Chamber and committees

Funding provided by the Scottish Government (Chief Scientist Office) for research falls into three broad areas of activity, i.e. research studies, capacity building and supporting infrastructure.

The specific amounts provided by condition are set out below although it should be noted that research studies (funded by non-commercial and third sector organisations) would also have benefited from the provision of service support costs and other generic resources which are not routinely recorded by condition.

Research Grants

The Chief Scientist Office supports response mode grant committees and a small catalytic grants scheme (2016-19). The committees which comprise independent experts as well as public representatives consider applications across broad research remits to address health and care challenges in Scotland. Applications are subject to independent expert peer-review with funding recommendations made by the committees. It should be noted that (1) funding rounds were significantly impacted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic which saw a significant research response and (2) for 2021 to date only one of the two funding rounds has been completed.

There is no legislative or other provisions which specifies timescales within which inspections must take place. The HM Chief Inspector of Education agrees on an annual basis with the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills the scale and priorities of the inspection programme.

Schools are selected for inspection each year on a proportionate basis, using a sampling approach and predetermined set criteria rather than a cyclical approach. Therefore there is no set time between full inspections.

The criteria for selecting a school for inspection takes account of the context and characteristics of the school, the type of school, deprivation and balance across local authorities. Other factors include local circumstances as well as the length of time since the last inspection.

Education Scotland has strengthened its scrutiny functions and prior to COVID-19 had increased the number of school inspections carried out in each academic year. Routine inspections of early learning and childcare settings and schools have been paused since March 2020 as a result of the impact of COVID-19. On 3 December 2021, the HM Chief Inspector of Education announced that taking stakeholder views into account, along with the ongoing challenges settings and schools face dealing with COVID-19, HM Inspectors of Education will not resume routine early learning and childcare and school inspections in January 2022 as originally planned.

HM Inspectors of Education will continue to keep plans to resume the routine programme of inspections under review to changing circumstances linked to the pandemic.

We set out an initial £20 million allocation for the Fund in our draft Budget document on the 9th December. Building on our commitment to co-design, we will take forward a series of engagements in the new year with partners across the region to design the approach for the implementation of the Fund, including how investments can demonstrate alignment with the national outcomes we set out in our response to the Just Transition Commission in September 2021.

We are fully committed to ensuring this Fund benefits communities fairly across the North East and Moray region. Our engagement activity will cover the region as a whole, ensuring that communities and businesses in Moray, with others, are able to influence the approach taken for the Fund.

Routine inspections of early learning and childcare settings and schools have been paused since March 2020 as a result of the impact of COVID-19. HM Inspectors of Education are aware of the ongoing challenges faced by local authority staff, education staff, learners and communities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Scottish Ministers requested HM Inspectors conduct an inspection of Spark of Genius Harbour Point School in accordance with section 66 (1) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980. This inspection was carried out in May 2021.

Between January and March 2021, to support and improve the delivery of high-quality and effective remote learning, HM Inspectors of Education developed a national overview of practice of remote learning. During this period HM Inspectors of Education engaged with all 32 local authorities and 474 schools. They also reached 12,105 parents and 2,667 learners through surveys. This resulted in 12 weekly National Overview of Practice Reports publishing between January and April 2021.

In March to April 2021 HM Inspectors of Education undertook a national review of local authority approaches to quality assurance as part of the Alternative Certification Model. This review was to ensure that the range of measures being undertaken by local authorities ensured that the approach to certification delivered for young people across Scotland. As part of this review, HM Inspectors of Education engaged with all 32 local authorities, headteachers, SQA co-ordinators, teachers and representatives of professional associations. This national review was published on the Education Scotland website.

On 3 December 2021, the HM Chief Inspector of Education announced that taking stakeholder views into account, along with the ongoing challenges settings and schools face dealing with COVID-19, HM Inspectors of Education will not resume routine early learning and childcare and school inspections in January 2022 as originally planned.

Between September and December 2021, HM Inspectors of Education visited over 200 schools and services. This included visits to establishments and services that were due to have a further inspection or as part of national thematic inspections.

For visits, HM Inspectors of Education will follow public health and local authority guidance complying with the COVID-19 mitigations for each establishment. Plans are continually reviewed and are linked with public health guidance and local circumstances.

From February 2022, if COVID-19 conditions have improved, HM Inspectors of Education will carry out ‘recovery focus’ visits to engage with a selection of early learning and childcare settings and schools to support the education sector as it continues to respond to the impact of the current pandemic. HM Inspectors of Education will continue to keep plans under review to changing circumstances linked to the pandemic.

The First Minister announced funding to support small and medium-sized businesses to improve their ventilation. The Business Ventilation Fund opened for applications on Tuesday 23rd November 2021.

The impact and effectiveness of the fund is being carried out in early January to consider take up and a full evaluation will be conducted on closure of the Fund in April. This will include reach by sectors and size of business.

A webpage is being set up for the Covid Ventilation Short Life Working Group, and the minutes will be available on there in due course.

The number of households in each local authority that are experiencing fuel poverty is published annually in the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) local authority tables.

The latest published set of tables for 2017-2019 is available at:

Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Local Authority figures are based on a 3-year pooled sample to allow sufficient sample sizes to produce results on each local authority. The figures in the table show number of fuel poor households, and the fuel poverty rate, based on the last 10 years for South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire, and Falkirk.

The Scottish Government recognises the valuable contribution that positive, well supported transitions have on outcomes for care leavers and that the relationships care leavers build including with their foster carers are integral to these outcomes.

Since 1 April 2015, young people leaving care after their sixteenth birthday, and who have been looked after in foster, kinship or residential care have been eligible for Continuing Care and therefore able to continue in their care setting if that is in their best interests. The Scottish Government’s Continuing Care guidance stipulates that local authorities should carefully consider the financial implications for a carer offering a Continuing Care placement to ensure that a lack of financial support is not a barrier to the continuation of the placement.

Significant work has already taken place to develop a National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social care, in partnership with CoSLA.

Pursuant to extensive consultation with stakeholders from across the health and social care landscape, the Strategy will outline our shared vision for the workforce, which supports a tripartite ambition of recovery, growth and transformation. It will also set out the actions we are taking in partnership with the workforce, to achieve that vision.

Unfortunately, the rapid emergence of the Omicron variant including the potential challenges this presents for maintenance of our Health and Social care services as we move through Winter, means that this is rightly our immediate focus. We will do all we can to ensure staff are protected and are rapidly increasing the rollout of our vaccinations programme to protect the public.

In light of these developments, the Strategy will now be published in early 2022 to allow us to focus our efforts on the essential business of responding to Covid-19, It is essential we do all we can to promote staff wellbeing, and we will reflect on this next phase of the pandemic as we move forward with publication of the Strategy as soon as is practicable.

The Scottish Government considers the practice of cropping a dog's ears purely for cosmetic reasons in order to achieve a desired look a despicable and cruel practice. Should the Scottish Parliament agree that the measures set out in the Kept Animals Bill should apply to Scotland then that Bill, if delivered, will provide Scottish Ministers with regulation making powers to prohibit the importation of certain types or classes of animals, including dogs that have been mutilated for cosmetic reasons.

If and when these new powers are available to us, we will seek to bring forward new legislation to prohibit the importation into Scotland of dogs with cropped ears or other unacceptable mutilations. Meantime, we continue to work with the other GB administrations, APHA and animal welfare stakeholders to highlight the illegality and cruelty of such procedures.

We set out our commitment to establish an independent taskforce to consider whether the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA) should be given extra powers to investigate wildlife crime in both the 2021-22 Programme for Government and in our Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party Shared Policy Programme.

The taskforce’s role will include due consideration of the potential implications of any proposed changes to the powers of the Scottish SPCA. The taskforce will report back by the end of 2022.

We will set out the remit of the taskforce in more detail in due course.