SP Paper 744 (Web Only)
Contents
Remit
Introduction
Bills
Historic Environment Scotland Bill
British Sign Language (Scotland) Bill
Education (Scotland) Bill
Inquiries and reports
Curriculum for Excellence – National Qualifications
Educational Attainment Gap
Attainment of pupils with a sensory impairment
Draft Scottish Government Budget 2015-16
One-off evidence sessions
Glasgow School of Art
Inquiry into decision making on whether to take children in care
Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People
Time to Shine
Subordinate Legislation
Petitions
Engagement and Social Media
Meetings
Remit and membership
Remit:
The remit of the Committee is to consider and report on further and higher education, lifelong learning, schools, pre-school care, skills and other matters falling within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning and matters relating to culture and the arts falling within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs.
Membership:
Stewart Maxwell (Convener)
Neil Bibby (Deputy Convener)
George Adam
Clare Adamson
Jayne Baxter
Colin Beattie
Gordon MacDonald
Liam McArthur
Mary Scanlon
Note: The membership of the Committee changed during the period covered by this report, as follows:
Mark Griffin joined the Committee on 8 January 2015, replacing Neil Bibby (Scottish Labour Party, West Scotland).Siobhan McMahon joined the Committee on 8 January 2015, replacing Jayne Baxter (Scottish Labour Party, Mid Scotland and Fife) and became Deputy Convener on 13 January 2015.
Chic Brodie joined the Committee on 27 November 2014, replacing Clare Adamson (Scottish National Party, Central Scotland).
Annual Report 2014-2015
Introduction
1. This report summarises the work undertaken and outcomes achieved by the Education and Culture Committee during the parliamentary year from 11 May 2014 to 10 May 2015.
2. We have engaged the public throughout our work, which has been invaluable in informing our scrutiny of the Scottish Government and other organisations.
Bills
Historic Environment Scotland Bill
3. We began scrutiny of this Bill during the previous parliamentary year and concluded evidence taking in May 2014.
4. We went on a fact-finding visit to Orkney on 12 May 2014. This involved a tour of the Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site and a meeting with local groups to understand their views on the Bill and the relevance of the Historic Environment Strategy. These discussions greatly enhanced our understanding of the Bill and its likely impact.
5. Our Stage 1 report was debated in the Chamber on 19 June 2014.
6. Stage 2 was completed on 19 August 2014 during which 62 amendments were considered. The Bill was passed by Parliament on 4 November 2014 and received Royal Assent on 9 December 2014.
British Sign Language (Scotland) Bill
7. The British Sign Language (Scotland) Bill was introduced to Parliament by Mark Griffin MSP on 29 October 2014.
8. As lead Committee we ensured as many British Sign Language (BSL) users as possible were able to contribute their views by issuing the call for evidence in both BSL and written English. We received 95 written submissions and 39 BSL videos in response. We also published other key documents in BSL, including a summary of the evidence received and our stage one report.
9. Recognising that digital media is a particularly important engagement tool for the Deaf community, we set up a Facebook Group to invite BSL users and others to share their views on the Bill. This forum allowed the posting of comments in BSL and English.
10. Since the Facebook Group was launched in December 2014, over 2,300 individuals have joined and have posted hundreds of comments, many of which were BSL videos. We received numerous compliments from the BSL community for this work noting how well we had recognised their specific needs.
11. Live BSL interpretation of our meetings on the Bill was provided. At our meeting on 24 February 2015 we were even able to take evidence in 3 languages – BSL, Gaelic and English.
12. We also made two fact-finding visits to help inform our scrutiny of the Bill: to Windsor Park School and Sensory Service in Falkirk, where we met pupils, teachers and staff from the Forth Valley Sensory Centre. Our second visit was to Deaf Action in Edinburgh, when we discussed the Bill with BSL users.
Education (Scotland) Bill
13. The Education (Scotland) Bill was introduced to Parliament on 23 March 2015 and we issued a call for evidence to a very wide range of interested parties.
14. In order to assist those who might wish to comment on the Bill, we wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning to ask for further information on the Bill and its accompanying documents. The response helped to inform those who were planning to make a written submission, as did our initial evidence session with the Scottish Government bill team.
15. We will take evidence from key stakeholders during June 2015 and will publish our Stage 1 report later this year.
Inquiries and reports
Curriculum for Excellence – National Qualifications
16. We have followed the ongoing implementation of Curriculum for Excellence very closely this session and this year we scrutinised the first year’s implementation of new N4 and N5 qualifications.
17. This meeting was followed by a session with the former Cabinet Secretary. We used via Facebook and Twitter to invite views to put to the Cabinet Secretary from those directly affected.
18. This generated a lively discussion on Facebook and became one of the Scottish Parliament’s most successful Facebook posts, reaching around 41,000 people. A number of questions were received and we used some to inform our questioning of the Cabinet Secretary.
19. Tapping into this heightened engagement, we also produced a highlights video of the meeting and posted this on Facebook and YouTube. We sent all contributors a link to the Official Report and video of the meeting. Those whose questions were asked were sent a direct link to the answer provided.
20. We held a further session on Curriculum for Excellence with key organisations and the Cabinet Secretary on 3 February 2015. We again used social media to invite the public to send questions and again received a good response, which enhanced the scrutiny we were able to undertake.
Educational Attainment Gap
21. We commenced a year-long piece of work into the educational attainment gap in Scotland, which is of key interest to parents and pupils throughout Scotland. To date we have taken evidence at 5 meetings, all focussing on a different theme linked to educational attainment:
- Commission for developing Scotland’s young workforce
- Role of the third and private sectors
- Involvement of parents
- Role of employers
- Role of sport and cultural bodies
22. Following these evidence sessions we wrote to the Cabinet Secretary to highlight the main issues arising and to ask for her views on a range of suggestions put to us. The work will also inform our scrutiny of the Education (Scotland) Bill.
23. Our work on attainment will continue in the coming parliamentary year, when we will take evidence from the Scottish Government and local authority representatives.
Attainment of pupils with a sensory impairment
24. We are also undertaking a dedicated inquiry to consider how the attainment levels of school pupils with a hearing and/or a visual impairment can be improved. We issued a call for evidence in English and BSL and received 63 submissions.
25. As part of this inquiry we also carried out a fact-finding visit to Craigie High School in Dundee. We will publish our report later this year.
Draft Scottish Government Budget 2015-16
26. We focussed on school spending for our scrutiny of the Scottish Government's 2015-16 draft budget. This was the first time any education committee had looked at school budgets in depth during draft budget scrutiny.
27. We involved parents groups, youth groups and unions in our work, along with those who are responsible for making spending decisions. Given our inclusive approach the evidence sessions received extensive media coverage.
28. While we were disappointed in the poor response we received from local authorities we were still able to make a number of recommendations and have agreed to continue this work into the coming parliamentary year.
29. As part of this work we will continue to examine school spending by surveying local authorities on their spending plans. We also hope to work more closely with local authorities as we seek to establish whether some stakeholders' concerns about pressures and the current levels of educational expenditure are justified. On a broader note, we have also agreed to carry out on-going financial scrutiny of some of the key spending bodies within our remit.
One-off evidence sessions
Glasgow School of Art
30. On 17 June 2014 we held an evidence session in the immediate aftermath of the fire that damaged Glasgow School of Art, recognising how important the building is to Scotland’s cultural heritage.
31. Our purpose in this session was to ascertain:
- The work being undertaken to assess the extent of the damage.
- The implications for students and the support provided to them.
- The cost and timetable of the repairs and the implications for the school.
32. Representatives from the Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow School of Art Student Association and Historic Scotland gave evidence, which gave us a clearer insight into the challenges to be overcome.
Inquiry into decision making on whether to take children in care
33. We held a follow-up session on this inquiry to make sure our recommendations were making a difference. We heard from Who Cares? Scotland on 5 August 2015 and the Scottish Government on 12 August 2015. We also heard from a group of care leavers who explained the huge difference we had made by listening to them and fully including them in our work.
34. We were told by one witness, a care leaver:
I am genuinely a different person from the one you met a year ago. I am braver, I am stronger and I am more committed than ever to achieving, to bucking the trend and to leading by example … You invited us in when others were locking us out, much of the time subconsciously … You have sent a strong message to every MSP and decision maker in this Parliament and beyond, and we have sent a strong message of hope and change to Scotland’s children and young people … What we have seen in this inquiry is democracy in action, and I will do all that I can to ensure that it continues.”
35. At a time of renewed political interest and commitment, and when the voice of young people is increasingly being heard, we were pleased to demonstrate how the Parliament could lead on these issues.
Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People
36. On 28 October 2014 we heard from Tam Baillie, Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People, on the organisation’s annual report for 2013/14.
37. Given the knowledge gained during our scrutiny of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill, we were well placed to question the Commissioner on his future priorities. These included staffing increases for his office resulting from new powers contained in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act.
38. We will take further evidence from the Commissioner in June 2015 on staffing, following his recent submission of a report to us.
Time to Shine
39. On 13 January 2015 we held an evidence session on Scotland's National Youth Arts Strategy "Time to Shine".
40. Following the strategy's publication in 2013, we were able to understand how the strategy had been implemented to date; how it had helped to change the provision of and engagement in youth arts; and the progress required to ensure its full implementation.
Subordinate Legislation
41. Over the course of the year, we scrutinised:
- 10 Scottish Statutory Instruments (SSIs) subject to the affirmative procedure;
- 19 SSIs subject to the negative procedure.
42. On 28 April 2015, we received an update from the Acting Minister for Children and Young People on two affirmatives that we scrutinised - Continuing Care (Scotland) Order 2015, and Aftercare (Eligible Needs) (Scotland) Order 2015.
Petitions
43. During the parliamentary year we considered two petitions and following consideration we agreed to close them.
- PE1470 - calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to establish a Young Carer’s Grant for carers in full-time education or under the age of 18.
- PE1530 - calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to issue official guidance to bar the presentation in Scottish publicly funded schools of separate creation and of Young Earth doctrines as viable alternatives to the established science of evolution, common descent, and deep time.
Engagement and Social Media
44. We have been keen to build upon the increased public engagement in politics and have sought to widen our engagement to encompass as many people as possible. We have made particular efforts to make greater use of social media to engage and seek comment. Throughout this report we have set out various examples of engagement and highlight some further examples here
45. We undertook a survey of parents with a child in a Scottish school, and received responses from over 2,500 parents. This helped to inform our work on educational attainment, as did our visit to Wester Hailes Education Centre in Edinburgh. An increasing number of schools and headteachers are engaging in our work, helping us to hear directly from those providing a front line service.
46. Our work on the British Sign Language (Scotland) Bill and inquiry on attainment of pupils with a sensory impairment involved us taking evidence in BSL and Gaelic, allowing us to engage with a much wider community than we have done previously.
47. We use our extensive e-mail list of contacts to keep the public and organisations fully informed about our meetings and opportunities to contribute to our work.
Meetings
48. During the parliamentary year we met 26 times:
- 12 meetings where wholly in public
- 5 meetings where wholly in private
- 9 meetings were held partly in private
49. Throughout the year we took equal opportunity considerations into account for all of our work, as demonstrated throughout this report.
Any links to external websites in this report were working correctly at the time of publication. However, the Scottish Parliament cannot accept responsibility for content on external websites.
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