 The First Item of Business is portfolio questions education and skills. To ask the Scottish Government whether children in Glasgow must demonstrate greater needs than those in other parts of Scotland in order to gain access to an additional sport for learning school. John Swinney Children and young people should learn in the environment that best suits their needs. The legislation places a duty on local authorities to provide education in a mainstream school unless specific exceptions apply. In summary, those include the education provided in a mainstream school would not be suitable for the aptitude and abilities of the child in question. Mainstream education would be incompatible with the provision of efficient education for other children and placing the child in a mainstream school would incur unreasonable levels of public expenditure. That applies across the whole of Scotland. John Mason. I thank the cabinet secretary for that reply, but it does appear to be easier for families in richer council areas and for families who are perhaps better off and more self-confident to argue their corner and get their child into a special school. John Swinney. The conditions and criteria that I set out in my original answer to Mr Mason apply right across the country, and those are specified in statute. Obviously, it is up to individual local authorities to make a judgment based on those conditions as to whether or not the educational needs of a young person is met, and that should be the basis upon which decision-making is undertaken. There are, of course, opportunities for parents where they feel dissatisfied with the decision-making of a local authority to pursue those issues through the tribunal process. I would encourage local authorities and parents to try to resolve those issues, but I accept that, in some cases, it is necessary for those issues to be resolved at tribunal when all sides of the debate on the appropriate educational setting for young people can be heard and resolved. Liz Smith. Thank you. As far as resources are concerned, cabinet secretary, for additional support for learning, I first of all put on record my thanks to you personally for the efforts that you are making to assist with families with the recent closure of the new school at Butterston. In light of that, and in some of the comments about additional support for learning across the country, will you undertake to have a formal review about the resources that are available for specialist education? John Swinney. I think that we have got—first of all, I am grateful to Liz Smith for her comments about the new school at Butterston. There are about 23 young people who are affected by the closure, and staff who are affected by the closure of that school. On a daily basis, I am seeing reports from each local authority affected by the progress that has been made in finding appropriate educational settings for young people. That review work goes on on a daily basis. Some progress has been made in some cases, but not in all cases, and it will take time to find appropriate placements for young people. I think that it is important that we keep under active review the options that are available for the placing of young people outside of mainstream education. Fundamentally, the law is clear that we should encourage mainstreaming, but there are exceptions that are specified in the Standards and Schools Act 2000. I obviously want to maintain an overview of the provision that is available in consultation with local authorities to make sure that there are options available to meet the needs of young people in such circumstances. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it has taken to support school children with mental health issues. The Scottish Government is working to strengthen child and adolescent mental health. We know that prevention and early intervention make a big difference in reducing the risk of developing mental health problems. We are working collaboratively to provide access to councillors and schools. That will complement the spectrum of mental health services that are already being provided in schools to ensure that every child and young person has access to emotional and wellbeing support in school. We are also continuing to support local authorities to access mental health first aid training for key staff. Thank you, cabinet secretary, for that answer. Could he give an update on the commitment to have councillors in every school and outline what impact that decision that the Government has taken is designed to have on pupils and staff, particularly, as he said, a complement to existing pastoral care provision? John Swinney Presiding Officer, there is work actively under way to advance those commitments, and we are working with key partners to identify the best use of resources and will publish a programme for delivery that will ensure that this commitment is met. We said in the programme for government that we would set out a delivery plan on all of the mental health commitments that are contained in the programme for government, and that work is currently under way. One of the issues that we have to consider is how we make sure that this investment is compatible with the existing arrangements that some schools have already taken forward as a consequence of their own decision making using pupil equity funding, where they have seen the necessity of strengthening counselling services available for young people. That investment has been made in some parts of the country, and we need to make sure that the Government's commitment dovetails and supports that approach that has been taken. supplementary from Mary Fee Almost a third of children waited more than 18 weeks for access to mental health treatment between July and September of this year. Fewer children were treated within the target time this year than in 2017. When is the Scottish Government going to take its responsibility to young people seriously and act to meet the needs of school children with poor mental health? It should be pretty clear to Mary Fee from the commitments that are made in the programme for government that the Government takes those issues deadly seriously. The investment that has been announced by the Government is in response to the very significant change in the pattern of presentation about mental health issues, which Mary Fee must be aware of and can recognise as something that has changed dramatically in the course of the last few years within Scotland. Our focus is on early intervention to make sure that we can reduce the presentation of young people to CAMHS, which I think that all of us would agree would be the best intervention, because the earliest we can intervene to support the mental and emotional wellbeing of young people, the better it will be for those young people. That is the agenda that the Government is pursuing. It is an agenda that is worthy of support, and I invite Mary Fee to do exactly that. Question 3, Lewis MacDonald. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Education and Skills Committee report, Young People's Pathways, a progress report on developing the young workforce. We welcome the committee's inquiry and will consider their findings and recommendations in detail. We are committed to increasing the number of pathways that are available to young people through the developing young workforce programme, with a particular focus on proving outcomes for those who face additional barriers when moving from education to employment. Lewis MacDonald. I thank the minister for that answer. He will know that Aberdeen and Grampian have shown how much of a positive difference the Department for Work can make in engaging, for example, with more than 400 employers and creating real opportunities for many young people in the region. However, he will also know that the committee's report points out that that is not happening in other places. Does the minister agree with the committee that a greater sense of urgency in rolling that out is required? Jamie Hepburn. I would take no sense of a lack of urgency in the roll-out of developing the young workforce, starting from the top. The Government is utterly committed to rolling out developing the young workforce across Scotland. Yes, it is the case, and it is inevitable to be the case on a regional basis. Some areas of the country will be further ahead than others. Aberdeen and Grampian in the North East are a very good example. There are other great examples across the country as well. In fact, there are good examples of progress right across the length and breadth of the country. However, yes, some areas are further ahead than others, and our task is to support the regional groups to ensure that they are learning from one another, learning best practice and rolling out the developing young workforce programme as consistently and as far or wide as possible across the country. That is something that the Government is committed to. Supplementary Willie Coffey. Can the minister what role skills development in Scotland will play in contributing to the development of a skilled and productive workforce in Scotland? Jamie Hepburn. Skills Development Scotland plays a critical role in that, of course, in that it is discharged with the function of contracting for modern apprenticeships. We are, of course, committed to delivering 28,000 such opportunities this year, as we move towards our target of 30,000 by 2020. They are also involved in the provision of new graduate apprenticeships. They are also involved in the provision of foundation apprenticeships in the school environment and, of course, they have a responsibility for careers information and guidance. They are critical to our developing young workforce agenda. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Do you ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its response to the vote in Parliament of 19 September 2018, opposing national standardised assessment for P1 pupils? John Swinney. Presiding Officer, on 25 October, I made a parliamentary statement announcing an independent review of P1 assessments. The review will consider all the evidence gathered and provide recommendations by May 2019. Alex Cole-Hamilton. I am grateful to the cabinet secretary for that answer. We voted in this chamber to end the national assessment of five-year-olds, and yet still this Government persists, arguably, in contempt of this Parliament. Can I ask firstly that the Government halts the programme of national assessment of P1s immediately and for the duration of that review? Can I also ask for a guarantee from the cabinet secretary that his Government will attach no precondition to education funding on the delivery of those assessments, as it sometimes does in other policy areas, so that authorities considering abandoning those assessments unilaterally can do so without sanction? John Swinney. Well, where to start with that particular question. The Government, I set out in great detail the views of the Government in relation to the decision that was taken by Parliament on 19 September. It is no secret that I did not think the debate was driven by educational considerations, I thought it was driven by politics. What was clear to me in coming to that conclusion was that for a sustained amount of time, in local authorities led by the Labour Party, the SNP, the Conservatives and the Liberals, there were P1 standardised assessments that people did not bat an island to. I think that we have to be careful that we do not take decisions based on political considerations in Parliament that may damage the educational journey of young people through our education system because that would not serve young people at all well. I have invited other parties to give me input into the independent review. I am grateful to the Conservatives, the Labour Party and the Greens for providing me with input that I am considering with the chief inspector of education to make sure that we can build some broad agreement about how we pursue the consideration of what I recognise to be an issue that divides opinion within Parliament but where I am determined to come to a conclusion that is in the interests of children and young people in Scotland. I have two supplementary requests. If you could make them quick questions, please. Johann Lamont is followed by Tom Arthur. I have to say to the cabinet secretary that it does him no good at all to impugn the motives of those people who believe in educational terms that this policy is inappropriate. Given the current debate—this is important here and elsewhere about accepting the will of Parliament—will the cabinet secretary outline on the basis of what advice did he decide to push ahead with P1 testing, while his group sets about seeking the evidence to justify it? Will he not recognise that, to respect the decision of the Scottish Parliament and the views of many families and teachers about the policy, it would be more appropriate to suspend primary 1 testing until at least his group reports? No. I take entirely the opposite view, because it is important as we undertake this exercise that we build the evidence base for that to be the case. A further year of primary 1 standardised assessments in my view will help us to inform that judgment. To the first point that Johann Lamont raises with me, I reflected on what I consider to be in the light of the evidence that I have taken from, for example, directors of education around the country or the views that I have taken from many teachers around the country who view and value the information, particularly diagnostic information, that is available about the performance of primary 1 pupils, which then informs educational judgments made professionally about the next steps in learning of young people. It is on those judgments to which I attach significant weight in my consideration of the issue. I wonder whether the Deputy First Minister can give an update on an indication of how many Opposition MSPs have taken up the offer to consult on the details of the remit of the review of the primary 1 assessments. As I indicated in my other answer, I have had information and feedback from the Conservatives, the Labour Party and the Greens on that. I am reflecting on that to help to formulate a more broadly based assessment of this exercise so that we can come to an evidence conclusion as a consequence. I think that that is an orderly way for me to respond constructively to the decision of Parliament. Two things that I would like to say here. Can we stop having private conversations across desks, please? Also, when I request quick supplementaries, that is a request because it disadvantages other people when folk go on. To ask the Scottish Government when the last review of how probationer teachers are allocated was undertaken. John Swinney Presiding Officer, probationer teachers are allocated to local authorities through the teacher induction scheme on the basis of student choice and availability of posts. The allocation process has been in place since the inception of the teacher induction scheme in 2004. The teacher induction scheme on-going review group has an on-going role in monitoring the process and will continue to do so in the period ahead. Gail Ross I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. The current practice of telling schools in May how many probationers they are getting for the following year is severely restricting some rural schools and deciding their pupils' options forms and in setting their timetables. Will the cabinet secretary consider looking at changing the system so that schools can find out much earlier in the year how many probationers they are due to get, making it fairer and easier on both pupils and teachers? John Swinney I obviously recognise the significance of the point that is raised by Gail Ross and I am certainly very happy to ask the review group to consider the issue that she has raised. Supplementary from Willie Rennie Does the cabinet secretary understand why approximately 1,000 probationer teachers in Scotland have quit the profession within the last three years? John Swinney Well, obviously individuals will make judgments about whether they are comfortable in the employment choices that they have made. We have, in the last census available, 88 per cent of probationers in full-time employment after the completion of their probation period, which is a very high level—much higher than it used to be, I might add—much higher than it used to be. I take from that that many probationer teachers are motivated to make a constructive contribution to Scottish education and they are very welcome in so doing. Question 7, Kezia Dugdale Do you ask the Scottish Government whether it will make money available for a new Castlebray high school before the 2021 new school building cycle? John Swinney Presiding Officer, through our schools for the future programme, the City of Edinburgh Council has been awarded over £63 million towards the construction of four school projects. My officials met with the local authority on 29 October to discuss its waive for investment programme. On 21 November, I announced the new £1 billion learning and state investment programme, and we will now work in collaboration with the local authority and other authorities to identify priority projects for investment. I am afraid that that does not address my question. Castlebray hopes to start building next year, but it cannot do that if it has to wait until 2021 for additional resources. Can the cabinet secretary confirm whether she should go ahead with the scale-back version of the school using capital receipts from the land and existing council money, or should she wait for him to turn up with some cash in two years' time? John Swinney That is fundamentally an issue for the City of Edinburgh Council to decide. Let me just point out to Kezia Dugdale that, since this Government came to office in 2007, there were 61 per cent of schools in Scotland were in good or satisfactory condition, 61 per cent. Today, it is now 84 per cent. I appreciate that Castlebray High School wishes to invest in the school. I quite understand that, but the City of Edinburgh Council has made some capital decisions of its own choice, which had nothing to do with me. They were their decisions to make in relation to the use of their capital budgets, which are extensive resources that are available to them. I think that Kezia Dugdale has got to accept that this Government has made significant progress in improving the school estate. I gave Kezia Dugdale the wrong figure. It is not 84 per cent, it is 86 per cent that the Government is even better than I thought the first time round. The Government is significantly enhancing the capital estate of our school buildings, and we will engage in discussion with the City of Edinburgh Council about the aspirations in Castlebray. 8. Oliver Mundell To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve educational provision and experiences for young people with autism. We want all young people and children to receive the support needed to reach their full learning potential. We are taking a range of actions, including updating the autism toolbox to support those who work with children and young people with autism. I have considered the calls for action contained in the not-included, not-engaged, not-involved report, and I am committed to ensuring that those are addressed in the action under way to improve educational experiences for children and young people with autism. Oliver Mundell I hear the cabinet secretary talk about those calls for action. I wondered off what he said if he could spell out which of the nine calls he is supporting and which of them he will be implementing with immediate effect. John Swinney There are, as I explained in the parliamentary debate last night, a number of elements of the calls to action in this respect that raise issues that are already incompatible with guidance on those questions. Particularly if we take, for example, call number one, the stopping of the use of unlawful exclusions and the inappropriate use of part-time timetables. Existing guidance completely takes a different view to the practice that is being recounted in that particular call. What I am determined to do is to work with local authorities to ensure that there is a greater adherence to the existing arrangements that are in place. If there is a need for us to change practice as a consequence of the calls to action, that is exactly what the Government will consider. Daniel Johnson Following on from Oliver Mundell's question, I was wondering if the cabinet secretary would agree with me that there is a clear need for initial teacher education to include both additional support needs but, in particular, neurodevelopmental disorders, because that point was clear from last night's debate. John Swinney It is essential that initial teacher education equips teachers to support young people in our classrooms today. It is very evident to me that there is a greater presentation of additional support needs, so there is therefore a necessity for not only teachers going through initial teacher education but those going through continuous professional development to be cognisant of the issues that Mr Johnson raises and to ensure that that is reflected in the professional development of those charged with education. 9. Liam Kerr To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported problems with teacher recruitment. John Swinney We have taken substantive action to recruit and retain teachers through the teacher makes people campaign and have created new routes into the profession. There are now more primary and secondary teachers than at any time since 2014 and the ratio of pupils to teachers is at its lowest since 2013. We provide funding of £88 million per year to support councils to maintain teacher numbers. That resulted in 543 more teachers in 2017 than the previous year, the second consecutive year that teacher numbers have increased. Liam Kerr I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. When I submitted this question, I intended to ask about the hundreds of teaching posts in the north-east that had to be re-advertised because of the SNP's chaotic workforce planning, but yesterday's press and journal revealed the unbelievable pressure on teaching assistants and the 21,000 teaching hours lost because of stress, depression and anxiety. Given those shocking figures, it is hardly surprising that schools in the north-east cannot recruit enough teachers to give the children the education that they deserve. Will the cabinet secretary acknowledge that my local schools are at breaking point and will he finally do something about it? John Swinney As I recounted in my earlier answer to Mr Kerr, the Government has taken action in this respect through the campaign to recruit more teachers into the profession. That campaign has been successful because we have 543 more teachers in our schools in 2017 than the previous year. We will see Mr Kerr referred to vacancies in schools. There will be a vacancy survey, which will be published shortly, so we will see what progress has been made in tackling vacancies. We will also see very shortly whether any further progress has been made on the employment of teachers. Obviously, Mr Kerr can come back and ask me questions about that when the up-to-date information is to hand. I assure him that by designing new routes into teaching, by promoting the profession and by setting out the strength of Scottish education, we are encouraging more individuals to join the profession as the data that I have already set out demonstrates. Iain Gray Thank you, Presiding Officer. Teachers themselves are very clear that the only action that will address the teacher recruitment problem is a restorative pay increase for our teachers. So why, then, has the Deputy First Minister not ensured that an improved offer has been brought forward since the existing offer was overwhelmingly rejected? John Swinney Obviously, we are in active negotiations with the teaching professional associations. There was a meeting of the SNCT on Monday. We work closely with our local authority colleagues in COSLA, who are discussing the offer that can be made to the teaching profession. Obviously, when we are in a position to make an offer to the teaching profession, that will be undertaken as part of the SNCT process, when the offer is properly offered by the employers. That is COSLA, not me. 10. Sandra White Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to local authorities regarding flexibility in the provision of funded childcare at nurseries. Mary Todd The Children and Young People Scotland Act 2014 introduced a duty on local authorities to consult with parents and carers to inform how they make early learning and childcare available in their areas. That is to ensure that the provision of funded ELC within an authority is flexible enough to allow families an appropriate degree of choice when deciding how to access the service. There is supporting statutory guidance to help local authorities to meet those duties. Sandra White The minister for that reply. Minister, I have met a number of nurseries in my constituency, and a lot of the concerns have been expressed by not just the providers by parents as well in regard to the inflexibility of ours that is provided by Glasgow City Council. The difficulty is that it puts forward for them. I wonder if the minister would be with me to talk over and discuss the issues that have been raised by my parents and providers in Glasgow City Council. Mary Todd Yes, absolutely. I would welcome a meeting with Sandra White to discuss those issues, but let me reiterate that local authorities have a duty to consult with families to inform the delivery of funded ELC in their areas, and that should be reflected in the local authority expansion plans. That happens every couple of years. Flexibility should be driven by local demand from families regarding the nature and the type of provision that they require, and that should see a range of delivery models right across the authority. Let me also make clear again, as I have several times in this chamber, our new funding follows the child approach will put the power into parental hands, so any funded provider who meets the national standard and has a place available will be able to be chosen by parents for their child to go to nursery and education. Although private sector ELC providers offer the greatest flexibility, they have been ignored in capital funding decisions. In a meeting with the minister yesterday, private providers said that, in the various local authorities, the directors of education have refused to open any dialogue with them. The minister insists that councils will eventually realise that the expansion cannot be done without private providers. With the deadline fast approaching, does the minister really think that the eureka moment is going to happen on its own? If not, when will she intervene to ensure that it does? As you are aware from the meeting yesterday, I have written to all the councils in November to explain about capital funding. I can report today, I have seen just in the press today, that Murray council has brought forward some... Sorry? No, we didn't know that yesterday. So there are several local authorities, there are local authorities bringing forward packages and we will see progress on that. Can I reiterate please that I don't like private conversations to be going on in the middle of question sessions and go to question number 11, Bruce Crawford. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Do you ask the Scottish Government where it will provide an update on the number of modern apprenticeship places in the Stirling area? Jamie Hepburn. The published modern apprenticeship statistics second quarter, which covers April, September 2018, reported 225 new modern apprenticeship starts in the Stirling area, which is up from 2012 at the same point in the previous year, including those already undertaking an apprenticeship as of 28 September. There were 619 apprentices in training in Stirling. Bruce Crawford. I thank the minister for that very helpful answer. Can the minister confirm what the impact of the UK Government's apprenticeship levy has been on employers and apprentices in Scotland? Jamie Hepburn. The most obvious impact on employers, at least for those with a payroll of £3 million or more, has been that they are subject to paying the levy and that was without any prior consultation with them as to the likely impact. That includes the public sector in Scotland, which we estimate had to contribute £73 million in 2017-18. Of course, we get on with the job. In Scotland, we are delivering more apprenticeship starts than ever before, with a record number of 27,145 starts last year, up from 26,262. That is, in contrast, the position in England, which, according to the plan for education statistics, showed that between August 2017 and July 2018, there was a drop of 24.75 per cent in apprenticeship starts compared to the equivalent period of the previous year. 12. Bill Kidd. To ask the Scottish Government further to the successful rebuilding of the Clyde and Broomhill primary schools in Glasgow Annesland, what progress has been made with the rebuilding of Blair-Dardy primary school? Can I remind members that they should read the question as written on the paper? John Swinney. Through our Scotland schools for the future programme, Glasgow City Council has been awarded over £5 million towards the construction of Blair-Dardy primary school. The new school will be open to pupils in March 2019. Bill Kidd. I thank the minister for that reply. I welcome the Scottish Government's prioritisation of ensuring that the children of Scotland are educated in high-quality state-of-the-art buildings. Can the minister outline how the Scottish Government plans to continue to deliver the best quality school buildings for children post 2020, when the current funding phase of schools for the future ends? John Swinney. So far, we have supported 117 schools across Scotland being rebuilt or refurbished, and we have the lowest number of schools in unacceptable condition on record. That is a strong performance, and it has led to the Government announcing a new £1 billion learning estate investment programme that will fund new and refurbished schools across Scotland after 2020. Dialogue with local authorities and with COSLA is under way to take forward that proposal. Question 13, Rhoda Grant. To ask the Scottish Government how many additional apprenticeships have been funded by the apprenticeship levy. Jamie Hepburn. In 2017-18, there were 27,145 modern apprenticeship new starts in Scotland up from 26,262 modern apprenticeship starts the year before. The increase was achieved in the context of a reduction in available public spending lewy in Scotland as a result of the UK Government's apprenticeship levy in April 2017. Due to the public sector liability for the levy, the public sector lewy expenditure was used by some £30 million in 2017-18. Despite that, the Scottish Government continues to utilise the notion of some allocated block grant related to the levy entirely from employability and training related to the activity, and this year we will support 28,000 modern apprenticeship starts. Rhoda Grant. That seems an incredibly small amount for the levy that is being charged. I have been speaking to many organisations who have expressed disquiet over the levy. Some pay in and get very little out, others cannot access it at all because the age profile of their staff and apprenticeships does not fit the criteria. What is not clear is who is actually benefiting from this levy. Will the minister now sit down with those organisations and speak to them about how they can best use this levy to upscale their workforce? Jamie Hepburn. Let me say to Ms Grant that I will sit down with any organisation that wants to discuss these matters with me anytime. That is what I do. I do think that it is unfortunate that it seems to have fallen susceptible to the idea perpetuated by the UK Government that the levy somehow brought forth this bounty of new money available for the Scottish Government to spend. It did not. The money that came forward largely replaced existing expenditure. It was, in fact, a new mechanism by which to raise the funding. What I can say is that we are delivering more apprenticeships than we ever have before, 27,145 last year. We will deliver 28,000 this year. We will deliver 30,000 by 2020. I have already made the point of the significant reduction in the number of apprenticeship starts in England, down nearly 25 per cent between August 2017 and July 2018 last year. Given that the levy was predicated on the assumption of an uplift in the number of apprentices in Scotland—nothing to do with our policy here in Scotland—given that they are clearly failing in England to increase the number, one might ask where that money is going in England. A cynic could argue that it is nothing more than a UK Government treasury tax ploy. Short supplementary, please, from Jamie Halcro Johnston. I will be following my letter to the First Minister about the hurdles faced by small businesses in assessing apprenticeships. The minister replied that he had met the FSB in July and that his officials would be working with SDS to explore the scope for Focused Modern Apprenticeship week on small business opportunities. Given that apprenticeship week is only a few months away, can I ask the minister to update the chamber on what proposals will be made regarding the next apprenticeship week? Can I just say that short questions do not just mean to speak faster? Jamie Halcro Johnston I will take that on board. Dialogue continues. Apprenticeship week will come in due course. There is dialogue between the Government, the FSB and the SDS on an ongoing basis. I am very clear that our small media med prizes should benefit by apprenticeships. They have that opportunity. Just as I have said, I am always willing to engage with the organisations that Rhoda Grant alluded to. I will always be willing to discuss these matters with the FSB as well. Question 14, Richard Lyle. Richard Lyle To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to mitigate the impact on universities and colleges in Scotland of the UK leaving the EU. Richard Lylehead We are doing everything in our power to mitigate the damage of Brexit and to protect Scotland's interests, not least by confirming that eligible EU students starting an undergraduate course at university in Scotland in autumn 2019 will still have their tuition fees paid for the whole of their course. The simple truth, however, is that Brexit represents such a level of threat to our colleges and universities that we must be clear that no amount of mitigation will stop Brexit damaging our world-class institutions. We will, of course, continue to discuss these issues with our sectors, staff and students, as we did most recently at the Brexit summit at the University of Glasgow. I will also lead a delegation to Brussels next week to strengthen relationships with European stakeholders and ensure that Scotland's voice is being heard. Richard Lyle The Scottish Secretary of Education for Scotland said that in the massive risk register associated with Brexit, the interests of EU nationals working across education, delivering quality public services required to be front and centre. Would the minister agree that the senseless scrapping of important policies such as the post-study visa will leave Scotland worse off? Richard Lylehead Richard Lylehead highlights a very important aspect. I have just said in my previous answer that the Government is committed to paying the tuition fees for EU students from 2019 onwards to the course of the grade. We could be in the ludicast position where we would depart the EU or have a bad deal that we would not be able to have the students contributing to Scottish society if we did not have the ability to give out post-study work visas, and that is why the Scottish Government has been vociferous in calling for their written statement. The hard fact is that departing from EU will have a disproportionate impact in Scottish and further higher education in Scotland, and that is why this afternoon's debate is so crucially important for Scotland's future. Willie Rennie To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the finances of schools in the north-east fife constituency. John Swinney Presiding Officer, schools in north-east fife will be required to make the best use of the resources available to them by Fife Council, where it has set an education budget of £337 million for 2018-19, which was an increase of over £6 million on the previous year. Fife benefits from funding through the attainment Scotland fund as part of our £750 million commitment to help to close the poverty-related attainment gap. In 2018-19, schools in the north-east fife constituency received £894,000 in pupil equity funding. Willie Rennie Can the cabinet secretary understand the anger among my constituents that not only are Fife secondary schools facing cuts of £1.2 million when the Government says that education is a priority, but almost half of those cuts are being imposed on three north-east fife schools of Wade academy, Bellbackster and Madras college? Does the minister think that it is fair and reasonable for headteachers to face such dramatic cuts when it is supposed to be a Government priority? John Swinney Fundamentally, Willie Rennie raises an issue with me, which is the responsibility of Fife Council. As I have indicated, Fife Council has increased its education budget by over £6 million in 2018-19, and distribution issues within Fife are a matter entirely for Fife Council over which the Government has no jurisdiction. What I would say to Willie Rennie is that the Government is making a direct investment in the education of young people and closing the attainment gap in his constituency to the tune of £894,000. I know from my experience of assessing the work that is being undertaken by schools in Mr Rennie's constituency that it is making a significant impact on the wellbeing and the attainment of young people. Maurice Corry 16. Maurice Corry To ask the Scottish Government how Skills Development Scotland supports veterans. Jamie Hepburn Skills Development Scotland is a key member of the Scottish Government's veterans employability strategic group that focuses on improving employment opportunities and support for veterans in Scotland. In addition to ensuring all their services are veteran friendly and establishing a veterans web portal, SDS is working with the career transition partnership on a pilot on the A96 corridor that offers a guidance interview to service leavers that enhances the service that they already receive from the career transition partnership. SDS will continue to work closely with that partnership and MOD delivery staff to ensure that those leaving the armed forces are aware of all the services that are available to them. Maurice Corry I thank the minister for his answer. The Scottish Government set out its plans for veterans skills development early last year in its response to the veterans community employability skills and learning issue. Does the Scottish Government have any intention to update or check the progress of those proposals? Jamie Hepburn Yes, the Minister for Parliamentary Business and Veterans delivered his annual update to Parliament in September. The portal is available for public consumption through the Government's website, and there will continue to be updates on the work of the veterans commissioner and the employability group on the progress of the employability recommendations of the commissioner. Yes, there will be on-going and continuous updates on that work. That concludes portfolio questions. If we could quickly adjust our seats, please.