Tag: Scottish Greens

Climate Strikes: Green MSPs urge councils to support schools strike action

Scottish Green MSPs Alison Johnstone and Andy Wightman are calling for councils across Lothian to support – not punish – young people who choose to strike from school to highlight the urgent need for climate action, ahead of the planned global strike on Friday 15th March. Continue reading Climate Strikes: Green MSPs urge councils to support schools strike action

Not fair: report calls for better deal for care workers

The Fair Work Convention today published its report Fair Work in Scotland’s Social Care Sector 2019. The report calls for urgent interventions by policy makers, commissioners and leaders in the social care sector to improve the quality of work and employment for the 200,000 strong workforce in Scotland.

The Scottish Greens have urged the Holyrood government to put fair work at the heart of social care by accepting the report’s recommendations in full. Continue reading Not fair: report calls for better deal for care workers

Short Term Lets: Wightman questions legality of Key Boxes

Scottish Greens housing spokesperson Andy Wightman MSP, whose Homes First campaign aims to better regulate the short-term letting industry, is urging residents in affected areas to check the legality of key boxes that are spreading like wildfire. Continue reading Short Term Lets: Wightman questions legality of Key Boxes

P1 testing: Heed the evidence, say Greens

Risk of Results Data Being ‘Invalidated’

Scottish Greens education spokesperson Ross Greer MSP has called on the Scottish Government to listen to the experts, after the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee heard a number of concerns regarding the Scottish National Standardised Assessments at its session yesterday.

In response to a question from Mr Greer, Professor Lindsay Paterson confirmed that the differential in the age of Primary one pupils being tested – between four and six – ‘invalidates’ the use of this data beyond the level of the individual pupil, particularly given the shortage of staff who have sufficient statistical experience within local councils.

On the issue of these staff having been cut from councils over recent years, Dr Keir Bloomer of the Royal Society of Edinburgh said: “Local authorities have a declining capacity to offer support to schools.”

The committee also heard from Professor Louise Hayward that the test are extremely narrow, and do not yield a wide range of information.

Ross Greer said: “The already thin evidence base for the government’s Primary One tests is falling apart under the most basic of scrutiny.

“There is a huge difference between a four and a half year old child taking this test at the start of the school year and another pupil who takes it late in the year, by which point they could be six years old.

“Professor Paterson was clear that this significant difference and an inability to control for it when using the data, for example at school level, would simply invalidate it.

“An evidence-led approach in the first place would have avoided so many of these problems but the SNP ploughed on without one. It’s time that they listen to experts, to teachers and to parents, like any responsible government should.”

Music tuition: Greer challenges Swinney on private subsidy

Green MSP Ross Greer has challenged Education Secretary John Swinney to justify his Government’s long-running subsidy of around £1.2 million to the fee-paying St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh, at a time when many councils are axing free music tuition in schools due to budget cuts passed down by the Scottish Government. [1]

In an exchange during a meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee, Mr Greer argued that by grant funding a small number of places at a private school, the Government risked exacerbating a deep sense of inequality – highlighting the evidence previously given by one young person who said the situation was ‘approaching Victorian levels’ of inequality. [2]

Scottish Greens Education spokesperson, Ross Greer MSP said: “We’ve heard countless stories about how cuts to council budgets are driving young people from less privileged backgrounds away from learning an instrument, with one young woman telling us this is approaching Victorian levels of inequality.

“So I just can’t see how the government justifies giving over one million pounds of public money every year to a small private school, without any clear assessment of whether that is value for money. Instead, for example, it could increase funding for the four centres of musical excellence that serve local authority schools.”

[1] http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&ReferenceNumbers=S5W-03692&ResultsPerPage=10
[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-46126988

Benefit Cuts: Green MSP Condemns Tories For Targeting Women

UK Gov Cuts Target Women: Green MSP Condemns Tories In Holyrood Debate


The UK Government’s cuts to benefits target women and children, and must be reversed, according to Scottish Greens social security spokesperson Alison Johnstone MSP.

Speaking in this week’s Holyrood debate – Impact of UK Government Welfare Cuts and Universal Credit on Poverty – Alison Johnstone, Scottish Green MSP for Lothian, said: “Cuts to our social security system, including to Universal Credit, are taking money out of the pockets and wallets of some of our poorest households. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies notes, Universal Credit is quite deliberately creating millions of losers. Continue reading Benefit Cuts: Green MSP Condemns Tories For Targeting Women

Delayed discharges up: Greens urge social care staff boost

Scottish Ministers are being urged by the Scottish Greens to “fast-track action” on social care staffing, as new figures show a further rise in patients stuck in hospital – the vast majority of them waiting for social care. [1]

Continue reading Delayed discharges up: Greens urge social care staff boost