 The next item of business is a statement from Jenny O'Gall Ruth on update on education and skills reform. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of her statement, therefore there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on the cabinet secretary up to 10 minutes, please. I'm grateful for the opportunity to update Parliament today on the next steps for education and skills reform. Members may recall that in June I paused the legislative programme originally scheduled for this year. I did this for good reason. My engagements with the profession over the last eight months have cemented my view that our education system has fundamentally changed post Covid. Rushing to legislate won't change that. Reform must mean better outcomes for our young people and our adult learners, and reform also has to take teachers with us. I can't change systems without their skills and knowledge, and importantly without their buy-in. Our education and skills system needs to work as a single system that is easy to navigate with collective responsibility to deliver excellence for all. Back in 2021, the Scottish Government accepted all the recommendations in the OECD's reports, which independently reviewed and endorsed curriculum for excellence. This was followed by Professor Ken Muir's report, The National Discussion on Education, the review of qualifications and assessment and our initial response to James Wither's review on the purpose and principles for post-school education research and skills. I want to thank the reviewers for their reports. We all accept the need to move on from those reports with tangible action, setting out the steps that are right for our young people and adult learners. To that end, while today's statement is largely focused on school reform, I can confirm to the chamber today that the Minister for Higher Education intends to update Parliament, subject to agreement, later this year on our response to James Wither's review on post-school education. Reform must be more than the sum of its parts, and reform cannot exist in a vacuum. The pandemic changed us all, and the impacts of Covid were arguably the hardest for our youngest citizens. We know that the number of young children in Scotland experiencing speech and language delays has increased since the pandemic. At 27 to 30 months, the proportion of children with a developmental concern is more than double between children living in our richest and poorest areas. Speak to any primary teacher today and they will tell you the difference in the young people that they teach since 2020. The impact is, of course, layered on top of an attainment gap during a cost-of-living crisis, which has delivered the biggest fall in living standards since Scottish records began. That context has fundamentally changed the type of learning and teaching in our schools. It means that teachers are accommodating vastly different needs than those that existed only four years ago. I know that teachers are doing this already, it's what they do, but reform needs to recognise this shift and better support how the profession responds. If reform does not recognise the changes in our classrooms, whether they be developmental delays, change behaviour, communication or even on attendance, then it will not carry credibility. That is not therefore about rebadging organisations. Reform has to be about systemic cultural change that improves outcomes for our young people and which better supports the professionals we entrust in their care. To that end, I will confirm to Parliament today some changes to the governance processes, which I hope will bring greater purpose, while supporting a more holistic approach across the portfolio to reform. I will chair a ministerial group that will advise on the totality of education and skills reform, recognising that that is one system. That will better reflect the totality of reports published this year, pulling together the opportunity for a joined-up system. We will also establish an education and skills reform chief executive forum, ensuring that all bodies impacted by reform can engage collectively and directly with Government, supporting our ambitions. Finally, I have been very clear that teachers and educators must be directly involved in the governance to help to deliver the change required in those new bodies and to ensure that the expertise from the profession drives improvement. Reform provides us with a unique opportunity to better support the teaching profession and, in so doing, our children and young people. Our members will recall in June that I announced a review into the impacts of the regional improvement collaboratives. I want to thank all those who have contributed, including members of the RICS. Since their inception back in 2017, the RICS have increased the improvement and leadership support that they provide. Indeed, the most recent evidence suggests that around 17,500 practitioners and leaders across early years, primary and secondary settings have been engaged in regional activities in the past year. However, while their support was never intended to be universal, the number of staff and also the establishments receiving RICS support over the school year remains a minority. I am clear that we must deliver a system that provides greater equity and access to improvement and professional learning support for teachers. Our regional collaboration is important, and the RICS has helped to embed that culture in our local authorities. However, future Scottish Government investment will now be directed to initiatives that advance excellence in teaching in our classrooms while looking to local authorities to build on those collaborative approaches. To that end, I can confirm that for the next academic year, the Scottish Government will taper funding from the RICS, repurposing that funding, to better support teachers in our classrooms. I have asked Education Scotland to review its regional structure, recognising the importance of strengthening the curriculum and professional learning. I am also clear that we have real strengths in Scotland's education system. For example, a subject close to my heart is the subject specialisms that we have in our secondary schools, and that should be celebrated and better supported nationally. It is a unique attribute to Scottish education that we should be proud of. In our secondary schools, we have that cohort of teachers who are passionate about teaching their subject, so our national support should build on the expertise that we already have in our classrooms using that passion to instill the joy of learning that the national discussion spoke to. There is no greater strength in our education system than excellent learning in teaching. It is crucial to closing the poverty-related attainment gap. I want all those Scotland's teachers to have the space, time and support that they need to develop their practice. I am particularly mindful of the cohort of teachers who learnt how to become a teacher during the pandemic. It cannot have been easy. We know that excellent teaching is already happening in schools across Scotland. Children and young people are achieving that the attainment gap is narrowing, but more must be done to support the profession. Being a teacher is a valuable profession. The new Centre for Teaching Excellence will therefore fill an important gap in our national approach to education. It will help us to remain at the cutting edge of teaching practice by distilling research and evidence into practical support for teachers in our classrooms. I anticipate that the centre will be hosted by a university, learning from the successful model of the Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection, better known as Celsus, working closely with the Scottish Council of Deans of Education and being hosted by a university. The centre will link the school sector with the university sector at national level. It is also worth pointing to another strength in Scottish education, the Independent General Teaching Council for Scotland, who oversees the professional standards that are required to become a teacher. By championing those standards, the new centre will strengthen support for the profession. Crucially, the centre must be designed with our teachers. Indeed, the centre needs to help school leaders and teachers to grow professionally throughout their careers. It will provide an opportunity to clarify roles and responsibilities within the system, including those of the new education agency. I recently met with teaching unions and professional associations to discuss more around the Centre for Excellence, which helped to generate some useful initial insights. Those have also been emphasised in the third report from the First Minister's International Council of Education Advisers, which I am pleased to confirm will publish today. The council states that we must invest in education professionals' learning to address the changing needs of young people. Establishing the Centre for Teaching Excellence directly meets that recommendation. The third report from the International Council provides a strong focus on improving teaching and pedagogy. The report also helpfully synthesises the recent reviews that we have heard about recognising that there are significant commonalities and that now is a time for implementation, improvement and reform. The International Council's report further supports that focus on improving teaching, professional development, collaboration and innovation. Today marks the launch of the consultation on the Education Reform Bill. Building on engagement today, the consultation sets out proposals to establish a new qualifications body, including the need for greater involvement of pupils, teachers and wider stakeholders in decision making. It also sets out ways to maximise the positive impact of inspection. I encourage everyone to share the consultation, which is available on the Scottish Government's website, as widely as possible to support that engagement. Changing the organisations that deliver our qualifications, support and inspection are only part of reform. Indeed, since the conclusion of the Hayward review back in June, I have been seeking views on the recommendations pertaining to the national qualifications. We undertook a survey with teachers and lecturers on the report that received over 2,000 responses. Although agreement on the need for change was clear, there are varying views on next steps and on the perceived appetite for radical reform. I cannot, in this context, ignore the challenges our schools are currently responding to, so I must balance that reality with any reform of our qualification system. With that in mind, I propose, subject to a parliamentary agreement, to return to the chamber in the new year to fully debate those proposals. In the meantime, I will engage with Opposition spokespeople on the next steps to ensure that we use any parliamentary debate to greater support political consensus. I am conscious of time and I want to record on the record my thanks to staff at Education Scotland and also at SQA and recognise the uncertainty that change brings. The Government has of course provided a commitment to no compulsory redundancies within the reform agenda, and I commit to fully engaging with both organisations and the respective trade unions, as I have already done so. To coin an expression, reform is a process, not an event. For every ardent supporter of radical reform tomorrow, there are 10 teachers telling me about the other challenges they face at the Chalkface challenges that the Government needs to work with COSLA and our trade union partners to resolve. Covid turned our education system on its head. Overnight, our children were educated behind their screens. The role of the teacher in this shift is often in my view forgotten. Professional standards supported by a centre for excellence joining higher education with our schools, delivering the improvements that we need to see for our young people and supporting the teachers in our school with the craft that they are trained in delivering. I look forward to returning to the chamber next year to fully debate our qualification system, and as I do so, I will be guided by the most important principle of all—improved outcomes for our children and young people. That is the prize reform offers us, and getting it right is absolutely essential. Thank you very much, cabinet secretary. The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes, after which we will need to move on to the next item of business. Any members who haven't yet pressed their buttons who wish to ask a question should do so now, and I call first Liam Kerr. Very grateful, Presiding Officer, and I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement. When we got the withers and Hayward reviews about six months ago, the minister said that she needed time to consider these and the many other reports that some of which the minister listed before concluding on a way forward. I think that Parliament understood that, given that the Association of Directors of Education said that confusion and frustration exist in the system due to the large number of external reports followed by the number of recommendations making progress unmanageable swiftly followed by inactivity. So I fear that there will be huge disappointment that today's statement seems to promise more working groups, more discussion forums and probably exactly the sort of confusion and frustration that's been referred to. But I think, Presiding Officer, what may allay some of those concerns are precise, detailed answers. So with that in mind, can the cabinet secretary tell us who will sit on the ministerial group advising the cabinet secretary on education and skills reform and when precisely will it report? Who precisely will sit on the education and skills reform chief executive forum and what are its remits and how much will it cost? And does the cabinet secretary believe that any current secondary pupils will sit assessments under the new qualifications and assessment system? I thank Mr Kerr for his question. He talks on a number of different areas, Presiding Officer, so I want to start first of all with the current context, because I think that that's really important. Mr Kerr spoke about the update that I provided to Parliament, I think, back in June now in relation to the plethora of different reports that I had on my desk when I was first appointed. I was very keen to attempt to knit together a narrative linking those reports and I accept that we're not yet there and I commit to Parliament to work with my ministerial colleagues on developing that narrative further. Of course, Mr Day will come to the chamber later this year to give an update further to the James Wither's review. More broadly, the changes to governance that I have outlined today insert ministerial oversight into the process. I think that that's hugely important that we are not working in silos and that there is a joined-up approach in relation to government. I hear the critique from ASDES and, of course, ASDES have also highlighted the benefits of having a more systemic approach to curriculum review. I think that that's hugely important and I look forward to meeting with them actually on Thursday of this week at their conference. More broadly, in relation to the governance structures themselves, of course, the chief executives of the relevant organisation will be represented within that forum and, in terms of the reform agenda, I will share that group and provide direction in terms of how we can tie the agendas together. He asked a question in relation to secondary pupils, I think, in terms of the qualifications. I'm not sure if I fully understood his question in relation to the Labour review. I'll be more than happy to write to him directly, but in all of this mix, I am conscious of what was described to me as the growing appetite for radical reform and the reality of some of my discussions and engagement with the profession, which actually say that there are challenges happening in our classroom right now, so whether that be behaviour or attendance or other broader issues in that realm, that government also needs to address. We need to be mindful, I think, of that current context whilst moving forward. I do think that the education reform approach that we're taking in relation to the legislation is a truncated one. It's a short six-week period, it's important that we get this right because things have moved on since 2021, but then we move forward next year, of course, with the work to reform these bodies to ensure that they better meet the needs of our children and young people. I look forward to working with the member on the point about the qualifications because that's the next step following the change around about the bodies themselves. As to whether or not we need to fully accept the recommendations that came from Lewis Hayward's review, which would be, of course, a really quite radical change for Scotland's education system. I'm just going to echo the reminder from the Presiding Officer that we do not have any time in hand over the course of the afternoon, so we're going to have to have tight questions and answers as far as possible. Pam Duncan-Glancy. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'll do my best. I thank the Cabinet Secretary for Advanced Site of the Statement. Reform has been on-going for some time, but all we really know from the statement today is that the Government has again delayed reform, set up two new working groups in a centre announced for a pressure lease, that the same people in the same bodies that need reform will lead the new ones, and that the Government has no new plans or next steps to tell us about. Meanwhile, the attainment gap is stubborn, classrooms are like pressure cookers, more and more young people feel unable to attend school, and teachers are burst with no reduced contact time in sight. So can the Cabinet Secretary confirm how what she's set out today will improve the life chances of young people, develop their knowledge skills and attitudes, improve working conditions for teachers by increasing non-contact time and reducing class sizes, or give any reassurance that the new institutions will be any different from the old ones? I think that she raises a number of important points. I thought that today's statement was important in relation to the consultation that is coming forward and launches today in relation to the legislation. It's really important that we get this right. The centre for teaching excellence is an opportunity to better support the profession. The member talked to some of the challenges that are in our classrooms right now. She talked about classrooms being pressure cookers, she talked about teacher times, I think that she mentioned attendance, all of that to my mind. Those are the issues that I need to deal with right now, working with COSLA and working with our trade union partners in relation to alleviating some of the pressure. To the point that the member makes around class contact time, she's absolutely correct, which is why officials have commissioned that additional piece of work, which will report in December to look at how we can deliver that reduced class contact time, which will free up teachers. That is really crucial to developing better practice as a teacher to allow you to have that time and space to reflect on your pedagogy. I think that the centre will have a key role to play in that regard, and I look forward to engaging with the member and obviously with the professional associations on ensuring that new addition in terms of the support for the profession delivers better quality support to our teachers, where they need it most in our classrooms. We currently have inequality in outcomes for our children from richest and poorest areas. With that in mind, can I ask the cabinet secretary what role the centre for teaching excellence will play in reducing the poverty-related attainment gap? The member raises a hugely important point. Excellent learning and teaching to my mind is fundamental to closing the poverty-related attainment gap. We know through our work with the Scottish attainment challenge and the pupil equity fund that additional organisations in our schools can provide lots of different skills, but we also need to recognise the importance of quality learning in teaching in our schools and the role of the teacher in that regard. It is very much recognised internationally that, along with leadership, the quality of teaching is the key factor in schools in improving children and young people's learning and outcomes. We also know that research evidence shows that the quality of teaching is the most important lever that schools have to improve the attainment of children and their young people. I think that the centre will ensure that teachers and practitioners are better supported in delivering high-quality teaching to achieve the best outcomes for all, but particularly those most impacted by poverty to the member's question. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and thank you to the cabinet secretary for advanced site of the report in which I note that teachers and educators must be directly involved in governance, so that Scotland's teachers have space, time and support that they need, and that support in the teachers in our school with the craft that they are trained in delivering. As we have been calling for an increased headteachers autonomy for some time which would do this, how is the Government actually planning to achieve this? Does she agree with our headteacher proposals and our new deal for teachers? I have to confess to the member that I am not familiar with her new deal for teachers proposal nor the issue in relation to headteachers. However, I am perfectly prepared to engage with the member on that issue. I am perfectly prepared to engage with the member on that issue, because I think that she makes a hugely important point. She spoke about the importance of having teachers engaged in the process, and I fully support that, which is why, of course, the consultation document that publishes today asks for feedback from teachers directly on that point. There are views on how that can be better supported and accommodated within those new structures that will exist. We need to use the professional expertise and knowledge of those who work in our classrooms to better support those new organisations. I think that there is a real opportunity through reform, but particularly through the consultation process to do just that. Professor Ken Muir describes Scottish education as complex and interconnected in nature. Will the cabinet secretary ensure that the consultation document gives confidence to external stakeholders that there will be co-ordinated changes across all education and skills bodies? I think that the member makes a hugely important point, and the link that she makes in relation to having that interconnected, complex system as cited by Professor Ken Muir is hugely important, which is why, of course, pooling together the outputs from four reports is particularly challenging. I do not think that it will be done in one parliamentary statement, which is why, of course, Mr Day will be coming forward later this year, and why, of course, at the start of next year, I intend to have a wider debate in that respect. However, I do think that the measures that are set out in the consultation document allow us to unpick some of the opportunities that the previous member alluded to in relation to how we can better engage the profession in ensuring that we drive improvements across the reform process. I am very grateful, Presiding Officer. The cabinet secretary talked about the launch today of the education reform bill. She is aware of the UNCRC and the process that the Scottish Government is taking with that. Will she take this opportunity to confirm that she will use the adoption of legislation under the reform bill, rather than amending UK legislation so that it becomes UNCRC compliant when it is passed? I think that the member makes a really important point, Presiding Officer. Just to confirm, the bill is not publishing today, it is the consultation document. However, the point that he makes in relation to the UNCRC, I must put on the record, is being led by my colleague Shirley-Anne Somerville. So it would be a matter for another cabinet secretary. However, I look forward to engaging with her on that point, because I think that he makes a really strong argument in relation to that opportunity. The cabinet secretary has highlighted the impact of the cost of living crisis. Does she share my concern that, as we undertake these reforms and do everything that we can to give our children the best start in life, the impact of decisions made at Westminster, which are pushing children and families into poverty, will continue to be felt in our education system? I think that the member makes a really important point. We cannot divorce decisions that are taken elsewhere from the impacts in our classroom before our children have crossed the school gates. Some of the impacts of those decisions are already felt in relation to their upbringing, how their families have experienced the world, the benefits that they might or might not be entitled to. We know that we have spent significant finance as a Government, mitigating the impacts of UK Government policy decisions. So, for example, whether that be the bedroom tax, or the benefit cap more broadly. Over the past six years, that has included £733 million of payments through activities such as our discretionary housing payments and the Scottish welfare fund. Those are hugely important investments from the Scottish Government. However, that money could have been better spent on core services such as health, transport and education. Today's OECD report states that the need for change is clear and expectations are high. I am afraid that this statement appears to duck all the big questions. Skills reform, a statement later this year. Qualifications reform, a debate next year. The only thing that is new today is the abolition of the centrepiece of John Swinney's reforms in the last Parliament. I recognise the pressures on behaviour, the attainment gap, attendance and so on. However, those are reforms for the future and they will take time to implement. So, what further information is the Education Secretary looking for to enable her to provide the leadership that Scottish education needs? I thank Mr Rennie for his question, which was a wee bit round the houses. Nonetheless, to go back to the member's question, which is in relation to how we can move things forward, the legislative agenda, as I updated Parliament in June, was delayed for a year. It is really important, before we take that legislation forward, that we check where we are in relation to the roll-out of these new organisations. We have truncated that consultation process by six weeks. I think that that is important. I hope that the member will help us in supporting engagement on the consultation document. It is important that we get it right. However, I am very conscious, as I outlined in my response to Liam Kerr, that the reality that our schools are facing at the current time is a very challenging one. So, reform... I go back to my point and my initial statement, Presiding Officer. Reform is a process, not an event. We have to take the profession with us. We need to make sure that reform is going to better meet the needs of our children and young people. That is what I am committed to and that is what he will hear from me in terms of leadership. Ross Greer, to be followed by John Mason. Thank you. I welcome the decision on regional improvement collaboratives in particular for six years now. They have seen a frustrating diversion of resources away from schools and classrooms where they were really needed. The cabinet secretary mentioned hearing from young people themselves. I could ask her to confirm that young people's voices will not just be heard as part of the reform process, but the new structures that are established will permanently embed a space for young people's voices to be heard and that it will be the voice of young people themselves, not just adults advocating on their behalf. Thank you to the member for his question. I think that some of the challenge he mentions and he alluded to in relation to the RICS is some that I have heard played back to me by the professional my engagements in recent months. In relation to the voices of young people, I look forward to engaging with them directly on the consultation document in the coming weeks. We are having a round table to that effect, but I think that the member's point in relation to embedding the learner voice is absolutely pivotal and is part of the recommendations that we have accepted as a Government and will be built into the governance process around about the new bodies. John Mason, to be followed by Sue Webber. Thank you. Following on from the last point, as well as involvement of pupils, the minister in her statement, Cabinet Secretary, talked about teachers and wider stakeholders in the consultation. And I wonder if she can say anything more about harder-to-reach groups that she might be seeking to consult with, those with additional support requirements, perhaps families who are not very engaged at the moment. Cabinet Secretary. I thank the member for his question. I've done quite a bit of engagement in relation to additional support needs, particularly in our schools. We know, of course, that over a third of our children and young people now have an identified additional support needs. We are looking to engage directly on this issue through campaign groups and embedding those voices I think through the governance process will be absolutely critical. Sue Webber, to be followed by Ben Macpherson. Cabinet Secretary, in your statement, you talk of more committees and working groups being set up, but I would contest that everyone is now looking for action. You said that you will engage with Opposition spokespeople on next steps to allow for greater political consensus. Yet, tomorrow, in the education committee, we are starting this exact exercise. I find it extraordinary that you have made this decision in a vacuum, circumventing the committee process rather than wait for the outcomes and evidence that will be taken. What were you thinking, Cabinet Secretary? Please, through the chair. Cabinet Secretary. I'm sorry, I failed to understand the member's question. I'd be more than happy to attend her committee. I haven't received an invite tomorrow. I'm not necessarily sure the decision that she is alluding to, the decision around about legislation was taken, I think, in 2021. I took a decision in June to delay that legislation today. I've given her an update in relation to the consultation. But I'm more than happy to attend the committee to talk to members more broadly in relation to next steps on reform. But this is not a new announcement in terms of reform today. Ben Macpherson, to be followed by Stephen Kerr. Presiding Officer, the Cabinet Secretary stated that the Centre for Teaching Excellence will rightly be designed with teachers. Therefore, when it comes to collaboration, can I also ask the Cabinet Secretary what role local government will play in the centre, given the role of councils in delivering education? I thank the member for his question. I think that Mr Macpherson raises a really important point because, of course, it is councils and not the Scottish Government that runs our school. And it's hugely important that COSLA are part of the buy-in, I think, to the establishment of the new centre, but also that they see a role for their own participation and support for their staff fundamentally. So my officials are setting up a series of engagements to hear from teachers in the wider profession, local government and national education bodies, in line with that commitment to co-design the new centre. And we will, of course, draw on the expertise of teachers and practitioners in that process. And we will work with COSLA and colleagues across local government to ensure that the centre is designed with them. I met with COSLA actually only yesterday to talk to this in a little more detail. And I've also sought joint oversight by COSLA and the Scottish Government, of course, working closely together of the centre itself, fundamentally recognising their role in relation to delivering education locally. I'm Stephen Kerr. So thank you, Presiding Officer. So I didn't have the advantage of having the statement ahead of hearing it. But I heard the cabinet secretary say something about taking resources and putting them onto the front line, putting them into classrooms. And I actually very much welcome that. And I also appreciate the fact that we do need to listen to teachers and we do need to act to support our teachers. So can I ask the cabinet secretary about the centre for teaching excellence that she announced at her party conference and has mentioned in the chamber today? How much of the functionality of this new body will be moved from Education Scotland? And once that has moved to the centre for teaching excellence, what is left there that Education Scotland does? Is there a scope? Cabinet secretary, cabinet secretary. I thank the member for his question. I miss Stephen Kerr, Presiding Officer. I used to enjoy debating with him on a regular basis. But I think the member raises a really important point. So the point he makes around about the need to listen to teachers, the member knows that I spend a lot of my time in schools and I want to try and bring some of their frustration to the floor but also to try and better support them. And that's what the centre is fundamentally about. It's not about Education Scotland to the member's question and actually they won't have a role to my mind in relation to the centre itself. It's a new body and that's why I outlined some of the funding moving from the rix to the centre itself. But of course Education Scotland will be replaced by the reform process which is quite separate to the centre for teaching excellence. Thank you, cabinet secretary. That concludes this item of business. There will be a brief pause before we move on to the next item of business, to allow front benches to change.