 The next item of business is a statement by John Swinney on an update in Scotland's education reforms. The Deputy First Minister will take questions at the end of his statement. As we know, there are interventions and interruptions, I call on John Swinney, cabinet secretary. Presiding Officer, the relentless focus of this Government is to deliver an education system in Scotland that raises attainment for all, closes the attainment gap and enables all children and young people to fulfil their potential. During my statement to Parliament on the 26th of June last year, I set out our landmark agreement with Scotland's local councils that provide their clear and shared agenda for the empowerment of schools, rather than by introducing legislation. I undertook at that time to return to Parliament with my assessment of whether sufficient progress on our shared ambition had been made to satisfy me that the non-legislative route was the right one. I am therefore grateful for this opportunity to provide Parliament with an update on the progress around school empowerment and our related programme of education reform. My statement this afternoon is accompanied by a publication that provides additional detail on work in this area. International evidence demonstrates that successful education systems are those whose decisions about the education of our children are made as close to them as possible. That is why we are committed to empowering schools, to empowering teachers, parents, pupils and the wider school community to make the key decisions that affect the educational outcomes of children and young people. With our partners in local government, professional associations and other stakeholders, we are taking steps to put teachers, parents and communities in the driving seat. Together, we are building a school and teacher-led education system. A crucial element of this Government's agenda has been to recognise the importance of excellent school leadership and, in turn, to empower head teachers to more effectively lead our schools. The head teacher's charter that was published in February aims to ensure schools have wide-ranging decision-making powers over what matters—learning, teaching on the curriculum, their resources, staffing and budgets—and to make those decisions by involving their whole school community. That delivers on the policy intention originally part of the draft education bill. The charter supports a culture of empowerment that enables all professionals to contribute to the agenda of improvement. The charter, in combination with linked school leaders guidance, has now been used by schools and has been crucially co-produced. I am grateful for the shared work that has led to the production of the charter, and I am particularly pleased at the pace with which it has been delivered. I am also pleased to be able to report that, today, we have published updated devolved school management guidelines. The new guidance has also been developed in partnership with local government, while improving on existing advice crucially reflects the expectations and opportunities of an empowered school system, including the head teacher's charter. The Scottish attainment challenge and pupil equity funding have already empowered schools by allowing them to design solutions and take decisions specific to their school community. It is important that we now capitalise on this and deliver broader budgetary decision-making to our schools. I have also committed to providing high-quality support for school leaders, many of whom are now beginning to operate in an increasingly empowered environment. With that in mind, I am pleased to note that, last month, Education Scotland expanded the support that it provides for head teachers and will now provide a range of professional learning opportunities, specifically focused on school empowerment. That, in combination with our investment in the Columba 1400 head teacher leadership academies with the Hunter Foundation, will provide school leaders with the skills and confidence to flourish and deliver improved outcomes for the communities that they serve. We are also deepening the support that is available to schools through regional improvement collaboratives. Through enhanced engagement and support across local government, supported by additional Scottish Government funding of around £5 million this year and focused support from Education Scotland, the regional improvement collaboratives have significantly enhanced their capacity to support collaborative working across the system and deliver region-wide approaches to improving outcomes for our children and young people. That is evidence through the delivery of their September 2018 regional improvement plans, through increased engagement with and support of the teachers' networks across each region, and through focused regional interventions on attainment, curriculum development, leadership development and quality improvement. An interim review of the establishment of the regional improvement collaboratives was also published in February this year. It recognised the significant early progress that had been made in establishing local governance, leadership and buy-in across each regional improvement collaborative area. We will commission a further review later this year, again in partnership with local government, to assess the development and the impact further. We are committed to ensuring that pupils and parents are provided with the opportunity to influence decisions related to their school. That is more important than ever in an increasingly empowered school system. In July 2018, we developed a comprehensive plan in conjunction with local government to improve parental involvement and engagement. The Learning Together Action Plan 2018-2021 demonstrates our long-term commitment to put parents at the heart of their children's learning and reflects the importance that we place on parental engagement with a range of Scottish Government education policies and initiatives. Learners in our schools rightly expect their voice to be heard and valued. The Head Teacher's Charter places a central expectation on head teachers and through that to the wider and empowered system to support and encourage children and young people to participate in decisions about their own learning and the life of the learning community. In April 2018, in advance of the school empowerment reforms, Education Scotland published practical guidance to schools. We will continue to promote that guidance and support to schools in order that they can better support learner participation. It is important that the work in taking forward the joint agreement is placed in the context of wider education reforms. In particular, I was pleased to note last month's publication of the report of the independent panel on career pathways. That is an exciting report that will generate new and ambitious career pathways for teachers whilst increasing the attractiveness of the profession. I expect the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers to have put in place the conditions for new pathways by August 2021. It is also important that we recognise and support a wider range of practitioners who work with our children and young people. While we are deciding against the creation of a broader education workforce council, we are working with local authorities to further enhance the support offered to a wide range of education practitioners, including college lecturers, instrumental music instructors, school librarians and home school link workers. It is clearly vital that we understand the impact of our endeavours in empowering Scottish schools. We need to know where change is happening and where it is having a positive effect, and indeed where greater focus may be required. The early evidence that we have available does, however, provide me with cautious optimism that the types of empowered practice that I expect to see are becoming more common. Education Scotland has previously published thematic inspections on readiness for empowerment and on curriculum leadership, and has today published the findings of a further inspection on parent and pupil participation. While making it clear that we are only part way through this journey, those reports indicate that local authorities are taking positive steps to embrace the principles of empowerment that are set out in the joint agreement and that the education system is committed to collaboration and co-production. The readiness for empowerment review that was published in December 2018 noted that almost all local authorities are committed to developing an empowered education system with the aim of improving outcomes for learners, reducing inequalities and closing the attainment gap. It is important that we all take responsibility for the change process, and I am pleased that three local authorities are now also trialling a self-evaluation framework. I am also pleased that an overarching evaluation strategy has been developed that will bring together all available evidence on empowerment in our schools, which will help us to monitor progress. Equally important is the assurance that I have received jointly from the chief inspector of education, as chair of the joint agreement steering group, that partners remain firmly engaged in and committed to this work. That is highlighted to me and to COSLA that real progress has been made, and that the practice of empowerment and school-based decision making is becoming increasingly evident in our schools. The chief inspector has also stressed to me the importance and the value of the collaborative approach that we are taking with local government and other partners in the delivery of those reforms. She believes that progress has been made sooner than would have been the case through legislation and reassures me of the continued commitment of all partners to work together in supporting the delivery of an empowered system that improves outcomes for children and young people. That includes a clear objective to promote and build on the work to date, developing further guidance and engaging with the wider system with schools, teachers and others involved in children's learning. While I am heartened by those positive messages, I am under no illusion that we remain at a relatively early stage in our efforts to change the culture of school education in Scotland. The joint agreement and the recently agreed teachers pay deal provide us with the stability required for real and long-term system change to take place, but we must maintain our collective focus and ensure that meaningful improvements are delivered. When I last addressed members on this issue in June 2018, I made it clear that if sufficient progress had not been made in the forthcoming 12 months, I would return to Parliament and introduce an education bill. This afternoon, I have set out my view that progress is being made in a genuinely collaborative spirit and a culture based around empowerment is starting to take root in our schools. It is clear to me that we would not have come so far in such a short period of time if we had relied on introducing an education bill. I am also assured that this Government's long-term vision of a school-led education system is shared by our partners in local government. The chief inspector has further endorsed and recommended to me the continuation of our partnership approach. Given that I am able to confirm that the Scottish Government will not introduce an education bill as means of driving school empowerment, instead we will continue to work in partnership with local government, teacher representatives and the wider education sector. We will collectively ensure that schools are supported to take the key decisions relevant to them. I am optimistic that our collaborative approach through which we share a view of empowerment and collectively take responsibility for change will result in improved outcomes for Scotland's children and young people. Achieving excellence and equity for all our children and young people is the core purpose of this Government and those reforms are central to this work. Given the importance of this agenda, I would be pleased to return to Parliament in a year's time to once again provide an update on this vital work. Thank you very much Cabinet Secretary. Cabinet Secretary will now take questions on his statement. As usual, around 20 minutes I could ask those members who wish to ask the question to press the request to the speakers now. I call Liz Smith, followed by Ian Gray. Thank you, and I thank the cabinet secretary for prior sight. In the 2017 programme for government, the First Minister told us this. A new education bill will deliver the biggest and most radical change on how our schools are run. But then exactly a year ago, the cabinet secretary decided to scrap the bill, defending the U-turn by telling us that faster progress would be made to improve school standards without legislation. Now he is telling us that he has cautious optimism, that standards are improving and that this improvement has not been made to be possible because of the absence of the education bill. You could not make it up because there are no hard facts whatsoever to prove his contention. Indeed, it will not have escaped his notice that the Education and Skills Committee reported just recently, and I quote, the lack of baseline data means that no meaningful conclusions on upward or downward trends can be reached at a time of reform within Scottish education. So can I ask the cabinet secretary exactly what evidence it is that he has found, that nobody else has found, to prove that standards are improving across the board? Does he really believe that evidence supports his view when he says, and I quote that it is clear that we would not have come so far if an education bill had been introduced? Finally, does he believe that when a local authority takes a blanket decision to move all its schools to a six-column subject choice structure for pupils in S4, headteachers enjoy the greater autonomy that is promised by the Scottish Government? Cabinet secretary, there are quite a lot of topics covered in that question, Presiding Officer. Forgive me as I try to address them. In relation to my statement to Parliament today, where I have recorded that I believe faster progress has been delivered by the collaborative route that we have taken as opposed to the legislative route, I would cite this evidence. Firstly, if we had been involved in a legislative process around the bill, we would not have been able to focus partners on the delivery of some of the specific components of the education bill. The headteachers charter is now available, delivered, implemented in Scottish education when, if we had waited for a bill, the headteachers charter would have only been enacted once we had put the provision in place. That is the first piece of evidence. The second piece of evidence is the information that is provided to me by Her Majesty's chief inspector of education on the assessment that she has made and Education Scotland are making through thematic inspection of the way in which the approach that we are setting out is being applied by all partners and through her chairing of the steering group that is implementing the agenda. I would cite that as the evidence that faster progress has been delivered. Secondly, the list that Liz Smith moved on to was about baseline data about performance within the education system. I know that the issues are here to be rehearsed in terms of the information that we publish routinely as part of the national improvement framework, where we set out year on year the progress that has been made by young people within our education system to a greater degree of detail than has ever been the case in the past, with levels of information published at primary 1, primary 4, primary 7 and S3, where in fact no such comprehensive data was published in the past. Of course, the data that we all are familiar with demonstrates that attainment is improving within our education system and the attainment gap has been closing and that data has been well rehearsed in Parliament before. Finally, on the question of subject choice, curriculum control is a matter that, under the head teacher's charter—this is a relatively recent publication—will be vested in individual schools. We are encouraging collaboration among schools within our education system. For some schools, collaborating with each other about the availability of subject choice so that, across a number of schools, a broader subject choice can be available, then if everything was just contained within an individual school, it requires a degree of collaboration across individual schools. There will be a role for local authorities to be involved in that collaboration, but what I am confident about from the authentication of information that I have had from the chief inspector of education is that local authorities are genuinely committed to that progress—that process—and we should welcome that as evidence of the creation of an empowered education system. I understand that you had a lot of questions embedded in that. That was a long answer and I appreciate that the front bench here should also get the chance. After that, it has to be crisp answers because I have 12 people wanting to ask questions, and Mr Scott is already in a tizzy. Mr Gray. Thank you and thanks to the cabinet secretary for the early sight of his statement. In fact, we have known for a year what this statement would say. Everyone knows that the education bill was dropped because no one supported it, and everyone knew that Mr Swinney would be back here climbing great progress so that he could finally put his flagship legislation out of its misery. However, his reforms still do not address the real issues in our schools—squeezed budgets, teacher shortages, a narrowing curriculum, a lack of rigorous data on literacy and numeracy, standardised tests that parents do not want and that teachers do not rate, an explosion of multilevel teaching and a crisis in support for pupils with additional support needs. Having spent a year developing and delivering an empowered schools diagram, will the cabinet secretary now turn his attention to those real problems in real schools faced daily by real teachers, real pupils and real parents? Cabinet secretary? I spend all of my time focused on the real issues that face Scottish education, which is why I follow the international evidence that says that a successful education system will be one where more decisions are taken as close to young people as is possible in the education system. That is the culture and the approach that we are trying to create through the empowered schools reforms. On the various points that Mr Gray raised, I would just offer a few observations. On the question of budgets, local authority budgets on education have been rising for four years in a row, with a substantial increase in real terms in the most recent data available. Teacher numbers stand at the highest level that they have stood at since 2010, with the largest number of primary teachers in Scottish schools since 1980. I know that the Education and Skills Committee has been looking at the question of subject choice, but when I look at the options that are available to young people in Scottish education, I think that there is a much broader choice available to young people than when I was at school. On Scottish national standardised assessments, we commissioned an independent review to examine the issues, and it has reported and demonstrated the value of standardised assessments. Mr Gray knows that I am actively working to strengthen and improve the availability of support to meet the needs of young people with additional support needs and will continue to focus on that issue in the period going ahead. I hope that that gives him some reassurance that, on all the key questions that he raised as concerns, the Government and our local authority partners are doing everything that we humanly can do to address those issues. I have 13 questioners and 10 minutes. The intention to devolve powers to schools is to empower head teachers as education leaders, but it is not clear what accountability mechanisms are in place to ensure effective oversight and scrutiny of those head teachers. They have enhanced powers and are out over budget and staffing. When power is with the local authority— We had democratically elected councillors in place to scrutinise, so what mechanisms are in place through the head teacher's charter and the devolved school management guidelines to ensure effective oversight is in place? Head teachers are senior employees of local authorities and will remain so under those reforms, so there is a direct line of accountability in relation to employment issues in that respect. However, head teachers have a much broader approach to accountability to pupils, to parents, to communities, to staff, to the way in which schools fulfil the needs of young people, and that is the conversation and discussion that an empowered school must have with its community to make sure that the needs of all learners are being met. Tavie Scott, followed by Clare Adamson. Is not the reality for parents and teachers unspent peff money, unfilled head teacher vacancies and more bureaucracy in classrooms through yet more guidance? If the education secretary wants to work with teachers, as he has said to Parliament today, why does he not actually listen to primary one teachers and drop the national testing of four and five-year-old boys and girls? I listened to an independent review that I commissioned on this question, which found that there was significant value in primary one standardised assessments as contributing to informing the judgment of teachers. I trust teachers' judgments, but I also recognise and I listen to teachers who make a plea for their to be moderation within the education system so that they can understand the levels and the standards that they are trying to achieve for young people. Standardised assessments help to inform that judgment. Clare Adamson, followed by Jeremy Balfour. The cabinet secretary has previously said that the best decision about children's education is taken by people who know them best—the teachers, head teachers and parents, as well as young people themselves. Can the cabinet secretary outline how his decision to fast-track the implementation of his reforms has helped to achieve those best decisions? What the quote that Clare Adamson reads out reflects my reading of the international evidence, which argues for more and more decisions to be taken in the classroom by individual empowered classroom teachers. At the heart of the reform agenda and at the heart of the pay and workload deal that we have arrived at with the professional associations and our local authority partners, it is about creating a sense of teacher autonomy and teacher agency, where teachers can constantly make judgments about the educational journey of young people and the agenda that I have set out today supports and enhances that. In his statement this time last year, the Deputy First Minister spoke of consensus building at the heart of his approach following the shelving of the education bill. Given that we were open to working in consensus to pass the bill and given the many defeats that the Government has faced in this Parliament in the past year on education, does the Deputy First Minister not now see that reforms should be implemented in the right way and that is through the democratic process of this Parliament? The reform has been managed through the democratic process of this Parliament and it has been managed in collaboration with our local authority partners who have statutory responsibility for the delivery of education. Parliament often encourages me to work collaboratively with other people, that is precisely what I have done in this agenda and we have made faster progress as a consequence. Cabinet Secretary will be aware of the reduction in subject-specific principal teacher roles that were covered with a movement to faculty heads in recent years, particularly in our secondaries. Can he provide more detail for what alternative routes for promotion might be available for teachers going forward so that we can make sure that we keep talent in our classrooms? I encourage members of Parliament to look at the report that has been produced by the working group on career pathways, led by Moira Bolland of the University of Glasgow. It is a very refreshing read about the creation of new pathways in subject specialism, in pedagogical specialism and also in disciplines within the education system, for example, on additional support needs. What the review undertook was work on my behalf to create alternatives to routes to administrative leadership within the education system so that we could entrench outstanding classroom practice in our classrooms and celebrate that, and that is what the review has generated. Mary Fee fall by Rona Mackay Thank you, Presiding Officer. Provision of additional support needs is fragmented across local authorities. Similarly, we know that local authorities use a variety of models in the provision of home link. What steps will the cabinet secretary take to ensure that home link staff are fully resourced and fully supported? Home link staff provide a really valuable role within our education system. I see increasing numbers of schools opting to use pupil equity funding to establish much greater proficiency and effectiveness in home school link workers. As a consequence, pupil attendance and participation and attainment as a consequence is improving from those efforts. I think that the Government actively works with our local authority partners on the resourcing of all aspects of the education system. We see, as I indicated, strong and effective practice emerging out of pupil equity funding, which is strengthening the areas of activity in which Mary Fee is interested. Rona Mackay, followed by Jamie Halcro Johnston Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can the cabinet secretary expand on how his reforms will help to raise standards and close the poverty-related attainment gap? One of the very clear outcomes of the implementation of the Scottish attainment challenge and pupil equity funding has been an ever-sharper focus within the education system on the young people who face barriers to fulfil their potential as a consequence of their background in poverty. That focus has always been on our education system, but PEF and Scottish attainment challenge have intensified that. As a consequence, we are now seeing real improvements in the performance of young people, the closing of the attainment gap and, obviously, the data will be published in the years to come to demonstrate the pattern that that takes in the years to come. Jamie Halcro Johnston, followed by Tom Arthur Scottish Government statistics for 2017-18 show that the gap between the most and least affluent going to university has increased in the last year. The official statistics from last year's exam results show that the attainment gap between school pupils from the poorest and richest areas has increased, too. Can the cabinet secretary say whether he thinks that the backdoor reforms have been successful in this regard? On the measures that we have published, the attainment gap is closing and has closed over time. On the point of access to university education, we are at a record high in the proportion of young people going to university from the most deprived areas in Scotland. I do not quite understand the data that Mr Halcro Johnston is marshalling to undermine what is outstanding achievements and performance as a consequence of the focus that we have on widening access in higher education. Tom Arthur, followed by Daniel Johnson. Can I ask the cabinet secretary how the Scottish Government has ensured that the voices of parents and pupils have been heard throughout the reform process and will continue to be heard going forward, given the benefit that this collaborative approach is having for schools in my constituency such as St Anthony's and Johnson's? The National Parent Forum of Scotland is a key partner in all of our reform activity. We are listening closely to the contents of their thinking in all aspects of the education and reform journey, and we will continue to do that as we strengthen parental and pupil voice within education. The one hard figure in the statement is the £5 million for regional improvement collaboratives. Could the cabinet secretary confirm that that will be recurring funding? How many net new roles has that created within the education system? Could he elaborate and give a specific example of the interventions that the regional collaboratives have been implementing in the past year? That is more than one question. I cannot give Mr Johnson the head count number in relation to the funding for regional improvement collaboratives, but I will happily write to him about that. On the concrete examples of what the regional improvement collaboratives are doing, they are running improvements in literacy and numeracy programmes, with tried and tested evidence-based practice being used to inform and strengthen professional development. They are delivering moderation support in different across-regional boundaries to make sure that teachers across the broad general education have a better understanding of standards. They are putting in place exchanges of learning about the measures that are closing the attainment gap fastest in areas of deprivation to make sure that learning can be shared across the board. A real collaborative spirit has been taken forward within our regional improvement collaboratives, and that is sharing good educational practice across the system. I welcome the Scottish Government's on-going commitment to empowering teachers and on securing a landmark deal on teachers pay, but can the cabinet secretary expand on the support that will be provided to help to reduce teachers' unnecessary workload? The whole concept of teacher agency is about empowering our teachers to have professional confidence to make judgments about all aspects of the curriculum, but it is crucial to ask judgments about their workload. I have just come from a meeting of the Scottish Education Council this morning at which all players in Scottish education committed to some further joint work on reducing unnecessary teacher bureaucracy to enable teachers to focus on what we all want them to focus on, which is the learning and teaching of young people in Scotland. That concludes the question. I apologise to James Dorn and Neil Findlay, who were additional questioners and did not quite manage to reach you. We are short and move on to the next item of business.