- Asked by: Elaine Smith, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 22 February 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 March 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what additional resource is being provided to encourage eligible citizens to claim pensioner credit, in light of reports that at least one third of those eligible are not in receipt of their entitlement.
Answer
The Scottish Government launched a new Financial Health Check in November 2018 backed by £3.3 million investment over two years. The service is delivered through the Citizens Advice Network in Scotland and offers personalised advice on 17 different elements to increase household incomes, reduce costs and tackle the ‘poverty premium’, where low income households pay more for basic goods and services. Ensuring that clients are in receipt of all the benefits they are entitled to is a key component of this Service.
In the first three months of delivery, the Service supported 1,740 clients and financial gain of over £1 million has been recorded for 366 clients. This means that, on average, each client is better off by £2,700.
- Asked by: Elaine Smith, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 February 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Aileen Campbell on 5 March 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £1 million committed to research on children experiencing food insecurity in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan has been spent, and whether it will provide details of the nature of this research.
Answer
Every Child Every Chance included a commitment to invest “£1 million on new practical support for children experiencing food insecurity during school holidays.” and also stated that “new research will also help us understand what further action is needed at a national level to address this problem.” The £1 million commitment therefore was not directly for research but for new practical support. The commitment was in relation to spend over two financial years; 2018-19 and 2019-20.
The Government is on track to meet this commitment. This financial year £492,745 has been allocated to projects directly related to the provision of food and activities for children during the school holidays. Final spend figures will not be available until after the end of the financial year at 31 March 2019.
For 2019-20, the commitment to reducing food insecurity during school holidays has been increased to £2 million, taking the total commitment for the 2 year period to £2.5m. A robust evaluation of the impact of this funding will be undertaken to inform the Scottish Government’s longer term approach.
- Asked by: Elaine Smith, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 22 February 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 March 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on what additional resources are being sought by each local authority to support mixed age couples register for the pensioner credit to which they are entitled.
Answer
The Scottish Government is not aware of any additional resources being sought by local authorities or COSLA to support mixed aged couples to register for pension credit.
- Asked by: Elaine Smith, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 February 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 28 February 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £750,000 committed to the Workplace Equality Fund in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan has been spent; which employers have received funding, and how they have spent it.
Answer
There are 22 projects, involving a range of employers, receiving funding through the Scottish Government’s £750,000 Workplace Equality Fund. The Fund is being delivered by Impact Funding Partners, who were formally known as Voluntary Action Fund.
With regard to the nine projects being funded through Round 1, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W- 17292 which was answered on 22 June 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx
With regard to Round 2, a further thirteen projects were approved for funding these include:
Name of Project | Organisation | Aim of Project | Cost |
SPECTRUM | Enable Scotland |
Working with 20 employers across 8 sectors (Digital Technology, Finance, Creative Industries, Low Carbon, Health, Engineering, Tourism & Education) in Glasgow to understand specific industry practice and identify barriers to inclusion. Training sessions for the employers are co-delivered by a disabled person from a Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) background. Employers will facilitate work experience opportunities for 18 disabled BME people with the aim of moving around 10 trainees into employment.
| £35,000 |
Diversity Works | Adopt an Intern |
Internship programme for 5 BME women and 4 events across Scotland targeting 40 employers to meet with BME women to discuss how best to create accessible pathways to employment. The companies hosting the internships will be supported to improve their recruitment processes and workplace policies to support equality and diversity.
| £44,539 |
Equality Works | In To Work Ltd |
Supporting 3 companies to improve their knowledge and practice around the recruitment and retention of disabled people. This will be done in consultation with disabled employees. Be spoke training will be delivered to managers within each of the companies and then further training will be delivered to wider employees.
| £22,500 |
E-POW (Equality Performance Observed in the Workplace) | West Regional Equality Unit |
Capacity building with 3-4 employers to review and improve their current policies and practices; working with around 20 employers to provide cultural diversity and equality training; training their training staff to ensure that learning is embedded across the organisations..
| £38,586 |
Fairness, Inclusion and Respect – Strengthening Inclusiveness within Construction | John Graham Construction |
To take positive action by developing training for senior managers, line managers and other employees across the company. Recruiting managers and individuals who will shortly become recruiting managers will receive training or recruitment and supporting employees. An online training tool will be developed to ensure that up to 243 workers complete an equality module which will include unconscious – bias training. The training programme will then become part of the company’s on-going induction training for new recruits.
| £37,956 |
Employ Ability Shetland | Moving On Project |
Engage with employers to raise awareness, provide training and understanding of disabilities and how people with a disability can undertake roles within their organisations. They will work intensively with 4 larger employers in Shetland and also provide 4 open events for other employers, employees and support agencies to raise awareness of disability in the workplace.
| £42,810 |
RNIB Older Worker Retention Resource Pack | RNIB Scotland |
In partnership with the Mariott Hotel Group, they will develop a resource pack for employers across Scotland. The resource pack will enable employers to change their work practices to support older employees who have developed a sight loss condition or support new employees who already have sight loss.
| £17,649 |
FAIR (Flexible and Inclusive Recruitment) | The BrightWorks Consultancy |
Working with the rail industry to implement flexible and inclusive job design in recruitment to support women and older workers. This involves working with managers to enable the successful implementation of flexible working patterns across the company. Learning from the pilot will then be shared with 30 other employers.
| £45,975 |
RAD (An inclusive approach to broadcast research & development talent) | The Research Centre |
Address a lack of diversity in the recruitment of staff in the broadcasting sector. They will work with seven businesses to delivery recruitment training and develop inclusive workplace practices within the businesses. They will help each business to recruit a paid trainee.
| £20,709 |
Stepping Into Your Future | Aramark Ltd |
Working on the career advancement and personal development, particularly in relation to confidence building, IT skills, supervisor skills, managing stress, people management skills, and transferable skills development. There will be separate training for managers on improving their recruitment and coaching skills. The project will support 100 employees from across the target group of women and older workers. The project will be delivered in partnership with Fife College.
| £40,054 |
We’re With You At Work | Beatson Cancer Charity |
Working with at least 5 employers to develop and test a range of individualised tools to give staff confidence, knowledge and skills to support employees affected by cancer. This will also involve training sessions each supporting HR/management staff .
| £33,425 |
Mums Returning to Work | Outside the Box Community Development |
Working in partnership with a nursery to produce a training resource that supports women through maternity and on their return to work. The training will be developed in partnership with staff and line managers. Training will include increasing awareness of a family friendly working environment, reducing maternity discrimination. The resource will then be shared with 50 other small employers, especially those who employ mainly women.
| £22,364 |
Fair Chance | Scottish Union of Supported Employment |
Conduct a disability equality audit of the recruitment processes of 6 employers and provide them with feedback and training on how they can make improvements to their process and workplace practices. Intensive training will be provided to managers. Learning from the project will be disseminated to 45 member organisations.
| £32,825 |
- Asked by: Elaine Smith, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 February 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Aileen Campbell on 28 February 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £500,000 committed to the Healthier Wealthier Children approach in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan has been spent, and whether it will provide details of the healthcare provisions that have been funded.
Answer
In October 2018 the Scottish Government allocated funding totalling £250,000 to the 14 territorial Health Boards to embed or enhance the Healthier Wealthier Children approach. Further funding will be allocated within 2019-20 in line with the commitment made in 'Every Child, Every Chance'.
An a update on all actions committed to within the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan will be published by the end of June 2019.
- Asked by: Elaine Smith, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2019
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent comments by the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, what action it is taking to tackle gender inequality in the practice of medicine.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2019
- Asked by: Elaine Smith, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 February 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 26 February 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £12 million committed to employment support in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan has been spent; which organisations and agencies have delivered employment support using this funding; where the support has been delivered, and how many people have received support.
Answer
As stated in the Programme for Government 2018-2019 the Scottish Government has commenced work to develop an intensive parental employment support. Building on the recent publication No One Left Behind, officials are working closely with Local Government and partners to design and develop this support. We are developing this around local areas enabling resources to be deployed to meet service user needs and complementing local investment.
It is anticipated that delivery of this support will commence in late 2019 and run until 2022.
- Asked by: Elaine Smith, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2019
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what funding it gives to local authorities for the provision of community services.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2019
- Asked by: Elaine Smith, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 20 February 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for a hip operation.
Answer
Data for waiting times is collected at speciality level, not procedure. Latest published data shows that for the quarter ending September 2018 the median waiting time for an Orthopaedic inpatient or day case appointment was 98 days.
The Health Board are taking a number of steps to improve the situation including providing additional clinics, making full use of capacity at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, and recruiting additional staff.
In line with the Waiting Times Improvement Plan the Golden Jubilee National Hospital have committed to 90 additional Orthopaedic Joint procedures. This activity commenced in January 2019.
- Asked by: Elaine Smith, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 January 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Aileen Campbell on 4 February 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20468 by Aileen Campbell on 9 January 2019, what action it plans regarding alleviating food insecurity that is identified during the collection and monitoring of the data.
Answer
The Scottish Government is dedicated to tackling the causes of food insecurity. We are integrating this objective across Government activity and have made food insecurity a key indicator in our National Performance Framework.
At the same time, we are supporting communities to deliver dignified responses. Our Fair Food Fund aims to ensure that everyone can feed themselves and their families and reduce reliance on emergency food provision. We have been continuously increasing the Fund to respond to the demand for support linked to the UK Government’s austerity measures. In 2018-19 the fund was increased from
£1 million to £1.5 million, and will be £3.5 million in 2019-20.
On 23 January 2019, The Scottish Government also announced plans to support FareShare with an additional £500,000 to step up redistribution of surplus food across Scotland, in partnership with third sector organisations. The funding, which doubles investment in FareShare over the next two years, will help mitigate against the potential consequences of Brexit by building greater community resilience.
