 Thank you for moving swiftly on. Topical questions on education and skills. Number one, Gail Ross, please. To ask the Scottish Government how it can support schools to ensure that their staff and teachers are trauma-informed. Cabinet Secretary John Swinney. Relationship-based approaches in schools are essential to preventing and mitigating the impact of childhood adversity. Education Scotland has developed guidance for schools on nurturing approaches and their links with adverse childhood experiences and trauma-informed practice. Education Scotland is also developing additional career-long professional learning resources on trauma-informed practices in collaboration with stakeholders. That is in addition to the development of curricular resources to develop children and young people's resilience, knowledge and understanding of attachment and trauma-informed supports. Gail Ross. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Edinburgh University recently published research that shows that two-thirds of children in Scotland have suffered some sort of trauma. Does the cabinet secretary agree that schools play a pivotal role in addressing that, and will he reiterate his commitment to cross-portfolio working to address this public health emergency? Thank you, cabinet secretary. I do agree with the point that Gail Ross has raised and reiterated the importance across different aspects of Government that we work together to address those issues. As Gail Ross will know from my attendance at the cross-party group that I convened across portfolio discussion in Bella Houston academy last spring, which drew together public servants and ministers in a variety of different disciplines to focus on this very important question of cross-portfolio working, we are progressing with the recommendations on that discussion and I will keep Parliament informed on some of the important work that has come from that, such as the Education Scotland guidance on nurture adverse childhood experiences and trauma-informed practice, which is available for schools today. To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the trend in the number of college students since 2007. Minister Richard Lochhead. We have exceeded our target of 116,269 full-time equivalent college places and exceeded that target every year since 2011. As recent Scottish funding council statistics show in 2017-18, an estimated 95.5 per cent of learning hours were delivered on courses that led to a recognised qualification and that is a 6.8 per cent point increase since 2006-2007. Elaine Smith. I thank the minister for his response. However, I wonder if he is aware that there are actually over 120,000 fewer students, many of them disabled in Scotland's colleges since 2007 and that the sector is faced under investment to the tune of £1 billion over the same period. In addition, yesterday, college lecturers went on strike to protest the fact that pay has failed to keep pace with the cost of living. With a lack of investment, loss of student places as well as the demotivated lecturers, all impacting on student education and experience, will the cabinet secretary admit that colleges have suffered under the SNP government and will he urge the employers to offer a fair settlement when they meet with EIS Fela? Before you rise, short supplementaries, please. I know that it is an important topic, but short of supplementaries. Thank you, minister. In terms of the current disputes between lecturers and their employers, that is of course a matter for these two parties to resolve and I will continue to urge them to do that because the interests of students and the strike that took place this week care was regrettable given my understanding was that the most recent talk just a few days ago were actually quite positive, so I hope they continue in that spirit. In terms of how our colleges are faring under the SNP government, as I've just explained in my opening answer, they are exceeding their targets and I think that's good news for the learners and I think that's good news for the Scottish economy as well. That's why there's an increased focus on full-time courses that deliver a positive destination and recognise qualifications for those undertaking them because that is the best solution for the future of our economy and the colleges are quite right to focus on that because that's the interests of the country. Under the SNP, the colleges are delivering for Scotland. Oliver Mundell. To ask the minister what steps are being taken to increase the number of women studying STEM-related courses at college in light of the recent trends identified in the RSEs tapping all our talents report. Minister. There are also sides of evidence report tapping all our talents as an excellent report and in those of members' debate that we spoke in just a few days ago on that subject. There's a number of recommendations in that report that the Scottish Government are looking at very closely and of course our first annual report into the Scottish Government strategy for STEM which includes a number of measures to address gender-related issues. It will actually be published this week as well and of course it will be published on next 40 hours or so. There's a number of steps that the Scottish Government are taking. As the member knows, there's some positive indicators where there's some good news of the number of women and girls participating in STEM increasing but there's still a number of challenges in other areas as well. Question 3, Mary Fee. To ask the Scottish Government what the impact will be of the college capital spending plans in the draft budget. Minister. The 2019-20 draft budget for college capital will continue to provide funding for the maintenance of the college sector state and the completion of the new 4th valley college campus in Falkirk. The Scottish funding council will allocate this year's funding for college maintenance with a view to meeting priority needs and will publish indicative allocations for institutions by the end of February. Mary Fee. I thank the minister for that answer but the minister will know that the Scottish funding council have estimated that up to 360 million of investment is required to make college campuses wind and water tight over the next five years. Does the minister not accept that this draft budget delivers nowhere near the investment that the Government's own report says is needed? Minister. The Scottish Government, through the Scottish funding council, is working closely with our colleges and indeed our universities in terms of capital expenditure but the member is quite right. Of course there's huge pressure on our capital budgets right across the Scottish Government. This is not just an issue for further and higher education but we would like, of course, more UK funding to come to Scotland to allow us to allocate higher levels of the necessary investment in our infrastructure for our colleges as well. However, there is a budget in the draft budget that is no £47.6 million. That will be used for priority needs for the sector and that's the negotiations that we've been having with the sector. We'd all love to have more money in those budgets and Labour Party had the opportunity to negotiate with the Scottish Government over the budget and they didn't take up that opportunity. Question 4, Kenneth Gibson. To ask the Scottish Government what impact the pupil equity fund has had on attainment in North Ayrshire. Cabinet Secretary. Since 2015-16, North Ayrshire has been allocated almost £25.5 million of funding from the attainment Scotland fund. That includes more than £16 million through the challenge authority programme and approximately £4.4 million pupil equity funding in each of the last two years. In an inspection report published last year, Her Majesty's inspectors reported that North Ayrshire is making very good progress with improving learning, raising attainment and narrowing the poverty-related attainment gap. They identified that strong leadership, effective partnership working and strong approaches to staff development are helping to drive improved outcomes for children and young people. I thank the cabinet secretary for that reply. I agree that head teachers are best placed to know the strengths and weaknesses of education provision in their schools and therefore what additional measures will be introduced to strengthen their autonomy further. Cabinet secretary. I do hold that view. That view lies at the heart of the empowerment agenda that has been taken forward by the joint work between the Government and local authorities. Good progress has been made on establishing the approach to delivering the head teacher's charter and to empowering individual professionals. One of the key features of the North Ayrshire inspection is the importance that is attached to professional learning by the local authority. I welcome that the professional learning academy in North Ayrshire contributes significantly to enhancing the education learning opportunities for staff. That is, of course, the best means by which we can enhance learning and teaching for young people within our education system. Question 5. To ask the Scottish Government what actions it has taken last year regarding the provision of training for teachers and staff to support pupils with mental health issues. Cabinet secretary. We have made clear the commitment of the Government to promote and support children's mental health and wellbeing through wide-ranging commitments in our programme for government. We are continuing to support local authorities to access mental health first aid training for key staff, which will complement the spectrum of mental health strategies that are already in place within schools. What health is covered in the general teaching council for Scotland's standard for full registration and coverage will be further enhanced in a new version of the standards due to be published next year. Edward Mountain. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. I welcome the positive steps taken by the Scottish Government to deliver mental health first aid training to teachers. However, it is unclear in the programme for government if training will be provided to all school staff, including teaching assistants and additional support-needs staff. Cabinet secretary, can you clarify that, please? Cabinet secretary. What the Government has set out in our programme for government is a range of different measures to ensure that we strengthen the capacity within individual schools to meet the mental health and wellbeing needs of young people. One of the key elements of that will be about the training of individual members' staff, but another part of it will be about the commitment to invest in school counselling services across Scotland, which is a very important element of the package of support. That will put in place the support necessary within individual schools to ensure that practitioners are able to support young people in a preventative way and on the basis of early intervention within the school system. There has been extensive roll-out of training for staff within secondary school communities to increase their confidence in approaching pupils who they think are struggling with mental health issues. 18 local authorities have now received that training and we will continue to work with local authorities to roll out the steps in due course. I appreciate that the cabinet secretary has touched on that last answer. Can the cabinet secretary outline how the increased investment in recruitment of school counsellors will assist teachers in managing mental health issues? Obviously, by the investment that we make in mental health counselling, we will be increasing the capacity within schools to be able to proactively support young people. I think that all of the analysis that has been undertaken that lies at the heart of the mental health strategy that has been put forward by ministers is the importance of early intervention to support young people at the earliest possible moment where they may be wrestling with mental health and wellbeing challenges. That investment in capacity within schools will try to ensure that schools are able to deal with circumstances that they may ordinarily and currently find that they do not feel confident to handle, but as a consequence of the investment we hope that capacity will be increased to ensure that that is the case. Questions 6, Patrick Harvie. Can I ask the Government what its response is to the document to order co-operative university by Queen Margaret University members of the University and College Union Scotland? The Scottish Government welcomes all contributions in the future of higher education sector in Scotland, and we have noted the content and views expressed in this particular document, which I am thankful to Patrick Harvie for bringing to my attention. Patrick Harvie. I am grateful. Clearly the institution and the union are currently in dispute and the institution do not agree with all of the contents of this document, but they do say that we agree with many values expressed in it. Does the Government see merit in the general argument that is being put forward about a co-operative model for our educational institutions? Will the minister commit to ensuring that the Scottish Government takes a constructive approach to identifying any barriers that may exist to this model being pursued and what the Government might be able to do to remove those barriers? I read towards a co-operative university in preparation for this question, so I am thankful to Patrick Harvie for tabling it. Like the principle of QMU, I agree with many of the sentiments in that document, and the Scottish Government will always be constructive for new ideas in terms of the culture of our universities or whatever, but of course there are autonomous institutions and therefore this is really a matter primarily for the staff, the students and the management at QMU. In terms of the current dispute that has been taking place in response to how to handle the deficit at QMU, I know the member will welcome the fact that the university has made an announcement to staff that no compulsory redundancies will be required as a result of the transformation project, because one of the biggest fears was that there would be compulsory redundancies and that does not now appear to be the case, which is good news. To ask the Scottish Government what progress the transition training fund has made in addressing the reported skill shortage in the HDV industry and increasing the number of drivers. Minister, Jamie Hepburn. The latest figures show that over 4,000 people have had applications approved through the transition training fund, surpassing the initial aim of supporting 1,000 participants each year over the course of its three-year period of operation. The fund has supported over 500 individuals undertake training related to the road haul sector. I thank the minister for his reply and I welcome the progress that the transition training fund has helped to bring to the haulage industry. However, he will be aware that there is still an estimated shortage of 11,000 HDV drivers in Scotland with the added problem of approximately 15 per cent of truck drivers coming from other EU countries. There could be added pressure post Brexit. Will the minister undertake to encourage Skills Development Scotland to look at other incentives to attract young people into the logistics industry and just as importantly look at ways to ensure that they are retained for the longer term? Minister. Clearly, I agree with the point that has made that this cannot be the entirety of our efforts. Skills Development Scotland is already active in ensuring that there is wider activity. It is working with industry to that end through the development of a road haulage skills group to focus on skills needs within the transport network. On the issue of bringing others into the industry, young people are through a modern apprenticeship programme as of quarter two of this year. There were 1,243 modern apprentices in training through the freight logistics-related frameworks. On a wider point, Skills Development Scotland supports bespoke large-goods vehicles driver training requests made by individuals up to £4,000 to cover the cost training. I recognise the important issue for Mr MacDonald in particular in terms of Grangemouth in his constituency. If he wants to speak to me further about this matter then I'll be very happy to do so. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding partnership working to help communities to access employment support. Minister Jamie Hepburn. The Scottish Government has on-going discussions with the UK Government on Employment Support in Scotland. That includes regular ministerial discussions and the joint ministerial working group on welfare and a joint operating framework for employability official level to ensure the smooth interaction and referral between reserved and evolved services and responsibilities in employability support. Bob Doris. I thank the minister for that answer. The Parliament's social security committee which I convened today called for a review of local access to job centres. We believe that closures have had a detrimental impact on employment support and have significant concerns over staffing, work role levels, making them particularly ill-prepared for the migration of tax credits into universal credit systems. Does the minister agree with me that any review should consider working with the Scottish Government and new community-based well-resourced and pensions person-centred employability support service, not operating under the threat of sanction but rather on the basis of support, dignity and respect? Mr Doris will know that I share his concerns and clearly the committee's concerns about the process of job closures, job centre plus the closures that we have seen in the past few years. Parliament shared those concerns with one of the Conservative party that we voted across Parliament to express our concern about those closures. Our devolved employability programme, First That Scotland, is already leading the way in offering people the opportunity of support to find work free from the threat of sanctions. I. We will always continue to urge the UK Government to follow that lead and of course we will continue to explore those matters through the frameworks that I have laid out. I can assure Mr Doris and other members that we will continue to do. Willie Coffey To ask the Scottish Government what impact its commitment to invest £500 million to expand early learning and childcare provision will have on demand for skilled staff and infrastructure investment opportunities in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency. Minister Marie Tom The Scottish Government and local authorities have committed to an unprecedented level of investment in early learning and childcare through the near doubling of the funded entitlement to 1140 hours per year from August 2020. The multi-year funding package will see East Ayrshire receive £21.6 million capital funding over 2017-18 to 2021, with revenue funding to support the expansion increasing to £13.6 million by 2021-22. That is supporting investment in 15 sites in Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley area whilst 1140 hours is already being delivered in six settings in the area as part of the phasing. More settings will offer the expanded hours later this year and it is estimated that 162 full-time equivalent posts will be created in Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley through the expansion. Willie Coffey I welcome that answer from the minister and I intend to expand the number of modern apprenticeships in early learning and childcare and foundation apprenticeships to encourage new recruits to the sector and perhaps also to offer young people work experience while still at school. Minister Thank you. I am very grateful to the member for asking this. The modern apprenticeship is both a popular and very fruitful in terms of training, recruitment and retention in this sector and that is why Skills Development Scotland have committed through their skills investment plan for the early learning and childcare expansion to increasing ELC modern apprenticeships by 10 per cent each year to 2020. Figures relating to the academic year 2017-18 indicated that this target was exceeded with an increase of 21 per cent in uptake in modern apprenticeships compared with 2016-17 and we fully expect this growth to continue as we move towards 2020. For the foundation apprenticeships the framework and social services children and young people saw an increase in the number of starts from 57 in cohort 1 which was 2016-18 to 466 starts in cohort 2 which was 2017-19. The information for cohort 3 due out early this year is expected to once again show an increase and I have to say I had the pleasure just this morning of visiting this store childcare in North Lanarkshire which is a partner provider which was benefiting from nearly half of the staff over half of the staff having joined his apprenticeships and five foundation apprentices attending from school and they were absolutely full of the benefits of that way of entering the profession. Mary Fee brief. Thousands of qualified and highly trained staff are required to meet the ambition of the Government's childcare expansion. Can the minister tell me what progress and how many people are currently working in the sector? Minister. Absolutely. At the moment we have about 35,000 people working in the sector just over 25,000 delivering the funded entitlement. The data for this we had a meeting this morning of the delivery board, the joint delivery board which is where Government and local authority representatives monitor the progress and the data and the intelligence both show that we are broadly on target for meeting forecasts. Another comforting thing in recent months was that the SSS report published just before Christmas showed that daycare of children services a category which includes the ELC provision were reporting a level of vacancies significantly below the national average and the proportion of services which were reporting that the vacancies they had did have what hard to fill was also significantly below the national average. Very comforting at this stage of the expansion. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the higher education statistics agency recording a record number of students from the private areas enrolling at University in Scotland. I warmly welcome the latest statistics which show a record increase in entrance from the most deprived areas. This demonstrates significant progress on access and the continued strength of the access report. The figures provide the first official update on progress against the Government's widening access targets since the final commission on widening access reports in 2016. Stuart Stevenson. I'm particularly interested in this as one of the top 10 areas of multiple debt provision in Scotland is in my constituency and can I welcome the 8 per cent rise that there is in students from the most deprived communities. What more can we expect to see in the years to come that we'll build on this very early and encouraging numbers? As Stuart Stevenson says the progress has been excellent indeed in 2017-18 15.6 per cent of Scottish domicile full-time first degree entrance to Scottish universities were from the 20 per cent most deprived areas. That represents an increase of 1.8 per cent points compared to the previous year and 0.4 per cent points short of the Government's interim target of 16 per cent by 2021. I want to pay tribute to all the institutions who have delivered that progress. In terms of the future, we have still our intimate target to achieve and a long-term target of 20 per cent of students being from 20 per cent most deprived wars by 2030. Only this morning I convened the latest meeting of the widening access delivery group with the commissioner Peter Scott being there as well. Of course, he said that he very much welcomed the progress in these new statistics and of course he vindicated the fact that we free higher education in Scotland. There's much more to be done but we're making good progress and we have to keep our foot in the pedal. Question 11, Angela Constance. To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that pupils with additional support needs in the Amon Valley constituency have their needs and right to an education met. Cabinet Secretary. Presiding Officer, the Education and Additional Support for Learning Act 2004 requires education authorities to identify, provide for and to review the additional support needs of their pupils. West Lothian Council has the responsibility for ensuring the additional support needs of pupils in the Amon Valley constituency are met. The Scottish Government supports education authorities in these duties through the provision of statutory guidance to inform local policy and practice. Angela Constance. On behalf of the parents and children I represent whose additional support needs are not being met or not met and full. Can the cabinet secretary give an update on his considerations of the report, not included, not engaged, not involved, in particular to issues of resources and practice and how we are going to ensure that our laws are put into practice in our classrooms? Cabinet Secretary. I welcome the report that has been produced by Children's Scotland, the National Autistic Society and Scottish Autism on not included, not engaged and not involved. I have already met all of the organisations involved and I have responded in writing to each of the calls for action that they have put to me in that report. I have committed to hosting a round table discussion with the authors of the report and other key stakeholders and that will take place later on this month. In the light of that conversation I will look to identify what further steps are required to improve the consistency of support across Scotland perhaps to improve guidance, the building of capacity to assist in the delivery of effective additional support and improving the career pathways that are in place to ensure that we have the right skills in place to support young people and to ensure that they can be included in education within Scotland. Alison Harris briefly. I welcome the Parliament's unanimous backing of the Scottish Conservative motion last week in favour of the review of a presumption to mainstream. Can I ask the cabinet secretary when does he actually think the review will be complete and when would it be published? I think that we have to be really clear about our language here. What Parliament approved last week was a commitment to review the implementation of the principle of the presumption of mainstreaming and Parliament by supporting the amendment that I put forward reaffirmed its support for the principle and the presumption of mainstreaming. It is really important that we are clear about what we are saying about this particular issue. I will engage in dialogue with local authorities about how we look at that implementation which lies very much at the heart of the question that has been put to me by Angela Constance. I will do that in the light of the discussion that I have with the stakeholders later on this month. Obviously, I will be very happy to update Parliament. I gave a commitment to Parliament to Johann Lamont that I would look at the possibility of further debates on this issue in Government time and we will consider that in the light of the round table that I host. To ask the Scottish Government whether the process of applications to the PVG scheme for people working in schools will change the result of the new IT system and what progress has been made on this. Disclosure Scotland's new IT system is being designed based on extensive research with users and applying for a disclosure certificate using the new service will be simpler and faster. The system is being developed on the basis of the existing law of the protection of vulnerable groups Scotland Act 2007 and the Police Act 1997. The new IT system is being delivered iteratively in incremental improvements. It will handle all types of disclosure applications under both the 97 and 2007 acts and is currently handling basic and standard disclosures under the 97 acts. The freedom of information request has shown that the new disclosure IT system was delayed at the last minute in August last year. As a result, Disclosure Scotland had to pay a higher price to return to the old BT system, which was called Aging and Obsolete by Disclosure Scotland's chief executive. Had there been any disruption to the PVG scheme as a result of this and can the minister confirm that Disclosure Scotland would definitely exit the BT contract at the next available opportunity? The programme has been proven to be more complex and was originally understood both technically and functionally but over the last 18 months Disclosure Scotland have overcome many hurdles such as the core cloud platform with security accreditation and the completion of the basics build. The safeguarding has not been compromised at all during the transition and this investment in the new system is a spend to save, so we expect to regain the investment within a very short period, a short payback period of less than three years. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the rate of articulation from college to university. Minister Richard Lochhead. The Scottish funding council are working on developing the national articulation database in order to provide a more comprehensive resource that will allow the identification of students articulating from college to university. This work is nearing completion and the SFC are actively engaging with the colleges in order to quality assure the data. It is anticipated that the statistics from the database will be available in the spring. Gillian Martin. I thank the minister for that answer. The articulation route from HND to 2nd and 3rd years at universities has long been a key component in the Government's widening access ambitions. It is my experience to the former FE lecturer that many of my HND graduates went on to achieve very good degree results. Can the minister give the chamber an indication that the success of articulation has been measured in terms of degree results and if an analysis has been made of articulation in terms of how it is widening access to people from families that have previously not gained access to university? Minister. I am confident that Ms Martin's students did so well because it is such an outstanding lecturer but, of course, there are other issues that are very relevant to the question as well. In terms of HND and HNDC students, the latest release of articulation data that covered 2014 to 15 showed that there were 8,402 HNDC students that progressed on to university. In terms of the widening access debate the report called A Blueprint for Fairness from the commission on widening access from March 2016 said that it is important that all institutions engage strongly with articulation most standard routes into university depend upon achieving good results at higher. Therefore, there is a significant cohort of disadvantaged learners who leave school with few, if any, formal qualifications and for those learners articulations a crucial alternative route into universities. It is a very important issue for widening access as Gillian Martin highlights and we are doing a lot of work on this through the forum that is there to promote this issue and we will keep Parliament updated. Question 14, Jamie Greene. To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of school teachers are supply staff. Cabinet Secretary. The question is not held centrally. The recruitment of supply teachers is a matter for local authorities and it is for them to determine what best suits their needs. Primary teacher numbers are at their highest since 1980. Jamie Greene. I take it from that. The Cabinet Secretary doesn't know the answer to my original question. It is a fact however that in the last year schools have spent over £60 million on supply teachers. In North Ayrshire alone this has increased 60 per cent year on year. Does the cabinet secretary not accept and recognise that his workforce planning that has to improve this bill is to reduce? Cabinet Secretary. When I said in my first words of my answer where the information requested is not held centrally that is what I meant. I mean we do not hold that information or possess it in the Government to answer Mr Greene's question. If I had the answer I would have given him it but we don't have that information so that explains it clearly if he's managed to understand the answer I've now given him. In relation to workforce planning in relation to workforce planning teacher numbers in primary teacher numbers are at the highest since 1980 and in the latest statistics that we published we showed an increase in teacher numbers of £447 in 2018. I hope that that reassures Mr Greene that the Government is taking every step including by having new routes into teaching to ensure that we can boost recruitment into the teaching profession. Of course we've got to use supply teachers because supply teachers have to fill vacancies of a short-term nature that crop up from time to time at local authority level and it's a matter for local authorities to handle and it's a matter for local authorities to report upon. Question 15 is not large question 16 is withdrawn question 17, Monica Lennon. To ask the Scottish Government how many school pupils have died by suicides in the last five years and what action it has taken in response to this. Information from death registration records is collected on the number of children and young people who have committed suicide and is published as part of national statistics. It is not, however, possible to accurately confirm the number of school pupils who have committed suicide from this information. Our programme for government and suicide prevention action plan set out the actions we will take with our partners to deliver improved services for children and young people's mental health and wellbeing. This includes the provision of counselling support for pupils and mental health first aid training for school staff. Monica Lennon. In my region, there have sadly been recent instances of school pupils who have died by suicides. Can the cabinet secretary provide an update as to what cross-portfolio work is on going with schools to ensure that they are fully aware of and engaged in this Government's suicide prevention strategy? As I indicated in my earlier answer the programme for government and the suicide prevention action plan set out the actions that we are taking. They obviously involve a lot of work across the education service across the health service across the work and counselling that is undertaken and that work is co-ordinated by ministers on a collaborative basis. There are of course some key work streams that support us including the work streams that are taken forward by the children and young people's mental health task force chaired by Dr Dane Denise Coyer and obviously there is a significant amount of work that is emerging from that that ministers will reflect on as we take forward our priorities. I assure Monica Lennon and I assure parents and families around the country that this issue is taken very seriously within Government. We understand well, we try to understand the scale and the enormity of the trauma that such terrible instances have on families and we try to provide as much support as we possibly can in all of these circumstances and out of the work that is being undertaken I'm sure we'll come recommendations of how we can strengthen practice and the Government will embark on that seriously. Question 18, Stuart McMillan. To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it gives to childcare providers in Burkline. The Scottish Government and COSLA, as I said, have committed to an unprecedented level of investment in early learning and childcare. It will see in Burkline receiving nearly £6 million of capital funding over the period 2017-18 to 2021. With revenue expenditure to support the expansion of early learning and childcare, increasing to 9 million by 2021-22, providers across all parts of the sector are absolutely vital to this expansion and in December we published a delivery support plan to build on the support that is already available to providers, including 100 per cent rate relief for day nurseries and increased numbers of ELC modern apprenticeships. Our delivery support plan will support the financial sustainability of providers, strengthen partnership working, support workforce recruitment and training and improve communications with parents and carers. Stuart McMillan. I'd be grateful if the minister could provide some guarantee that social enterprise childcare providers working the children in the zero to three years categories can still deliver services on at least a cost neutral basis. Minister. The Scottish Government's approach to delivering the funded early learning and childcare entitlement to all three and four-year-olds and an eligible two-year-olds is provider neutral. Much of the provision for the not to three-year-olds falls into the proportion of a funded provider's business which is outwith the funded entitlement. The funding agreement between the Scottish Government and COSLA provides the funding to allow local authorities to set sustainable rates for those funded places. Those rates will reflect the cost of delivery for all providers delivering the funded entitlement including social enterprises, which will be a very important part of the success of this venture. Thank you. I'm sorry that concludes portfolio questions. I apologise to Adamson and Alexander Stewart for failing to reach them on this occasion. I'll shortly move on to the next item of business.