Meeting of the Parliament 09 February 2012
I thank Liz Smith for her kind words. I recall that only last Thursday morning she was criticising my tone, so I am glad that absence has made the heart grow fonder.
On CPD, I welcome the constructive tone that Liz Smith has taken, and I hope that she will continue to contribute in that way, because we regard CPD as a very important element. That is demonstrated in many ways in the McCormac report and in what I have said today. We should be moving towards structured CPD that is challenging and leads to a masters-level profession. In other words, we should gather up CPD in a way that leads forward in terms of capability. Of course, Graham Donaldson was a member of the McCormac review, and those ideas are carried through into it. The proposals on professional review and personal development show how seriously we take the issue.
On best practice, the masters is based on a Finnish model that has been applied very successfully. I always look to examples from elsewhere, as does everybody in education. Some we reject. For example, we rejected the Swedish free schools model—which Liz Smith came close to supporting, but which she steered away from—on the grounds that we think that it is incompatible with the Scottish model of education and would not work here. We saw free schools in operation—indeed, we saw the same school as Michael Gove—but drew different conclusions as to how they might work here. I have talked to education ministers and educational practitioners in many different countries, and I will continue to do so. Part of the work that our researchers do in education is to look at examples worldwide to make sure that we understand what is happening elsewhere.
I think that Liz Smith referred to two different things in relation to the Renfrewshire model. As regards responsibility for staffing, before Christmas the Cameron report took forward, with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the idea of devolved school management. Implementation is still being worked on, and I am sure that we will see continued progress.
I say frankly that I think that the Renfrewshire model was wrong and would not work, and that to introduce it now would be a distraction. We need to consider existing good practice. That is what I have encouraged Education Scotland to do, and that will lead us forward in the right way. I think that even in Renfrewshire some people accept that the model was perhaps not the way in which they should have been going forward. To continue to talk about the model would be a distraction.