EC/S4/13/8/A
EDUCATION AND CULTURE COMMITTEE
AGENDA
8th Meeting, 2013 (Session 4)
Tuesday 12 March 2013
The Committee will meet at 10.00 am in Committee Room 2.
1.
Decision on taking business in private: The Committee will decide whether
to take items 3,4 and 5 in private, and a draft interim report on the inquiry into
decision making on whether children should be taken into care in private at
future meetings.
2.
Petition PE1391: The Committee will consider a petition by Susan CalcluthRussell on behalf of Renfrewshire Parent Council Forum on protecting the right
of children to be taught by qualified teachers for 25 hours a week.
3.
Broadcasting: The Committee will consider a letter from BBC Scotland.
4.
Post-16 Education (Scotland) Bill: The Committee will consider a draft Stage
1 report.
5.
Inquiry into decision making on whether to take children into care: The
Committee will consider a paper from the clerk.
Terry Shevlin
Clerk to the Education and Culture Committee
Room T3.60
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
Tel: 0131 348 5204
Email: terry.shevlin@scottish.parliament.uk
EC/S4/13/8/A
The papers for this meeting are as follows—
Agenda Item 2
Note by the Clerk
EC/S4/13/8/1
Agenda Item 3
Paper by the clerk
EC/S4/13/8/2
Agenda Item 4
PRIVATE PAPER
EC/S4/13/8/3 (P)
Agenda Item 5
PRIVATE PAPER
EC/S4/13/8/4 (P)
Agenda item 2
EC/S4/13/8/1
Education and Culture Committee
8th Meeting, 2012 (Session 4), Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Petition PE1391
Introduction
1. Petition 1391, by Susan Calcluth-Russell on behalf of Renfrewshire Parent
Council Forum, calls on the Scottish Parliament to—
“urge the Scottish Government to make it a legal requirement that qualified
teachers teach children for 25 hours in a normal school week, subject to
existing local flexibility of school hours in primary 1 and 2.”
2. The Education and Culture Committee first considered the petition at its meeting
on 29 November 20111 and agreed to leave it open until the conclusion of
negotiations on the report of the review of teacher employment in Scotland,
commonly known as the “McCormac review”.2
3. The Committee reconsidered the petition at its meeting on 11 December 20123.
The Committee agreed to keep the petition open and to write to the Scottish
Government to seek its views on general issues raised by the petition. The
Scottish Government’s response is in the annexe.
4. Further information on the petition is available via this link4.
Decision
5. The Committee is invited to agree what action, if any, it wishes to take in
relation to Petition 1391.
1
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28862.aspx?r=6783&mode=pdf
The review was published in September 2011 and was chaired by Professor Gerry McCormac.
3
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28862.aspx?r=7599&mode=pdf
4
http://scottish.parliament.uk/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01391
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Annexe
Letter from Michael Russell, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong
Learning, Scottish Government
Thank you for your letter of 20 December 2012 seeking the Government's view on
the Committee's consideration of Public Petition 1391 on 11 December 2012 and the
general issues raised by the Petition.
The Scottish Government, in line with much of the evidence the Committee has
heard to date, does not believe that the introduction of legislation to provide for all
pupils in primary schools to be taught by qualified teachers for 25 hours per week as
called for by the Petitioner is the way to proceed. The legal responsibility for the
provision of education rests with local authorities and it is therefore for them to
provide adequate and efficient education to all pupils in their schools. This approach
allows flexibility and innovation to meet local circumstances which is at the heart of
Curriculum for Excellence.
You will also beware that The Requirements for Teachers (Scotland) Regulations
2005 require that education authorities employ adequate numbers of teachers in
schools under their management with the appropriate professional skills and
knowledge necessary to enable those teachers to undertake the teaching duties
allocated to them. Those Regulations go on to require that education authorities shall
employ only registered teachers.
As the Committee will know, Curriculum for Excellence requires a transformational
change in the way we look at education in Scotland and aims to drive up attainment
and ensure that we have an education system that is fit for the challenges of our
rapidly-changing world. It requires creativity and flexibility, and a new way of looking
at how we deliver the best education for our young people. Other learning partners
have in the past and will continue to support schools in providing the best learning
experiences for children. Curriculum for Excellence encourages partnership working,
and it is for schools and authorities to decide how best to do this, ensuring that at all
times the interests of learners is at the heart of planning and decision making.
Partnership working to deliver Curriculum for Excellence also includes effectively
involving parents in decisions that affect their children's education. It is the duty of
authorities under the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 to promote
the involvement of parents in the education being provided to pupils. An authority
must set out in their Parental Involvement Strategy how they will consult with parents
and both schools and local authorities must take account of any representations
made by a Parent Council. Such representations can cover any matter relating to the
education of pupils. In the case of the changes referred to in the Petition, and indeed
any other major changes being introduced which affect the education of their
children, we would expect Renfrewshire, or any other authority, to carry out a full and
effective consultation with parents before making any decisions.
The findings in Education Scotland's report 'The involvement of external experts in
school education' published on 6 November 2012 confirms that well planned and
managed use of external experts can and does enhance both teacher
Agenda item 2
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professionalism and outcomes for young people. Pupils and teachers are benefiting
from the contributions of external experts at all stages of school education and
across the curriculum. The report identifies features of good practice in local
authorities and is clear that whilst external experts represent a valuable resource
which teachers can use to support the learning for children and young people, they
are not a substitute for the professionalism of the teacher. I fully accept the
recommendations in the report.
I would like to assure the Committee, as they are already aware, that I would not
support the variation that was suggested by Renfrewshire Council. I do, however,
have every confidence in local authorities to ensure that all of Scotland's children will
receive the best quality of education to achieve their potential.
Michael Russell
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning
22 January 2013
Agenda item 3
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Education and Culture Committee
8th Meeting, 2013 (Session 4), Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Broadcasting
1. On 7 February 2013 the Committee wrote to Ken MacQuarrie, Director, BBC
Scotland, to seek further information on a number of issues raised in the oral
evidence session with BBC Scotland on 22 January. A response was received on
22 February 2013.
2. Copies of the Committee’s letter and BBC Scotland’s response are annexed to
this paper.
3. The Committee is invited to consider what further action it wishes to take on
these issues.
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Agenda item 3
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Annexe A
Letter to Ken MacQuarrie, BBC Scotland
Dear Mr MacQuarrie
EDUCATION AND CULTURE COMMITTEE: TUESDAY 22 JANUARY 2013
I write to thank you and your colleagues, John Boothman and Bruce Malcolm, for
attending the above committee meeting. The Committee found it to be both a useful
and interesting session.
There were a number of areas where you undertook to provide the Committee with
further information, and I list these for convenience—

Staff Survey: The Committee would appreciate an analysis by department of
the impact on staff in Scotland and how people feel about the organisation and
the changes that are being made. (Official Report, cols 1813 and 1815-16);

Staffing in news and current affairs: Mr Boothman indicated that “no
programme has had a staff cut of 60 per cent, or anything like it” and that he
did not generally recognise the figures that I suggested to him (Official Report,
cols 1809-10). The Committee would therefore welcome the relevant figures
for dedicated, substantive radio news programme production staff posts,
excluding regular staff presenters and broken down by banding and
programme, from 2006 to 2013;

Benchmarking: There were several exchanges around benchmarking
Scottish programmes with others south of the Border. It would be useful if you
could clarify the positions that were discussed at columns 1820-23;

Local television: I understand that the BBC has, since the meeting, advised
the committee clerks that responsibility for the allocation of any unused money
rests with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, due to its
responsibility for the scheme. There is clearly a degree of confusion here and
the Committee would welcome the statement you referred to including details
of the amount received by BBC Scotland.
The Committee would also appreciate further information on the following issues that
were raised during the meeting—

Quality of programming: In response to questions from Liz Smith you
provided information around quality surveys. Could you specifically respond to
her questions at column 1816 asking if you are satisfied with the analyses of
quality and whether there are any concerns about the quality of programmes
among management or staff. The Committee would also welcome clarification
on the extent to which Radio Scotland uses packages from the General News
Service in its programmes;
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
Capacity: On a related issue, can you respond to Clare Adamson’s request
for an assurance that there is the capacity to continue to deliver quality
programming (Official Report, col 1817);

Content on iplayer: The Committee would be grateful if you could indicate
when all BBC Scotland’s content will be available on the iplayer (Official
Report, col 1819);

Commonwealth Games funding: On funding for the Commonwealth Games,
the Committee would be grateful if you could provide it with any timelines for
when funding will be available (Official Report, col 1828).
In addition to these requests, the Committee would welcome your comments on a
couple of other issues that arose.
Concerns were aired about the merging of the education and local government
reporter roles. The Committee has noted the terms of Sections 4 (a) and (b) of the
Royal Charter for the continuance of the British Broadcasting Corporation under
which the public purposes of the BBC include “sustaining citizenship and civil society”
and “promoting education and learning”.
It would be helpful if you could confirm how under a single post-holder you envisage
these purposes can be maintained. As an aside, the Committee notes that, in the
week of the committee meeting, the local government reporter covered stories
ranging from business to energy and adverse weather conditions.
You will appreciate that the Committee’s principal concern is that BBC Scotland
maintains sufficient capacity to cover major events during and after delivering quality
first. Any further assurance you can provide would be appreciated.
We would appreciate a response to the issues raised in this letter by Friday 22
February.
For ease of reference, a copy of the Official Report can be accessed here.
Yours sincerely
STEWART MAXWELL MSP
CONVENER
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Annexe B
Response from Ken MacQuarrie, BBC Scotland
Dear Mr Maxwell
Thank you for your email communication of 7 February. I will address the issues you
raise in turn.
1.
With regard to the BBC Scotland staff survey, the information which staff
provide for the BBC-wide survey is collected on a confidential and anonymous basis
and the results of the survey are shared fully with staff; though published internally
within BBC Scotland, they are not made freely available outwith the BBC. We have
already communicated the BBC-wide and the BBC Scotland results to staff and each
main department within BBC Scotland will be sharing its own results at a
departmental level with teams. The results of the survey are used to help identify
priority areas for improvement and to put in place a number of activities and
initiatives which will provide support in key areas, such as leadership, career
development, performance management and communication. We have already
shared these with staff in BBC Scotland in our proposed action plan and will be
reporting back to staff on our progress against the plan later in the year, as well as
continuing to measure staff engagement through regular local surveys as well as a
further BBC-wide survey.
2.
As Mr Boothman indicated to the committee, no news and current affairs
programme has undergone a budget cut of 60%. The figures proffered by the
Convener were not ones which we recognise and we would reiterate our request to
have sight of these in order to understand their genesis and construction and so
better to be placed to frame and contextualise any figures we might be able to
provide to the committee, relative to its request.
3.
Relative to our overall output on television, radio and online, there are a
number of mechanisms we utilise to assess performance across all of our services
and across broadcast platforms. Statistics relative to our television output are
measured by BARB (the British Audience Research Bureau) and, in like fashion,
RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) does a similar job for radio. Both are
recognised industry-wide. Traffic to our online sites is measured in-house, to record
the number of unique users and the number of ‘hits’ on particular websites.
These statistics are augmented with on-going dialogue with our audiences which,
sampled across the UK, provides snapshots of reaction to issues such as trust in the
BBC, appreciation for particular programmes, etc. Audience response is also core to
the work of the BBC Trust and, in Scotland, the Audience Council for Scotland. On
top of this, there is daily dialogue within and between programme teams to review
output and to take account of points raised, with a view to informing future output.
With particular reference to the radio news changes on Saturday mornings, and the
introduction of Good Morning Scotland, it is still too early to provide a definitive
answer on audience numbers, as RAJAR has yet to report on the quarter in which
the changes were introduced. However, as John Boothman told the committee on 22
January, we believe we have a much stronger weekend offering as a result of its
inclusion within the schedules.
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Agenda item 3
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As Mr Malcolm told the committee (as had previously, on 29 May 2012, the BBC
Director General, Mark Thompson), the figures quoted by Mr MacWhirter, and
referred to by Ms McAlpine, are incorrect. The budget of BBC Radio 4 is
approximately three times that of Radio Scotland, not 10 times, as suggested; the
Radio 4 audience is approximately 16 times that of Radio Scotland.
The statistics quoted by Ms McAlpine (col 1822) are not ones that we recognise. We
would be happy, as indicated to the committee on 22 January 2013 (col 1822), to be
provided with these figures in order better to understand their construction and to
allow us to contextualise any figures that we may be able to provide to the committee
as per its request.
4.
On local TV, I would note that no money has been or will be received by BBC
Scotland to support this initiative. As I understand the position to be, any underspend
in the £15m identified to support Local TV across the UK, is an underspend in the
overall budget and has not been identified or ring-fenced for any particular nation,
geographical region or area. STV decided not to draw down the discretionary
funding, which, of course, is its prerogative. This, however, does not mean that there
will be a financial surplus in the funding available for Local TV in Scotland. If fewer
than 44 channels launch across the UK, the arrangements provide for the recycling
of unused funds back into a UK-wide variable funding pot, for which interested
licensed providers will compete.
Whether or not there will be a surplus depends on how many Local TV services
emerge over the three year period and on the extent to which they draw on the
variable funding pot (which is intended to incentivise high quality provision). Given
these variables it will take some time to be clear whether we expect there to be a
surplus of this kind.
Even if, hypothetically, there should be a surplus of this kind, the BBC is not in a
position now to make any commitment about how it should be spent. Although the
funding for Local TV is taken from the Licence Fee, the BBC and DCMS have agreed
that this money should be used only to acquire local content from the new TV
services which are being licensed by Ofcom. Consequently the BBC is not in a
position to make any decision about funding allocation, hypothetical or otherwise.
5.
The range of quality measures that we employ is noted in response 3, above.
In short, we are confident in the robustness of the data we collect, both that which is
gathered by the external organisations that we and other broadcasters use and that
which we collect ourselves. I would also note that relevant data is shared with and
scrutinised by the BBC Trust, the industry regulator, Ofcom, the National Audit Office
and with and by others, as appropriate.
We undertake on-going assessment of our output, to consider issues such as
editorial merit, technical quality, audience impact and the like and I am confident that
due rigour is applied at all times to ensure programme and content quality is
maintained at the highest levels, relative to subject matter, broadcast platform and
audience expectations.
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The use of BBC news packages by BBC Scotland depends on the subject matter and
its relevance within a Scottish context and to audiences in Scotland. To that end,
network correspondents appear on BBC Scotland news programmes (as do BBC
Scotland correspondents on network news programmes). The extent to which
correspondents and packages are used, by BBC Scotland and by BBC News, varies,
depending entirely on their relevance to the day’s news agenda.
6.
On the issue of capacity, I am happy to reassure Ms Adamson and the
committee that, going forward, we will have the capacity to deliver quality
programmes and content against the demanding targets that we have set ourselves.
While the required reductions in local budget and staffing levels will mean a reduction
in the overall offering (such as, for example, the removal of the overnight programme
on Radio Scotland), we will maintain quality and relevance across our output and
across broadcast platforms.
With regard to the specific Radio Scotland figures quoted by Ms Adamson and Ms
McAlpine, the budget reduction between 2007 and 2012, as recorded within the BBC
Trust Radio Review, is from £29m to £23m. However, as the text below the table
within that report indicates, this does not represent the programme funding situation
across these years. The vast bulk of the reduction identified in this area results from
a change in BBC accounting practices and is not an actual drop in funding. In 2007,
the overall Radio Scotland budget included a share of BBC overheads (staffing,
buildings, etc). That element has since been centralised and is no longer included in
the service budget figures.
The actual reduction in programme budget on Radio Scotland, between 2007 and
2010, is £1.7m, in line with our efficiency programme.
7.
All BBC One Scotland and BBC Two Scotland output is available on the
iPlayer, except for the very small number of programmes where rights issues prevent
inclusion. Currently, on the BBC iPlayer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/), there are 36
programmes within the BBC Scotland section (in addition, all of our output for
network TV, such as Waterloo Road, appears on the general iPlayer site).
Our Scotland output covers a wide range of genres, from Gaelic children’s content to
sport, news and current affairs, including Reporting Scotland, Newsnight Scotland
and Politics Scotland. Ms Adamson was concerned about Politics Scotland on the
BBC iPlayer: I am happy to reassure her that it is there and available to iPlayer
users.
8.
On the issue of Commonwealth Games funding, we are in discussion with
BBC Finance and other parts of the organisation to confirm the funding package and
various aspects of its delivery. We anticipate that we will have confirmation of the
details of these arrangements in the coming months, though I would note that
important commercial sensitivities will inevitably determine what details we might be
able to consider for release into the public domain.
9.
We are confident that, in merging the posts of local government and education
correspondents, we will be able to deliver a high quality and more cogent offering in
those important news areas.
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Agenda item 3
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You refer to the BBC’s Public Purposes and, specifically, those which relate to
sustaining citizenship and promoting education and learning. These Purposes are
met by BBC Scotland in a range of ways, across broadcast platforms, encompassing
everything from the work of BBC Scotland Learning (in Bitesize, Class Clips, the Lab
and the large amount of material produced to support the Curriculum for Excellence),
to our output across genres such as Children’s, Factual, Specialist Factual, the work
of the BBC SSO with schools, the contribution to Scotland’s charities by BBC
Children in Need and so on.
The contribution of BBC Scotland News in this respect is, of course, very important
and I have every confidence that the merged education/local government post-holder
will provide a high quality service that will further add to our ability to meet and
exceed our commitments in this area.
To conclude, although we are currently working within the context of a frozen Licence
Fee and the impact of that on budgets, I am confident that we will continue to build
on the unparalleled success of 2012 as we move towards our coverage of events in
2014 and beyond.
Yours sincerely
Ken MacQuarrie
Director, BBC Scotland
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