Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is working with Skills Development Scotland and other stakeholders to address the far-reaching impacts of COVID-19. This includes support for Apprentices, Training Providers and Employers affected. Skills Development Scotland have published their COVID-19 response guidance detailing the advice and support that is available to those affected by the pandemic. Skills Development Scotland are also offering a flexible approach to learning and gaining new skills with thousands of free online courses being made accessible online.

To sustain Apprenticeships and training infrastructure the COVID-19 Relief Grant for learning and training providers adds value to the support already made available through the Scottish Government Business Growth Fund, ensuring that where it has been possible for training providers to continue to deliver services, there is help available to do so.

Skills Development Scotland’s Career Information, Advice and Guidance (CIAG) services remain accessible, with expert careers advisers available to provide specific support to Foundation, Modern or Graduate Apprentices on their helpline or online, and the Scottish Government’s Partnership for Continuing Employment (PACE) is providing advice and support to Apprentices affected by redundancy.

To mitigate the future impact of COVID-19, Skills Development Scotland is prioritising work to model the impact on apprenticeships, including impact on volumes, sectors and age groups. Although this work is progressing at this point, Skills Development Scotland are not in a position to set out the impact on the Apprentices currently in training or on future Apprenticeship recruitment. This is mainly due necessary COVID-related health restrictions and to many employers and Training Providers currently being in furlough on the UK Government’s Job Retention Scheme. This has been a barrier which prevents the gathering of precise data on the numbers of Apprentices that may be potentially affected by longer-term disruption to their Apprenticeships.

Measures are also being developed in collaboration with key stakeholders to establish delivery and assessment strategies and guidance that ensures the safety and wellbeing of Apprentices and all of those involved in the delivery of the Apprenticeship offer.

We are engaging regularly with the STUC, and business organisations including the CBI to help manage the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on workers and in workplaces.

The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture wrote to the Chancellor on 26 May highlighting several issues to be addressed in the next phase of the Job Retention Scheme, including increased flexibility and, allowing employees to come back for any amount of time or shift pattern. The announcement made by the Chancellor on 29 May has confirmed this will be in place from July. The increased flexibility will help employers to ensure they are meeting the needs of their business and provide flexibility to employees.

We encourage employers to make full use of the Job Retention Scheme to help avoid mass redundancies, provide people with income, and reduce the number of business failures.

We anticipate that many employers and employees will also continue to require support beyond October and we have called on the UK Government to ensure that the support arrangements enable employers or employees to follow public health guidance in each of the four nations.

Property-level data on rejections of applications for the business support grants, as well as rejections of applications by phase or sector, is not held centrally.

Available data is published weekly at https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-business-support-fund-grant-statistics/ , and we continue to work with local authorities to best reflect scheme information.

To be eligible for the Retail, Hospitality, and Leisure business support grants, properties need to have a rateable value greater than £18,000, and up to and including £51,000, and belong to one of the qualifying property types on the Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll. We estimate that up to 11,000 properties may be eligible, based on the Scottish Assessors Valuation Roll snapshot as at 1 January 2020.

Based on the property class on the Valuation Roll, it is estimated that 7,200 of these potentially eligible properties are shops (65%), 1,400 are public houses, restaurants, or cafes (13%), 1,100 are leisure and entertainment properties (10%), 800 are hotels, hostels, or other accommodation properties (7%), with the remaining 500 (5%) properties falling under other property types. Breakdowns by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) industry sectors are not available, as the Valuation Roll does not hold this information.

These estimates are based on the Scottish Assessors Valuation Roll snapshot as at 1 January 2020 rather than actual applications or grants awarded. They do not account for, for example, any differences in properties on the roll and rateable values at 1 January compared to 17 March or the impact of the additional income restrictions for self-catering properties nor do they reflect the impact of properties otherwise ineligible according to the grant guidance. The grant schemes are application based and the modelling these numbers are based on assumes 100% take-up.

The number of applications received, decisions made, payments and expenditure for Best Start Grant and Funeral Support Payment since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak have remained fairly consistent.

However as the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the labour market is already evidenced in the increased Universal Credit claims, we expect that there will be a corresponding increase in applications, and subsequently expenditure for the low income benefits delivered by Social Security Scotland.

Modelling is continuously developing as the COVID-19 crisis unfolds and more information becomes available. The Scottish Fiscal Commission, as Scotland's official and independent forecaster, will provide updated forecasts.

Health Protection Scotland (HPS) has published infection control guidance for care homes which is updated regularly, most recently on 20 May. The HPS guidance is based on the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual which includes advice on how to prevent and manage the spread of all respiratory infections including COVID-19.

To supplement HPS guidance, the Scottish Government also issued clinical and practice guidance for care homes. This was first published on 13 March and updated on 26 March and 15 May. This guidance draws on the HPS guidance but provides more detailed information on some of the practical steps that are required to protect staff and residents. Both the HPS and the Scottish Government guidance are continually reviewed to take account of the emerging picture around COVID-19.

Local authorities will determine on a local basis what additional information is required for care homes to support them in adopting national guidance

Health and Social Care Partnerships developed local mobilisation plans in response to the COVID-19 emergency. These plans, which are generally aligned with emergency planning arrangements of local councils and NHS Boards, identify key risks and challenges posed by COVID, including those in the care home sector, and outline appropriate responses to ensure that vulnerable people are protected. The plans aim to minimise excess deaths from COVID-19 within communities, and typically include provisions for supporting and enhancing existing service capacity .

Locally partners are undertaking risk assessments of individual care homes to ensure that staff and residents are protected. This is being led by the Directors of Public Health who have been asked to provide enhanced clinical leadership working in partnership with the Health and Social Care Partnership and the Care Inspectorate. They have contacted every care home in Scotland to assess how they are managing infection prevention and control, staffing, training, physical distancing and testing. This is alongside enhanced clinical support for residents from primary care teams including GPs and community nurses.

From 18 May, new arrangements for ensuring appropriate clinical and professional oversight for care homes have been put in place. As part of this multi-disciplinary teams comprising key clinical leads from NHS Boards and Local Authorities including Chief Social Work Officers are providing oversight of local care homes. This approach builds on recent actions and existing local arrangements in helping to keep residents safe.

To supplement this clinical oversight, the Scottish Government has established a Care Home Rapid Action Group. This is a national group set up to monitor developments in the care home sector, reacting swiftly to developing issues and coordinating our wider package of support to the sector. A clinical and professional advisory group has also been established to provide advice and guidance on preventing and managing COVID-19 in care homes.

This work aims to support every single care home in Scotland, whether it has had an outbreak or not.

The number of laboratory confirmed positive tests of COVID-19 by Local Authority area and the total number of deaths are published daily: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/658feae0ab1d432f9fdb53aa082e4130

The total number of people who have died where COVID-19 is a contributing factor can be accessed at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/
general-publications/weekly-and-monthly-data-on-births-and-deaths/deaths-involving-coronavirus-covid-19-in-scotland

This is a matter for the independent economic regulator, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, and I have asked them to respond directly in writing to your question.