 Llywmin leading Good afternoon in firstз y than威 mwyn uch sindill is on education and lifelong learning.��게요, f что nid o dyna sydd fawr o iechyd yr poem dechrau, Dundee yn ysgr icingi seniorsfer o reulio'i canals ym gyffredin zienol innen i ddechrau i ysgol, a 5 oedwind yn 2,600 oedw yn amlwg lle digon i'r drwng, ac nolwg i ddechrau i ddechrau i ddechrau, ac yn oedw yn y dyfos stylingai'r ysgol. Ysgoltaeth gwybod yn ffymgietolwyr yn y ddygu o wneud ein ffrindiau yw 2.14 miliwn. Fy gydigodd chi'n gallu bod arnaeth gydigodd. Fy feyrdu hynny felly, that, as much as half of the £2.14 million funding in year 1 of the four-year challenge programme may be unspent in the 2015-16 financial year and may also not be available to Dundee city council to spend on the attainment challenge because it will be clawed back by the Scottish Government. Can she please confirm that no money that has been allocated to Dundee will yn gyfanol a i'n cael ei fod yn gweithio'n lllockd yn ddundi. A siaradau i'r mwaeo ar gael ddafodaeth yw dechrau bod all dдаfodaethiaeth y sefydliadol yn ddundig yn ddundig pobl yn ôl. Mae hyn oedd oedd yn cyllid, felly mae'n ddundig i gyd yn gweithio ddanddod for Dundee and the other areas to look at the programme over the four years. We are committed to investing £100 million over the four years. I hope that she is reassured that, as a Government, we have invited Dundee to develop their plans for 2016-17. The investment via the Scottish entertainment challenge is that we do not just allocate a sum of money, councils have to be drawing down what they spend and that additional resource has to be tied in to a bespoke improvement plan. I also hope that Ms Marra is encouraged that the last quarterly meeting on 12 January between Dundee City Council officials and my officials that there are very clear signs of increased activity across the primary schools and nurseries involved. I welcome the First Minister's recent announcement on the innovation fund. Could the cabinet secretary confirm whether local authorities and schools can apply for this and what will it fund? Cabinet secretary's question was specifically about Dundee, but if you want to answer briefly. Yes, I will be very brief. The Scottish attainment challenge innovation fund is a £1.5 million fund that was launched at the beginning of the month. It is available to all schools in Scotland, which are not already benefiting from the attainment Scotland fund. To ask the Scottish Government when it last met Aberdeen City Council to discuss education issues. The First Minister undertook a private meeting with Aberdeen City Council and Police Scotland on 2 November following the tragic death of Cults Academy pupil Bailey Gwynn. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning met the representatives of the Scottish local government partnership, including Aberdeen City Council, on 18 November and met with directors of education or representatives on 19 November at the ADES conference. Scottish Government officials also met representatives from Aberdeen City Council on 2 November to discuss their involvement with the attainment Scotland fund schools programme. Aberdeen City has four schools involved in that programme. Thank you and I thank the minister for that very comprehensive answer. Aberdeen City has had difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers and the high cost of housing in the city has not helped the situation. Can the minister outline what actions he has taken to help to attract more teachers to Aberdeen? Will he enter into a dialogue with the housing minister to see if more investment for housing for key workers can be made in Aberdeen? The member rightly points to a problem that affects Aberdeen City Council and the number of other authorities in the north-east. There are a number of measures being undertaken to seek to address that. Key public sector workers are set to benefit from more than 120 new homes that are being developed on the Craig inches site in Aberdeen. The Scottish Government is also currently working to a timescale that will see Sanctuary Scotland begin a two-year period of construction in spring of this year. The Scottish Government is having on-going discussions, which I am sure will involve a number of ministers and their officials with Aberdeenshire Council in relation to other strategic opportunities to meet what I recognise are very real needs from the teaching profession. Minister, if you turn away from the microphone, the chamber cannot hear you. Lewis MacDonald, please. On that basis, will the minister accept that the one thing that the Government should not be doing is penalising councils like Aberdeen and other councils in the north of Scotland for the very problem that he has described of the difficulty of recruiting teachers? Surely the thing that the Scottish Government should be doing instead of reducing funding for those councils is supporting them to make the recruitment that they need to make? The member is more than well aware that the Scottish Government finds itself in a situation in which its grant has been cut by the UK Government. Of course, it did not and never mentions in those situations. Despite those difficulties, the Scottish Government has set out a number of arrangements with local authorities to ensure that the settlement this year, while very challenging, is fair given the circumstances in which the Scottish Government has been put. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to increase the number of college places funded by the Employability Fund. Skills Development Scotland commissioning for delivery of employability fund places in 2016-17 is currently under way. Places will be allocated in accordance with that process and on the strength of bids from colleges and other training providers. Secretly and in line with standard procedure, the Scottish Funding Council will discuss with colleges the element of the Employability Fund that it manages. I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer. She is of course aware that in 2014-15 Scotland's colleges exceeded the target of 116,000 to 169 full-time equivalent places. Figures from the SFC's statistical bulletin on 14 January 2016 showed the delivery of 119,000 equivalent full-time places. There was a combination of 118,407 SFC-funded places, yet only an additional 671 employability places funded by Skills Development Scotland. Mr Brody is right to say that colleges have exceeded our commitment and have done so every year since 2011. He is also right to say that provision includes the Employability Fund, which is delivered by colleges and independent training providers. The nature of this commissioning or funding arrangements means that, in fact, since 2013-14, colleges have been funded to the tune of £24 million annually by the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland to deliver Employability Fund provision. However, during this period, colleges have also bid into the SDS openly-procured funds to deliver places over and above the provision. Thank you. Before we move on, Dr Simpson, can I say that I don't appreciate an intervention from a sedentary position to the chair? I will keep members to order. Question number four, Margaret McDougall. Thank you. To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to local authority education services. Minister, Alasdair Allan. We provide local authorities with almost £5 billion of annual funding together with advice and guidance to enable them to provide high-quality education services. We also provide specific funding for building new and improving existing schools for the initial training of teachers, for the probationer scheme, which integrates them into the professional workforce and for the continuing professional development of teachers and school leaders. We are also providing targeted support for authorities and schools with the greatest concentration of primary-aged pupils living in areas of multiple deprivation through the £100 million attainment Scotland fund. Thank you, Margaret McDougall. I thank the minister for that answer. SNP held North Ayrshire Council as proposing to cut half a million pounds from its education services, and it will be the school's front-line staff that will be facing the brunt of the axe. A survey carried out by the trade union GMB in December found that 100 per cent of its members employed in North Ayrshire schools will leave a cutting back on clerical workers, homeschool inclusion workers and pupil support welfare staff will have a detrimental effect on the services provided by each school, and so do I. Councils across Scotland have increasingly cash-strapped and further cuts are coming. What assurances can the Scottish Government give me and constituents that no child's education will suffer due to council cutbacks and that has the Scottish Government been in contact with North Ayrshire Council regarding this shocking proposal? Over Scotland, the support that is given for education over the peace has certainly been maintained, and indeed it is for local authorities individually to justify their own decisions. However, I have to return to this point. If the member has views on why she feels that local government settlement should be changed or increased for local authorities, then the Deputy First Minister has made this point already. The member and her party are free to seek to amend the Government and tell the Government, indeed tell Parliament, from where else in the budget, possibly from the NHS or elsewhere, she feels that she would fund an increase in the settlement to local government. Can the minister tell us how much funding has been provided to North Ayrshire Council to enhance educational attainment through the attainment Scotland fund? I can certainly respond in writing to provide further detail, but I can say that the overall figures for North Ayrshire—I am answering the question that the member has just put to me is that North Ayrshire has been allocated £1.96 million from the attainment Scotland fund this year. That is being used to develop a learning academy with a focus on developing effective literacy and numeracy strategies and to develop nurturing approaches across the authority. North Ayrshire also received £79,000 from the Access to Education fund this year for projects in schools, aimed at reducing barriers to learning for pupils from deprived backgrounds. Question 5, John Pentland. Mr Pentland, is your card in? Can I have Mr Pentland's microphone, please? To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many non-Uk undergraduate EU students are studying in Scotland. The most recent data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency shows that, in 2014-15, the number of non-Uk EU undergraduates studying at Scottish Higher Education institutions was 14,300. Can the cabinet secretary tell me what does the Scottish Government estimate are the costs and benefits of this and has it made any progress towards implementing management fees? Well, I hope that Mr Pentland is not going to become obsessed with the constitution or hark back to old debates in around 2014. In terms of the wider spirit of his question, I think that there is lots and lots of evidence that gives testimony to the excellence in our higher education system. That is the reason why it is an attractive system for students across Europe to come and study. It is important that, although we have seen an increase in EU students coming to Scotland, there has also been an 11 per cent increase in first-time degree undergraduates, 11 per cent from 2006-07 to 2014-15. That has to be good news, along with the record levels of Scottish domicile students being accepted into university. I ask the Scottish Government when the cabinet secretary for education and lifelong learning last met representatives from Dundee City Council. I met directors of education or their representatives from a range of local authorities on 19 November at the ADES conference. Leslie Brennan. Dundee City Council is facing the largest council cut in mainland Scotland, and while teaching staff are protected from the redundancy round, what reassurances has the cabinet secretary sought to ensure that the important work for support for learning is not further reduced in the city? As the first opportunity that I have had formally to welcome her to her position in this Parliament, it is important to recognise that the Scottish Government has always treated local government very fairly, despite, as Dr Allan said, the cuts to the Scottish budget from the UK Government. The 2016-17 draft budget confirmed that we will make available to local government a total funding package of £10.1 billion that is obviously for across Scotland, and that will increase to £10.3 billion once other sources of funding are included. I believe that the Government is absolutely right to invest an additional £51 million to protecting teacher numbers. High-quality graduate workforce is very important to all of our children in terms of reaching our ambitions to close the attainment gap. Saying that is important to recognise that there is a broader education workforce, and it is important to remember that, over the peace over Scotland, classroom assistance has decreased and not decreased. Thank you. If questions and answers are a bit more succinct, we might get on a bit. To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers the replacement of bursaries with loans, results and students from the poorest families having the biggest debt and a reduction in terms of widening access. This year, the Scottish Government has increased the level of bursary available to our poorest students by £125. In 2016, we will increase the household income threshold for eligibility for the maximum bursary of £1,875 from £17,000 to £19,000. In tough economic times, the Scottish Government is working hard to put as much money as possible into students' pockets. Something the NUS asked us to do when the new student support package was launched in 2013-14. That, of course, is in stark contrast with the position in England, where a new student started a higher education course in 2016-17 will receive no bursary at all. Our approach to higher education means that average student loan debt in Scotland is the lowest in the UK and contributes to young people from the most deprived areas of Scotland, now being more likely to participate in HE by the age of 30 than they were in 2006-07. I thank the cabinet secretary for her reply. Young people from deprived backgrounds in Scotland who do get to university are facing cuts to grants and bursaries and now 70 per cent of Scottish students who emerge debt-free come from better-off backgrounds. Will the Scottish Government restore grants and bursaries to help the poorer students to succeed in higher education? Of course, it is the Government that has maintained free tuition and we have retained bursaries, unlike South of the Border. We have also retained the educational maintenance allowance, and as I would have hoped in my original answer that even in these tough financial times we will always seek opportunities to put more money into the pockets of students. We know that student debt is a real issue for young people leaving universities, starting their career or buying their own home or starting their own family. I am therefore pleased to say that, with our commitment to free tuition, that must have contributed to the Scotland having the lowest average student loan debt. We have the lowest average student loan debt in the UK. The average being £9,500. Compare that with more than £21,000 in England. I am confident that we are giving our young people a far better start to their working lives. The cabinet secretary is aware that the Conservatives have decided to remove bursary for the poorer students in England and for student nurses, while also removing disabled student support allowance. Can she once again give us an insurance that the Scottish Government will maintain the vital support for students in Scotland? We will not be scrapping bursaries, but we will not be scrapping DSA support. We have quite a distinct approach to H.E. and support of students in Scotland. As I said, we have succeeded in putting more money into the pockets of students, despite the financial pressures that we are under. We will always continue to look for further opportunities. To ask the Scottish Government how many students attended Edinburgh College in November 2015 and how that compares with November 2012. The Scottish Funding Council is responsible for collecting participation data. Figures for the current academic year 2015-16 will be published shortly in January 2017. Is she concerned that the largest college in Scotland at the time of merger has had declining numbers ever since? It has declined that it seems to be being managed by the college, as it has handed back £3 million to the Scottish Funding Council this year because there were not the anticipated number of students. That is also exacerbated by the fact that the college is introducing a new enrolment procedure, which seems likely to make the problem even worse. Will the cabinet secretary take a close look at what is happening at the college and strive to reverse that decline? Let me assure the member that I am taking a very close look at Edinburgh College and that the Scottish Funding Council has already given practical and indeed financial support. The news of the difficulties that are being experienced by the college, whether that is in terms of its finances or other matters or the number of students that is attracting, is disappointing. I understand that Edinburgh College is working with the funding council to ensure that the college continues to offer high-quality education for students. That will, of course, help to grow the local economy. I have indicated the support that the funding council has already given. The funding council will continue to support the college to make the changes and improvements needed in both the short and the medium term. To ask the Scottish Government when it last met Falkirk Council to discuss education matters. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning met with directors of education or their representatives on 19 November at the RDS conference. Scottish Government officials met with representatives from Falkirk Council in November 2015 to discuss their involvement with the attainment Scotland fund schools programme. Falkirk has one school involved in the schools programme. The minister may be aware of new figures released showing Falkirk Council's four PFI schools constructed for £63 million under a previous Labour administration in 1998. It will have cost around £420 million by the end of the contract period in 2025, and Falkirk Council will still not own them, making it possibly the worst PFI contract in history. Does the minister share my serious concerns that Labour's implementation of Tory policies has resulted in the Labour-Tory coalition in Falkirk having a financial black hole in their budgets that is disproportionately higher than the vast majority of Scottish local authorities with the resultant impact that that will have on education services? The Scottish Government has made very clear that the PFI approach that was used in the past has not delivered the best value for the taxpayer in Scotland, and the project in Falkirk, mentioned by the member, raises some very big questions of that kind. Alongside the Scottish Futures Trust, we have managed and have been encouraging procuring authorities to look at how they can better manage contracts to ensure that they deliver better value for money in the future and to identify areas for potential savings, such as through benchmarking, re-scoping services, sharing and insurance costs. We will continue to support and work with authorities to identify where those savings can be made, but the member makes the important point that we have to learn from some very big mistakes indeed in the past. To ask the Scottish Government how many schools and children in local authorities that do not receive attainment Scotland fund support meet the programme's criteria. The attainment Scotland fund is supporting more than 300 primary schools, which collectively serve over 54,000 primary-aged children who live in the most deprived 20 per cent areas in Scotland. That represents 64 per cent of the total number of primary-aged children living in SIMD 1 and 2 areas across Scotland. We are well aware that there are children living in poverty who do not live in the most deprived 20 per cent areas of Scotland. That is why the Scottish attainment challenge also provides a package of universal support, including the £1.5 million attainment challenge innovation fund, which will support other schools, including secondaries across Scotland, to explore and develop innovative approaches to raising attainment. I thank the cabinet secretary for her response so that it did not address the question that I asked. I think that the answer that she was searching for was 36 per cent of disadvantaged pupils live out with those areas, representing around 30,000 pupils all told. Can she perhaps explain to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in Orkney and the other 10 local authority areas why their needs are less deserving than their counterparts in the other local authority areas across Scotland? We will obviously be debating the issue at length later on this afternoon. Perhaps Mr MacArthur will take the opportunity to tell us how he intends to pay for all his plans. However, it is important to recognise that the Scottish attainment challenge, the approach there, is to focus on the areas where there is the highest concentration of disadvantaged youngsters and recognise that, in some areas of the country, the scale of the challenge is greater. Nonetheless, as I said in my original answer, we do recognise that there are children living in poverty in all parts of Scotland. Therefore, in the context of any targeted approach, we have to ensure that we have a strong, strengthened universal offer to ensure that we have as many strings to our bow as possible to ensure that we are reaching the children most in need. I have already alluded to the innovation fund, the access to education fund and the attainment advisers. There are other programmes of work in terms of the schools improvement programme, the raising attainment for all programme. There is a wealth of universal activity that is geared front and centre in closing the attainment gap and reaching those children most in need. I am afraid that I do not have time for all the interventions that are requested. I will take Mary Scanlon. Despite what is being said, in rural areas, the Scottish index of multiple deprivation is a very blunt and ineffective tool in determining children with low attainment. What is the Government doing to ensure that individual children, whether it is Betty Hill in Sutherland or in Inverness, get the benefit of additional support when it is needed and how are they identified? That is the entire basis of having a national improvement framework that is very much about identifying those children most in need earlier on in their school career so that we can ensure the right services and the right support at the right time. To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the impact on poorer students in Scotland of the UK Government replacing bursaries with loans. Confirmation that the UK Government intends to abolish maintenance grants entirely for the new undergraduate students in England from 2016-17 is of great concern to the Scottish Government, raising as it does the question of the potential impact on the Scottish funding bloc in future years. I am grateful to the cabinet secretary for that response. Given that SNP MPs apparently oppose that move from grants to loans in England but presumably support the Scottish Government doing exactly the same thing for the poorest students in Scotland, does the cabinet secretary believe that debate around inequality would benefit from some more honesty about who the winners and losers are in her system that sees the richer students twice as likely to get to university as poorer ones and which, as a result of the 40 million cuts to bursaries in Scotland, results in poorer students carrying the largest burden of debt? Unfortunately, what the member fails to recognise is that, in the context of a record number of Scots accepted into university, there is an increase in disadvantaged 18-year-olds in applying and going to university under this Government's terms of office. He has to recognise that, in consultation with the National Union of Students and others, that this Government responded to the very serious ask to put more money into the pockets of students. We achieved that with the introduction of the minimum income guarantee, which I have increased over the past year. The minimum income guarantee is the best support package for students living at home in the UK. Of course, as we move forward, there will be further improvements to that package with an increase in income thresholds. This Government has much to be proud of. I would have hoped that, in the spirit of having an open debate about tackling inequality, that Mr Smith would have had the gumption to recognise that this Government has maintained bursaries, has introduced a minimum income guarantee, has retained free tuition and, unlike others, has retained educational maintenance allowance. To ask the Scottish Government how many classroom assistants have been employed in secondary schools in each of the last five years. Data from the annual teacher census published by the Scottish Government shows that the number of classroom assistants in Scottish publicly funded secondary schools was 877 in both the years 2011 and 2012, 948 in 2013, 1090 in 2014 and 1052 in 2015. Those figures show an increase of 20 per cent in the number of classroom assistants over this period. I thank the minister for that information. I wonder if the minister recognises the critical importance not just of classroom assistants but of all support staff in ensuring that young people with additional needs are able to overcome barriers to learning and, critically, at secondary school level, they role in stopping young people from dropping out of the system altogether. Given their importance in closing the gap in education, what steps will the minister and the cabinet secretary take to ensure that local authorities are fully resourced to support the support structures inside our schools, as well as the teachers and materials? I recognise the importance of all support staff in the education sector. The fact that the numbers in secondary of classroom assistants specifically have shown a rise over the period is very encouraging for that reason. Returning to the issue of the local government settlement, I can only point to the fact that the draft budget confirms that we are again making available a total funding package for local authorities of £10.1 billion. I think that the important point that we have to recognise is the one that I have made many times and other ministers have made about our financial predicament as a country. That does not take away from the fact that, despite those difficult circumstances, we have shown our commitment to local government. To ask the Scottish Government what requirements must be met for homeschooled pupils to be eligible to sit SQA exams. Homeschooled pupils must be registered with a centre approved by the Scottish Qualification Authorities to set exams. That could be either a school or a college. What are the options for students who, for medical reasons, be it physical or mental illness, which has prevented them from attending school to complete the coursework that counts towards their final grade through curriculum for excellence? That failure to undertake the coursework appears to preclude them from sitting the exam. Will the minister take a look into that to make sure that homeschooled pupils are not discriminated against in terms of their coursework side if they have physical or mental illness? I am very happy to come back to the member after having looked at some of the issues that he raises. In general, for homeschooled pupils who are obviously as a member, we are not always homeschooled because of any issue around disability. There are arrangements that such pupils can make in terms of registering with schools and colleges in order to be presented for exams. We would also hope that we encourage local authorities to take a reasonable approach to ensure that other work that is necessary to gain a qualification of the kind that the member is mentioning is made possible and made available. However, on the specific issue that he raises of young people who have physical or other illnesses or disabilities, I am more than happy to make an investigation into that and get back to them. To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to the university of the west of Scotland to reduce the drop-out rate, particularly among first-year students. Ratencion rates at the university of the west of Scotland have improved over the past two years, although I am sure that the university would always want to do better. I am confident that the university is focused on increasing retention and is working with the Scottish Funding Council on a range of measures to support that. In the current academic year, UWS has been allocated over £3.6 million from the Wind and Access and Retention Fund operated by the Scottish Funding Council on behalf of the Scottish Government. Given the potential financial impact on the Scottish higher education sector, the Government's draft budget announcement, can the cabinet secretary confirm that the Scottish Government retains a commitment to ensuring that there is adequate funding in place to support the excellent work in student attainment at UWS, that funding will be safeguarded for this key policy initiative and that the possibility of additional funding is considered for universities such as UWS, who are successful at widening participation in higher education. The Government has invested more than £1 billion in higher education over the past four years and the draft budget, which shows a proposed investment again of more than £1 billion, that is a not insignificant amount of investment. Mr Scott is right that it is not just about getting young people from diverse backgrounds into university, it is about ensuring the successful completion of the university course and, indeed, successful progression on to the world of work. That raises issues about how we support young people who achieve a place at university both pastorally and academically. The University of West of Scotland, for example, had commissioned a very specific report and had unleashed very specific actions and initiatives to address that point. In terms of the Government, widening access is a core part of our programme for government. Through the funding council, we will be making very clear through the guidance letter, our strategic priorities for the sector and, of course, the funding council has a role in liaising and monitoring and supporting individual institutions via the outcome agreements. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will fully fund Dumfries and Galloway council for the capital and revenue costs of the increase in early learning and childcare entitlement to 1,140 hours. The Government has already provided local authorities with £329 million revenue and capital over two years in order to fully fund our most recent expansion of childcare to 600 hours. We have allocated an additional £140 million revenue and £30 million capital to local authorities in 2016-17. Dumfries and Galloway council will receive an appropriate and proportionate share of that and future funding to meet its requirements. All local authority allocations are agreed with COSLA. Thank the minister for that reply. The Scottish Government's discussion paper on expanding childcare states that providing more flexible provision will be a key element of the expansion to 1,140 hours and that the Scottish Government will build on work done through the Scotland schools for the future programme and the Scottish Futures Trust to support the expansion of local authority accommodation. Will the minister advise how negotiations with local authorities will be taken forward and what consideration will be given to the particular needs of rural areas where access to childcare and early learning can be more difficult for families? I thank the member for making the points that she does and certainly work is on-going with the Scottish Futures Trust to scope out what we need in terms of capacity and the nature of that capacity. We are also working with the Futures Trust to refine our understanding of the capital requirements. The point that she makes about the rurality of Dumfries and Galloway and not only that local authority but others is part of the consideration that we need to take forward about how we deliver flexibility. That is why when I visited the borders I was very impressed with the community childminders as a way in which they dealt with some of the barriers that they faced because of the rural spread in which their children and families live. That is why the First Minister made an announcement about how we enhance the childminder provision. We are always acutely aware of the challenges that our rural authority presents, but we have given Dumfries and Galloway so far the appropriate proportionate share of the money that we have invested so far, which is nearly £15 million for a mixture of capital revenue and additional funding for two-year-olds. We will continue to work with local authorities and the Scottish Futures Trust to make sure that we can deliver for families in the way that we have set out.