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I can assure you that I have had very regular conversations with my officials on that.

I assure you that we do have a grasp of the scale of the challenge. As the committee would expect, we speak regularly to the teaching unions, which give us feedback about what is happening in classrooms. We speak directly to young people themselves.

We have a well-established monitoring and evaluation programme on the improvement of attainment and wellbeing. I have mentioned some of the areas involved. That programme will report in due course.

We are not waiting. We are working to support young people with additional teachers and funding. That work has not waited and is already being actioned, because we know that there has been an impact on attainment.

I think so. I am sure that Mr Ewing will correct me if I miss a point. He glitched out during part of his question, but I have no doubt that he will keep me right.

One of the things that I have found refreshing about being education secretary is having discussions with the OECD, taking part in discussions with the international council of education advisers, taking part in some webinars that the OECD organised and discussing with a global audience the successes of Scottish education and, in particular, curriculum for excellence. I do not sit here as education secretary and say that there is nothing that we need to improve or that we cannot do better, but it is refreshing to have a global perspective on Scottish education. The positive points to which Mr Ewing alluded at the start have come through strongly from colleagues around the globe in the webinars that I have attended.

One area on which the OECD has rightly challenged us is how our broad general education fits or does not fit with our senior phase and, within that, our assessment and qualifications set-up. I am giving a great deal of thought to that, and I know that various members of the committee have strongly held opinions on that issue as well. I will make further announcements about what we will do about that when I respond to the OECD in due course. The OECD has given us a challenge that curriculum for excellence needs work to ensure that it is ready for the challenges that are ahead of us as a society, but one of the biggest challenges that the OECD gave us was about how to ensure that curriculum for excellence flows all the way through to the senior phase.

How we do that—which was the bit that I got at the end of Mr Ewing’s question—concerns ensuring that the system is reliable and credible. That absolutely must be the case. Whatever qualifications and assessment process we have, it has to be reliable and credible. There are different ways that we can do that. We can make changes to the current system, but I stress that it is one area on which we will engage in discussions with stakeholders, because there are a variety of views about how it can be done and I would like to build in as much collaboration and consensus about it as possible.

That is one area on which the SQA will need to learn lessons. There are also lessons for all of Government to learn to ensure that such situations never happen.

I should be clear that the issue predates not only my time in post but the time of the current chief examiner in post as well. She is keen to ensure that the SQA fulfils its duties. She knows that people are understandably and rightly concerned about the matter. That is why the SQA is already in a process to complete all the outstanding EQIAs. For example, 28 new equality impact assessments have been published since August.

Work is going on to ensure that the problem is alleviated but, having spoken to the chief examiner, I am sure that she is keen to ensure that the SQA has practices and policies in place so that it never gets into a position where there is even a doubt about whether such obligations are being fulfilled.

One of the strengths of that system is that, once again, it has demonstrated the trust that we can have in our teachers and their professional judgment. It was a difficult time for teachers. The alternative certification model was challenging for them to undertake but, as has been demonstrated, it was the best system that could be in place in an emergency situation.

One of the lessons that I see when I look back on the situation is that our teaching workforce, using its teacher judgment to demonstrate our young people’s success, brought its professionalism to the fore. That has been critical because, at a point when examinations were not possible because of public health measures, we required a system that was credible and fair. Teachers have absolutely delivered on that, and I again take the opportunity to thank them for that.

Just to be clear, the intention, as I understand it, was that the report would be out before Fiona Robertson’s appearance at the committee, but the commission required a change in date. That decision was made by the commission. It could not be changed by the SQA.

If that is a question that the convener wishes to ask the Deputy First Minister later on, he will have the opportunity to get into the matter in much more detail than I can now. I am sure that the Deputy First Minister would be delighted to answer.

It is not an afterthought. When the Feeley review was established, there was a clear need and drive for it, given some of the issues that have been shown up through the pandemic. Adult care services are obviously included in the proposed national care service, but we need to check whether we can provide consistent delivery of services to our most vulnerable children and young people. We must also acknowledge that a number of children and young people who have contact with social work services do so because they have an adult family member who receives support from adult services, so the question is whether it makes sense for those services to be more seamless than they would be if they were separate.

It is not an afterthought by any means. The comments from Fiona Duncan and others are challenging us to ensure that there are no unintended consequences or gaps and challenging us on how best we can deliver on the promise. That is the right challenge to give to Government and we will consider it closely as we move out of consultation and analyse the recommendations from different bodies, which might have very different opinions on the matter.

The whole point of the promise was that it was never going to be an overnight challenge on which the Government could say no, we are not delivering it, or yes, we are delivering it. We are making good progress on it.

The work that the Government has taken on in relation to the promise has ensured that we are considering matters differently. It was never something that could be done overnight, but we are making good progress towards delivery. We are absolutely determined to deliver for every child and young person who is part of the care system. It is our obligation to do just that.

It is important that we have data. Is Mr Rennie saying that we should not have any national data to allow us to decide whether there is an issue with variation of outcomes? He is entitled to that viewpoint.