Hansard

I am pleased to open the stage 3 debate on the Education (Scotland) Bill. I thank members for their contributions this afternoon, and I thank the Finance Committee, the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee and particularly the Education and Culture Committee for their consideration and scrutiny of the bill as it progressed through the parliamentary process.

The Education (Scotland) Bill is a wide-ranging bill containing measures that are important to key aspects of Scottish education. It forms part of the work that the Government is undertaking to ensure that excellence and equity are embedded throughout our education system. I acknowledge that the bill began life as a much smaller bill that focused primarily on Gaelic-medium education and extending children’s rights in the additional support for learning framework. One of my first acts as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning was to ensure that the bill was developed to reflect better, and to provide for, the Government’s commitment to raising attainment for all and closing the attainment gap.

At the bill’s introduction and at stage 1, I made it clear that I wanted to make the bill as strong and effective as possible. In order to do that, we listened to the views of members, to the relevant committees in particular and to those who gave evidence throughout the parliamentary process. Accordingly, we lodged a range of amendments at stage 2 to strengthen existing provisions and to introduce important new ones to provide a necessary statutory underpinning to key policy developments from the programme for government. We have made further refinements this afternoon, at stage 3, and I am confident that the bill that is before us today in this final stage will achieve its purpose and will elicit the support of the whole Parliament.

The common thread in the bill’s provisions is the focus on creating an education system that is wholly centred and focused on children’s interests and needs—especially children who have particular interests and needs. The bill places a strong duty on education authorities and ministers to address inequalities of outcome, and it makes explicit the link between those inequalities and socioeconomic disadvantage. That marks a significant milestone for education in this country, in that we are now utterly focused on there being duties on national and local government to act to reduce the impact of inequality and poverty on children’s learning experiences. However, the creation of a new statutory duty is a new stage in a journey to success that will be completed only by effective actions to close the attainment gap.

The bill also anchors in legislation the national improvement framework, which was published on 6 January. It sets out parameters for the framework and how it might be reviewed, the duties on national and local government to provide plans, requirements for regular reporting and—crucially—a requirement for education authorities to publish annual equal opportunities statements. That further ensures a relentless focus on the need to deliver equity for all children in education.

I am acutely aware of the importance of headteachers to the success of our education system, which is why school leadership is one of the six drivers of improvement that are set out in the national improvement framework. The bill includes measures to ensure that every child in Scotland has the right to be educated in a school with a headteacher who has the appropriate knowledge and skills to help them to succeed and to allow the school to flourish.

The Government believes that it is right that the bill protects the number of learning hours that each child should receive. However, a national entitlement should still be flexible enough to meet individual children’s needs and to accommodate varying circumstances, so it is important that we consult fully to reach agreement on what the national entitlement should be.

The bill provides a consistent approach around our collective actions to help to remove barriers to education, to reduce inequality gaps, to raise attainment and to improve children’s health and wellbeing through the provision of school clothing grants. To create further consistency, the bill makes the provision of a free school lunch equally applicable to young children who receive their entitlement to early learning and childcare at partner providers.

The bill also provides a regulation-making power to enable the provision of meals other than a lunch. Our more vulnerable two, three and four-year-olds could receive a breakfast or tea instead of a lunch, if that better suits the time of their session.

True to its roots, the bill also introduces new measures to promote and support Gaelic-medium education. It introduces a right for parents to request the provision of Gaelic-medium primary education in their local area and a presumption that an authority must respond positively to that request unless it would be unreasonable to do so.

Importantly, the bill enhances the rights of children with additional support needs. We have grasped the opportunity that the bill affords to put children’s needs, interests and rights at the heart of our education system.

Although the bill provides an overarching framework, it does not set the detail in stone. Its measures provide scope and opportunity to build consensus and collaboration with teachers, schools, local authorities, Education Scotland, parents, and children and young people, so that we can develop the secondary legislation and guidance that will ensure that we get the detail right on how things will work in practice.

I firmly believe that the bill will help to move Scotland forward in our ambition to embed excellence and equity in education, and in our determination to create a world-class system in which every child has the chance to succeed. I look forward to the debate and urge members to pass the Education (Scotland) Bill.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees that the Education (Scotland) Bill be passed.