Michael Russell MSP, Shadow Minister for Children & Education

Education is about "drawing out" the best in individuals. But is also about the way in which society can build social cohesion, develop and renew national consciousness, engage young people creatively in our national life and culture and help them to appreciate and contribute to the place of Scotland in the wider world.

The SNP wants all Scots to fulfil their potential. We must draw out of each generation the very best that they have to give to their society and to themselves.

Independence demands an appreciation that we are all co-owners of our nation. That in turn implies that we must all share the responsibility of creating the best educational system our nation can afford. It is obvious that our country will not flourish unless we invest in education.

Yet all around us we can see signs that education is not a priority. It needs more resources, more care and more support. It needs to engage the active involvement of parents and pupils at a time when many teachers find pupils motivation at low ebb. We must value education for its own sake, not just because enterprise, creativity and ambition all flow from the results of successful and continuing education.

We must make sure that those who work in education are respected. The resolution of the over long dispute on teachers pay and conditions, while welcome, will not of itself solve the problems of Scottish education overnight. There are years of distrust and suspicion between teachers and politicians to overcome, so that a collective responsibility for education can be shared between teachers, unions, education authorities, government and parents. There are years of neglect of the school infrastructure to be remedied. And there are years of indifference to be turned round.

The SNP will help Scottish Education to become internationally respected once again but we will do that by taking Education out of the political battleground and bringing forward proposals to depressurise a system that has been over stressed by central prescription. We will stand for the very best Scottish Education that can be achieved.

OUR PRINCIPLES

The SNP believes that Scottish education will reach its full potential only when it is truly seen as a cultural, social and economic resource run as a partnership between the community and educational professionals. The role of central government is to provide general direction, to set overall standards, to provide resources and an equitable distribution of those resources and to ensure that all our pupils and students have equal opportunities.

While some competition between children is a necessary part of any vibrant education system, Scotland has always believed that unrestrained competition borrowed from the market place is destructive to the type of socially responsive system of schooling that should be precious to us.

In keeping with the philosophy of our new Scottish democracy our aims will best be achieved by decentralising as much power as is consistent with maintaining acceptable national standards of achievement and opportunity. Scottish teachers are respected in the Scottish community, and ought to be trusted by government to get on with the job of educating the nation's young people without over direction from the centre. Such over direction has, in recent years, lead to a vast and undesirable increases in pressure on children, parents and teachers. We will take action to reverse the trend of ever increasing amounts of externally imposed assessment and target setting which often get in the way of learning.

Current research shows that giving children the best possible start in formal education pays enormous dividends in their levels of attainment at a later stage. It also reduces the need for additional learning support in later years, improves behaviour and reduces stress on teachers and schools. Accordingly we will invest heavily in that priority.

Education is of great importance to the economy, and to the employment prospects of students. But Scots have never believed that the sole purpose of education is economic. Education is also about personal fulfilment, about developing the capacities needed to be an effective democratic citizen, and about discovering and renewing Scotland's diverse cultures. All of those issues are dealt with in our policy proposals.

Our principles underpinning education are simple:

• Our children deserve the best education that can be provided in a rich and modern society with a strong educational legacy and a long tradition of respect for learning. We must re-affirm the principle that the same high quality of education will be available wherever you live in Scotland and from whatever background you come.

• Education is too important to be a political football. Government, political parties, teachers, unions, management, pupils and parents should be fully involved in all educational policy making and in implementation of such policy.

• Education is valuable in its own right. Teaching young people to think critically and creatively is at the heart of the process.

• Education must be focused on young people and their needs and aspirations. There has been far too much target setting and striving after positions in league tables. There has been too little support for children themselves.

• Our education professionals should be partners with government, not scapegoats for government failure. Teaching should be an attractive first choice for able people, not the last resort.

• Education should be an enriching and enjoyable experience. Education has become a matter of jumping through examination hoops and narrow learning for monotonous jobs. An over emphasis on assessment has squeezed out time for teaching and learning at all stages.

• Society should insist upon the highest standards of behaviour from all young people, and should assist young people to meet such standards; equally education should be expected to attract enthusiasm and commitment from pupils.

OUR PRIORITY POLICY PROPOSALS

Basing our policy proposals on these principals, the SNP will:

• Impose a moratorium on further change in the classroom and in educational administration until we have established an Education Convention, chaired by the Education Minister and comprising a wide range of representatives from across Scotland and from throughout education. It will have the responsibility of debating policy proposed by Government prior to the legislative progress, and on making recommendations for implementation after it has been approved by Parliament. It will compliment the work of Government and Parliament. The Convention will be established in the first year of an SNP government.

Thereafter the SNP will bring forward for pre and post legislative consultation through the Convention three major priority initiatives:

• A range of studies shows that children benefit most not just from a general reduction in class sizes, but also from specific class sizes. This is of most importance in the early years and produces not only educational results, including a sustained increase in attainment, but also assists considerably in achieving better social inclusion. We will therefore introduce a phased reduction of Primary 1,2 and 3 class sizes to 18 or below, initially targeting areas of social deprivation. This will be done by increased investment in teachers, schools and materials. The continuing reduction in class sizes in other primary classes and in secondary will go ahead taking account of the best international research and practice as will the increase in classroom assistants.

• An end to the publication of selective information that leads to the compilation of misleading league tables which are increasingly seen as disruptive to the process of learning and which produce no benefit for young people themselves. The government should enable parents to have access to the fullest information on all schools and as part of this process should assist in the presentation of comprehensive school handbooks through the internet and other means. We will also critically examine the present externally imposed target setting for schools and bring about a reduction in the burden of assessment on young people, teachers and schools. We will develop a system in which the professional judgement of teachers is the central element and in which powers abrogated to others in these matters will be returned to the classroom. This will also reduce the pressure on national bodies such as the SQA whose activities will be reformed in keeping with this objective.

• Children learn best in good and safe surroundings. We will start on a major programme of school refurbishment and repair, focussing on the opportunity created by the SNP's plan for a Scottish Trust for Public Investment. This work will be informed by the findings of the Scottish Parliament's Education Committee and its enquiry into school infrastructure, due to report in mid 2001.

STANDING FOR SUCCESS

The SNP is committed to the full implementation of the McCrone settlement and this will greatly assist in developing a new atmosphere in Scotland's schools. We will make sure that the remaining parts of the package are put in place in a constructive manner.

Building on this new atmosphere of co-operation and shared responsibility, the SNP will bring forward for consideration by the Convention other commitments and proposals including

• A re-examination of the duties of parents with the aim of ensuring that they play a full partnership role with schools and take responsibility for their children bearing in mind helpful initiatives such as that recently approved by Angus Council. We shall also bring forward changes in formal parental representation in schools, replacing the present School Board structure with new arrangements taking account of the already expressed views of COSLA and others.

• A re-structuring of Her Majesty's Inspectorate to consist of a small core of professional managers supported in actual inspection by secondees from schools who will serve a maximum of four years including a suitable period of training. Safeguards in the system will include a bar on inspecting the area and authority from which the teachers has been seconded.

• The introduction of measures that will ease the transition between nursery and primary school.

• The delivery of appropriate and effective training for teachers in Information Technology, in recognition of the need for teachers not just to know how to use IT but how to use it in teaching, and increasing access to the internet in each school.

• The creation of new guidelines on school closures, with the presumption against closure of rural schools except in clearly specified circumstances.

• The production of high quality teaching materials on Scottish history, language and literature, making them freely available and encouraging their inclusion in teaching at all levels and in all Scottish schools.

• Placing a duty in law to provide Gaelic medium education where there is reasonable demand and developing Gaelic medium provision in the primary and secondary sectors.

• Undertaking a legislative review of the provision of school transport.

• Positive steps to ensure that the particular needs of Catholic schools are recognised in professional training and development and that the contribution of Catholic schools to the diversity and richness of the Scottish educational scene is fully realised.

• Ensuring that the needs of ethnic minority groups are met in mainstream schooling and that anti-racism is a core element in a child's growing understanding of our multicultural society.

• Continuing to develop the concept of Community Schools recognizing that parents, teachers, social workers, community education and health professionals must work together to ensure that children's social, emotional and health needs are met in order that their educational potential is fully realised.

• Enhancing the role of community education in supporting individuals, families and communities, using schools as the focus for this work and progressively implementing better arrangements for child care for working parents

• Encouraging dialogue and partnership between business and education, particularly at local level and ensure that Community Schools actively seek to take advantage of the benefits of corporate citizenship and engage with the business community.

• Assisting teachers to impart the essential elements of citizenship education through their professional development.

• Recognising that mainstream schools with an inclusive orientation are the most effective means of meeting the needs of all learners who share an equal entitlement to be there: furthering moves towards more inclusive practice through a continuum of support and services to match the continuum of SEN, and facilitating movement and flexibility across the range of SEN provision including specialist settings, voluntary bodies and those providing respite care and also ensuring that all the needs of young people with SEN are addressed, to ensure progression into further education, the world of work and the wider community.

• Providing support and back up for teachers in difficult circumstances in the classroom and particular providing back up where indiscipline and truancy are significant problems. Work will be done to build on the existing good practice in a variety of schools in the matter of truancy, anti social behaviour and disruptive activity, with the aim of quickly spreading such good practice throughout the country whilst also providing effective sanctions (including where necessary increased prosecution of parents with regard to truancy) to help schools and individuals modify behaviour.

Our proposals, ideas and innovations are being and will continue to be designed with the help of parents, teachers, administrators, academics, councillors and many others. The SNP envisages an open process of discussion and debate about education over the coming period and welcome the views of those concerned with Scottish education.

Our nation has a shared responsibility for its future. Education is at the heart of the SNP's concerns. The SNP stands for education and for Scotland.

Our National Health Service is our most cherished national asset - and yet too many people in Scotland do not receive the standard of care they have a right to expect and that our dedicated health care professionals want to provide.

Eighteen years of Tory government were disastrous for the health service in Scotland and, after nearly four years in office, Labour has failed to deliver real improvements.

Scotland has one of the worst health records in Europe; we have fewer nurses in our hospitals now than in 1997; patients are waiting longer for treatment; the care received by patients frequently depends on where they live; and Labour has failed to deliver on its key pledge to reduce waiting lists. Many health trusts are crippled by debt whilst the Barnett Squeeze is set to rob Scotland's health service of £325 million over the next three years.

These are the challenges facing government. The SNP recognises that those who work in the health service are already committed to delivering real improvements and we support them in their efforts. We are also supportive of many of the initiatives published in the Scottish Health Plan.

The SNP's policy platform is not an alternative to the initiatives that are already planned or underway. What it does is identify key areas where the SNP believes that government could and should go further, investing additional resources, in order to tackle the fundamental problems that are undermining efforts to improve health and the quality of health care.

The SNP is determined to improve health in Scotland and rebuild a national health service free at the point of need.

An SNP Government will implement a range of progressive polices designed to restore a national health service based on the following first principles:

A healthy partnership - patients, politicians and professionals working together

Prevention is better than cure

Equality of access to health prevention and health care

Highest quality care and treatment for all

Free personal care for all elderly people

A HEALTHY PARTNERSHIP

The SNP believes that the National Health Service is too important to be a political football. We will establish a National Health Care Commission, chaired by the Minister for Health & Community Care with cross party representation of MSPs, representatives of the health profession and unions together with members of the wider community. The Commission will be charged with setting the strategic direction for NHS Scotland and given a central role in the drive to end postcode treatment.

The National Health Care Commission will also ensure that regular and reliable information on the performance of the health service is made available to patients and the public.

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE

It is a source of national shame that Scotland, one of Europe's richest countries, is also one of the least healthy places to live in Europe. More people die younger in Scotland than almost anywhere else in Europe. We are at the top of the European league tables for the number of deaths from heart disease and cancer, but near the bottom when it comes to the proportion of our GDP that we spend on health.

Making Scotland a healthier place to live is at the heart of our policy platform.

To achieve that goal, we must first change the habits of the nation for the better - and to do that, we must win over Scotland's youngsters.

FREE FRUIT IN SCHOOLS

We will target policies and resources at improving the health of Scotland's children and encouraging in our young people - and hopefully their parents - a culture of healthy eating.

We will universalise the practice of a few local authorities of providing free fruit in schools.

The SNP will provide, during term time, a free daily portion of fruit to every primary school pupil in Scotland.

HEALTHIER SCHOOL MEALS

We will also act to regulate the nutritional content of school meals - which for many children is the main meal of the day - to ensure that the food children eat at school meets minimum nutritional standards.

EQUALITY OF ACCESS TO HEALTH PREVENTION AND HEALTH CARE

At present, the quality of care and treatment that patients receive is too often based on their ability to pay or the health board area in which they live. That is unacceptable in a national health service. It will be a priority of the SNP to eradicate the inequalities of access that currently exist within the system.

We will take immediate action in three areas:

AN END TO POSTCODE TREATMENT

It is unacceptable that the length of time a patient has to wait for treatment, or whether or not a multiple sclerosis sufferer can access the most effective drugs, depends simply on where they live.

Examples of postcode treatment are various and range from the availability of certain drugs and treatments in some health board areas but not others, to the varying length of time patients are required to wait for treatment in different parts of the country.

Successive governments have bemoaned the problem of postcode treatment and promised to take action, but so far all have failed to end the unfairness.

The SNP is committed to restoring a system in which access to health care is determined by a professional assessment of clinical need and not by the lottery of a patient's residence.

Postcode treatment will not be wished away. Restoring equality of access depends on effective action at national level. The SNP pledges to end postcode treatment within our first term in government.

No patient will be denied access to a drug or treatment that has been positively assessed by the Health Technology Board for Scotland.

The SNP will substantially increase the budget of the Health Technology Board for Scotland (HTBS) to enable it to expand its workload and increase the number of assessments that it carries out each year. The findings of HTBS will be binding on health boards.

Every patient has the right to expect the same quality of service from the health service no matter where they live.

The National Health Care Commission will have a central role in the drive to end postcode treatment. It will be for the National Health Care Commission to identify instances where the care and treatment of patients in any area falls significantly below that in other areas. The National Health Care Commission will then be empowered to work proactively with the relevant health bodies to ensure that effective action is taken to bring the quality of care up to acceptable standards.

In order that the people of Scotland can judge us on our commitment to end postcode treatment, we are committed to improving the quality of the information that is available to the public about the performance of the NHS in all parts of Scotland. We will consult on the nature of the information that the public would find helpful and the most effective way of disseminating it to as wide an audience as possible.

DENTAL HEALTH

Scotland's dental health record is appalling. More than half of all five year-olds show signs of dental disease - and yet one-third of children are not registered with a dentist.

Early detection of oral cancer is crucial - and yet more than half of all adults in Scotland are not registered with a dentist.

These statistics will not improve unless more people visit the dentist more regularly.

According to a recent survey by the British Dental Association, one in two adults in Scotland are less likely to go to the dentist because of check-up charges.

The SNP in government will re-introduce free dental check ups for everyone in Scotland.

PRESCRIPTION CHARGES

The level of prescription charges in Scotland has increased steadily in recent years.

The system of charges and exemptions is riddled with anomalies. For example, a person in receipt of Income Support is exempt from charges whilst someone on Incapacity Benefit is not. A person with diabetes or epilepsy is exempt, but someone with asthma is not.

The cost of many common drugs is a fraction of the prescription charge. In these cases, the prescription charge acts as a tax on sickness.

The SNP will act to end the unfairness inherent in the system. We will freeze the level of prescription charges immediately, and establish an independent, short-term working party to review the level of charges and the categories of exemption.

As well as rooting out inequalities within the system, the SNP is determined to improve the quality of care for everyone in Scotland. We support and will continue the drive to set and maintain national standards of clinical excellence. We will take action to ensure that patients are treated as quickly and as close to home as is possible and clinically appropriate, and in settings that are clean, modern, properly staffed and well equipped. Our early priorities will be to invest in re-equipping NHS Scotland and tackling staff shortages.

A MODERN, WELL-EQUIPPED HEALTH SERVICE

Many of Scotland's hospital buildings are dilapidated and ill equipped. The scale of investment required to bring all of our hospitals up to a twenty-first century standard is enormous. The SNP is determined to make significant progress by delivering real investment in our first term in government - and we will do so more cost-effectively than can be done under the discredited PFI/PPP system.

Over the next twenty-five years, the NHS will spend nearly £3 billion under PFI contracts, to service capital investment of only £1 billion. Through the SNP's Scottish Trust for Public Investment, we will lever in considerably more investment to NHS Scotland for the same scale of commitment.

We will carry out an audit of the age and effectiveness of existing hospital equipment and use the results of the audit to target capital investment to ensure that our hospitals are at the cutting edge of medical technology.

CLEANER HOSPITALS

Many of our hospitals do not meet basic standards of cleanliness and hygiene and, as a result, the incidence of hospital-acquired infection is on the increase.

The SNP will invest in a "Clean Hospitals Fund" to enable an immediate clean up of Scotland's hospitals.

MORE NURSES

Scotland's health service is under-staffed. There are 800 fewer nurses in our hospitals than when Labour took office in 1997, fewer consultant nurse posts than in England & Wales and, in many specialities, a shortage of doctors.

The shortage of nurses in the health service causes enormous strain, in acute and primary health care. This will be an area of immediate priority of the SNP in government.

We will take action with the aim of employing at least 1, 500 more nurses in the health service.

We will also launch a nurse recruitment campaign to encourage young people to enter the profession and qualified nurses who have left it to return. The campaign will include free return-to-nursing courses for those wishing to return to the profession; an expansion of the ways in which people are able to enter nurse training; the provision of workplace childcare; enhanced continuing professional development opportunities; and better career prospects with the creation of more consultant nurse posts.

SHORTER WAITING TIMES

Patients wait too long for treatment in Scotland and the length of wait varies considerably across Scotland. We have already signalled our commitment to eradicating inequalities across Scotland, but we must also work to reduce waiting times generally.

With the investment that we are promising in hospital buildings, medical equipment and nurses, we believe that maximum waiting times for all inpatient treatment can be cut by half in our first term in office.

AN UNEQUIVOCAL COMMITMENT

The continued confusion about whether or not Labour intends to legislate for free personal care for all elderly people who need it is unacceptable. The SNP will continue to press the government to make this commitment unequivocally. The SNP remains committed to paying personal care costs in full and will do so on taking office if Labour continues to let Scotland's pensioners down.

CONCLUSION

In short, the SNP is offering a prescription for better health - targeted initiatives now to improve the health of our nation in future, and real action to improve the quality of healthcare for everyone in Scotland, no matter where they live.

These are: