Chamber and committees

All children and young people have an entitlement to a learning journey which they experience as a coherent whole, with smooth and well-paced progression to best support their individual experience and outcomes. There is no national guidance which states the pace or time at which a child should transition through the stages of their ELC journey, and it is for individual settings to determine arrangements for moving children between stages depending on the needs of each individual child and their setting’s circumstances.

The Care Inspectorate’s new draft inspection framework includes guidance on how transition experiences will be inspected and states that where possible children should be supported to transition when it is appropriate for them to do so, rather than based upon their age.

The national practice guidance for the ELC workforce, ‘ Realising the Ambition: Being Me’, has a full chapter on transitions which highlights the importance of positive well managed transitions for children’s development. It helps practitioners to plan and support child centred transitions with children and their families at the heart of all decision making.

As set out in the latest Tackling Child Poverty Progress Report, published in June 2021, the Scottish Government invested almost £2.5 billion in support targeted at low income households including nearly £1 billion to support children in low income families.

The report also highlights that the data indicates that significant progress needs to be achieved in the years ahead to deliver upon the 2030 targets. That is why the Scottish Government has declared a national mission to tackle child poverty and committed to ambitious new action through the COVID Recovery Strategy. This includes doubling the Scottish Child Payment to £20 per week as quickly as possible during this Parliamentary term, continuing investment in the Parental Employability Support Fund and designing a wraparound childcare system providing care before and after school, all year round.

The Scottish Government will publish the second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan by the end of March 2022, setting out a range of actions which will put us on a critical path to the targets set. The Plan, when published, will include an assessment of the financial resources required to fund the proposed measures.

Last year, the Scottish Government commissioned Dr Nadine Cossette, a liaison psychiatrist, to examine the mental health needs of people hospitalised due to COVID-19. Dr Cossette’s report was published on Friday 2 October and is available online .

Work is well underway to implement the recommendations from Dr Cossette’s report. Funding of £4.5 million has been approved to enable Health Boards to set up local networks of mental health clinicians across Scotland, supported by a national strategic advisory group offering clinical expertise and guidance. These local networks will proactively contact all patients who have been hospitalised as a result of COVID-19. At this stage it is anticipated that roughly 3,000 people will benefit directly from treatment.

We are also working to implement our ‘Framework on recovery and rehabilitation from COVID-19’, which puts in place clear principles, priorities and objectives to support planning to meet increasing demand and provide high quality person-centred rehabilitation in different settings. We will develop and implement a rehabilitation pathway that will ensure everyone who requires rehabilitation will be able to access it.

The Scottish Government has had no recent discussions with Police Scotland, or the Scottish Police Authority, regarding how much Police Scotland has spent on dealing with cases of sexual harassment and discrimination.

It is a matter for the Chief Constable, with oversight by the Scottish Police Authority, to consider all cases of sexual harassment and discrimination reported to Police Scotland. If any cases result in severance payments the severance payment costs will be set out the SPA Accounts, such as those for 2020-21, set out in the following SPA Annual Report and Accounts: https://www.spa.police.uk/spa-media/zn3niyle/35372-spa-annualreport-2021_fa-1-1.pdf .

Ensuring electric charge points are accessible and user friendly for all is a core part of the Scottish Government’s approach to building out Scotland’s charging infrastructure. All chargers supported by Scottish Government funding must meet the requirements and recommendations set out in Transport Scotland’s good practice guide. This makes clear that installations by local authorities and other chargepoint owners should take account of duties set out in the Equalities Act 2010, noting specific accessibility considerations including in areas such as hatched markings and dropped kerbs.

Transport Scotland is also working in partnership with Scottish Enterprise through the Can Do Innovation Challenge framework to improve the design of electric vehicle charge points to make them even more accessible. This project is being advanced with input from the disabled community and organisations including Motability, the Mobility and Access Committee, The Roads for all forum, Perth and Kinross Inclusive Living Centre and Disabled Equality Scotland.

To ensure outcomes of our current innovation challenges and user engagement is captured, Transport Scotland is working with The Department for Transport, the charity Motability, and the British Standards Institution on the development of Accessible Electric Vehicle Chargepoint standards. The set of advisory standards are due to be developed by Summer 2022, once developed, they will provide specifications for the installers and operators of public charging infrastructure to ensure a more accessible and inclusive charging system across Scotland, and the UK as a whole.

In September 2019 there were 1,073 teachers in Secondary schools whose main subject was music.

Of these 1,073 teachers, 1,007 had posts in September 2020 (irrespective of subject taught or setting) and 66 did not have a post in publicly funded Scottish school.

The 1,007 with posts in the 2020 teacher census includes those recorded as not teaching at the time because they were either on leave or seconded from their post (e.g. on maternity leave).

Data from the September 2021 teacher census will be published on the 14th of December.

In the course of establishing their local offices, Members enter directly into a private contract for their occupation of the premises with a landlord. The SPCB is not a party to Members’ contractual arrangements with their landlords.  This arrangement has the advantage that Members are free to choose premises that they consider suitable for their purpose within their own constituency or region. Provided that the rules of the Re-imbursement of Members’ Expenses Scheme are complied with, Members can recover the cost of the initial setting up and subsequent running of their local offices under the Scheme. 

Whether to have a local office or not and where that office is within the constituency or region they were elected to represent is a decision for each constituency MSP or through agreement of regional MSPs from the same party who are required to share an office under the Scheme. 

Members are free to enter into a lease, a licence to occupy or, for example, a shorter-term arrangement to occupy a unit which is part of larger premises. Each arrangement has advantages and disadvantages for a tenant. 

When a Member is contemplating acquiring a local office, they are strongly advised to seek their own legal advice in relation to any proposed arrangement in order to protect their own interests and to ensure they are fully aware of the obligations they are undertaking as they could, at some stage, no longer be eligible for recovery of their expenses and become personally liable for them.  The cost of such legal advice can be met from the Scheme.

In order to qualify for the re-imbursement of their expenses, Members must satisfy the SPCB that their private arrangements are clear in their terms and not ambiguous, are binding contractually on the Member claiming and do not constitute an unreasonable drain on the public purse for the period that the Member is able to recover those expenses under the Scheme.

Legal Services are the SPCB’s solicitors and are not authorised by the SPCB to provide legal advice on leases or other arrangements to Members.  Legal Services do, on behalf of the Allowances Office, ensure that Members’ arrangements allow them to recover their expenses under the Scheme, by checking that each arrangement sets out clearly an offer to let or occupy specified premises, the term for which the arrangement is to last, and the rent for the premises. Legal Services provide this service to assure the Allowances Office and the SPCB that public finance obligations are met.

The Allowances Office provide advice to Members on what a Member is able to claim under the Scheme and what is required by way of evidence of any expenditure to make a claim. For example, where a Member wishes to claim rent for an office a valid agreement binding them contractually to pay the rental costs would be required. 

On the 5 October, the Health Secretary announced our £300 million NHS and care winter package.

We announced funding of:

• £40m for ‘step-down’ care, so that hospital patients can temporarily go into care homes, or can receive additional care at home support;
• £62m to maximise the capacity of care at home services;
• Up to £48m to increase the hourly rate of frontline adult social care staff to at least £10.02;
• £20m to enhance Multi-Disciplinary Teams, so that more social work assessments can be carried out, and to support joint working between health and social care.

This new funding will support increases in social care capacity in the community and in primary care.

As set out in the announcement, £62 million for 2021-22 has been allocated for building capacity in care at home community-based services. This is recurring funding intended help to fulfil unmet need, and deal with the current surge in demand and complexity of individual needs, also helping to ease pressures on unpaid carers.

Health Boards have already commenced recruitment activity to meet the commitment to recruit an additional 1,000 Health and Care Support staff at AfC Bands 2, 3 & 4 to provide additional capacity across a variety of services both in the community and in hospital settings. Funding of up to £15 million is being provided in-year to fully fund all costs associate with recruitment to these posts. We are directly supporting boards to fill these posts as quickly as possible within that time frame, through securing an accelerated pre-employment process and supporting the delivery of employability initiatives such as the ‘Skills Boost for Health Care’ training for staff new to health and care.

On the 8 November we launched a further national marketing campaign to attract more people to the sector. We are doing things differently to previous campaigns, focusing on social media, a younger target audience, and we are working with schools and colleges, and linking to the medium term work we’re doing with the SSSC and NES on career pathways and learning and development.

We have approved funding to extend the MyJobScotland recruitment website to all third and independent sector organisations until March 2022, which will mean that all social care vacancies can be advertised on one platform at no additional cost to providers.

As announced in the NHS Recovery Plan, by the end of 2021 the Scottish Government will publish a National Workforce Strategy that supports the remobilisation, recovery and renewal of Health and Social Care Services. The strategy is being developed in collaboration with NHS Health Boards, COSLA and a wide range of partners, through cross-sectoral reference groups that include NHS Education for Scotland. The strategy establishes a framework and sets out principles which will guide the design and implementation of service-specific workforce plans.

The Scottish Government has committed to develop a long-term Mental Health Workforce Plan in the first half of this Parliament. The Plan will take a system-wide approach to workforce planning for mental health workers, including psychologists, across sectors.

The Scottish Government is working with NHS Education for Scotland to grow the Psychological Therapies workforce, as demand for Psychological Therapies continues to increase.

The Scottish Government will publish the second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan by the end of March 2022, setting out a range of actions which will put us on a critical path to the 2030 child poverty targets.

We have declared a national mission to end child poverty, recognising the need for urgent and targeted action which is underpinned by work across the Scottish Government to shape the next delivery plan.

Consultation for the plan is ongoing, in compliance with the requirements of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017. Inputs have been received from national and community based third sector organisations, local authorities and health boards. Working in partnership with third sector organisations, the experiences and priorities of people with lived experience of poverty are informing the development of the plan.

Further consultation activity with third sector organisations and people with lived experience of poverty will take place in advance of publication of the plan. This will focus on the priority family types identified in the first Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan and the experience of those most affected by child poverty.

The Scottish Government is working with COSLA to facilitate the full engagement of local authorities.