Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has invested significantly in social prescribing through Community Link Workers within general practice. Funding for Community Link Workers in general practice is included within the Primary Care Improvement Fund. Health and Social Care Partnerships decide how to use their Primary Care Improvement Fund allocation to develop local Multi-Disciplinary Teams which incorporate link worker roles.

The Scottish Government also provides funding to Voluntary Health Scotland to manage the Scottish Community Link Worker Network. The aim of the network is to create a space for community link workers in primary care settings in Scotland to come together to share learning and to develop, network and support each other in order to improve outcomes for their patients and communities. Funding is also provided to the Scottish Social Prescribing Network to support those who are undertaking link worker/social prescribing roles in other local schemes.

Ensuring healthcare professionals have the appropriate knowledge and understanding to provide care to the required standard remains the responsibility of local NHS Boards.

To monitor the provision of education within stroke services, the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme reviews ask NHS Boards to demonstrate how they are actively upskilling and maintaining the knowledge of their stroke workforce. The criteria for demonstrating the development of a skilled and knowledgeable stroke workforce have been expanded, based on recommendations made in the Progressive Stroke Pathway. The full criteria can be found in Annex A of the Stroke Improvement Plan at: Stroke Improvement Plan .

The Scottish Government recognises that social prescribing can be an effective method of improving an individual’s physical, mental and social health. It plays an important role in helping us achieve our commitment to prevention, holistic care and Realistic Medicine. Our Primary Care Community Link Worker programme has been in place since 2014 and a 2017 commitment to create 250 Community Link Worker posts in general practice has been achieved.

Due to the wide range of activity which is described as social prescribing, there are many Scottish Government policies and resources which play a role in supporting its delivery. For example, we recognise the important role played by local organisations in supporting the health and wellbeing of their communities and we are working with the community and voluntary sector to look at how we can enhance the capacity of the sector to help those organisations address the challenges they face. The ongoing development by the ALLIANCE of the ALISS online database helps to provide information on community resources and our Green Health Partnership programme led by NatureScot helps to promote the connection between health and the natural environment.

Ministers are offered a SG mobile telephone on appointment. Our records show costs per year as follows:

2018-19 - £2,210

2019-20 - £3,802

2020-21 - £1,490

2021-22 - £1,463

2022-23 - £10,957

HM Treasury budgeting rules, with which the Scottish Government must comply, are very clear that it is not possible to use capital budgets to support current spending. All the capital budget will be used to support capital spending in the 2023-24 financial year.

The Scottish Government does not prescribe approaches to items of practice on matters such as providing homework to children and young people.

In April 2023, Education Scotland published an update on ‘Engaging Parents and Families: A toolkit for practitioners’, which is available on the National Improvement Hub along with case study examples of learning at home. This resource, which includes a short review of the evidence surrounding homework, also provides schools and practitioners with good practice examples of effective approaches to learning at home.

Accordingly, decisions on providing homework are a matter of broader policy and approach that schools and headteachers are empowered to make decisions on. This is in line with other such decisions that headteachers make at a local level on learning and teaching practice, including the curriculum design, the vision, aims and rationale of the school or setting.

As set out in the answer to S6W-18198, at the point of the Scottish Budget 2023-24 being published we had confirmed a contribution of £50 million to the teachers’ pay deal agreed in March 2023. This was included in the local government finance settlement for 2023-24. The remaining costs for the 2023-24 financial year will be met from the Education and Skills Portfolio budget.

The total cost to the Scottish Government, in the 2023-24 financial year of the teachers’ pay deal agreed in March 2023 is £205 million.

The figure of £188 million quoted by officials at the Education, Children and Young People Committee meeting on 17 May 2023 represents the cost to the Education and Skills Portfolio of funding overall teachers’ pay costs in 2023-24. This figure also includes recurring costs relating to the 2021-22 teachers’ pay deal but does not include the proportion of costs relating to the teachers’ pay deal agreed in March 2023 that are being met directly through the local government finance settlement, as these costs do not sit within the Education and Skills Portfolio budget.

The final report of the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment was submitted to me on 5 June 2023. It will be published on the Scottish Government website shortly. Scottish Government will now take the time to consider its recommendations carefully and in the context of wider reform and will respond in due course.

The 2023-24 budgets for employability programmes, including No One Left Behind and Fair Start Scotland were confirmed by the Deputy First Minister on 25 May, with Grant Offer Letters issued to local authorities on 30 May for No One Left Behind. The budget for Individual Training Accounts has now been confirmed and the scheme will re-open during the week commencing 19 June 2023.

We are currently considering the budget for the Flexible Workforce Development Fund in 2023-24 through colleges and the Open University in Scotland and will provide a further update once budget discussions have concluded.