 Rwy'n gwis pois i'n mynd i'n yourdaneth o brryfau ymwgreenaeth panai cofridolion a'r cyflaesau oherwydd o'r cadw iawn yn ddechrau'r Cymru, fel allanfaith iawn yn gŵr i papallu cyflaeddoedd. Yn cael ei gwybod cyflwysoedd, mae'n cwmpas i bwysigio panfodolion ymw�n. Mae'n cwmpas i bwysigio panfodolion i'r cwmpas a'r cwmpas i bwysigio'r cwmpas i bwysigio oedd ein clywer o'r ddafyn nid o'r cyfrifon sylwyr yn rhaid o'i ddow�iaeth ar hyn o'r ddau, ac rwyf yn Digw ddawr pan ddyn nhw'n mynd o'r ddau sylwyr yn ddawr ar hyn o'r ddawr chyfrifon sylwyr yn ddawr? Mae'n hynny'n ddim bwysig yn gweld, wrth gwrs, am hynny'n ddawr, o'r ddawr a朝 ar y cyfrifon There has been no change to the recruitment policy for education agencies following my announcement to replace the SQA and reform Education Scotland. There remains a matter for the individual agencies and is publicly available in Education Scotland and the SQA's framework agreement. I am committed to the continued support for the SQA and Education Scotland to ensure that they have sufficient resources to meet their functions during this transitional period. Russell Finlay. I have been looking at many job adverts for the soon-to-be overhauled Education Scotland. The quango is right now looking for a head of leadership learning, apparently. I quote, This person will lead and coordinate the work of the professional learning and leadership directorate, providing national support for professional learning and leadership development. The head of leadership learning will work closely together with the head of professional leadership and learning to bring a coherent approach to professional learning and leadership learning and development on a local, regional and national basis. Sorry, that was not my fault. That was their advert. I know you make your point if you have a question. I know you have a priority. This lucky person will get up to £77,000 a year for this role. Can the cabinet secretary explain the benefits of these lucrative quango jobs to pupils and parents? Would this money not be better spent on teachers? The Government is investing heavily in additional teachers. Within the first 100 days alone, we have made that commitment and we have taken action upon it. Education Scotland and the SQA continue to have exceptionally important roles in supporting teachers to support our learners during this transitional phase. I trust that all those working in Education Scotland and those who will reply to the job advertisements that are available will do their utmost to support our education system through this difficult time, supporting our teachers to support our learners. On the assumption that they are not going to read out job descriptions to brief supplementaries, Martin Whitfield first, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. No job description. But could ask the cabinet secretary to undertake today that she will wholly fund the new agency from the Scottish Government rather than require it to raise resources as the current SQA must do, diverting attention from its core purpose. The remit and role and functions of the replacement to the SQA is something that will be reported on by Ken Muir, who is due to report to me back in January. The ability for the Scottish Qualifications Authority to seek recompense from local authorities is not something that is a loan to Scotland. However, if Ken Muir wishes to put in a submission on those issues, or indeed anyone wants to put in submissions to Ken Muir as he carries on that work, I am sure that he will listen closely to that, and I will listen closely to the recommendations that come from that. Will it be possible to recruit staff who are able to produce timely guidance, unlike yesterday's guidance, that notes that further guidance will be produced in October for this year's qualifications? Two months into the school year. How on earth does that help pupils and teachers? The first guidance that came out before the summer holidays is an additional measure that gives additional detail to that. It is quite right that the SQA is working with stakeholders through the national qualifications group to look at what guidance can be put in place and then put that out as expeditiously as possible once that has been agreed. It is rather sensible of the SQA to do that in stages when there is agreement reached, rather than waiting too long, because often the SQA and other organisations are criticised for taking too long on those approaches. The contingencies that the SQA gave further detail on yesterday have stressed the fact that there is no increased workload, for example, for teachers, which I think was a very useful and, I hope, reassuring statement that the SQA put out. I think that they were quite right to do that in the quickest way that they have, and they will, as they say, provide further guidance and due course once that has gone through the stakeholder consultation through the NQ group. To ask the Scottish Government what information and resources schools will provide to engage pupils with the issues that will be discussed at COP26. While it is a matter for schools and authorities to decide the details of how to engage with COP26, Education Scotland is co-ordinating a package of learning materials and live online engagement with schools, education authorities and national partner agencies. Schools are also supported to engage with COP26 to the Scottish Government-funded equal schools and climate-ready classrooms initiatives that support schools in planning action on climate change and other environmental issues through providing resources and training for educators and pupils. The Scottish Government may be aware of the Scottish Youth Film Foundation's COP-TV programme, which will feature films and interviews created by young people from all over Scotland during COP26. COP-TV will be broadcast into schools across the USA due to the foundation's partnership with the New York Times. Will the cabinet secretary be willing to liaise with the foundation's organisers and with Education Scotland to ensure that this programming is also made available to pupils in Scotland and can she offer any assistance so that the young people involved with COP-TV can access the conference of youth taking place? I was delighted to hear about the Scottish Youth Film Foundation's COP-TV programme, and we are working with organisations across Scotland, including Young Go, the UN's official youth constituency, who are hosting the conference of youth, to ensure that children and young people in Scotland have as many opportunities as possible to make their voices heard on the global stage. Education Scotland is liaising with the Scottish Youth Film Foundation to explore how young people can engage with COP through their plans, and Screen Scotland is also providing funding towards the climate challenge 1.5 degrees films project working with films access Scotland and other partners to support climate change filmmaking with young people in equal schools. To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of any sectorial skills and labour shortages in Scotland following Brexit. The Scottish Government Office of the Chief Economic Advisor has been working closely with Skills Development Scotland to carry out analysis of official labour market sources to provide insights into sectoral skills and labour shortages in Scotland following Brexit. In July, I, along with the Minister for Justice, Transition, Employment and Fair Work and the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, met with a number of business representative organisations to better understand their recruitment challenges, many of which have been directly linked to the United Kingdom Government's immigration policy. We have continued to engage with business and mitigation measures and we continue to press the UK Government to hear the concerns that have been raised and to act accordingly. Can I thank the minister for his answer? Brexit has impacted on many sectors of my constituency, leaving many businesses with skill shortages and increasing labour shortages. Can I ask what discussions have been held with the UK Government in regards to its post-Brexit immigration scheme and, in particular, to tier 2 into requirements, and does he agree with me that the best solution to this in the future is an independent Scotland that can make its own arrangements? Well, as I set out in my initial answer, we do seek to engage with the UK Government on these matters regularly. For instance, Richard Lochhead wrote to the UK Government in July on the post-Brexit immigration policy urging them to rethink this in light of skill shortages. Mary Gougeon wrote in August to highlight some of the challenges in the food and drink sector. Where we are now, I believe that the UK Government should be considering the paper that we have pulled together, Migration Helping Scotland Prosper, which outlines how devolution of migration could work. Of course, I agree with a member that independence is ultimately the best way to shape an immigration policy fit for Scotland's circumstances. To ask the Scottish Government what impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the positive destinations of school leavers. The Scottish Government has responded to concerns about the impact that the pandemic has had on young people who are introducing the young person's guarantee, providing £70 million of funding this year in addition to the £60 million that was allocated last year. In 2019, 20 data showed that 92.2 per cent of school leavers were in a positive destination at the nine-month point after the end of the school year. The 2021 figures will be available in due course. I thank the minister for his reply. In Falkirk, the number of apprenticeships has dropped from 587 last year to 160 this year. That is a fall that is replicated right across the country. What aboutary and without any defensiveness? Does the minister recognise that this is a disaster for young people, a disaster for businesses and a disaster for all of us? Is he satisfied that enough is being done to address the issue? What satisfies me is the positive news that, of course, we saw a significant impact on the number of apprentices who were recruited last year. How could we have added anything but, given that we are in a global pandemic and demand, we are suppressed. However, what we have seen in the first quarter of this year is 3.7 times the number of modern apprenticeship starts at the same time last year, in quarter one of the year before. We are recovering. In relation to his question about what aboutary, I take that as a reference to what is happening here in Scotland by comparison with the rest of the UK. I will update the chamber in regard to that in 2016-17. We had 26,262 apprenticeship starts by 2019-20, 27,875. That is up in England by contrast in the same period. They declined by 172,400 apprenticeship starts. To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting Scotland's young people into employment, education or training. Of course, we have a range of initiatives that are under way. We have a developing the young workforce activity, which is now well embedded and now being accelerated and enhanced by the nearly 300 DYW school co-ordinators that are employed in every secondary school in Scotland. Of course, we have the young persons guarantee that I have mentioned, which will provide at least 24,000 new and enhanced employment education and training opportunities over a two-year period in addition to all the activity that we already had in place. To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is putting in place to support outdoor education. In addition to the £2.5 million that we provided to the sector over the last 18 months, we work with the sector on an on-going basis to support schools to access and use outdoor centres and ensure that our Covid-19 guidance provides clear advice on safe supported visits to centres. The most recent update to that guidance was on the 19th of August to remove caps on the numbers of young people within dorms and tents. The programme for government contains a number of further commitments to trial Scotland's first outdoor primary learning facilities to provide support for children to go on curriculum-related trips, including primary six and seven residential schools, and to give secondary school pupils the right to go on at least one optional trip during their time at school. Liz Smith, I thank the minister for that update. However, one of the most urgent concerns remains the future viability of around a third of our outdoor education centres and even more importantly the future employment of the very highly specialised members of their staff whose skills are absolutely crucial to the education of our young people, most especially after the Covid pandemic. Can I press the Scottish Government as to what it is doing to secure the future of our outdoor education centres? I thank Liz Smith for that question. She may well be interested to know that on the 10th of August I met with the Outward Bounds Trust Scotland's scouts and the chair of the Association of Heads of Outdoor Education centres and some of the issues that she's raised today were raised during that meeting. It was agreed that officials would follow up in order to gather more detailed information and evidence and a further meeting between officials has been arranged for the next few weeks. I'm going to call a supplementary for Collette Stevenson if it's on outdoor education. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it's taken to ensure that the climate emergency is reflected in the learning of our children and young people. I call on the minister to tie that back into outdoor education. Our learning for sustainability action plan, which comprises climate education, contains actions to support teacher skills in sustainability education, to develop and promote qualifications relating to sustainability and encourage schools to take a whole-school approach. To coincide with the COP26 summit, Education Scotland is providing a series of online countdown to COP events to schools. The learning for sustainability awards 2021, which will be announced on 27 October, will also help to gather and share examples of sustainability education across Scotland. I'm sure that that will include outdoor education. To ask the Scottish Government how it will take forward the recommendation of Professor Gordon Stobart's review of upper secondary education student assessment in Scotland. Professor Stobart's work looks at approaches to qualifications and assessment taken around the world and sets out options for consideration in a Scottish context. We will draw on that work to inform wider conversations and ensure that our future qualifications and assessment approaches better align with the early stages of our curriculum and are accessible for all learners, including those with additional support needs and those from more deprived backgrounds. I'll provide a further update to Parliament in October as part of an update on the on-going implementation of OECD's recommendations from their review of curriculum for excellence. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Professor Stobart's international comparison has been high stakes examinations and robust and adequately moderated continuous assessments highlights real opportunities to rebalance Scotland's model of certification to be less reliant on such high stakes exams. Having spoken with members of the Scottish Youth Parliament, with fellow members of the education committee just yesterday, I know that this is something many young people would not orderly welcome but be keen to be involved in shaping. Can the cabinet secretary provide any additional update to Parliament on the Scottish Government's latest thinking in that particular area? Can the cabinet secretary reassure young people that they will be involved meaningfully in discussions around reshaping Scotland's model of certification to help to ensure that young people receive the qualifications that they rightly merit? We are very much committed, as a Government, to ensuring the voices of young people, parents and teachers as well as practitioners that are at the centre of our education policy. We want it to be the norm for children and young people to be involved in the decision making process in Scotland. On 22 June, I outlined that we will reconvene the Scottish Education Council and we will ensure that the council includes young persons representatives. In addition, we are establishing the Children and Young People's Education Council to sit alongside the Scottish Education Council and to give that parity of esteem. That as well as wider engagement will help to ensure that children and young people's voices influence their education policy, including shaping any reform and qualifications. The cabinet secretary should not need a further review or committee to answer that yes or no question. Can she give a simple guarantee that Scottish pupils will still have the opportunity to gain an externally assessed exam-based qualification before leaving school? As I have said on numerous occasions, this Government is open to the opportunities that we have. It is not a simple or yes or no answer with the greatest of respect, Mr Mundell, because what we are doing is having a serious and detailed conversation about what assessments will look like. Yes and no does not quite cut it when you are in government. It might do for Mr Mundell's press release. As I was saying, this Government is very open to looking at the best way of doing assessments and qualifications in the future. What Professor Hobart has given us is a range of options. Many of the opportunities that we have is to combine assessments at the end of term exams with more continuous assessment, ensuring that we give everyone within Scotland the opportunity to develop to their full potential. That is something that I am determined to do. I certainly hope that the Opposition rises to the occasion to get past yes or no answers and have a detailed conversation including on exams and their role within the current setup and in any future setup and how we can actually take that to the next level to provide the best opportunity for Scotland's young people. Yesterday, the SQA published a two-page document stating that final decisions over the national qualifications in 2022 will be made next March. It lacked any detail over what criteria will be used to make that decision, particularly whether disruption will be based on a pupil by pupil, school by school, council by council or on a national basis of assessment. Will the education secretary give a statement to Parliament to clarify this very important issue? What the SQA said in its statement yesterday was to give further detail on what will happen under different scenarios. The aspect that the looked at is in scenario 1, where there will be increased disruption but exams will still be allowed to happen, and those changes can be made to vary late on in the process because it is about what will happen in the exams themselves. The other scenario that the SQA looked at is of course that the exams cannot happen because of the pandemic, and that is exactly why it has given the reassurance that this is about assessments to inform process, but that it will not require any additional workload for teachers. Yesterday's announcement gave a lot of certainty and a lot of reassurance to teachers, young people and parents. Of course, as we go through this year, it is a fluid and flexible situation. I am not sure whether Mr Marra has a crystal ball to know what the pandemic will look like in a couple of months' time, but I certainly don't. That is why we are continuing our discussion with stakeholders and why the SQA is continuing the discussion with stakeholders, including parents, teachers and young people, to ensure that we develop our understanding as we go. Of course, the SQA will give further detail in due course once those discussions have reached a point of making announcements. To ask the Scottish Government how it supports schools in delivering high-quality education for children with additional support needs. We are committed to ensuring that all children and young people get the additional support that they need to reach their full potential. We published our joint response to the independently chaired review of implementation of additional support for learning in October 2020. Angela Morgan's report sets a clear direction on how we will continue to work with partners to build on progress in this area, and the joint action plan sets out the measures that we will take to implement her recommendations. Due to CAMHS waiting times, border parents whose children live with ASN have been expressing how they find it difficult to gain a diagnosis, with some having to pay for a private assessment. Even then, private assessments are sometimes not accepted. In light of those difficulties, what additional resources can be made available to ensure that more assessments are done so that children with ASN can receive the appropriate educational arrangements that they are entitled to? I thank Rachael Hamilton for that question. If she would wish to provide my office with further details about the specific local concerns that she has raised, I would be more than happy to provide further detail on that on the local circumstances. However, she is absolutely right to point out that children and young people have been adversely affected by the pandemic. That includes children with additional support needs and those who may be waiting on diagnosis. There is additional funding that has gone into support local authorities and health boards, and there has been additional support going into the CAMHS service itself. However, if Rachael Hamilton has a particular issue in her local area, as I said, I would be more than happy to follow that up with her. I want to take two supplementaries that need to be very brief and the answers likewise. First, Karen Adam. To ask the Scottish Government what steps have been taken so far in appointing a commissioner for learning disabilities, autism and neurodiversity, and what role that commissioner is expected to play in ensuring a high-quality level of education for children with those specific additional support needs? As the First Minister announced in her programme for government, we are carrying out scoping work on the remit and powers of a learning disability, autism and neurodiversity bill in this parliamentary year, and that will include the work on a learning disability, autism and neurodiversity commissioner. To ask the Scottish Government to set out its plan for a transition strategy, which it was committed to in the recent programme for government. I thank Pam Duncan-Glancy for the question. I know that she is particularly keen to press the Government on and ensure that we are delivering on. We have made progress on the work with that in terms of meeting with stakeholders and working groups. I know that there has been recent meetings on that. I was not at that one particularly myself, so I will ensure that the minister is involved, which I think was clear hockey as part of that work with Christina McKelvie, and we can get further detail on that for you. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work of the mental health in schools working group. The mental health in schools working group has overseen the development of new resources for school staff, including a new online professional learning resource, which was introduced in June 2021, and new guidance to support whole-school approaches to mental health and wellbeing, which was published in August 2021. The resources helped school staff to understand and respond to the range of mental health and wellbeing concerns that young people may experience. The Scottish Government will continue to work with the mental health in schools working group to embed those approaches right across Scotland. Cabinet Secretary, the working group's whole-school approach framework includes access to school counselling services. However, Aberty Aberdeenshire Council has identified a shortage of qualified and accredited counsellors in the north-east, which means that the counselling service will not be at full capacity until January 2023. Given the pressures on the children's mental health, what action is the Scottish Government taking to support the delivery of school counselling services? Ms White will know that the Scottish Government has provided support to local authority partners to ensure that every secondary school has access to counselling services, because we want to ensure that those who require that support will do so. If there are particular workload issues in obtaining staff in particular areas, then clearly that is a concern. We will ensure that all the measures that can be taken at a Scottish Government level to improve access to those services is undertaken and will be undertaken working with our local authority partners who have the responsibility for recruitment and retention in those issues.