Education, Children and Young People Committee 03 December 2025 [Draft]
Amendment 204, in my name, would set out that ministers must direct that the body administering funds for student support in FE,
“must ensure that advice ... is provided in person (if requested by the person applying for ... such funds), ... is reasonably available at the place of further education, ... is adequately resourced and has regard ... to the needs of learners at risk of exclusion, including low-income students, student carers, disabled learners and rural and island learners”.
If a new body is to administer funds, it must build on the key unique selling points of the way in which they are currently provided in further education.
The amendment further requires that the body
“report annually to the Scottish Ministers on whether the provision of advice met the conditions ... and what action, if any, the body or person intends to take to ensure access to advice about the provision of funds”.
That is to recognise the difference in the way in which student support funds have been given to students studying different courses across the piece and the fact that college students have traditionally been able to access it a bit differently from university students. Colleges and college students are keen to preserve the good bits of that rather than lose them in the transition.
Amendment 205 requires the SFC and SAAS to,
“within 12 months of the provisions in Part 1 and Part 3 coming into force, jointly prepare a report on the provision of maintenance support”.
The report should
“compare core maintenance support entitlements across further education, higher education, national training programmes and apprenticeships, ... assess distributional impacts on protected groups and socio-economic disadvantage, including by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation quintile and care-experienced status”
and
“set out options for improving equity and adequacy, including indicative costs and implementation considerations.”
The report should be
“published and laid before the Scottish Parliament”
and the Government should respond to it.
The effect and purpose of the amendment is to look at the maintenance system in the round and create a mechanism to review it. The bill proposes to change tertiary education in various ways, so it is an appropriate juncture to consider the sorts of maintenance support that are available to students attending or undertaking any post-16 education. Amendment 205 was lodged to test the Government’s intentions or commitment to considering whether maintenance support needs to be reviewed.
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