Nicola Sturgeon has put her deputy, John Swinney, in charge of overseeing reforms of Scotland’s underperforming schools in a reshuffle that saw only a few new faces in her ministerial team. The day after telling Holyrood this would be a parliament of new beginnings, the first minister relied heavily on her previous team after she gave all nine senior cabinet secretary posts to ministers in her previous government. There were only three new arrivals among the 22 people given ministerial posts, with only one job going to a first-time MSP, the former Labour special adviser Jeane Freeman. A co-founder of the influential campaign group Women for Independence, Freeman is now Holyrood’s social security minister, where she will help oversee Scotland’s new powers over some £2.3bn in welfare benefits, including parts of the universal credits system. Sturgeon said the reshuffle signalled her intentions to make educational reform, tackling climate change and strengthening the economy the main priorities for her new minority government – the Scottish National party’s third successive administration in Edinburgh. After nine years as Scotland’s finance secretary, Swinney’s appointment as the cabinet secretary for education was applauded by the Scottish Greens leader, Patrick Harvie. The Scottish Lib Dem leader,… Read full this story
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