THE Scottish Government’s scientific advice on reopening schools must be made public before the gates are unlocked, MSPs have said.

Holyrood’s education committee said John Swinney needed to publish the advice in order to maintain public confidence in the decision-making process.

Nicola Sturgeon last week signalled schools in Scotland would remain closed until after the summer break, despite plans for a phased return in England from next month.

In a letter today to the Education Secretary, the Holyrood committee reminded him he had previously referred to scientific advice guiding the Scottish Government’s decision.

SNP convener Clare Adamson wrote: “Given the importance placed on specific pieces of scientific advice to guide key decisions, such as how long to keep schools and early learning settings closed, this Committee considers this scientific advice should be published.

“The Committee is not seeking sight of the deliberations between yourselves and others or any other correspondence that would impact on free and frank discussion. 

“The Committee seeks details of which sources of scientific evidence the Scottish Government is basing its decisions upon, copies of this advice and a sense of the weighting placed upon different pieces of advice.

“I hope you appreciate the value of this information being published to maintain transparency of processes and to ensure confidence in decision making in the coming weeks and months on issues of massive importance to families and schools across Scotland.”

The committee also said it was “hugely concerned” by the challenges facing the estimated 97,000 vulnerable children and young people in Scotland, only 1 per cent of whom attend school or early learning hubs alongside the children of key workers, despite their education also being classed as a priority. 

The MSPs said more should be done to promote hubs to relevant parents and carers, and asked what data councils were collecting on the vulnerable children who are missing out.

The committee repeated its previous demand that Mr Swinney share his daily report on the situation in hubs, including attendances and spare capacity. 

The MSPs wrote: “Given the low attendance levels of vulnerable children in hubs, there is a need to ensure as many suitable vulnerable children as possible are encouraged to attend. 

“This includes proactively promoting this message to parents and carers.

“The Committee wants to know what is being done at present to promote this message to parents and careers, and what further work could be undertaken.”

The MSPs also asked Mr Swinney for information about continued free meal provision for vulnerable children over the summer, the “digital exclusion” of vulnerable children from homeschooling, and tailored support for children with additional support needs.

In a statement, the Scottish Children’s Services Commission welcomed the committee’s push for more information on education hub attendance.

It said: “There a clear concerns that just over 1,000 vulnerable school children are at childcare hubs. 

“This amounts to less than one percent of those the Scottish Government classes as vulnerable, including being on the child protection register or having complex additional support needs. 

“There are many thousands more who would benefit greatly from attendance at these hubs and more must be done by the Scottish Government to promote this message.

“It is vital that action is quickly taken to assess the requirements of these vulnerable children and young people and adequate support is provided. In addition, those who would benefit from being at a childcare hub should be provided with this.

“We know that issues as they impact on young people, such as mental health problems, will and are escalating and we must do all that we can now or we risk a lost generation of vulnerable children and young people impacted by Covid-19.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Ministers take scientific advice from Scottish Government Covid-19 Advisory Group.

"This supplements the advice coming to the four nations from the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE) to further strengthen Scottish Government modelling work informing national and local decisions in Scotland during the pandemic.

“The Scottish Government remains supportive of publishing the scientific information on which discussions and decisions on the re-opening of schools are based.  We are currently exploring the potential to do that as soon as practicable, recognising that the evidence itself is complex and continues to evolve.”

On education hubs, the Government added: "Local authorities, who have established systems in place to track vulnerable children and young people, are responsible for allocating places in the hubs.

“While around 1% of children and young people who usually attend school and early learning and childcare are being supported by hubs, this is just one of several measures of support. 

“Children considered to be vulnerable can be supported in a range of ways through multi-agency approaches, such as contact with social workers and other professionals.

“Local authorities and schools are using creative ways of supporting children and young people with additional support needs during this challenging time, including direct support from educational psychologists and providing bespoke learning resources and activities. 

"Local authorities have reported providing more than 170,000 free school meals through hubs, direct payments, vouchers and home deliveries and we expect that support to continue for as long as is needed.”