 The first item of business is portfolio questions. In order to get in as many members as possible, I'd be grateful for short and succinct questions and responses. The portfolio that we move to is education and skills. At question number one, I call Katie Clark. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has with COSLA and Unison following the balloting of thousands of the trade unions members working in schools and nurseries over pay. Cabinet Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville. The local government pay negotiations that are a matter for COSLA on behalf of the 32 councils and the trade unions dissolve via the Scottish Joint Committee. Any intervention from the Scottish Government at this point would undermine that process. I would encourage the local government trade unions and COSLA to continue open, constructive dialogue to find the resolution which avoids any potential industrial action. Does the minister believe that handing the education staff who kept schools running during the pandemic an effective pay cut is helping to build a Scotland that is welfare and fairer, more resilient and better, in the words of the First Minister? Cabinet Secretary. Of course the Scottish Government does recognise the sense of feeling right across the public sector, including many within the local government workforce, and recognise their desire to see their efforts to be recognised by way of a pay rise. Of course, as I said in my original answer, we are not party to the national local government pay negotiations. We have not participated in those in the past. As I said, an intervention at this point would undermine that process, but it is of course very important that the Scottish Government continues to meet with COSLA or with the unions to discuss matters of mutual interest, including local government funding, for example. Of course, the Scottish Government will continue those discussions that we have with COSLA and with unions. The cabinet secretary will be aware of the admission by COSLA that private and voluntary nurseries providing the 1140 hours receive a significantly lower than household nursery. That means that staff in one part of the sector are receiving thousands of pounds less each year for doing exactly the same job. It is discrimination by design. How has this been allowed to happen and when will it be fixed? Can I just check that the cabinet secretary heard enough, or would you prefer that Mr Rennie repeated his question? I think that between Ms Hawke and I, we were trying to piece together what Mr Rennie said, so my apologies if I have not actually got this question. I am sure that Mr Rennie will follow up in writing. Of course, the Scottish Government works with COSLA to ensure that we have a package that is fully funded for the 1140 hours. Of course, there is an expectation within the Scottish Government that we make very clear to COSLA and that it recognises that about the importance of our private providers within that. If there are particular details around that, I have not managed to pick up, because I apologise that the connection was quite bad. I would be happy to follow that up with Mr Rennie in due course. I would like to ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the implementation of the baby box programme. Minister Claire Hawley, the latest data available on take-up in 2020 shows that 98 per cent of expectant parents took up the opportunity to receive a baby box. As of Friday 10 June 2022, we have distributed 220,788 baby boxes to families across Scotland. The independent evaluation of Scotland's baby box, published in August 2021, highlights the positive impact of the scheme on families, particularly for first-time younger and low-income parents. The evaluation showed 97 per cent satisfaction with the baby box and contents, and 91 per cent of families reporting financial savings as a result of receiving the baby box. I thank the minister for that answer. Will she join me in welcoming Ireland's pilot project, dubbed Little Baby Bundle, which will see 500 newborn babies receiving a baby box, a policy initiative similar to Scotland's? Does she agree with me that universality is an essential aspect of Scotland's scheme that promotes an equal start for all children in Scotland in reducing stigma and conveying benefits beyond the purely financial? Yes. I agree with the member co-capture. It is fantastic to see that Ireland has decided to pilot its own version of the baby box, which has been informed by our approach in Scotland, and I wish the project every success. Scotland's baby box strongly signals our determination that every child, regardless of their circumstances, should get the best start in life by ensuring that every family with a newborn has access to essential items and support needed in the first six months of a child's life. I believe that universality is a crucial aspect of the success of the scheme in Scotland. As I said previously, 98 per cent take-up of the scheme helps to underpin our ambition that every child should have the best start in life. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its work to provide access to neurodevelopmental support for all children in schools. We want all children and young people, including those with neurodiverse conditions, to get the support needed to reach their full potential. In November 2021, we published our updated ASL action plan and progress report to deliver the Morgan review recommendations, and we will publish a further update in the autumn. Last year, we also published our progress report on the autism in schools action plan. Although the majority of actions are complete, we would acknowledge that there is more to do to improve the support offered to neurodiverse learners, and we continue to engage with partners to take that forward. I thank the cabinet secretary for that response. She will recall our joint visit to Tuke primary school in Dunfermline, which is a trialling and exciting neurodevelopmental pilot project. It has clearly been transformative for the whole school community, especially for those children who have really struggled to find the right school environment to learn in the past. Getting it right for every child means that all children in all schools deserve access to that type of support. I know that the cabinet secretary knows that. Beyond pilots and evaluations, the cabinet secretary outlined what the long-term plan is to demand that kind of best practice into every school in Scotland. I thank Mark Ruskell for that question. Indeed, it was a pleasure to join him and Kevin Stewart on a visit to Tuke primary school. It was a fantastic visit to be able to see the real difference that can be made with a project that is in place. Yes, it is a pilot project, but real lessons are being learned about how the school can work with families as well as the young person. I am very determined—Kevin Stewart is very determined—to see what we can learn from those pilot projects to ensure that what we saw in Tuke can be built upon and adapted upon, and we can also learn from the other pilot projects that are available. He stikes a very important note that the type of support that we saw in Dunfermline should be applicable within all schools. It may not be the same in all schools, but there is certainly a responsibility for us to make sure that the children that we met in Tuke have the same type of support right across the country. I will be very happy to continue to work with Mr Ruskell on the issue in the future. Fiona Hyslop. Having recently visited the Donaldson Trust, the leading charity for New York diversity in Scotland based on my constituency, which I encourage the cabinet secretary to visit, I am aware of the complexity of New York diversity but also the importance of early identification and acknowledging the Scottish Government's intentions and actions in its autism in schools action plan. What assurances can be given to my constituents regarding timescales for early identification of individual needs in your diverse pupils? When will mainstream schools make full adaptations to meet the needs of new diverse students? How will the real-life impact of the Scottish Government's action plan be assessed? Education authorities, of course, already have a duty to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils, including those with neurodiversities. Fiona Hyslop is quite right to point out the importance of early identification in ensuring that the support is there for the child and also, of course, for their family. It is very important that we look very carefully at that. There are responsibilities of course with the Scottish Government in this and also, of course, for local authorities. All local authorities have a staged intervention and assessment process in place that should enable practitioners to assess and meet their learners' needs. I would like to thank Fiona Hyslop for bringing the work of the Donaldson trust to my attention once again, and I would of course be happy to visit them, should the Donaldson trust wish me to visit. Identification is important. If the Scottish Government will reconsider a more robust national neurodevelopmental screening programme in our primary schools. I mentioned my response to Mark Ruskell. There are a number of pilot projects that are currently in progress to see what we can learn to ensure that there is a better identification, earlier identification in place, and then the support is in place. Of course, there is no formal diagnosis needed for a child or young person to receive support. That is a very important aspect of the project that is in place nationally at the moment, but there will be lessons to learn from the pilots and we will do so. I very much welcome the Scottish Government's commitment to appointing a learning disability autism and neurodiversity commissioner. Can I ask the cabinet secretary what plans the Scottish Government has to gather the views of autistic people, their families and support organisations to ensure that lived experience informs the shapes, the role and powers of the commissioner? The Scottish Government has adopted a human rights-based approach to ensure that the learning disability autism and neurodiversity are fully co-designed with people with lived experience, including autistic people involving disabled people's led organisations and charities, representing the views of a wide range of people who come under the learning disability autism and neurodiversity umbrella. It is very important that we continue that work. Scoping work on the bill is under way, as part of which the Scottish Government is currently running a series of events with existing stakeholders to allow us to work alongside people with lived experience to design the public consultation and the initial policy options that will be included. To ask the Scottish Government whether its priorities, the skills required to support the economy, have changed as a result of any consequences of withdrawal from the EU. The national strategy for economic transformation recognises that a skilled population is fundamental to productivity and prosperity. The NSET-skilled workforce programme sets out priority actions through the skills that people need at every stage of life and employers invest in the skillset of their workforce. NSET highlights that Brexit will inflict greater damage to the economy than even the pandemic. That is becoming increasingly apparent with almost all sectors of reporting labour and skills shortages. To help mitigate those consequences, the Scottish Government will implement a programme of work to attract talent from the rest of the UK as committed and will launch immigration service for Scotland. First, I thank you for allowing me to leave immediately after my supplementary to comply with the long-standing engagement that was arranged before this truncated lunch. Notwithstanding that there is a role in education minister to provide a relevant workforce for society, does the minister, however, agree with me that the strength of Scottish education is its broad base with flexibility built in as pupils progress through secondary school and at senior level may very well change their mind about what they want to do later in life? In general terms, yes, I very much do agree with that. Of course we see the constant change to the nature of our society and our economy. In that sense, our education system must adapt and must ensure that people can be resilient and adapt as in the face of those changes as well. Yes, I very much agree with the point that Christine Grahame makes. Not only is it true for the school environment, but it is also true for pupils' education skills and pensions across the entirety of their lives. She can be sure that that is the approach that I will take in relation to the area of activity that I have. 5. Megan Gallaker To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to address the reported increase in incidents of violence in schools. All forms of violence are unacceptable and have no place in our schools or indeed society. We and partners across the education sector advocate an approach for schools and local authorities to work with pupils on the underlying reasons behind inappropriate behaviour. We want all pupils to respect their peers and staff and are supporting a number of programmes to promote positive relationships and tackle in discipline, abuse and violence. That includes good behaviour management, restorative approaches and programmes to help to develop social, emotional and behavioural skills. Teaching unions such as the NSWT and EIS have raised serious concerns about the soaring violence and aggression in classrooms. They have warned that the reduction of classroom assistance combined with the SNP Government refusal to commission research into poor behaviour are contributing factors. One union representative has even claimed that it is as if they do not really want to know the scale of the problem. Cabinet secretary, that is happening under the SNP's watch. Will you therefore listen to the concerns being raised about increased levels of violence in our schools? Will the Scottish Government admit that cuts to council and education budgets are putting teachers at risk? Of course we have now seen 2,000 teaching staff compared to pre-pandemic levels. Of course we have also invested an additional £45 million since 2019-20 to enhance the provision of support staff within schools. The latest addition of the behaviour in Scottish schools research is a very important part of our work. The most written iteration of that was due to take place in 2020, although, as I hope the chamber would appreciate, given what was happening at schools at the time, decision was taken to cancel that research because of Covid. Arrangements are currently under way for the next wave of this research to be developed and we are progressing with that. That will provide a very important research angle, but in the meantime we will work very carefully with local authorities and with our trade union partners to ensure that policies and support are in place to provide teachers and our young people with support to ensure that there is no violence or misbehaviour within schools if that can at all be helped. Can the cabinet secretary provide an update on work to educate young people on gender-based violence in schools to combat sexual harassment and indeed intimate partner abuse in young people? The Scottish Government wants all children and young people to develop mutually respectful and responsible and confident relationships. There are a number of targeted programmes to support positive behaviour and relationships that have helped to address gender-based harassment in schools. One example of that is the Mentors in Violence Prevention, which tackles gender stereotyping and attitudes equally safe at school. It is another project that is fearless and also educates and supports pupils to speak up about crime. Those are very important parts of working in the gender-based violence in schools working group. We are developing a national framework to ensure consistent messaging on gender-based harassment for everyone working with young people. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the future of STEM learning in Scotland, Minister Jamie Hepburn. The latest annual report on the Government's STEM education training strategy was published on the 26 of May. The report demonstrates that, despite restrictions required as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the majority of STEM education partners were able to continue to deliver programmes of professional learning and related activity. As a next step, we plan to improve the strategy of governance and performance monitoring and adherence in the coming months. The aim is to focus on priorities such as the upskilling of computing teachers and to help them to ensure that inequalities and access to STEM continue to be addressed and that STEM education effectively contributes to the Government's net zero ambitions for Scotland. This week equates Scotland's annual conference to discuss STEM through an intersectional lens. Minister, the understanding of existing power structures and their contributions to inequality is key to intersectionality. Does the minister agree with me that we have to continue to improve diversity in STEM sector to ensure that we benefit from the vast potential in this area? Yes, I do agree with that. Let me place in the record my thanks to Equate Scotland for all the work that they do. I know that they play a tremendous important role in highlighting those issues. We cannot, Presiding Officer, fulfil our potential as a country. We don't allow everyone to make best use of their talents. STEM is no different in that regard. Since 2019, Education Scotland's improving gender balance equality team has been working with schools and local authorities to effect culture change in schools to tackle serotypes and unconscious bias, and that work continues to be supported. Since it was established, the team has engaged with more than 1,100 education establishments. That is an important area, and the work will continue. More than 1 in 10 jobs in Scotland are now in the digital sector, with an average salary of more than 52,000. However, the number of STEM secondary school teachers has declined since 2008, and there is a downturn in the number of pupils who choose STEM subjects. To ask the minister what is the Scottish Government doing to ensure that pupils are leaving school with the skill sets that are aligned with high-growth sectors? The minister speaks simultaneously to the opportunity and the challenge. The challenge being that we require to ensure the steady supply of such and others to take up the opportunities that are in place. However, where we have a lack of supply, there are many opportunities for people to take up those jobs, and it can cause challenges in recruiting for the area of teaching. That is why we have our £20,000 bursary for career changers to try to support those who are qualified in STEM areas to come in to the teaching profession. It is also why we are continuing to take forward the recommendations that Mark Logan made through a review of technology ecosystems, and that includes supporting the teacher-led Scottish teachers advancing the computing science project at Glasgow University, along with the provision of additional resources of £1.3 million the last financial year for schools to transform the teaching of computing science. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will outline the role of Skills Development Scotland in delivering its economic recovery plans. As outlined in the ministerial letter of guidance issued to Skills Development Scotland for 2022-23, Skills Development Scotland, working with other agencies and partners, will support the delivery of key actions within the national strategy for economic transformation, particularly within the skilled workforce programme. The actions in the skilled workforce programme are designed to ensure that people have the skills that they need at every stage of life to have rewarding careers and employers invest in the skilled employees that they need to grow their businesses. I thank the minister for his response. Back in January this year, the Auditor General reported to this Parliament that the Scottish Government for almost five years had presided over a complete and utter failure to agree a plan for skills for Scotland's workers. The Scottish Government was rebuked for not giving, I quote, the necessary leadership that the oversight, the clarity to deliver this. Urgent action was called for. Instead, six months later, and the Government still has no credible skills plan. Workers, employers, trade unions, people out of work are still in the dark, and Skills Development Scotland is now facing a budget cut of £5.8 million. When is the minister finally going to deliver what he was told that he needed to deliver back in January? Of course, Mr Leonard refers to the report that his committee has considered. He knows for well that I am engaged in responding to the report. We have welcomed recommendations. We are taking them forward just now. In relation to the suggestion that we have no plan for taking forward a programme of delivering skills interventions for the people of Scotland, I would reject that assertion. We have, through the national strategy for economic transformation, made a range of commitments to support the provision of skills interventions across a person's life. We have the future skills action plan, which works towards. In relation to the funding for Skills Development Scotland, they are funded to deliver the core services that they provide. There were some services that were provided as a one-off intervention that, yes, they are not being funded now, but they have the funding that they require to get on with the task, as demonstrated by the fact that we saw, for example, a 42 per cent uplift in the number of mud apprenticeship starts last year by comparison to the year before. That says to me that we have a skills system that is delivering. That concludes portfolio questions. The next item of business is a statement by Tom Arthur on provisional outturn 2021-2022. I will allow a moment for members to get themselves into place.