Ludo Thierry
Given the Ukanian parties’ oft’ stated desire to continue to improve Scotland’s education then we can be certain (can’t we?) that these very vocal britnat MSPs will vote for the Scottish budget currently presented in the Scottish Part (with its very generous (given Westminster’s austerity obsession) provisions made for the education and skills sector): Link and snippets below:
https://news.gov.scot/news/education-and-skills-funding-rises-to-gbp-3-57-billion
Education and skills funding will rise 1.7% in real terms to £3.57 billion, under the proposed Budget 2020-21.
Mr Swinney said: “To help close the attainment gap and improve attainment, we will again invest £182 million to the Attainment Scotland Fund. This includes £120 million in Pupil Equity Funding to be spent at the direction of head teachers, while teacher pay is increasing.”
Alongside funding delivered through the local government settlement, he said almost £645 million will go into the expansion of Early Learning and Childcare to provide 1,140 hours per child per year from this August – almost double the current entitlement and the most generous in the UK – benefitting children and allowing parents and carers to explore work, education or training opportunities.
The college sector also receives an above-inflation resource spending increase of 3.6% to train or upskill Scotland’s workforce, while the university sector receives a real-terms funding uplift to maintain the country’s position as a world leader in learning, science and innovation – particularly important in the context of the UK’s departure from the EU.
The 2020-21 Scottish Budget also includes:
• a 35.9% rise in the teacher training budget to £21.69 million
• teachers’ pay to increase by a minimum of 13% over 3 years, bringing the starting salary for a fully qualified teacher to £32,994 from April 2020, significantly higher than elsewhere in the UK
• a real-terms increase in the skills and training budget, supporting the drive to increase the number of apprenticeships
• Skills Development Scotland to receive a 4.7% rise in budget to £224.8 million, including to ensure apprenticeship opportunities are open to all
• a 17.8% rise in the Scottish Childrens’ Reporter Administration to £27.4 million
• child protection spending to rise 24% to £2.1 million
• looked-after children spending to rise to £32.4 million, including improving the Adoption Register
• a 62.1% rise in the Family Fund Trust
• Gaelic receiving a 7.3% rise in spending to £25.2 million
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Apologies John – wildly off topic but beeb Scotland are reporting latest HMRC figures which note quite remarkably strong export figures for both Scottish Salmon and Scotch Whisky (obviously the Brexit effect remains a major concern for the future – but prime Scottish produce is attracting significant global export markets right now). Too wee, too poor, too stupid etc. Link and snippets below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-51460893?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scotland&link_location=live-reporting-story
Scottish exports of whisky and salmon both grew strongly last year, according to new figures.
HMRC statistics showed sales of Scotch overseas grew by 4.4% to £4.91bn, with growth seen in more than 100 of its global markets.
Salmon exports reached a record £618m, a 22% increase on the previous year, while the tonnage exported rose by 26% to more than 94,000 tonnes.
For Scottish salmon, France emerged as the largest market in 2019, with sales worth £221m, for the third year running.
It was followed by USA (£179m), and China (£59m).
The EU accounted for 56% of the volume of global Scottish salmon exports and 52% of the value.
In total, 17 of the top 20 overseas markets showed positive growth in 2019.
For Scotch, export growth was driven in particular in Asia and Africa, with value increases of 9.8% and 11.3% respectively.
The US remained the industry’s most valuable market last year, increasing in value by 2.7% to just over £1bn.
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There was a 3 part series on the BBC in Sept 2019 – ‘What Britain buys and sells in a year’s. It was made in conjunction with the Open University which may account for some of its surprising honesty about the importance of exports from Scotland such as salmon and shellfish which formed the content of the first programme. It was repeated several times throughout that first programme that Scottish salmon was the UK’s top food export.
Worth watching if you can find it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2019/what-britain-buys-and-sells-in-a-day
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Here is a clip from the programme. About 10 min long it deals with salmon exports via Heathrow
For Heathrow substitute Prestwick after independence or indeed any Scottish airport with long haul flights
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These budget increases are really good much much higher that anyone would have expected and given to important departments too , important for our young people , the people that will make Scotland in future.
Well done Scottish government
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