Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has worked closely with childcare representative bodies, including the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA), throughout the COVID-19 crisis to understand the issues facing childminders and to develop our guidance for the childminding sector. The Scottish Government has engaged weekly with the childcare representative bodies through our ELC and Childcare Working Group, to share updates and seek input on issues affecting the childcare sector.

The Scottish Government has also worked in partnership with SCMA to establish the £60,000 Workforce Support Fund to which the Scottish Government has contributed £33,000. It opened for applications on 16 July and it is designed to help childminders who are facing short-term financial difficulties. In addition to which we made available the £34 million Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund, which provides £2,000 grants, which childminders may access if they don’t meet the conditions for the UK Government’s Self-Employment Income Support.

The Scottish Government has worked with Early Years Scotland to launch a Team ELC Wellbeing Hub to support childcare professionals. Through this platform, childcare professionals can connect with one another, attend online events and access wellbeing resources. The Scottish Government is also currently delivering support webinars for the childcare sector on the safe reopening guidance, including for childminders.

The Scottish Government understands the value of blended placements for childcare. The Scottish Childminding Association’s survey illustrates the importance of blended care to the viability of the sector, and these considerations will continue to be balanced against the public health impact of the virus in designing guidance for the sector to operate safely.

Further to advice from the Advisory Sub Group on Education and Children’s issues, updated childminder guidance was published on 30 July and will come into effect from 10 August. That advice has given us confidence to ease the restrictions on children attending multiple settings (blended placements) – but supporting parents to minimise this where possible.

While it remains the case that attendance at multiple childcare settings should be reduced as far as possible, the latest expert advice provides confidence to ease the restrictions taking account of the risks of transmission of the virus and the importance of childcare to the wellbeing of children and families.

We have informed all registered childminder settings of the updated guidance through a notification via the Care Inspectorate on 30 July.

The Scottish Government has also worked in partnership with the Scottish Childminding Association to establish the Workforce Support Fund which opened for applications on 16 July. It is designed to help childminders who are facing short-term financial difficulties.

The Scottish Government understands the value of blended placements for childcare.

Further to advice from the Advisory Sub Group on Education and Children’s issues, updated early learning and childcare (ELC) guidance was published on 30 July and will come into effect from 10 August. That advice has given us confidence to ease the restrictions on children attending multiple settings (blended placements) – but supporting parents to minimise this where possible.

While it remains the case that attendance at multiple childcare settings should be reduced as far as possible, the latest expert advice provides confidence to ease the restrictions taking account of the risks of transmission of the virus and the importance of childcare to the wellbeing of children and families.

We have informed all registered ELC and childcare settings of the updated guidance through a notification via the Care Inspectorate on 30 July.

From the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government recognised that Gypsy/Travellers may be at higher risk and took swift action to protect and support the community. We published a joint framework with COSLA to advise local authorities on how to support Gypsy/Travellers during the pandemic, and committed over £150,000 to provide enhanced sanitation facilities to Gypsy/Travellers and to put in place specialist services to support the specific needs of the community.

The sanitation included providing portable toilets with running water to both private and public sites, as well as roadside camps across Scotland. We also provided shower facilities to a roadside camp, accommodating a number of families. The specialist services included a dedicated telephone counselling service; tailored educational support; a financial resilience helpline and health boxes to Gypsy/Travellers who were shielding. Together with a range of statutory and third sector partners we have also supported a dedicated Covid-19 themed Facebook page for the community, where we have delivered updates in an accessible and culturally sensitive way.

We recognise the significant contribution showpeople make to the economic and cultural fabric of Scotland.

We are determined to support as many businesses as possible from all sectors. Our financial support now exceeds the £2.3 billion passed on from the UK Government. In designing the relief and grant system we had to balance helping as many businesses as possible against what was affordable.

The £2.3bn support package included the £90m Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund, the £30m Creative, Tourism & Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund and the Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund for those newly self-employed.These funds were available to all businesses, including showpeople, who met the set criteria, as was the UK Government’s Self-employment Income Support Scheme.

We will publish the number of applications and a list of all awards through the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund and Creative, Tourism & Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund in the coming weeks. Our Enterprise Agencies are currently processing appeals.

We are looking into what is required to enable fairgrounds and showpeople to start working again as soon as possible. A preliminary opening date has been set for 24 August.

Work is ongoing to explore how links can be made between Scottish Government initiatives around digital inclusion and the rollout of virtual visits to prisons, with a focus on determining whether families affected by imprisonment require technological support and what the nature of that support should be. As part of this consideration we are working with the Scottish Prison Service and stakeholders including Families Outside and Prison Visitor Centres.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Legislation to facilitate the legal introduction of restricted mobile phones was passed in the Scottish Parliament on 15 June 2020.

As at 21 July 2020, mobile phones are now available in 11 establishments: HMP & YOIs Polmont, Cornton Vale and Grampian and at HMPs Barlinnie, Castle Huntly, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Glenochil, Greenock, Inverness and Perth.

Mobile phones will be introduced and distributed at HMP Addiewell and Low Moss during the week commencing 27 July 2020 .

Unfortunately, the geographical location of HMP Shotts has very limited signal availability and work is ongoing to enhance the network signal at this location. As soon as the infrastructure is in place to support their use, mobile phones will be distributed at HMP Shotts.

HMP Kilmarnock intend to implement their own in-cell telephony option. This will be a hard wired solution where every prison cell will have its own PIN phone.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The legislation to legally facilitate virtual visits was passed in the Scottish Parliament on 15 June 2020.

Virtual visits became available at HMP & YOIs Cornton Vale and Polmont and HMP Shotts on 16 July and have been available across all Scottish prisons since 29 June 2020, with over 3500 virtual visits having taken place between those in custody and their families and friends.

People in custody are entitled to a minimum of one virtual visit per month. However, where prisons have the capacity for additional provision then, at some sites, people will be able to undertake more. Feedback so far from those who have participated in a Virtual Visit is extremely positive in terms of image and sound quality as well as the immense social benefits realised.

Physical visits will be available in all establishments by Monday 3 August 2020. The requirement to maintain physical distancing means that there will be restrictions on the number of visits that can take place at any one time, as well as the number of visitors that can attend a visit.

For the majority of establishments, a maximum of 3 visitors will be allowed at each visit. At this time because of the physical restrictions of the site and the need to maintain physical distancing, HMP Barlinnie and HMP Edinburgh can only allow 2 visitors per visit. Children can visit but each child will be counted as one of the visitors at this time. As in the community, children age 0-11 do not need to maintain physical distancing and can hug the person they are visiting. All other visitors will be required to maintain physical distancing.

Part 1, Section 2, of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (the 2014 Act) places a duty on specified public authorities, including all local authorities and health boards, to report every 3 years on the steps they have taken in that period to secure better or further effect of the requirements of the UNCRC. The first reports under this duty are due as soon as practicable after the 31st of March 2020. The responsibility to comply with the 2014 Act lies with the specified public authorities.

Children’s rights and wellbeing matter now more than ever. The Covid-19 emergency has further highlighted that children’s rights must be respected, protected and fulfilled, or inequality and harm for children and young people who are most vulnerable can grow.

However, we realise that COVID-19 is placing a significant burden on public authorities at this time in terms of both planning and delivery of public services and individual personal circumstances.

For that reason, Part 3 (duties in respect of reports and other documents), paragraph 8, of Schedule 6 (Functioning of Public Bodies) of the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 (2020 Act) allows for Scottish public authorities to postpone publishing reports or laying reports before the Scottish Parliament if they are of the view that doing so is likely to impede their ability to take effective action to prevent, protect against, delay or otherwise control the incidence or transmission of coronavirus. The reporting duty placed on listed public authorities under Part 1, section 2, of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (2014 Act) falls within the scope of the provisions of the 2020 Act. Where the decision is to delay reporting, a statement will have to be made per paragraph 8(3) of schedule 6 of the 2020 Act.

Scottish Ministers are required to undertake a review of the provisions under Part 1 of the Scottish Coronavirus Acts every two months. This includes the provisions under Schedule 6, Part 3 of the 2020 Act. They are required to prepare a report on that review which must include the status of those provisions and it must include a statement that Ministers are satisfied that the status of the provisions is appropriate. The first report was published on 9 th of June and the second report is due after the reporting period ends on 31st July.

The independently chaired review of implementation of additional support for learning was published on 19 June. A copy of the report is available at: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781839608247 . An executive summary is available at: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781839608254 .

The Scottish Government, in partnership with COSLA, will now give careful consideration to its recommendations and our full joint response will be published in the Autumn.