Chamber and committees

Following the Grenfell Tower fire the Scottish Government produced the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing High Rise Domestic Buildings . Additionally, in February 2020, to assist those with responsibilities for providing personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs), the Scottish Government produced the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing Specialised Housing and Similar Premises . This guidance provides information on the formulation of PEEPs in appropriate settings. The guidance also provides links to the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for the Evacuation of Disabled Persons from Buildings .

The vast majority of funding from the Scottish Government is provided by means of a block grant to local authorities. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them.

The 2022-23 Local Government Finance Settlement of almost £12.7 billion provides local government with a cash increase of over £1 billion or 9.2 per cent which is the equivalent of a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent.

It is for each individual local authority to decide how best to allocate this money, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities, including towards home adaptations for disabled people.

Since the integration of health and social care, Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) are responsible for the planning and delivery of adaptations using budget created by delegation. They are also responsible for reviewing and developing services to improve outcomes for people who require adaptations.

We also provide an additional £11m (2022-23) to registered social landlords to provide adaptations for their tenants.

However, we know that there are issues with the way in which adaptations are being accessed and delivered locally. As set out in our Housing to 2040 strategy, we are taking forward a review of the current housing adaptations system to consider how the process can be streamlined and made easier for people who need adaptations. As part of this we intend to engage with COSLA to ensure we continue to spread good practice on waiting times, across the local authorities.

Scotland’s Zero Emissions Mobility Industry Advisory Group have today published their report on the growth of this important sector for Scotland.

Scotland’s Zero Emission Mobility Industry Advisory Group (ZEM IAG) was established in 2019 to bring together industry stakeholders to advise on shaping a collective approach to the development of the zero emission mobility sector.

The purpose of the group was to explore and advise on the strategic interventions, collaborations and investments required to substantially grow Scotland’s automotive sector, with emphasis on sustainable, zero (CO2) emission technologies and business models.

The IAG set a vision in 2019 for Scotland to become:

• a global player in supply chains for zero emission mobility for heavier and niche vehicles
• an international centre of expertise in energy-transport system integration
• a global destination for innovation in sustainable, zero emission mobility.

The report is informed by research carried out by Transport Scotland and Scottish Enterprise on key strengths and opportunities in zero emission mobility in Scotland as well as supporting studies by consultants KPMG commissioned for the group.

The report sets out the group’s vision for a decarbonised sector under 8 key themes:

• Innovation ecosystem development
• Skills
• Inward investment and capital investment
• Trade and export
• Public procurement for innovation
• Supply chain opportunities
• Collaboration
• Infrastructure

The report also recommends some key actions required to progress towards this vision.

One of these recommendations is that an innovation fund should be considered to provide support for innovators to scale up their manufacturing capability in Scotland and bring the development and testing of new technologies to Scotland, with a particular focus on batteries, fuel cells and zero emission heavy duty vehicles.

Today the Scottish Government is launching the Zero Emission Mobility Fund. This will provide £28 million across the next four years to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of heavy duty zero emission vehicles.

The Zero Emission Mobility Innovation Fund, administered through Scottish Enterprise, links to other national funding programmes for manufacturing and supports Scotland’s Mission Zero for transport.

The new Fund has been developed in consultation with industry leaders through Scotland’s Zero Emission Mobility Industry Advisory Group. This new funding approach responds to their call for innovative funding models to drive net zero transformation across Scotland’s heavy duty vehicle supply chains.

Under this government (since 2007), the number of Psychiatric Consultants across all Specialities in NHS Scotland has increased by 21.6% to 548.8 whole time equivalent posts as of March 2022.

In 2020-21 and 2021-22, the Scottish Government has invested in increasing the number of trainee places on Core and Specialist Psychiatry training programmes. The number of posts advertised for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry specialist training increased from 6 in 2020 to 10 in 2022.

The Scottish Government are working with NHS Education for Scotland and the Royal College of Psychiatry to better understand the challenges associated with recruitment and retention in Psychiatry and encourage medical students to consider a long-term career as a psychiatrist. This work includes the ‘Choose Psychiatry’ campaign, undergraduate taster sessions, and improved psychiatric placements at Foundation level.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training

Recruitment information regarding this trainee group has been recorded since 2013. The following figures refer to successfully recruited candidates and represent the cohort trained each year.

Recruitment to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Specialist Training - Year 4)

The next set of data will cover the three month period up to 31 March 2022 and will be published once all 32 local authorities have provided the relevant information. This was requested from local authorities in April and reminders were sent in May and June. We will continue to publish this information on a quarterly basis.

To date, data until 31 March 2022 detailing expenditure, grant and refusal figures have been obtained for 23 local authorities. This shows £4,463,069.51 expenditure, 4,003 grants and 1,298 refusals.

The latest set of full available data, broken down by local authority, is the Tenant Grant Fund monitoring report: January 2022 , which was published in March 2022.

As local authorities can continue to use any remaining allocation in 2022-23 until fully spent, a final review will be carried out once all LAs have closed their funds.

Scotland has a wealth of experience and learning from previous refugee schemes and we have held discussions with experienced stakeholders including Room for Refugees. The New Scots strategy is providing the foundation for our response to Ukraine. It sets the clear principle that integration should begin and be supported from day one of arrival and has a tried and tested approach to integrating refugees into our communities, schools, and workplaces.

We are working closely and collaboratively with partners to ensure we rapidly respond to opportunities and resolve challenges and issues as they emerge, and ensuring that stakeholders and the direct experiences of those arriving in Scotland feeds directly into continuing to improve our programme.

The impact of school closures during the pandemic was carefully considered at local level by schools and community groups who are best placed to understand the needs of the immediate community.

The Attainment Scotland Fund (ASF) evaluation found that schools worked closely with community groups to mitigate the effects of school building closures for pupils. The Scottish Government has no plans to undertake additional research.

The easing of restrictions in recent months means that community groups are now in a position to re-establish their position and make use of school settings where appropriate. Therefore, all local and community facilities are encouraged to permit access to organisations and groups in line with the Strategic Framework and the Safer Workplaces guidance.

There is no place for racism and we recognise that structural and institutional barriers continue to exist in the NHS.

The NHS ethnic minority forum is working with the Scottish Government to drive change. Work is underway to develop anti-racist resources and targeted interventions to support minority ethnic staff and help them progress in their careers.

A refreshed Fair Work action plan will be published later this year, including a focus on minority ethnic employment. A new ethnicity pay gap strategy will also set out our approach for employers in addressing racial inequality in workplaces.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering a high quality healthcare service to the people of Scotland, including those with liver disease. To support NHS Scotland ensure it has the workforce capacity to deliver those services, we published the National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy on 11 March 2022, which outlines our ambitions for recovery, growth and transformation of our workforce. Workforce projections for Health and Social Care will be published later this year. These will incorporate evidence from local Three Year Workforce Plans.

We will support Health Boards with their recruitment needs as set out in their plans directly through investment in international recruitment.

NHS Scotland's staffing levels are at a record high, and have now increased for ten consecutive years. We have also funded record numbers of healthcare education places this academic year.