Dale catches up with education correspondent Calum Ross
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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.