Chamber and committees

We are committed to improving the quality of provision for the throughcare and aftercare of children and young people looked after by local authorities. A working group has been examining how local authorities can best provide a one stop shop approach for advice and assistance to care leavers. Their final report is due to be submitted to me in the near future.

The exemption scheme will operate with effect from 1 April 2002. The Executive will announce the scheme's eligibility criteria, including the qualifying date for eligibility, shortly.

Final bids for the digital communities initiative were received on 1 March 2002 and we expect to announce the two successful bids this month.

The Executive is currently undertaking preparatory work, with a view to the campaign starting in the late spring/early summer.

We work to high standards in relation to fair and open competition and incorporate diversity as an integral part of any promotion and recruitment process. Those involved in the selection processes, are made fully aware of the need to ensure diversity on each occasion.Targets have been set by Cabinet Office for all departments under the three headings - women, people with disabilities and people from ethnic minorities in senior grades. The Scottish Executive's targets are to have 30% of women, 3% of staff with disabilities and 1.7% of staff from ethnic minorities in the Senior Civil Service by 2005.

Within the Executive's Senior Civil Service (SCS) grades there are currently 55 women (25.7%). There are also a small number of staff who have self-declared a disability. However, as there are less than five of these, a precise number cannot be given to preserve confidentiality. The Executive is re-surveying its staff with regard to ethnic origin and accurate statistics are therefore not presently available. These numbers do not include all of those successful in the recent SCS recruitment exercise.

The current number of employees on secondment to the Scottish Executive from external organisations is 62. The duration of secondments will be part of a forthcoming interchange review. The length of each secondment and the Scottish Executive Department to which they are seconded, are as follows:

Total Number of Inward Secondees	62
Number of secondments by host department
Health Department	26
Enterprise & Lifelong Learning Department	10
Development Department	8
Environment & Rural Affairs Department	8
Education Department	5
Justice Department	2
Finance and Central Services	2
Corporate Services	1

Duration of Secondments

0-1 year	1-2 years	2-3 years	3+years
19	27	13	3

The number of civil servants currently on secondment to external organisations is 57. The duration of secondments will be part of a forthcoming interchange review. The nature of the receiving organisations and how long each secondment will last is as follows:Total Number of Outward Secondments: 57Nature of Organisations

Public Sector	13
Charity	12
European	11
Industry and Commerce	10
Scottish Enterprise	5
Academic	5
Trade Union	1

Duration of Secondments

0-1 year	1-2 years	2-3 years	3+years
10	31	10	6

I have now received a draft of the social economy review undertaken by Mr Stephen Maxwell, Assistant Director of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. I shall be discussing Mr Maxwell's draft with him and will arrange for publication of the report for consultation in due course.

At its third meeting on 4 February 2002 the Housing Improvement Task Force agreed that the work of stage two, the formulation of policy recommendations to address the issues identified in the first stage report (to be published during March 2002), will be undertaken through three sub-groups considering:Owner occupiers resident in houses and flats that require improvement or repair;Individuals buying and selling property, andLandlords renting property in the private sector (and the interests of tenants who occupy these properties).Draft remits for each of the sub-groups are included in the papers for the 4 February meeting, which will be placed on the Scottish Executive website.The specific policy areas that the sub-group will look at in detail have yet to be decided. They will be agreed at each group's first meeting to take place from 19 March to 4 April. As with all other papers relating to the work of the task force, the papers for these meetings will be published on the website prior to each meeting.