The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday January 08 2025 #Education

The Scotsman

Dale catches up with education correspondent Calum Ross

Transcript

00:00Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Wednesday.

00:05My name is Dale Miller.

00:06I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman, and I'm joined by our Education Correspondent, Callum

00:11Ross.

00:12Callum, we're into the new year, which means a big focus on education, but I just want

00:17to talk through the front page of the Scotsman firstly.

00:21And we led on A&E while flu hit A&E units running at, in some cases, nearly four times

00:28over capacity.

00:29There was a warning, particularly from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine yesterday,

00:35and some quite alarming figures about the NHS in crisis.

00:39There was a record number last week of flu hospitalisations in Scotland up at about 1,500.

00:47Concerns to the point where Neil Gray had to make a ministerial statement at Holyrood

00:51about it.

00:52I think it's one to watch this space to see whether the situation improves.

00:57And we had the ongoing impact of the yellow weather warning here in Scotland, although

01:02the outlook is looking a bit brighter, if not still chilly today.

01:07You can read all about those stories at scotsman.com.

01:10Callum, education front as well, we're back into the new year.

01:15Everyone including my daughter was back at school this week.

01:18Probably the kids weren't looking forward to being back, but there are some significant

01:22developments around education and Jenny Gilruth has been quizzed by a committee this morning.

01:29Just talk us through what's been discussed so far.

01:33That's right, Dale.

01:34Both Jenny Gilruth, the Education Secretary, and Graeme Day, the Further and Higher Education

01:40Minister are up at the Education Committee at the Scottish Parliament this morning.

01:45They've been given evidence on the government's budget for 2025-26.

01:53Still going on, I should say, but in our opening remarks Jenny Gilruth said it had been, in

01:59her view, a good settlement for education and skills, a 3% increase in real terms overall.

02:09But one area where we know there are real pressures in terms of finances are colleges

02:15and universities and a lot of the questioning has focused on that so far.

02:21Jenny Gilruth said that she agreed that the government was providing adequate support

02:28to Scotland's colleges.

02:31Graeme Day even said that he thought that their ask in terms of the budget from colleges

02:36had been unrealistic.

02:39I mean I'm pretty confident that Scotland's colleges wouldn't agree that the budget was

02:44adequate from their point of view.

02:47In fact, Colleges Scotland said at the time of the budget that it was deeply troubling

02:52the underinvestment they're continuing to see in the sector.

02:57What they did get was an uplift.

02:58It was a 1.8% uplift, which of course is still below inflation.

03:03So a real terms cut and that follows a 17% real terms cut since 2021-22.

03:12In terms of universities, we've obviously been reporting extensively in recent weeks

03:18about the situation of universities with job cuts underway.

03:21We've had a university principal resign at Dundee University, restructuring several universities

03:31posting deficits for last year.

03:34Today we reported how Universities Scotland had kind of made some suggestions in terms

03:39of how to ease the pressure on specific institutions.

03:43I mean they didn't name any institutions but you've got to imagine the likes of Dundee

03:48they had in mind.

03:51One thing they asked was for the Scottish Funding Council to be mindful of the stability

03:57of individual institutions when they're not only dishing out their grants but determine

04:02whether to claw back money from specific institutions.

04:06We know that the likes of Dundee is facing a clawback.

04:09They're going to have to repay some of their grant because they've under recruited in Scottish

04:16students by about 300, more than 300 Scottish students this year.

04:20So they're going to face a financial penalty for that.

04:23But what Universities Scotland is saying is basically bear in mind the stability of an

04:30individual institution, don't compound their problems, give them space, time to rebuild.

04:36Now Graeme Day was asked about this and he said he was, it wasn't an unreasonable ask

04:43and that there was a balance to be struck but he did kind of make some positive noises

04:49there in terms of whether that could be something the government might consider.

04:53It sounded like there might be hope for universities there and also just in general terms about

05:00the, you know, there have been ongoing calls from the sector for a review of funding, the

05:07funding situation in terms of higher education in the longer term.

05:12Both Jenny Gilreath and Graeme Day were asked about this.

05:15I mean they said they would be happy to have their open to engagement in terms of the future

05:20funding for Scottish universities but that the free tuition for Scottish undergraduates

05:26would have to remain a central tenant of any offering.

05:31So that's a red line they're not going to budge on anytime soon.

05:36Just on a separate education issue, you've been writing a little bit over the past week

05:41about additional support needs students.

05:43We know that catering for them within the existing system has been an issue.

05:49Ross Greer's written a letter in relation to this to Jenny Gilreath.

05:54That's right. This is about a specific issue.

05:57Around coordinated support plans.

06:01Now these are kind of legally binding documents that local authorities have to provide in

06:07certain circumstances.

06:10Now, as we know, we've been, you know, there's been a lot of discussion about a big

06:15increase in the number of pupils with additional support needs in Scotland.

06:21In the last 10, 15 years, more than 40% of school pupils now have an ASN.

06:28But despite that big increase, there's been a big drop in the number of children with

06:34these coordinated support plans.

06:37A 61% drop in the last 10 years.

06:41I think just 0.4% of pupils with ASN have one of these plans.

06:46Anyway, kind of campaigners say that basically the wording in the legislation is too

06:50restrictive and it means that councils don't always provide these plans.

06:57Anyway, Ross Greer has kind of suggested a way that Jenny Gilreath, the Scottish

07:01government, could look at this issue using an upcoming bill to kind of make it less

07:07restrictive and enable more pupils with ASN to have access to these legally binding

07:13support plans.

07:15You can read these stories from Callum Ross at Scotsman.com.

07:20If you're looking for any of our education coverage, there's an education tab in the

07:24navigation bar where you can get all the very latest.

07:27Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X and Blue Sky and go out and buy a copy of

07:33the Scotsman tomorrow for all your very latest in news from across Scotland, the UK

07:38and the rest of the world.

07:39Thanks to you, Callum, and thanks to everyone else for joining us.

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