Chamber and committees

In healthcare settings, all incidents of restraint should be recorded and monitored at NHS Board level in line with their individual clinical governance procedures. The Mental Welfare Commission also have a role in publishing guidance in this area and in addressing individual cases following contact from patients, or as a result of their visits and themed reviews.

The Care Inspectorate gathers information on all incidents of restraint and reviews selected cases to ensure staff carrying out the restraint are fully trained and best practice is followed. They also inspect residential and secure care homes at least once each year, and restraint procedures are part of that inspection process.

In education settings, any use of physical intervention in schools, including restraint, must be recorded and monitored by local authorities. As part of their scrutiny and improvement roles in schools, Education Scotland inspectors consider the impact of practice in relation to the use of physical intervention, including restraint, for children and young people.

Information on the number of incidents of restraint and seclusion in these services are not collected at a national level by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Stroke Improvement Plan ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/stroke-improvement-plan/ ) outlines the requirements on NHS Boards to ensure they have a trained and competent workforce capable of delivering person-centred, safe and effective stroke care. The required level of education and training for members of staff is dependent upon on whether their contact with people affected by stroke is occasional, regular or in the context of specialist services.

It is clear that the changes in working practices and budgets will offer opportunities to right-size the portfolio and improve efficient delivery of services to the public. There are no details of any savings available yet as the multi-year programme has not started. The first phase of the programme will begin this year and will look to gather and validate existing estate information and to plan for a place-based approach across the public sector. Subsequent phases will identify opportunities to work towards an optimal, greener and interoperable public sector estate.

The scope for reform applies to all public bodies. After years of growth in the public sector, due to Brexit and the pandemic, we need to reset. We expect all public bodies to demonstrate that they remain fit for purpose against the present and future needs of Scotland’s people, places and communities. The spending review provides a platform for engagement ahead of the next budget. We do not intend to take the same approach as set out by the UK Government, but we do need to reshape and refocus. We will work together across the public sector to look creatively at reform in order to become more efficient and deliver better outcomes.

Good governance and regulation is not captured by a single number. We will work with public bodies leaders and other stakeholders in the coming months, to agree the optimal public body landscape for achieving improved outcomes, good governance and regulation. The spending review provides a platform for engagement ahead of the next budget. We do not intend to take the same approach as set out by the UK Government, but we do need to reshape and refocus. We will work together across the public sector to look creatively at reform in order to become more efficient and deliver better outcomes.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities. It is also the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on Community Facilities, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government has increased local government funding by over £1 billion in 2022-23, a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent, despite a 5.2 per cent real terms reduction in the overall Scottish Budget.

In 2022-23, City of Edinburgh Council will receive £915.4 million to fund local services, which equates to an extra £86.7 million to support vital day-to-day services or an additional 10.5 per cent compared to 2021-22.

Our Equally Safe Strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls emphasises the importance of challenging the underpinning attitudes which enable such violence to take place. Education settings have an important role in challenging these attitudes through teaching children and young adults about healthy relationships, consent and gender stereotypes which drive gender-based violence.

Our Equally Safe at School (ESAS) project, developed by Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance, applies a whole school approach to inequality and gender-based violence in schools. Since August 2021, Rape Crisis Scotland have reported over 60 schools have registered to ESAS. This year, Rape Crisis Scotland’s ESAS coordinator has been continuing to focus on the promotion of ESAS and working both nationally and with local authorities to build ESAS implementation strategies.

The Scottish Government also funds and supports other education-based programmes aimed at preventing gender-based violence. Our Mentors in the Violence peer education programme delivered in schools throughout Scotland seeks to enable young people to recognise and speak up against gender-based violence, bullying, abusive and violent behaviour, as well as the negative societal attitudes and assumptions which underpin this behaviour.

We have also established the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning, to identify ways in which systematic gender inequality in education and learning can be eradicated. In addition, the Gender-Based Violence in Schools Working Group is developing a national framework to ensure consistent messaging on gender-based harassment for everyone working with young people.

Furthermore, we are funding Rape Crisis Scotland to help deliver programmes which aim to tackle sexual harassment and violence in our schools including their national sexual violence programme which is aimed at local secondary schools across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has not set interim targets towards meeting the standard that 90% of patients start treatment for CAMHS and Psychological Therapies within 18 weeks of referral by March 2023.

This information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government has set out our commitment to people with a learning disability and their families through the Keys to Life Learning Disability strategy and the Learning/Intellectual Disabilities and Autism: Towards Transformation Plan . Both strategies focus on outcomes intended to ensure people with a learning disability live healthier lives, enjoy choice and control over the services they use, and are supported to be independent and active citizens.

In healthcare settings, all incidents of restraint should be recorded and monitored at NHS Board level in line with their individual clinical governance procedures. The Mental Welfare Commission also have a role in publishing guidance in this area and in addressing individual cases following contact from patients, or as a result of their visits and themed reviews.

The Care Inspectorate gathers information on all incidents of restraint and reviews selected cases to ensure staff carrying out the restraint are fully trained and best practice is followed. They also inspect residential and secure care homes at least once each year, and restraint procedures are part of that inspection process.

In education settings, under existing 2017 guidance any use of physical intervention in schools, including restraint, must be recorded and monitored by local authorities. As part of their scrutiny and improvement roles in schools, Education Scotland inspectors consider the impact of practice in relation to the use of physical intervention, including restraint, for children and young people.

On 21 June, the Scottish Government launched a public consultation on new draft human rights-based guidance on the use of physical intervention in schools. The draft guidance makes clear the recording, reporting and monitoring expectations that apply to all schools. This includes recording of a child or young person’s additional support needs and any protected characteristics.

Furthermore, this year Restraint Reduction Scotland was launched. Restraint Reduction Scotland is led by a core group of stakeholders, including professionals and family carers, who have lived experience, expertise and a shared, cross-sector, commitment to working towards the reduction of restrictive practices.