Chamber and committees

Local authorities are responsible for assessing the housing needs in their areas and setting out how this will be met in their Local Housing Strategies (LHS). LHS guidance published in September 2019 requires local authorities to include evidence of engagement with a wide range of people and communities of interest to inform the development of LHS priorities and outcomes. The guidance recognises the importance for housing services to be coordinated with health and social care in order to achieve joined-up, person-centred approaches.

The LHS guidance also requires each local authority to include a summary of its approach to tackling homelessness, including how its Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP) links with LHS priorities and outcomes. The delivery of an RRTP is an important part of the implementation of the joint Scottish Government/COSLA Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan. This Plan also includes the upscaling of Housing First, a person-centred approach to providing settled accommodation to those with more complex needs.

The Scottish Government expects a local authority to reflect the identified need and priorities it has identified in its LHS through its Strategic Housing Investment Plan. In doing so, local authorities are required to work closely with communities to inform priorities.

As per the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance, it is the responsibility of the developer to submit a business case to Transport Scotland for consideration. This will ensure the evidenced based transport challenges are appropriately addressed for the village of Winchburgh and beyond. Transport Scotland is available to offer support and guidance on the business case process.

The exact information requested is not held centrally. The most relevant and latest information available is provided below.

The Quarterly Monitoring Return, from which data on community care assessments is derived, was paused last year to reduce pressure on Local Authorities as they dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government is currently reviewing its paused social care collections and considering how best to move them forward.

Data on people receiving social care support is collected and published by Public Health Scotland (PHS). The latest publication available covers data for 2018-19. PHS have collected data for 2019-20 and data for 2020-21 is currently being collected. These data will be published in due course.

(a) how many people have been assessed for free personal care in the last 12 months

The information requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government collects information on the number of people who have a completed community care assessment through its Quarterly Monitoring Return. The latest information shows that in January to March 2018, there were 7,326 people aged 65+ with a completed community care assessment. However, this number includes all community care assessments and does not break down to personal care assessments only. The full figures can be viewed on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/eligibility-criteria-and-waiting-times/ .

(b) how many people have been given a care package in the last 12 months

The exact information requested is not held centrally. Public Health Scotland collects social care information directly from Health and Social Care Partnerships. This covers care at home, self-directed support, telecare and care homes. The latest available data covers 2018-19.

The following table shows the available information on people receiving care packages and personal care, new and existing in 2018-19. A full account for Scotland is unavailable (as detailed in the footnotes) and the actual numbers may be higher. A ‘care package’ includes anyone receiving care at home, all care home residents 5 and/or receiving care through self-directed support. It is from this same cohort of people personal care has been counted.

Available evidence on the level of rent arrears in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic is included in the two-monthly reports on the Coronavirus Acts, in which the Scottish Government sets out the status and operation of the necessary legislation to respond to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The latest published report (at the time of writing) can be found at Coronavirus Acts: seventh report to Scottish Parliament - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The report outlines that information published by the Scottish Housing Regulator shows that the total value of rent arrears in the social sector increased substantially from £150.0m to £165.0m in the four months between the end of April 2020 and the end of August 2020, an increase of £15.0m (10.0%). The value of arrears has subsequently stabilised across most months since then, and has decreased in the most recent month to stand at £160.7m as of the end of March 2021.

The report also outlines that in terms of evidence on rent arrears, research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that, as of June 2020, no sharp increase in rent arrears for private renters was identified, with fewer than one in ten private tenants in Scotland estimated to be in arrears as of June 2020.

A separate analysis carried out by PayProp, based on the data that it holds from the processing of rent payments from tenants in Scotland, shows that the percentage of tenants in arrears increased at the start of the pandemic period from 5% in the quarter January to March 2020 up to 9% in April to June 2020. Since then this proportion has remained relatively steady, although it has increased slightly in the latest quarter from 9% in October to December 2020 up to 10% in January to March 2021.

Data on the number of cases of child abuse reported to social services are not collected centrally by the Scottish Government.

You may wish to note that Children’s Social Work Statistics are published annually, and although these do not give the information you have asked for, they do show the number of children on the child protection register and the number of concerns at the case conferences at which they were registered.

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (“The 2014 Act”) first introduced and defined the term ‘early learning and childcare’ (ELC). Prior to the 2014 Act, there was no statutory duty to provide pre-school education to 2 year olds.

The 2014 Act increased the number of funded ELC hours for all 3 and 4 year olds and introduced the statutory duty to provide access to funded ELC for eligible 2 year olds.

Since 2014, data on the number of registrations of 2 year olds receiving funded ELC has been collected for the annual census of ELC [1] . Prior to 2014, data was collected on registrations for funded pre-school education . Prior to 2012, data was not collected on registrations for children aged 2.

The Scottish Housing Regulator collects comprehensive data on sheltered housing provided by Local Authorities and other Social Housing Landlords. The latest published data, as at 31 March 2019, broken down by local authority, is available at:

https://www.housingregulator.gov.scot/media/1407/stock-by-provision-and-la-area-2019.xlsx . Data has been collected since 1999 but is not currently published by the Scottish Housing Regulator. This data has been published by Scottish Government from 2001 to 2013 (details below) and data for other years may be available from the Scottish Housing Regulator.

The latest available figures show that as at March 2019, there were 27,691 sheltered self-contained units (15,237 provided by Local Authorities and 12,454 provided by Housing Associations), 3,051 very sheltered self-contained units (769 provided by Local Authorities and 2,282 provided by Housing Associations) and 15,812 medium dependency self-contained units (6,673 provided by Local Authorities and 12,139 provided by Housing Associations).

The Scottish Government also collects information on the number of sheltered homes provided by local authorities. This data is available from 2001 to 2019, but excludes all local authorities which have transferred their stock to Housing Associations.

Latest available Scottish Government annual statistics on the local authority provision of housing for older people, including the provision of sheltered, very sheltered, and medium dependency housing up to 2019, are published at

https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-scotland-2019-key-trends-summary/ , with detailed local authority level Excel tables available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-housing-for-older-people-and-people-with-disabilities/ . These tables include Scottish Housing Regulator data from 2001 to 2013 on sheltered housing provided by Housing Associations.

The Scottish Government, through the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Loan and Cashback scheme, provides interest-free loans with up to 75% cashback grant funding for homeowners to replace fossil-fuel heating systems such as gas with low or zero emissions heating systems such as heat pumps.

To further support households to make their homes greener, we provide:

• free, impartial advice through Home Energy Scotland, including specialist home renewables advice;
• HES loans with up to 40% cashback for energy efficiency measures;
• the Green Homes Network which allows households to find out about the experience of others who have already installed measures; and
• the Renewable Installer Finder Tool which helps households find installers and suppliers in their area.

These advice and support schemes can be accessed through Home Energy Scotland, run by the Energy Saving Trust.

Housing to 2040 is Scotland’s first ever long-term national housing strategy and makes clear our ambition to deliver 100,000 affordable homes by
‎ 2031-32, 70% of which will be for social rent.

Local authorities as the statutory housing authority are responsible for assessing housing requirements in their area and setting out their plans to meet these requirements as part of their Local Housing Strategy and Strategic Housing Investment Plan.

Details of the £10 million grant fund scheme - announced by the Deputy First Minister on 22 June to help tenants who have been financially impacted by the pandemic and are facing homelessness - are being developed at pace and we will provide further information in due course.