 i chi'n gallu gwaith arna. That is a statement by John Swinney on Scotland's education reforms. The cabinet secretary will, as usual, take questions at the end of his statement. I encourage all members who wish to ask Mr Swinney a question to press their request-to-speak buttons as soon as possible. John Swinney is calling. The aim of this Government's education policy is to ensure that we achieve excellence ac yn talu gyda'r oeddaeth i ddwybod cychwyn i ddweud y system hon. Felly, ar ddiweddol, mae'r blaen arall yn cael ei ddweud, ac yn cael ei ddweud yn gaf i wneud hyn. Felly, mae'r system gyda'r system yn ei ddweud yn ei ddweud i gael ei ddweud. Per y ddweud i ddweud, mae'n ffôr i ddweud o 150,000 o gael ffasys, ac yn gwybod i ddweud o ddweud o ddweud a nhw, ac yn gweithio'r 60,000 o ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud o ddweud. We are seeing the proportion of young people getting qualifications at SCQF levels 4, 5 and 6, mainly national 4s, national 5s and higher, increase, and increase fastest in the most deprived areas. We are seeing almost 23 per cent of school leavers in the most deprived areas going into higher education compared with 16.5 per cent seven years ago. International evidence demonstrates that successful education systems are decisions about children's education that are made as close to them as possible. That is why our approach is to empower schools, to empower head teachers, teachers and parents and the wider school community to make the key decisions that affect the educational outcomes of children and young people. We set that out in our manifesto when we said that we will put teachers, parents and communities in the driving seat. We have a great many high-quality professionals working in Scottish education, but I do not believe that they are currently sufficiently empowered to work together and to use their skills, judgment and creativity in the way that they think best. That is critical to ensure that the potential of curriculum for excellence is achieved. Empowered professionals must also be supported by specific measures in the national improvement framework to secure improvements in Scottish education. The combination of the Scottish attainment challenge and pupil equity funding is already delivering results by empowering the teaching profession. Teachers and head teachers are taking radical, focused and innovative approaches to improve outcomes because that funding puts them in the driving seat. The interim evaluation of the attainment Scotland fund showed that 78 per cent of head teachers had already seen an improvement in attainment and wellbeing as a result of the fund, and nearly all head teachers, 97 per cent, expected to see further improvements in the coming five years. Some would say that all of this is progress enough that the system does not need further interventions from government. Some would say that many schools already enjoy the kind of empowerment that our reforms are aiming for, that there is great work already being done in a number of areas and there is. In other words, some children and young people have the sort of education system that they need and that some of them will reach their potential. Some children are simply not good enough. We must raise the bar and close the gap for all. That is why we published education governance next steps a year ago. Since then, a significant amount of progress has been made. We worked intensively with local government to reach agreement on regional improvement collaboratives to provide additional support to schools. All six regional improvement collaboratives are now up and running, with their leadership appointed and already collaborating with Education Scotland to respond to local needs and aspirations. The first set of regional improvement plans have been developed and the second plans are due in September. All of this has been achieved at a pace that would previously have been thought highly unlikely, if not impossible, but achieved as a result of creative joint working between national and local government. Next steps also committed the Scottish Government to work with partners to support readiness for a school and teacher-led system. That led to rationalising the existing structures and governance arrangements in Scottish education. I now chair the Scottish Education Council, which brings together young people, education leaders and representatives from local authorities, the teaching profession and our partners in COSLA. It works collaboratively to ensure that there is a system-wide focus on improvement and to agree priorities for improvement activity and delivery. Education Scotland has taken significant action to deliver on its enhanced role in remit. The Scottish College for Educational Leadership is now integrated into Education Scotland, building further the culture and capacity of leadership throughout the system. Last November, we consulted on proposals for achieving empowerment through the education bill, including the head teacher's charter. Our aim was to ensure that schools had wide-ranging powers over their own management, staffing and what is taught in their classrooms, creating a culture of empowerment that enables all professionals to contribute to the agenda of improvement. The analysis of the consultation, which was published in March this year, should agree with many people wholeheartedly with our aim of school empowerment, but many were not convinced about all the details of how we plan to achieve that aim. Those voices raised the question of whether we could deliver the head teacher's charter faster, with less disruption in partnership with local authorities, and if so, why wait 18 months for an education bill? In light of those responses, I have been in detailed discussions with local government for some months. This work has not always been easy, but I can announce that we have reached a clear shared commitment. I am today fast-tracking the reform of Scottish education. The Scottish Government and Scotland's councils have reached an agreement that endorses and embraces the principles of school empowerment and provides clear commitment to a school and teacher-led education system. It does so without the need to wait 18 months for an education bill. While I am publishing a draft education bill today, along with its accompanying documents and appropriate impact assessments, I have decided that I will not introduce the bill to Parliament at this time. Instead of waiting for the passage of legislation, which cannot be fully enforced until 2019 or 2020, we have an opportunity to reform our schools more quickly through our investment in consensus building and collaboration, rather than through legislation. In coming to this decision, I have also reflected on the advice of the International Council of Education Advisers, who encouraged me to consider the benefits of pursuing a collaborative approach rather than legislating. I have listened to this advice and taken the view that by building on the joint agreement with local government, we have greater prospects of achieving more at a swifter pace. That means that the headteacher's charter can become a reality faster. School leaders will be able to make the key decisions on crucial areas of curriculum, improvement, staffing and budget, crucial to ensuring effective learning and teaching and taking those actions more quickly. By implementing jointly with local government and the education profession, we can develop guidance on empowerment and the charter as a matter of priority and more quickly than statutory guidance under an education bill. On budget powers, we have already begun work with our local government partners on new guidance for devolved school management schemes. On parental involvement and pupil engagement, we will launch a joint action plan on parental engagement next month and we will continue the work that started in this year of young people in relation to enhancing the voice of pupils in schools. Finally, on the general teaching council for Scotland, we will explore what can be done within the current scope of legislation to provide the benefits of regulation and registration to a wider group of education professionals. However, I accept the strength of feeling from teachers about the body's independence and its guardianship of professional standards. By taking the steps that I have set out to Parliament today, we are demonstrating a clear commitment to working with local government and education professionals. We are fast-tracking progress and we expect progress to be sustained and swift, but I must also make this very clear today. If sufficient progress is not made over the next 12 months to deliver the empowerment of schools that we have agreed with local authorities, I will return to Parliament and introduce an education bill. The approach that I have set out today requires tailored and targeted support. I am therefore announcing a total of £46 million of investment to support the improvement agenda. In addition to existing leadership development programmes, I can announce today a further investment of up to £4 million over three years to ensure that head teachers can access high-quality professional learning, including further investment in the highly regarded Colomba 1400 leadership academies. I can also announce up to £10 million to enhance regional capacity to support schools. The funding through regional improvement collaboratives and Education Scotland working together will help schools to close the attainment gap and tackle rural deprivation, support collaboration to share best practice and the delivery of regional interventions. To ensure that we maintain progress for looked-after children, I will make funding available of around £8 million for the remainder of this year and £12 million in each of the subsequent two years to supplement pupil equity funding and challenge authorities and schools programmes to assist the opportunities available to looked-after children. This Government believes that every child in Scotland, no matter their background, should have the very best start in life. The landmark agreement that is published today marks the next phase in reforming our school education system. It means that it can be delivered more quickly than by legislation. It means that we will empower teachers to drive improvement in schools and help pupils to flourish. It means that the whole system, schools, councils and regional improvement collaboratives are all focused on improving the outcomes for Scotland's children and young people. Teachers and parents will be the key decision makers in the life of a school. Education remains by far the most effective means that we have to improve the life chances of all of our young people. I am confident that this approach, one that builds consensus and fosters collaboration, but with high expectations for what we can achieve together, is the right approach for Scotland. I thank the cabinet secretary for her prior sight of the statement. The new education bill will deliver the biggest and most radical change to how our schools are run. It will give headteachers significant new powers, influence and responsibilities, formally establishing them as leaders of learning and teaching. Cabinet secretary, that was the flagship promise of the First Minister in the Scottish Government's programme for government just a few months ago. You yourself are on record saying that this bill was the best chance we had in a generation to reform our schools and raise attainment. I am frankly astonished by the content of the statement this afternoon, as will be thousands of parents, teachers and young people across Scotland. In that light, I have only one question. Is the cabinet secretary not embarrassed by the complete shambles of a U-turn, which not only breaks the SNP's promise to the people of Scotland, but which now leaves schools with even more uncertainty about their future under the SNP Government? The one word answer to Liz Smith is no. What I have done here is I have pursued the policy objective of the Government, which is to empower our schools and to negotiate an agreement with local authorities, which enables us to empower our schools faster than can be achieved through legislation. The policy intent of the Government is absolutely intact, and we will pursue that to deliver the objectives that the Government has set out. In relation to the experience of schools, what I see in schools is schools using the freedoms that this Government has given them through pupil equity funding, which Liz Smith voted against in the budget, to ensure that they are able to close the poverty-related attainment gap and improve the opportunities for young people. That is what I see going on in the schools of Scotland. What will come from the agreement that I have negotiated with local government is the opportunity at a faster pace to deliver the reforms that this Government is committed to and which we are determined to deliver. Iain Gray My thanks, too, for the early sight of the cabinet secretary's statement. What a shambles indeed. For two years, parents, teachers, educationalists and the Government's own international advisers have told the education secretary that his education bill was unwanted, unnecessary and misguided, but he carried on regardless. Now, at the 11th hour, his flagship legislation has sailed off into the sunset. The First Minister's top priority, her sacred obligation, is now reduced to just another last-minute cobble-together joint agreement. The only thing being fast-tracked here is the mother of all ministerial climb-downs. The cabinet secretary has failed and he knows that he has failed to martial support in or out of this Parliament for his bill. His blushies cannot be spared. Will he just own up and admit that his education bill is dead? Will he now do what he always should have done? Restore the 7.5 per cent that he has cut from school budgets and address the 20 per cent erosion of our teachers' pay? Iain Gray When Iain Gray talks about the marshling of support for the bill, what I have concentrated on—none of that has been the product of a last-minute discussion—was the product of months and months of dialogue with local government, culminating in the unanimous agreement by all local authority leaders of the contents of the education bill. That was the position that we arrived at by cosda leaders at their meeting at the end of May. What I am doing here is responding positively to the discussions that we have had and recognising that we can achieve greater progress at a faster pace by working together with local authorities. That is what the Government has opted to do. However, I reserve the right to ensure that we take forward that agenda in a speedy and timious fashion and to return to Parliament if we are not able to pursue the collaborative approach that I have set out. On the question of resources, I would have thought by now that Iain Gray might have welcomed the fact that, last year, local authority expenditure on education increased by 3.2 per cent. I would have expected Iain Gray might have welcomed the fact that local authorities are projecting to increase their expenditure on education in this current financial year by 3.8 per cent. I would have expected Iain Gray might have supported the £120 million annually in pupil equity funding going into our schools to transform the lives of young people, but Iain Gray does not support any of that because he voted against it in the budget. I am afraid that Iain Gray cannot wriggle away from the consequences of his foolish errors earlier on this year. As the cabinet secretary detailed in his statement, all six regional improvement collaboratives have now been established and their respective leadership roles filled. Can the cabinet secretary outline how the collaboratives will help to drive improvements in learning and teaching at a local level? I remind members that I am the PLO to the cabinet secretary. What we expect of regional improvement collaboratives is for them to engage closely with the work that is going on within individual schools and to respond significantly to the demands and the requests for improvement support from individual schools. The agreement that I have set out today puts schools into the driving seat of determining the enhancements to learning and teaching that they require and to seek those from the regional improvement collaboratives, which are part of the combined work of local authorities and Education Scotland and the Scottish Government. In that focused way, we want to support the enhancement of learning and teaching in the classroom. One of the key tests of the success and effectiveness of regional improvement collaboratives will be what they can achieve in improving classroom practising. Oliver Mundell, to be followed by Mary Fee. That is quite clearly not a case of job done. It is job too difficult. Given the cabinet secretary's frequent pleas to this Parliament that the bill was essential in raising attainment, can I ask the cabinet secretary why he introduced what was bringing forward the bill in the first place, why he has changed his mind and why he has brought to an end engagement with other political parties who might have been willing to work with him? What has changed my mind has been the collaboration that we have been able to build up with local authorities. I am very clear about that point. We have managed to get local authorities to a position where they are taking forward a shared agenda—they are committed to that shared agenda—which is focused on empowering schools through the design of a headteachers charter that gives headteachers much greater influence over the issues of curriculum, staffing, funding and improvement than is the case currently and enables those headteachers and schools to lead that process of improving educational performance. On the basis that I am constantly appealed to in this Parliament to build agreement and to build consensus, that is what I have sought. I have secured that agreement from local authorities and I am determined to work with local authorities to make sure that we deliver that impact on the education of young people, which, as Mr Mundell will already know, is improving already with the data that we published last week demonstrating that the attainment gap is starting to close and the work that has been taken forward collaboratively in Scottish education is beginning to have an effect. Can I ask the cabinet secretary how he will determine whether sufficient progress has been made in the next 12 months? I will seek an independent assessment of whether or not sufficient progress has been made. I will look to that independent assessment to make a judgment about whether or not the commitments that have been made in this agreement have been fulfilled in any sense in a reasonable fashion within the 12-month period. That independent analysis will be published and will inform my view as to whether to introduce legislation at a later stage. However, I make clear to Mary Fee and to Parliament that I would prefer not to do that, because I think that we can achieve more progress if we fulfil the spirit and the letter of the agreement that I have reached with local authorities. George Adam would be followed by Ross Greer. I welcome the cabinet secretary's funding announcement to enhance regional capacity to support schools. Will he agree with me that closing the poverty-related attainment gap requires the collaboration of a wide range of public services and not just schools? I accept Mr Adam's point that there is a whole range of different influences that can be brought to bear on the opportunities that are available to young people. That support can be provided by a number of professionals, but the key element of that is that all those professionals must be focused on how we ensure that our combined actions get it right for every child. That focused policy approach is an essential part of how we engage in supporting young people and making sure that they are able to fulfil their potential as a consequence of the joint working that takes place across our public services. Ross Greer will be followed by Tavish Scott. This is a humiliating moment for the education secretary as he is forced to flee from Parliament. His proposals have been rejected by teachers, parents, young people, councils and education experts, and he knows that they are rejected by MSPs as well, so he is avoiding the Parliament completely. The £10 million announced for the unwanted and unnecessary region of collaboratives could have instead been 263 decibel needed teachers or the rest of this parliamentary term. Can the Deputy First Minister just accept that the number one issue in Scottish schools at the moment is a lack of staffing resources due to his budget cuts and that shelving this doomed bill gives him a chance to admit the mistakes made over the last decade and to change course? Unless I am mistaken, I am in Parliament just now answering questions from members of Parliament and explaining the Government's position. On a matter of pure technical reality, I am actually here in response to Mr Greer's question. In relation to the objectives of the Government's agenda, I have set out very clearly to Parliament today that the Government's agenda to empower schools lies at the heart of the agreement that we have reached with local authorities. The conclusion that I have come to is that I can make more progress working in a collaborative way with local authorities to advance that agenda than I can through legislation. If that results in the creation of a school-led, empowered education system within our individual schools in Scotland, the Government's policy objective will have succeeded. I am sure that Mr Greer will be there encouraging us on all the way. I have made a number of announcements today about enhancing the investment in education, but the Government has been strengthening the investment in education through pupil equity funding and the Scottish attainment challenge. We are seeing the effect of that in individual schools. We are seeing it with the closure of the poverty-related attainment gap and we are also seeing it as a result of the Government's budget settlements in the improvements in investment in education in Scotland. All those factors come together to demonstrate the important progress that we are making on education. That is something that should give us encouragement about our prospects to close the attainment gap in Scottish education and to ensure that we fulfil the life chances of every young person. That is what the Government is unreservedly focused on achieving as a consequence of our education policy. Tavish Scott, to be followed by Ruth McWire. If education is the number one priority of the First Minister, why is she not here today? Or is it that the ministerial reshuffle is more important than Scotland's schools? If the bill is so important, why is he ditching it yet holding it as a sort of damocles over our councils? Do, as I say, or I'll be after you. Is that really a collaboration? Just as I am here answering questions that Mr Greer did not seem to think I was, the First Minister cannot be in two places at the one time. The First Minister is taking forward the Government's agenda, as she always does, and I am here to explain our position on education reforms. Mr Scott regularly encourages me to engage in dialogue and discussion with external parties, and that is exactly what I am doing. That is what has informed the conclusions that I have come to Parliament today. However, it is only fair that I make clear to everybody the determination of the Government to pursue the policy agenda. I want to make sure that the commitments that we have entered into in good faith with local authorities are taken forward and that we have every opportunity to strengthen Scottish education as a result. However, I must reserve the Government's position to legislate if we are unable to make the progress that has been committed to in our agreement with local authorities. Ruth Maguire is to be filled by Alison Harris. Can I ask the cabinet secretary to outline how the Government's plans will allow for new opportunities for professional development and teaching, and how that will help to raise standards and close the attainment gap? One of the important priorities that we are taking forward as a consequence of our dialogue with professional associations through the international summit on the teaching profession is the design of additional career pathways for teachers to enhance their professional development and professional skill within the classroom, without having to seek other opportunities through administrative leadership. Frankly, we have narrowed those career development opportunities to too great an extent within Scottish education. We need to open them back up again, and we have invited Moira Bolland of the University of Glasgow to take forward a panel that will look at the development of those career pathways and consultations with the professional associations to provide the career development opportunities for individual teachers to enhance their practice. In addition to that, the resources that I have announced today and the focus of regional improvement collaboratives are all designed to ensure that we strengthen the learning and teaching within the classroom and that we invest in that learning and teaching to strengthen the opportunities that are available for young people. Alison Harris will be filled by Gillian Martin. Not long ago, the cabinet secretary confirmed members' education questions and I quote, we will all have the opportunity to vote in Parliament on the proposed education bill. Will this ever happen, cabinet secretary? It might, but it will depend on whether we make sufficient progress through the joint agreement with local authorities. What matters to me is the outcome that we achieve. If the outcome is that we achieve empowered schools that can help to raise attainment, then for me that will be a job done because we will be closing the poverty-related attainment gap and we will be succeeding in our policy objectives. If we have to do that through legislation, then we will have to do it through legislation, but I would rather pursue the approach of collaboration, which Parliament constantly asked me to take forward. We have secured that agreement and I look forward to taking that forward. Gillian Martin will be filled by Johann Lamont. I note that, in the last five minutes, Councillor Stephen McCabe of Coesla has just said, I am pleased that our concerns have been recognised by the Scottish Government and I believe that the principles that we have agreed have allowed us to focus on improving outcomes for children and young people. I ask the cabinet secretary what discussions he has had with teaching unions or what discussions he hopes to have with teaching unions as a result to his statement. Presiding Officer, I engage extensively with the professional associations. We have discussed those issues over the course of the last few months. I will continue that dialogue with the professional associations. I am particularly interested in the involvement of the professional associations in the career pathways development and also in the work of the regional improvement collaboratives. They will, of course, be integral to the discussions that we have as we take forward the agenda to ensure that the legitimate and important interests of employees are properly taken into account in the reforms that we undertake. The cabinet secretary says that he recognised the strength of feeling regarding the reputation and independence of the General Teaching Council for Scotland. I should say that that was a strength of feeling that could not be overstated in the consultations that the education committee carried out. Why will he not today just commit to dropping his plan to abolish his vital institution? First of all, my plan was not to abolish the General Teaching Council. It was to ensure that the General Teaching Council became a broader body that could regulate a wider range of organisations in the education workforce. However, I have recognised the strength of feeling that Johann Lamont highlights in my response. If Johann Lamont, I appreciate that she will not have time to look at the draft bill, but the draft bill does not include provisions to reform the General Teaching Council. I accept that those proposals should not go forward because there is not sufficient agreement for that reform to be undertaken. I have asked the General Teaching Council to explore how, within its existing legislative structure, it can undertake the regulation of a broader range of educational professionals who, I think that all of us would generally agree, should be brought into the ambit of regulation. I am thinking particularly in relation to music tutors, which is one of the groupings of staff that the General Teaching Council is already exploring to bring within its locusts. I look forward to continuing those discussions with the General Teaching Council. I welcome the cabinet secretary's announcement of £10 million through regional collaboration to tackle, among other things, rural deprivation, and I can say a little more about that. Does he recognise that the UK Government has also responsibility to tackle rural deprivation, given the number of witnesses that appear before the education committee who said that welfare reform is making it much more difficult to close the attainment gap in Scotland schools? Mr Lochhead's last point is beyond dispute that it is increasingly difficult to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap, or that our challenge has made greater, because of the implications of welfare reform that is undertaken by the UK Government. That should not in any way diminish our determination to work to try to achieve those objectives, but it will certainly make the challenge all the greater. In relation to Mr Lochhead's point on the funding resources that I have announced today, those funding resources are important to support the regional collaboratives around the country, particularly in rural areas, to overcome some of the challenges that exist, particularly driven by rurality, and to ensure that we have in place support for, for example, the enhancement of members of the teaching profession to ensure that there is access, despite the geographical challenges of rural areas, to those learning and teaching enhancements and to guarantee that in rural areas we have a comprehensive strategy to tackle the issue of the poverty-related attainment gap, which of course is less visible in our rural areas, but nonetheless just as significant and serious as it is in our urban areas, and the necessity of closing it is just as important. Thank you very much, and that concludes our statement. We will now move on to the next item of business, which is a debate on defending the powers of the Scottish Parliament. Just take a few seconds for ministers and members to change seats.