Meeting of the Parliament 12 March 2026 [Draft]
I thank Mr Kerr for his question and for his general interest in the topic during the current parliamentary session, which led to some of the work that I detailed in my original answer.
The member raises an important point in relation to the use of data in Scottish education. We see variance across the piece. This morning, I was at Murrayfield stadium at the additional support for learning cross-party conference. A key part of the ASL review is looking at inconsistency across the country in terms of additional support needs and how they are recorded. One of the key recommendations to come from that cross-party review is that we look at having a national staged intervention model. There is clearly an ask from Parliament for more national direction from the Government. However, as cabinet secretary, I also need to be mindful that, at the current time, the statutory responsibility for the delivery of education rests with local authorities. What I can do as cabinet secretary is to issue guidance.
The member asked a question in relation to violent and aggressive incidents. I gave an update on the guidance that we published to that end last June, and I referred to the forthcoming work in relation to consequences.