Chamber and committees

Information on the number of complaints regarding the use of restraint in schools and care settings is not collected at a national level by the Scottish Government. Under existing guidance, any use of physical intervention in schools, including restraint, must be recorded and monitored by local authorities. The Care Inspectorate also gathers information on all incidents of restraint in care settings and reviews selected cases to ensure best practice is followed. This is in addition to the inspection roles of carried out by the Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland.

The Scottish Government encourages all concerns or disagreements in relation to service provision to be resolved at as local a level as possible, where that is appropriate. Complaints can also be submitted in line with the service’s complaints handling procedure, with referrals made to the local authority, public services ombudsman and the Care Inspectorate, where appropriate. Where there are concerns about the professional conduct of a teacher registered with the GTCS, these can be referred to the GTCS for further examination. All children and young people, and their families, should be informed of all the routes available to them to make a complaint.

In all settings, police or social work should be informed without delay if there are concerns that a child or young person has suffered harm as a result of restraint. A child protection referral can run in parallel to local complaints handling and disciplinary procedures. Child protection procedures will be initiated when police, social work or health determine that a child may have been significantly harmed or may be at risk of significant harm.

The Scottish Government firmly opposes the inappropriate use of zero hours contracts and other non-standard types of employment that offer workers minimal job or financial security. Although zero hours contracts fall under employment law, which is reserved to the UK Government, we are committed to avoiding inappropriate use of zero hours contracts throughout Scotland.

We are taking action to tackle insecure work through Fair Work First, the Scottish Government’s policy for driving high quality, fair work. In May 2022, we published updated Statutory Guidance setting out how public bodies can address Fair Work First requirements in relevant public procurements, including no inappropriate use of zero hours contracts and payment of the real Living Wage.

Fair Work First guidance - for those who are involved in the award and delivery of public sector contracts - makes clear the benefits of secure contracts to both workers and employers. Employers using zero hours contracts should be able to credibly explain their exceptional circumstance which leads to them using such contracts. Employers should also be able to explain the steps they are taking to review their business model to eliminate the inappropriate use of zero hours contracts.

The recruitment and deployment of teachers is a matter for individual local authorities, as they are responsible for using available resources to provide a complement of staff which meets the needs of each of their schools and its pupils based on local needs and priorities.

However, the Scottish Government has a number of ambitions to address the lack of women in STEM occupations and settings, such as schools. These ambitions start early: the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan examines how schools have a key role to play in helping young women make transitions into a broader range of more successful careers, as well as setting out measures which address occupational segregation, which can lead to fewer women accessing STEM careers.

The Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning is also considering how best to ensure that girls and young women are able to freely choose activities, subjects and areas of study including those traditionally dominated by boys and men.

We have provided £240 million of additional investment, over two financial years and a further £145.5 million of permanent funding from April this year to support the employment of additional teachers and support staff.

In addition, we will also fund 3,500 additional teachers and 500 support staff over this Parliamentary term – over and above the 1,400 teachers recruited during the pandemic. We will also continue to work closely with COSLA regarding the employment of teachers, to maximise the number of jobs available.

The full amount of the Agriculture Transformation Fund of £5 million has been allocated to the Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grant Scheme (SACGS) 2022 which has been designed to focus support on low emission slurry spreading equipment and slurry store covers that are proven to lower ammonia emissions and reduce adverse impacts on water quality resulting from the storage and spreading of livestock slurry and digestate. The amount of grant on offer has been based on standard costs and is set at a level that is proportionate to the costs of the eligible equipment.

Agriculture is devolved and it is for each part of the UK to develop policies for its own circumstances. We will continue to support the rural economy with stability and simplicity until 2025 and we remain committed to supporting active farming and food production with direct payments. EU Exit means we no longer have long-term certainty of funding and unilateral choices imposed by HM Treasury provide insufficient replacement EU budget. The support offered reflects this position and the available budget.

The recruitment and deployment of teachers is a matter for individual local authorities, as they are responsible for using available resources to provide a complement of staff which meets the needs of each of their schools and its pupils based on local needs and priorities.

The Scottish Government has a number of ambitions to address the lack of women in STEM occupations and settings, such as schools. The Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning is also considering how best to ensure that girls and young women are able to freely choose activities, subjects and areas of study including those traditionally dominated by boys and men.

The Scottish Government recognises challenges in STEM teacher recruitment and continues to offer 150 bursaries of £20,000 for career changers, wishing to undertake a one year PGDE Initial Teacher Education (ITE) course that leads to the award of registered teacher status in the hardest to fill STEM subjects.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) seeks to equip each individual with highly effective Career Management Skills which will empower them to proactively direct their career, as well as give them the ability to manage key transition points throughout their lives. SDS has a network of Careers Advisers working in every school in Scotland, as well as at SDS Careers Centres across the country.

We know that long waits have grown as a result of the pandemic, which is why we now need to focus on treating people that are waiting too long for treatment. That is why I am announcing a new set of targets for NHS Scotland to address the backlog of planned care, including some of the most ambitious targets in the UK. The targets are to eliminate:

• two year waits for outpatients in most specialities by the end of August 2022
• 18 month waits for outpatients in most specialities by the end of December 2022
• one year waits for outpatients in most specialities by the end of March 2023
• two years waits for inpatient / daycases in most specialities by the end of September 2022
• 18 month waits for inpatient / daycases in most specialities by the end of September 2023
• one year waits for inpatient / daycases in most specialities by the end of September 2024

These targets are very ambitious and will require a strong focussed approach to successfully achieve them. However it is important to note that a small number of patients will be unable to have their procedure within these timeframes for personal or clinical reasons.

Patients will be offered appointments as local to them as possible but some may be offered alternatives outwith their local health board area to reduce waiting times, for example, the Golden Jubilee University National Hospital or at National Treatment Centres as they become operational over the next year.

The approach will build on the success of the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CFSD), which was established to drive innovation and introduce new ways of delivering care that will create additional capacity for inpatient, day case and outpatients.

The National Clinical Prioritisation Framework was also updated last month to provide flexibility in managing waiting lists, to ensure any patient waiting over two years is prioritised and treated, as well as those who require urgent clinical care.

Funding for the new drive will come from the £1 billion allocated for the NHS Recovery Plan.

The Scottish Government intends to publish the Implementation Plan for the Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery in summer 2022. As advised in a letter to the Convenors of the Cross Party Group on Chronic Pain on 15 June, Ministers intend to meet with patient representatives of the Group once it has been published.

Extensive engagement of people with lived experience was carried out at all stages to develop the Framework. This includes through representation on the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain and a national survey of people with chronic pain and their carers. We have also sought input from other stakeholder groups during the development of the Framework including NHS staff, service planners and third-sector partners. This has included work to bring together the diverse clinical disciplines involved in pain management in order to inform and support activities to improve chronic pain services.

The draft Framework also underwent public consultation with a high level of responses from people with chronic pain and other stakeholders. We are grateful for the views and ideas shared through the consultation which have been used to inform the Aims and Actions we will set out in the forthcoming Implementation Plan. Officials will provide a draft of the Plan to Ministers within the coming weeks and publication is anticipated shortly after this.

The consultation document will be published on the Scottish Government’s website on 4 July at 10 am.

https://consult.gov.scot/agriculture-and-rural-economy/land-reform-net-zero-scotland

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of energy generated from solar PV in contributing to the decarbonisation of Scotland’s energy supply, and helping us meet our targets for a net zero emissions society by 2045.

In support of this, the Scottish Government will, in consultation with the solar sector, establish a vision for the future of solar energy in the forthcoming Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which will be published later this year. We expect this vision to act as a signal for the solar industry going forward and it is important that we take the time to ensure that the vision is fully considered in context of the whole energy system.

The Scottish Government has no plans to update the published Resource Planning Assumptions at this time.

The spending review sets out the financial framework to support delivery of our commitments. It sets out high-level multi-year spending plans for the Scottish Government and does not replace the annual budget process.

Annual budgets will continue to be set through the annual parliamentary budget Bill process and the annual budget will be based on the latest fiscal information.