the primary and secondary sectors, primary qualifications with specialisms in science or additional support needs and the provision that allows students to qualify across a 52-week period rather than the traditional model are just some examples of the new programmes. We need to do more. We want to make a career in teaching more accessible to a wider range of graduates and help to address the current recruitment challenges, particularly in priority subjects. I am therefore pleased to confirm that we are today inviting new proposals for routes into teaching. Those will support ambitious and innovative routes specifically for high quality new graduates or those considering a career change. It is essential, however, that all teacher education programmes including new routes are of the highest quality. Let me be clear that any new route will require the involvement of a university to maintain academic rigor and accreditation also by the General Teaching Council for Scotland. They are the guardians of quality and all routes into teaching must meet their standards. The final element of this update on education reforms is in relation to inspection. Education Scotland announced this morning that they are significantly increasing school inspection with an increase of over 30 per cent beginning in April 2018, building on the increased plan already for this year. That will strengthen the role of inspection as a crucial tool to support improvement. Not only does inspection provide assurance about the quality of education, it also identifies what is working well and what needs to improve. I am pleased that as a result of their inspection process, Education Scotland looks at how schools and establishments are working collaboratively with others and will share examples of what works. This is one of a range of improvement approaches that Education Scotland has announced today to enable them to reach every school every year through a variety of channels of approach. Presiding Officer, I told Parliament in June that I was determined to put in place essential reforms to ensure that we create a relentless focus on improvement in our schools. I indicated that I would work with local government to achieve those aims. I am pleased that we have been able to reach agreement with councils and as a result can make swift progress on putting those reforms in place. We now have an agreed way forward on school education that will see all parts of the system, the Scottish Government, local councils and national agencies pulling in the same direction. A shared goal to raise standards and close the attainment gap, a single plan working together to support our schools and a clear vision that every child can reach their full potential. There is good news for teachers and great news for Scotland's young people. Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Cabinet Secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions after which we must move on to the next item of business that will be the help of those members who wish to ask a question and would press the request-to-speak buttons. Now, and I call on Liz Smith. We follow by Ian Gray, Ms Smith, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer and thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for a prior site. Can I ask three specific questions? First, what is the estimated cost to the taxpayer of those changes, especially given the enhanced role that Education Scotland is apparently going to have and the new staffing and administration changes which are set out in section 5 of the interim report? Secondly, in relation to that enhanced role for Education Scotland and today's announcement that there will be increased number of school inspections, there is not just another reason why HMIE should be completely separate of Education Scotland, so there is not judge and jury at the same time with far too much conflicting work on its plate. Thirdly, you state that each collaborative will have a workforce plan which will reflect, and I quote, national, regional and local priorities. Can I ask you to clarify, Cabinet Secretary, if you are a headteacher with specific proposals about how you want to spend your pupil equity fund, will you be required to have permission from the regional collaborative before it is spent or will there be genuine devolution of power to the headteacher? Cabinet Secretary. On the first point that Liz Smith raised on the costs, obviously we are pulling together resources that are available within a number of different elements of the education system, but doing that in a very focused way to ensure that schools are able to have access to and make calls upon the improvement resources that are available in a cohesive way, which is not currently the practice within Scottish education. The resources that have been allocated from within Education Scotland will be focused increasingly at a local level working with the resources that are available in local authorities and ensuring a coherent approach is taken. Obviously there will be discussions to be had with the regional collaboratives as they formulate their plans about the scale of their activities and the areas of particular activity. Obviously the Government will engage in those and assess very carefully any implications that emerge in terms of budgetary pressures as a consequence. On the second point in relation to the role of a Majesty's Inspectorate of Education, I have listened carefully to the arguments that have been made on this point. I think that it is important to put on the record one vital aspect of my thinking in this respect. I see the purpose of inspection to aid and to assist improvement within our education system. The whole purpose of the regional collaboratives, the whole purpose of the agenda that I have set out today is about reinforcing that focus on improvement. I have used the words for a relentless focus on improvement. For that reason, her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education has an integral role to perform within Education Scotland, but it is an approach that has to be taken with the necessary respect and regard to the independence of that inspection process. I want to make sure that our education system is able to benefit and see the fruits of that scrutiny that is undertaken for inspection purposes, but it should be clearly understood that the purpose of that inspection is to aid and to assist the improvement journey within Scottish education. Finally, on pupil equity funding, my answer is simple. I want head teachers to be able to take the decisions about how to spend pupil equity funding. That is its purpose. The head teachers that we engage with and we engage extensively with head teachers about the delivery of pupil equity funding want to have a reasonable amount of guidance as to what will be effective utilization of their pupil equity funding, but they want to be able to take the decisions about how to allocate those resources. That is my perspective as well. I have already told Parliament that there have been a number of occasions where I have raised with local authorities my dissatisfaction with the way in which undue limitations are being applied to pupil equity funding and I have no hesitation in reiterating my view this afternoon that I see head teachers as being the ones who should be the decision makers on this point within a framework of guidance that is designed to help not to hinder them in their decision making. Iain Gray, do we follow by Ross Greer? Thank you, Presiding Officer, and thank you to the Cabinet Secretary for Early Sight of his statement. The compromise that he has reached regarding regional collaboratives is welcome and leaves the leadership of these collaboratives accountable to local, rather than central, Government. All credit then to councils and to Councillor McCabe in particular from COSLA for working through this compromise. However, if the collaboratives are to succeed as well, hope they will in raising attainment, like every part of our education system, they need more resources, not just pooled resources, and they need an end to the cut. Councils have helped with Mr Swinney's collaboratives what help can he promise them in return with regard to education funding. It is also welcome that Education Scotland promises more inspections next year than this, but we are not going to be able to compare numbers with a decade ago since it transpires that it has destroyed all inspection records pre-2008. Has the Cabinet Secretary taken them to task for this act of bureaucratic vandalism? If not, why not? First of all, I say to Mr Gray that if he reached carefully the proposal that has been agreed between local government and national government, and I welcome the discussions that I have had with Councillor McCabe and others that have been entirely fruitful discussions as part of this exercise. The accountability in the formulation of regional improvement plans, the workforce plans and that relentless focus on improvement will not just be local accountability, it will be national accountability as well, because the plans, the appointment of regional improvement leads and the workforce plans will all have to be agreed with the chief inspector of education. That is a very important element of the arrangements that we have put in place. That is essential to make sure that we have the clear and relentless focus on improvement. Mr Gray asked me about resources for education, and I am pleased that resources in education are increasing, not least of which because of the decisions that this Government has taken in connection with the local authority settlement and in connection with pupil equity funding. I can assure Mr Gray that the Government will take appropriate decisions in relation to the funding of local authorities and pupil equity funding in its forthcoming budget statements later this year. Finally, in relation to the issue on education Scotland records, what I would say to Mr Gray is this. Education Scotland holds the most recent inspection report for every individual school that has been inspected. That position was clarified at the tail end of last week. Education Scotland retains the ability to say when a school was last inspected by referring to paper-based records for each particular school. Some historical information was not held centrally and some electronic information was deleted not by Education Scotland but by its predecessor body, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education. Information on individual schools inspected was not collated or retained centrally until after an internal audit recommendation in March 2006, which I would remind Mr Gray was before this Government came to office. I appreciate the importance of there being consistency in the information that is available in all respects to attach the highest value to that information, which is why the chief inspector of education is taking the reasonable steps that he is taking to make sure that that information is readily available to all who require that information. I have 11 members wishing to ask questions with your help and crisp questions and answers. I would hope to get through them all. I call Ross Gray to follow by Mike Rumbles. I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of his statement. The Scottish Government has met a number of times recently with Teach First. In England, it costs £38,000 to train a teacher through Teach First compared to £8,000 for the traditional postgraduate model in Scotland. Does the Scottish Government consider that good value for money or does it agree that it would be an inappropriate cost and not an appropriate new route into teaching in Scotland? Mr Gray invites me to go on to territory, which I think he probably well knows. I should take great care to go on to it since there is a procurement about the start. Obviously, I have set out to Parliament the details of that procurement, but I have set out to Parliament two very important foundations for that procurement. One, that any venture that comes forward must have an academic partner recruited to it. Secondly, that any proposition that comes forward must be approved by the General Teaching Council of Scotland. I assure Mr Gray and Parliament that the General Teaching Council applies very strong independent rigor to any proposal that comes forward. I have seen the scrutiny that has been applied to the new routes that have emerged quite recently, and that is a rigorous process of challenge by the General Teaching Council. I can assure Mr Gray and Parliament that that will be the case in any route that emerges as part of the procurement that the Government is undertaking. Mike Rumbles, well by Clare Haughey. Can the Education Secretary not see that Education Scotland cannot reasonably deploy staff to work alongside teachers through the regional improvement collaborative and setting policy, and at the very same time inspect how schools and establishments are working collaboratively? Education Scotland is set once again to mark its own homework. Is not there a clear need, therefore, to ensure that ineffective practice is not reinforced and clearly separate out these functions as my colleague Tavish Scott and others consistently have demanded? Cabinet Secretary. I think that this question comes back to the point, and I am very happy to debate this further with Parliament about the role of inspection. I see the role of inspection to assist us in driving improvement in our education system. For that reason, I think that there is an essential contribution that the inspection function under Her Majesty's Inspector of Education is able to make into the wider work of Education Scotland. I am very pleased with the progress that Education Scotland is making in responding to the challenge that I have set to change its way of working and the organisation has made a number of substantial announcements of changes of practice in recent weeks. That demonstrates the independent direction of Education Scotland, and I want to encourage that and also capture the information that comes from that to assist in improving Scottish education. Clare Haughey, followed by Liam Kerr. Can the Cabinet Secretary provide any reassurance over the role that local authorities will continue to play in the delivery of education and how he plans to maintain local democratic accountability? Local democratic accountability for education was never the issue at stake in those discussions. What was at stake was my desire to ensure that the whole system was focused in a coherent way and a cohesive way on leading improvement within the system. I am very pleased that, as a consequence of the discussions that I have had with local government, we have been able to agree on that point. Obviously, the voluntary agreement of local government to the regional improvement collaboratives is an important signal of the support of local government to the direction that has been set out in the paper that has been agreed between the Government and local authorities. It is important to ensure that accountability for this work is shared between national and local authorities, but in a fashion that works together to benefit the needs of young people throughout our education system. Liam Kerr, followed by Ruth Maguire. The cabinet secretary states that each improvement collaborative should draw on existing activity, connections and partnerships. If those are deemed to be working well enough, as the cabinet secretary said in the chamber on 19 June for the Northern Alliance, what grounds are there for imposing a new structure with additional costs to taxpayers at a time when the public finances are already very tight? I can confidently say that Liam Kerr has not listened to a word that I have said in my statement today, nor has he read a word of the agreement between national and local government, because the Northern Alliance and we all have listened to a word that I have said in Parliament for months, because the Northern Alliance is, in my view, a very good example of the type of collaboration that is in place. The problem is that it was the only collaborative at any sense of a developed proposition around the country. I do not know why Mr Kerr, as a north-east of Scotland member, cannot stand up and say that the model of the Northern Alliance has been built upon and taken to other parts of the country rather than finding something to have a whinge about. I encourage Mr Kerr to do a little bit of homework like the First Minister encouraged his party leader to do in First Minister's questions last week before he comes here and asks such ill-informed questions about what the Government has just announced. Can I say with respect, if we could have shorter answers, I might get some more folk in that very helpful Cabinet Secretary, Ruth McQuire followed by Daniel Johnson. Can the Cabinet Secretary confirm that developing new routes into teaching is not about getting people into the classroom faster but instead is about broadening the range of people entering the teaching profession? Cabinet Secretary. It is essential that we find different ways and different mechanisms to encourage and motivate other people who might contemplate a career in teaching to take up that role. The approaches that we have set out are designed to do that. They are designed to make sure that any individual who is teaching in our classroom is doing so with the authority of the General Teaching Council, which is the guardians of quality education system. The new routes that we are taking forward will have that requirement at the heart of their design. I can give Ruth McQuire that assurance today. We will have that consideration very much in our minds as we come to our conclusions on any approaches that we take. Daniel Johnson followed by Gillian Martin. The Deputy First Minister was at pains to emphasise national accountability in his answer to Ian Gray, and that the chief inspector would sign off on improvement plans. Can I ask what will happen if there is a disagreement between the chief inspector and the local collaboratives? Given that many of the concerns are around his proposals... No, one question is sufficient. I want to gather members in. Cabinet Secretary. The process is... The point that I was making to Mr Gray was to essentially give a completeness and to ensure that there is a proper opportunity to discuss and to challenge the formulation of regional improvement plans to make sure that they will be effective in supporting the national improvement framework. I would encourage a collaborative and co-operative dialogue between the chief inspector of education and the regional improvement collaboratives to reach agreement on what will be acceptable as plans for improvement in our education system. That is the thinking behind the model of accountability that we have settled upon. Gillian Martin, followed by Finlay Carson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Will the cabinet secretary agree with me that the regional improvement collaboratives must be bottom up and that the needs of our schools must be driving the regional plan rather than the plan driving the needs of our schools? Cabinet secretary. The purpose of those reforms is to make sure that schools have access to their educational provision. The approach that Gillian Martin suggests is absolutely correct that we want to have schools in the driving seat of determining what are their needs, what are their requirements and the services that are available and the support that is available from regional improvement collaboratives should respond positively towards that. Finlay Carson, followed by James Dornan. Cabinet secretary, stated in response to Ross Greer on page 7 of your statement that you require both the involvement of university and accreditation with the general teaching council for Scotland in light of the recent encouraging comments from the Scottish Government. Can you please just ask your question? Can I ask the cabinet secretary what discussions are taking place with Scottish universities? Obviously, I meet the deans of the schools of education on a periodic basis to encourage developments in their own provision. We have engaged in these debates to ensure that we have an adequate supply of graduates coming into initial teacher education and we will continue that dialogue as we go into a procurement on this particular proposal. Our relationship has to be slightly different because some of the universities may have an interest in that but I can assure Mr Carson of a very regular dialogue with the universities to advance their involvement in the important area of teacher education. I welcome the announcement that there will be more staff from regional collaboratives but can the cabinet secretary expand a bit further on how he expects pooling resources to reduce the inconsistencies that we often see when it comes to education? What I am keen to ensure is that we have a much wider exchange of good practice and strong practice within the education system. That is at the heart of collaboration is what the OECD told us in 2015 was a weakness of our education system and I want us to respond to that as substantively as we possibly can do. The collaboratives will be working together to share good practice and to ensure that that is widely disseminated across our education system. Alison Harris. When the OECD reported on the school system in Scotland in 2016 it made reference to the fact that it was very hard to measure educational success because of the absence of good data to measure progress in the curriculum for excellence. What steps is the Scottish Government along with Education Scotland taking to collect this new data? Cabinet Secretary. We have already embarked on that by the collection of pupil level data on the achievement of individual levels at P1, P4, P7 and S3 within our education system. That is more comprehensive data than has ever been available in Scottish education before. It is published every December and, of course, from December 2018 it will be informed by the proceeds of standardised national assessments which the Scottish national standards assessments have now been rolled out in Scottish education and took effect in late August of this year and those assessments will help to inform teacher judgments which will be reported on every December. In addition to that I will be consulting shortly on the framework for assessing our progress in closing the attainment gap. That has to be broadly understood and accepted to make sure that it commands public confidence and I'll be consulting on that in the course of the period ahead to make sure that we have the right range of measures in place to assess our progress in closing the attainment gap. Very short question Mr Beattie Can the cabinet secretary expand further on the ideas that the international council of education advisers put forward recently on how to ensure students and their parents or carers are engaged and have a voice? There are some very good examples that Scottish education are now taking forward as a consequence of the call within the national improvement framework to encourage greater pupil and parent engagement in the development of the schools agenda. I think that some of the projects that I see in place in local areas I saw some very good projects that are referred to following a visit to the Pathhead primary school in Mr Torrance's constituency in Kirkcaldy and very good examples of parental engagement in the learning process within schools and obviously we share these good examples as widely as we possibly can do. Thank you, that concludes questions again. I thank the cabinet secretary and all members who finished to get all the questioners in. A short pause as we move on to the next item of business.