Chamber and committees

Final information on the pilot year of the Flexible Workforce Development Fund in 2017-18 will be made available by the Scottish Funding Council to the Scottish Government early in 2019. This is in line with the publication of wider details of college delivery for the corresponding academic year.

11 October 2018

The Scottish Government announced on 19 October 2017, that adult social care workers will be paid the Scottish Living Wage for sleepover hours, meaning that the Living Wage will be received for all hours worked. The change is taking place during 2018-19 to provide time for it to be implemented in a planned way.

The Scottish Government is working closely with COSLA, health and social care partnerships, care providers and trade unions to support implementation of this policy. Precise implementation dates will be determined on a local basis but the Scottish Government expects this commitment to be implemented during 2018-19.

The Scottish Government provided £10 million of funding in the 2017-18 budget to support the commitment to pay social care workers the Scottish Living Wage for sleepovers. A further resource of £10 million was allocated in 2018-19 to support the extension on a full year basis, as part of the £66 million identified to support pressures facing local government.

The delivery of the Carer’s Allowance Supplement relies heavily on DWP data. DWP already have a strategy and standards in place for the protection of such records. For this reason, for the purposes of Carer’s Allowance Supplement, following the existing DWP arrangements is the safest and most appropriate approach.

More broadly, in considering the approach to other devolved benefits and all of the records that Social Security Scotland will hold, it is critical to ensure the policy is fully aligned with the Social Security Scotland ethos of dignity, fairness and respect and broader Ministerial policy whilst recognising that individuals still have a relationship with other government departments.

The delivery of the Carer’s Allowance Supplement relies heavily on DWP data. DWP already have a strategy and standards in place for the protection of such records. For this reason, for the purposes of Carer’s Allowance Supplement, following the existing DWP arrangements is the safest and most appropriate approach.

Scotland’s built environment has a rich legacy of the innovative use of stone and we are keen to capitalise on and promote the use of our national assets wherever possible. The then-Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy met with the three founders of the Scottish Stone Group in November 2017, which was established to raise awareness of locally sourced stone.

‘Creating Places’, the Scottish Government’s policy on Architecture and Place advises that project clients, commissioners, designers and approvers should encourage design innovation and take advantage of locally sourced materials to facilitate sustainable development. Scotland’s built environment has a rich legacy of the innovative use of stone and we are keen to capitalise on and promote the use of our national assets wherever possible. The Scottish Government’s architecture and planning policies encourage new development that responds appropriately to its context and which reinforces local identity and character. The use of appropriate materials is recognised as a key consideration in this.

The Scottish Government and its agencies already engage with industry, academics, policy makers and workers on issues of technological change through a wide range of mechanisms, including the Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board. Given the wide range of activity covering this area we currently have no plans to establish a distinct commission on the fourth industrial revolution.

The SCDI report “Automatic…For the People?” provides a helpful and well evidenced contribution to debate and policy on the pace of change of new technologies and their impacts on the Scottish economy and labour market. We are already responding to many of the issues and recommendations highlighted in the report through, for example, our investment in the National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland; our support for digital skills and commitment to providing superfast broadband to every home and business in Scotland; our STEM Strategy for improving education and training in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics across early years education, community learning and development, schools, colleges universities; and, working with trade unions and employers bodies, the establishment of a national retraining partnership to help workers and businesses prepare for future changes in their markets by enabling the workforce to upskill and retrain where necessary.

The information requested is not held centrally. The data we receive from Police Scotland to produce the Recorded Crime in Scotland publication is a simple count of the numbers of crimes and offences, for each Local Authority, which the police have recorded and cleared up. We do not receive information on the number of investigations which have been carried out, or the length and outcome of individual investigations.

Firstly, it is important to note that this review is still underway and that no service change decisions have been made.

The Government has been consistently clear that the development of formal proposals must be informed by meaningful engagement with local stakeholders. The Health Board has assured us that it will work closely with the Scottish Health Council to take this forward, in line with national guidance.