Chamber and committees

The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 requires local authorities to consult parents about their out-of-school care and school-age childcare needs every two years and to plan and publish information on whether and how they will provide appropriate childcare, taking account of those responses. Local authorities should therefore have access to appropriate information that is relevant to their local communities.

The approach that we are taking, in building a system of school-age childcare, is person centred and place based. It involves engaging with local communities to support the design and delivery of services, initially in our early adopter areas. We will share those findings and identify new early adopter areas this year.

Obviously, this can fluctuate but, at the moment, there is capacity in secure care. There are currently six spaces and there are five 16 and 17-year-olds in young offenders institutions. However, as already mentioned, we look to expand the last-bed policy, which currently sits at four beds, to 16 beds to ensure capacity for Scottish children. That is being discussed at ministerial level and we hope to provide an update on it soon. Therefore, the answer is yes, in essence.

Yes.

I do not have a date for that at the moment. The working group has a meeting scheduled for 5 June, and stage 1 needs to be completed before that can happen. Everything that we have heard so far from committees and stakeholders will feed into that.

No. Stage 1 will feed into the financial memo, so it will be following that.

It expired at the end of March 2023 and we are looking to expand and increase it now.

I understand that concerns have been raised about the funding for social work. I reiterate that the figures were worked out in conjunction with various organisations, including Social Work Scotland. We very much value the work of our social workers, and I want to ensure that their engagement continues throughout the process. They will be involved in the meeting of the group on 5 June that I have mentioned.

I will pass back over to Helen Duncan on the intricate details.

Again, it is difficult to quantify that.

That is the case with many things in the bill, as has been alluded to. That is something that will be looked at.

I have seen COSLA’s comments and I am aware of them. As I said, we will be engaging on the matter.