Chamber and committees

Closing the poverty-related attainment gap remains a defining mission for this Government. Recognising the impact the pandemic is having on all of our children and young people, but especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, I announced last week that we would be providing a further £100 million over the next two years to help support the return to school and help children recover any lost ground. More details on this will be provided in due course.

That is on top of the Pupil Equity Fund allocations we have confirmed already, with over £250 million committed to 97% of schools across Scotland in 2020-21 and 2021-22. This helps provide more certainty for head teachers and aid learning during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. Schools know their learners best and, in providing Pupil Equity Funding for two years, we are giving head teachers clarity to assist them in their planning and decision making, in the short and longer term, to raise attainment.

The Scottish Government is also providing Local Authorities and Headteachers with the flexibility they need to redirect Attainment Scotland Funding, including Pupil Equity Funding,to help mitigate the impacts of school closures on our most disadvantaged families.

Even with a return to full-time education, it is imperative that we increase levels of digital inclusion, which is why we have also committed investment of £30 million to provide laptops for disadvantaged children and young people. That includes up to £25 million of funding for a roll-out of digital devices and connectivity to school pupils to enable them to study online. We have also asked Education Scotland to expand their partnership offer with the ESgoil digital learning platform to develop a strong national e-learning provision.

The Scottish Government is seeking to meet its duties to communicate in an inclusive way by embedding inclusive communication principles into the design of its systems and processes rather than create separate products and services. When producing or publishing accessible documents the costs is incorporated into the wider costs of delivery. This means it is not possible to provide a fixed costs for all the action it is taking to communicate in an inclusive way.

Coronavirus Act 2020

A range actions are being taken forward to ensure the Scottish Government are communicating in an accessible way, for example the provision of BSL interpreter at the daily briefings, public information documents being produced in a range of formats and specialist organisations producing documents in accessible formats for particular audiences. It is not possible to give a total amount for all of this work as it is not funded through a single budget.

However, Scottish Government can provide the following individual costs to date

1. Marketing and Insight Unit Translation Spend to Date: £42,770

2. Partnership Translations and Accessible Formats – Supported by partnership organisations (no cost)

3. Cost for translators during Ministerial daily updates

• 2019-20 – £1,200
• 2020-21 – £5,405

4. The Scottish Government have developed accessible formats for COVID-19: A Framework for Decision Making and Scotland’s route map through and out of the crisis. An easy read version is available for both documents and the route map is also available in audio and BSL and has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Polish and Gaelic. We will continue to ensure we communicate messages about the route map in an inclusive way. The estimated cost of this is £14,800.

Consumer Act 2020

The Consumer Scotland Act was introduced to Parliament on 5 June 2019 and received Royal Assent on 9 June 2020.

When established, Consumer Scotland will be an independent body accountable to Parliament. As such, it will be for the body to consider how best to meet the inclusive communication duty and what the associated cost will be.

Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018

The costs of ensuring that Social Security Scotland deliver an inclusive and accessible service is wrapped up in the overall service design and delivery costs of social security. It is considered in everything from the words and layout of an application form to the selection and fit out of office space. It is not just about the way in which Social Security Scotland produce documents it is about every interaction. As such, Social Security Scotland cannot pull out a stand alone cost or budget line for meeting these commitments, it is woven through everything that they do. However, there are some services that Social Security Scotland procure that can be pulled out as a direct contributor to meeting their duties. This includes translation costs and provision of materials in alternative formats.

Some of this is planned in and proactive – for example production of communication materials in a range of different formats and languages as agreed with stakeholders (e.g. Easy Read, Braille, foreign languages and BSL). Social Security Scotland have budgeted £30,000 for this in financial year 2020-21.

There are other costs that will be demand led – for example language interpretation and translation services. Social Security Scotland have budgeted £83,000 for this in financial year 2020-21, based on estimates. This is not an upper limit and will be revised upward if demand increases.

Inclusive communication means sharing information in a way that everybody can understand. It is both important and is a right. Scottish Government’s Action Plan, A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People , published in 2016, states that in Scotland we want communication to be accessible to, and inclusive of, all.

To support this Scottish Government funds The Inclusive Communication Hub, launched in 2016 and managed by Disability Equality Scotland. It is an easy to use online tool for all who wish to be more inclusive with the information they give. It provides tools and guidance on how to make information accessible to people; and provides a central place where accessible information and resources that have been developed by organisations throughout Scotland can be accessed.

Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020

Scottish Government has taken a range of steps to ensure it is fulfilling its duty to provide information in accessible formats:

• Scottish Government has worked with both the Scottish Commission for Learning Disability and Disability Equality Scotland to provide Easy Read versions of key UK and Scottish Government documents.
• Scottish Government has granted funds to Deafblind Scotland to provide translations of official UK and Scottish Government advice in Braille, Moon, XXXL print and audio. This information is being shared with other organisations working with people who may have visual impairment and deafness, and with organisations working with older people.
• NHS Inform has produced easy read and BSL versions of the COVID-19 advice and information to ensure it is accessible to all.
• The Scottish Government arranged for in-situ BSL/English interpreters to cover the daily COVID-19 press conferences, and continue to work with broadcasters to ensure the interpreter is included in their broadcasts. The Scottish Government is also producing BSL versions of key information.
• British Deaf Association are being funded to produce daily factual news summaries from official sources in BSL
• High quality, HTML documents are produced on all COVID-19 materials to make them accessible for users of assistive technology.
• The Scottish Government has developed accessible formats for COVID-19: A Framework for Decision Making and Scotland’s route map through and out of the crisis. An easy read version is available for both documents and the route map is also available in audio and BSL and has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Polish and Gaelic. We will continue to ensure we communicate messages about the route map in an inclusive way.

Consumer Scotland Act 2020

The Consumer Scotland Act was introduced to Parliament on 5 June 2019 and received Royal Assent on 9 June 2020. When established, Consumer Scotland will be an independent body accountable to Parliament. As such, it will be for the body to consider how best to meet the inclusive communications duty and what the associated cost will be.

Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018

Social Security Scotland’s current capability is as follows:

• Interpretation, Translation and Transcription services available in over 100 languages
• British Sign Language (BSL) video relay service available through Contact Scotland
• Deafblind interpreters, Text Relay and electronic note taker services
• All letters, information and guidance are available in Braille, Large Print, Easy Read and various Audio formats
• Online content follows the Scottish Government’s accessibility design standards. It is compatible with screen reader software on Jaws, Voiceover and Non Visual Desktop Access (NVDA) platforms

The requirement to communicate inclusively is included in Social Security Scotland’s Corporate Plan and Our Charter and further work will be undertaken to embed inclusive communication principles across the organisation.

Work is being guided by user research and stakeholder expertise. An Inclusive Communication Reference Group has been created which includes over 20 representatives from organisations across a wide range of client groups.

The Scottish Government is focussed on supporting as many people and businesses across Scotland who are in hardship as we can.

We are actively engaging with Local Authorities on demand for the Newly Self-Employed Hardship fund and no decision has been taken yet on a date to close the fund to new applicants.

We have been promoting this and wider support available on FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot and will communicate any timings for closing the fund on this website and through Local Authorities.

We will, of course, give potential applicants good notice when a decision has been taken to close the fund to new applications.

If there is any underspend at that juncture, we will look to repurpose this to other vital support, such as we announced on 2nd June as regards repurposing £3m from this fund to support B&B businesses who do not have a business bank account.

The following table notes the allocation to each local authority to administer the Newly Self-Employer Hardship Fund.

The funding apportioned to each Local Authority was done on the basis of using each LA’s share of total new PAYE/VAT registrations in 2018. The figures in the attached table represent an initial advance of 60% of the potential maximum allocation to allow Local Authorities to have the funds immediately to act with pace to grant and issue payments to successful applications.

We are looking to publish an update summarising funding returns from all the Local Authorities on the Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund later this month. This will detail the number of applicants, successful applications and the amount awarded by Local Authority area.

The Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund is only available in Scotland. It is aimed at providing hardship support to those who have lost work due to COVID-19 but are ineligible for support through the UK Government’s Self-Employment Income Support Scheme because they have only been trading as self-employed since 6 April 2019 or later.

The Scottish Government’s scheme is specifically aimed at those who have been unable to access other forms of business support or working age benefits. This does exclude those in receipt of Universal Credit payments, including advances, because they are receiving support.

It should be noted that the newly self-employed are still able to apply to the Newly Self Employed Hardship Fund if they have applied but not received Universal Credit.

We continue to listen and monitor the funds available to support people and businesses facing hardship. Any changes to the funds available or eligibility will be updated through the Find Business Support website.

The Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund is only available in Scotland. It is aimed at providing hardship support to those who have lost work due to COVID-19 but are ineligible for support through the UK Government’s Self-Employment Income Support Scheme because they have only been trading as self-employed since 6 April 2019 or later.

Under the Newly Self Employed Hardship Fund, awards totalling £8.32m have been issued to 4160 self-employed people by June 2nd .

We are looking to publish an update summarising funding returns from all the Local Authorities on the Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund later this month. This will detail the number of applicants, successful applications and the amount awarded by Local Authority area

We have made and will continue to make representations to the UK Government about the impact of COVID-19 in Scotland and the gaps in existing schemes.

The Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund (NSEHF) scheme is specifically aimed at those who have been unable to access other forms of business support or working age benefits such as Universal Credit.

Scottish Government notified DWP officials of the Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund prior to its launch on 30th April 2020.

Applicants are required to make a declaration that includes acknowledgement that they may be required to declare receipt of a NSEHF grant for tax purposes or if applying for Universal Credit and other forms of support in the future.

It should be noted that the newly self-employed are still able to apply to the Newly Self Employed Hardship Funding if they have applied for, but not received, Universal Credit.

On 30 April, we launched £100m of additional grant funding for business. This funding is divided across 3 business support funds, offering targeted support to the creative, tourism and hospitality sector, pivotal SMEs vital to their local economies, and the newly self-employed. This is support that is not available elsewhere in the UK.

As of 2 June, we had awarded over £104m and we had topped up the grant funding to £185m.

From the Annual Population Survey (APS), we can estimate the number of people who are newly self-employed across Scotland. Using the APS data from January to March 2019, it is estimated that 19,000 people reported that they started continuous self-employment in 2019. This data cannot be broken down by local authority.

These schemes are trying to reach those in hardship not targeted by other schemes or where they are unable to access UK support. We have asked only those who need the support to apply and so estimating the number of potential applications is challenging. We have continued to review the uptake and feedback from each scheme and will look to repurpose any potential underspends such as we have done with the new scheme aimed at B&B owners who do not have a business bank account.

As regards the Newly Self Employed Hardship Fund, awards totalling £8.32m have been issued to 4160 self-employed people by 2 June.

We are looking to publish an update summarising funding returns from all the Local Authorities on the Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund later this month. This will detail the number of applicants, successful applications and the amount awarded by Local Authority area.