Chamber and committees

At present, young carers aged between 16 and 18 can benefit from the young people’s concessionary travel scheme, which provides discounts on bus and rail travel for all young people living in Scotland aged 16 to 18.

On 20 September the First Minister announced the Young Carer Grant, which will be added to the package of measures to support young carers, and that recipients of the new grant will become eligible for free bus travel from 2020-21.

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision in Scotland is delivered by colleges, community learning and development and third sector providers to adults. It is offered as a subject in secondary schools giving young people the chance to achieve an SQA ESOL qualification in school.

English language support in primary and secondary schools falls under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004, (as amended), and requires education authorities to identify, meet and keep under review the additional support needs of pupils for whose education they are responsible and to tailor provision according to their individual needs.

The Scottish Government carries out a census of school pupils every September. The results of the 2016 pupil census show the following for pupils with English as an Additional Language:

Number of P1 Pupils with English as an Additional Language by level of English

The Additional Support for Learning Act 2004, (as amended), requires education authorities to identify, meet and keep under review the additional support needs of pupils for whose education they are responsible and to tailor provision according to their individual needs. English as an additional language has been identified as a potential additional support need specifically within the Act's Code of Practice. Pupils will have differing levels of need for support depending on their level of English language competence and their individual circumstances. It is the responsibility of each individual education authority to take their statutory duties into account, establish their priorities in light of local circumstances and to allocate their resources appropriately.

Where such pupils are also affected by poverty, schools and local authorities can use some the funding they are receiving in support of the Scottish Attainment Challenge to ensure that they are provided with the support they need to benefit from any of the activities in place to close of poverty related attainment gap.

The Scottish Government carries out a census of school pupils every September. The results of the 2016 pupil census show the following for pupils with English as an Additional Language:

Number of P1 Pupils with English as an Additional Language by level of English

The Additional Support for Learning Act 2004, (as amended), requires education authorities to identify, meet and keep under review the additional support needs of pupils for whose education they are responsible and to tailor provision according to their individual needs. English as an additional language has been identified as a potential additional support need specifically within the Act's Code of Practice. Pupils will have differing levels of need for support depending on their level of English language competence and their individual circumstances. It is the responsibility of each individual education authority to take their statutory duties into account, establish their priorities in light of local circumstances and to allocate their resources appropriately.

Where such pupils are also affected by poverty, schools and local authorities can use some the funding they are receiving in support of the Scottish Attainment Challenge to ensure that they are provided with the support they need to benefit from any of the activities in place to close of poverty related attainment gap.

The Scottish Government has provided £2.3m in 2017-18 to the Better Breaks and Creative Breaks programmes, which are accessible to adult and young carers. Time To Live micro-grants are also available locally to access short breaks that meet the carer's individual needs. These programmes are administered by Shared Care Scotland.

Local authorities, health boards and Integration Authorities support a variety of local carer centres and young carer projects which provide a range of advice and support services, including on access to short breaks and respite care.

The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 takes effect on 1 April 2018. This will include a new right to a young carer statement setting out the young carer’s personal outcomes and identified needs. Local authorities must consider whether any support to meet the young carer's eligible needs should take the form of a break from caring.

There is no centrally held data for the number of carers benefitting from short break respite care services for the last year.

The Scottish Health Survey for 2012-2015 shows that around 2% of carers aged 16 and over said they received support through a short break or respite care service. This is equivalent to over 15,000 carers in Scotland.

The Scottish Government's Vision and Priorities for Justice in Scotland, launched in July of this year, focuses on the development of a more progressive, evidence-based justice system. That evidence shows that robust community sentences have lower reconviction rates than short-term prison sentences.

In the Programme for Government launched earlier this month we pledged to extend the presumption against short sentences to
12 months, in order to encourage the greater use of community sentences, which in turn will reduce the numbers serving ineffective short custodial sentences. We also announced plans for a Management of Offenders Bill which will expand and strengthen the use of tagging as part of our commitment to reducing offending and making our communities safer.

We remain committed to supporting local authorities in delivering robust community sentences that deliver tangible benefits for communities, and funding for criminal justice social work remains at record levels at around £100 million. We invested an additional £4 million in community sentences in 2016-17 and again in 2017-18.

The Scottish Government recognises that this is a new, emerging and pressing issue which will require careful consideration of the implications. We recognise the need to address this and that is one of the reasons why we have established a Health and Justice Collaboration Improvement Board.

The provision of healthcare in Prisons transferred to the NHS from the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) in 2011. SPS is reviewing its population management strategy and consideration of the health and social care needs in the increasing number of older people in custody will be part of that process.

Following publication of the Health and Sport Committee’s report of its Inquiry into Healthcare in Prisons, published on 10 May 2017, we established a Health and Justice Collaboration Improvement Board to ensure closer collaboration between health and justice on a range of issues.

The remit of this Board, which will include representation from Integration Joint Boards, Local Authorities and the SPS, includes improving health and social care in prisons. It will provide a strategic framework within which the recommendations of the “Who Cares?” report will be addressed.