Chamber and committees

In accounting year 2013-14, colleges have been asked to deliver 7950 places financed by the £18 million allocated by the Scottish Funding Council. Details of the number of these places which have been filled are not yet available.

Within the Skills Development Scotland tranche 2650 starts were ring-fenced for colleges. Colleges were able to bid for these and, if they chose, additional provision and SDS subsequently allocated a total of 3,158 to colleges within its Employability Fund contracts. As at 31 December 2013 1,814 of these starts have been filled. The following spreadsheets detail the number of contracted and actual starts at each college.

Skills Development Scotland are unable to provide details of the nature of qualifications being undertaken by starts yet to be filled as the provision is designed to be flexible to meet the specific needs of individuals:

More women are participating in the labour market than a year ago, with female inactivity down 60,000 over the year.

Source: LFS, ONS Oct-Dec 2013

Attendees at the Women’s Employment Summit in September 2012 identified a number of key challenges, including childcare; support for women setting up their own enterprise; flexible working; the particular challenges of rural living; and occupational segregation.

Since the event, action has been taken across these areas, and is monitored through the Advisory Group on Women and Work Chaired by Angela Constance

Actions include:

Child care: We are increasing the level of funded early learning and childcare from 475 hours to 600 hours per year for three and four year olds, and the most vulnerable two year olds, and from 2014. We will extend our childcare offer of 600 hours per year to two year olds in workless households from 2014, and to two year olds who would be eligible for free school meals from 2015.

Enterprise: Following a series of seminars chaired by Professor Sara Carter of Strathclyde University and Jackie Brierton of Women in Enterprise Scotland, a draft framework for action by Scottish Government and partners has been produced and will be published in Spring this year.

Careerwise: A £250,000 fund which will see the Scottish Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology to work collaboratively with employers, schools, colleges, universities and Skills Development Scotland to encourage and support young women into science, technology, engineering and maths learning and jobs.

Training: We are keen to test the impact of an offer of childcare support on uptake of training by women, particularly in non-traditional sectors. Through the Energy Skills Challenge Fund which offers ‘transition training’ to up-skill those with relevant transferable skills and experience, two of the nine providers this year are specifically targeting women for their courses. These are:

Fife College who have commenced training and are contracted to deliver 168 places. Fife College are specifically marketing and targeting women.

Opito, who are contracted to deliver 331 places, which will include 50 places, specifically being offered to women though a four day awareness course on the realities of the oil and gas industry and details of the training available through the challenge fund. The course and training is due to run in March 2014.

Both providers will pilot offering childcare expenses as an incentive to increase the number of women taking up this provision it is important women can access training offer of childcare;

Research: Understanding the evidence we have around women’s employment was a key issue identified at the summit. Professor Patricia Findlay of Strathclyde University has chaired a small group which produced and published on the Scottish employability website: www.employabilityinscotland.com

An updated Women’s Employment Summit Evidence Paper.

A Database of Sources for Women’s Labour Market Information, alongside a guide to data sources and a thematic guide to data sources.

A short summary review of evidence papers.

A list of women’s employment support networks and resources.

On 19 February 2014 we announced an additional £4 million (on top of the £2.1 million announced in the Budget) for phase 4 of Community Jobs Scotland. Both men and women will be able to access this programme on the same terms, but the programme will also be able to mitigate against gender segregation impacts. By dint of being located within the third sector it is also likely to offer work patterns suitable for those with caring responsibilities or, in the case of young pregnant women, particular support in taking up and sustaining employment. Overall, therefore it will be able to promote equality of opportunity on gender grounds.

In Scotland’s Future we set out further actions we will take if elected in an independent Scotland which would offer more support to women and families accessing the labour market. This includes the introduction of a universal childcare system, a Fair Pay Commission, action to increase the number of women on public and corporate boards and promotion of a living wage.

The Annual Population Survey (APS) provides the preferred measure for employment rates for small cohorts of the population in Scotland. The latest data covers the period from October 2012 to September 2013.

The number of women in Scotland aged 16 to 24 with children who were employed was 14,600.

The number of women in Scotland aged 16 to 24 with children who were economically inactive was 20,000.

Source: Annual Population Survey, October 2012-September 2013, Office for National Statistics.

Note: Dependent children are children aged under 16 and those aged 16 to 18 who have never-married. 

Since the Women’s summit in Sep 2012, we have taken further action to encourage families with children to get into work or set up their own business

Actions include:

Training – We are keen to test the impact of an offer of childcare support on uptake of training by women, particularly in non-traditional sectors. Through the Energy Skills Challenge Fund which offers ‘transition training’ to up-skill those with relevant transferable skills and experience, two of the nine providers this year are specifically targeting women for their courses. These are:

Fife College who have commenced training and are contracted to deliver 168 places. Fife College is specifically marketing and targeting women.

Opito, who are contracted to deliver 331 places, which will include 50 places, specifically being offered to women though a four day awareness course on the realities of the oil and gas industry and details of the training available through the challenge fund. The course and training is due to run in March.

Both providers will pilot offering childcare expenses as an incentive to increase the number of women taking up this provision. It is important women can access training offer of childcare.

Child care: We are increasing the level of funded early learning and childcare from 475 hours to 600 hours per year for three and four year olds, and the most vulnerable 2 year olds. We will extend our childcare offer of 600 hours per year to two year olds in workless households from 2014, and to two year olds who would be eligible for free school meals from 2015.

Enterprise: following a series of seminars chaired by Professor Sara Carter of Strathclyde University and Jackie Brierton of Women in Enterprise Scotland, a draft framework for action by Scottish Government and partners has been produced which will be published in spring 2014.

Careerwise: A £250,000 fund which will see the Scottish Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology to work collaboratively with employers, schools, colleges, universities and Skills Development Scotland to encourage and support young women into science, technology, engineering and maths learning and jobs.

We are working with SDS, Scottish Government Equalities Unit and Childcare colleagues to look at developing further support around childcare for pre-employment training and more generally around positive action programmes to tackle gender segregation.

From November 2013 unemployed individuals in Inverness who are in receipt of Universal Credit will be able to access childcare support through DWP whilst they train through the Employability Fund

In Scotland’s Future we set out further actions we will take if elected in an independent Scotland which would offer more support to women and families accessing the labour market. This includes the introduction of a universal childcare system, a Fair Pay Commission, action to increase the number of women on public and corporate boards and promotion of a living wage.

The following tables show the headcount and full time equivalent staffing numbers of permanent and fixed-term staff, by gender, who were directly employed in each directorate, agency and non-departmental public body at 30 September 2013. The quarterly turnover figure provided is the percentage of full-time equivalent staff who left the Scottish Government (by resignation, retirement or for any other reason but excluding transfer to another unit) in the quarter from 1 July 2013 to 30 September 2013:

* Directorate of Chief Economist FTE Turnover rate composed of five full time-equivalent leavers in the period including two paid student placements and two fixed-term appointments coming to an end.

* Scots Law Commission FTE Turnover rate composed of three full time-equivalent leavers in the period, including two Legal Trainees. All three were fixed-term appointments coming to an end.

Note that FTE Turnover rates can vary considerably where there is a low staff headcount.

The Scottish Government only holds information for those agencies to which we provide an HR function. Notably, Registers of Scotland, Scottish Prisons Service, Historic Scotland, Scottish Courts Service, and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service have their own HR function and therefore have not been included in the table.

The Scottish Government provides access to a salary sacrifice childcare voucher scheme for all its eligible employees. This scheme is run and administered by Edenred on its behalf. 12% of employees are currently registered in the scheme.

The information on crèches in Scottish Government agencies and non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government does not hold any information on how many of its female employees have children.

For the Scottish Government and its agencies recruitment practices I refer the member to the answer to question S4W 19317 on 19 February 2014. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Non-departmental public bodies have delegated responsibility for their own recruitment. We do not hold details of their recruitment practices.

The Scottish Government as an employer is committed to equality of opportunity and has a range of recruitment practices in place, which promote this, not only for women returning from career breaks but for all potential job applicants. In line with the Civil Service Commission Recruitment principles, selection for appointment to the Scottish Government is made on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.

The Scottish Government has in place a comprehensive flexible working policy which allows for a range of working patterns which may be particularly attractive for those returning to work after a break. It also gives high priority to training and development should up-skilling be required due to time out of the workplace and also operates a salary-sacrifice childcare voucher scheme for all eligible staff.

The Scottish Government provides access to a workplace nursery at Victoria Quay in Edinburgh. This nursery is run by North Edinburgh Childcare on its behalf. Currently 55 children (from 42 families) are registered in the nursery.

To be eligible to enrol in the nursery, the child’s parent or guardian must be an employee of Scottish Ministers, or any other employer that has obtained the written approval of Scottish Ministers to use the nursery.

The cost per day is £36.93 for under 2s and £34.16 for over 2s.