The Scottish Government has working relationships with the Welsh Government on a number of issues but does not currently publish minutes of its meetings. This is to preserve a safe space for officials to discuss a range of matters.

While there are no plans to publish minutes of meetings with Welsh Government officials where areas of mutual interest including the Scottish Education Exchange Programme have been discussed, our engagement with the Welsh Government is helping to inform our Exchange Programme test and learn project.

The Scottish Government engaged with a wide range of stakeholders in the development of the Learning together: national action plan on parental involvement, engagement, family learning and learning at home 2018–2021. In late 2021 a steering group was formed by the Scottish Government to inform next steps, with representation from CoSLA, Education Scotland, Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, Scottish Qualifications Authority, General Teaching Council of Scotland, Connect, National Family Learning Network, National Parent Forum of Scotland, and Scottish Parental Involvement Officers Network.

The Scottish Government does not recognise these reported claims.

The Scottish Government worked closely with the teaching unions, including the EIS, and local government partners to reach a historic 28-month pay deal that has a cumulative value of 14.6%, which is the largest pay package for teachers in over twenty years.

The summary of 2022 reports will be published in the coming weeks at: Access to counsellors in secondary schools and children and young people’s community mental health services – summary reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government is not aware of these reported comments from the EIS. The up to date national picture on Behaviour in Scotland’s Schools will publish later this year.

Local authorities currently provide six monthly reports on school counselling services which include information around number of children accessing the service, improved outcomes, counsellor numbers and the types of issues young people are presenting with.

A summary of the reports submitted in 2022 will be published on the Scottish Government website in the coming weeks at: Access to counsellors in secondary schools and children and young people’s community mental health services – summary reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. It is statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage and maintain their school estate.

However, the proportion of schools in “good” or “satisfactory” condition has increased from 61% in April 2007 to 90.4% in April 2022.

Each year the Scottish Government provides the previous year’s teacher salary data to the OECD, as collected via the Staff FTE Pay Data Collection . This salary data covers main grade and head teachers, and consists of the minimum, maximum and average salary for each alongside some aspects of pay progression.

Supplementary information is also provided, such as the qualifications required to be a teacher, how salaries are negotiated and requirements for pay progression. Data is also provided on areas like statutory working time and teaching time per year, based on agreements made in teacher contracts.

The responsibility for the provision of secure transport lies with local authorities, and the development of this specification is being led by COSLA.

Discussions with key partners around the use of the specification are ongoing and will be discussed at the national Secure Care Group Meeting on 2 October. The Secure Transport Working Group aim to introduce the specification as soon as possible to assist local authorities in commissioning these services.

Ultimately, the costs of the strategy will be determined by the actions which are included when the strategy is finalised. These will require to be assessed and agreed within the context of the 2024-25 Published Budget process.

To support development of the strategy we have spent more than £70k on research and engagement since the announcement was made; and have provided grant funding to the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland.