Chamber and committees

The authors of this letter recognise the very real progress being made on child poverty because of Scottish Government policies, including our ‘game-changing’ Scottish Child Payment.

More than 323,000 children were benefitting Scottish Child Payment at the end of September 2023, providing support to families which is unparalleled across the UK.

We have committed to uprating Scottish Child Payment by inflation next year and will continue to do everything within the scope of our powers and limited budget to tackle child poverty, in line with our challenging targets.

The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance will set out the Government’s spending plans in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget, which will be presented to Parliament on 19 December.

The Scottish Government has carried out extensive work in collaboration with key organisations in the health and social care sector to scope the role and remit of a Coming Home National Support Panel that will provide genuine oversight and support to local areas in relation to the Coming Home agenda.

We are considering how the Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill may provide opportunity to strengthen this work on the Coming Home programme, in particular the recommendation to establish a National Support Panel. A public consultation will launch by the end of 2023.

The Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP), in collaboration with the Scottish Division of Educational Psychologists (SDEP), and partners, are in the process of convening a working group.

This group will focus on the development of a strategy to promote more widely the role that Educational Psychologists play, as part of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce, in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people across Scotland.

The Scottish Government is working with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to develop the Coming Home Practitioner Peer Support Network and this will be launched in early 2024.

HIS will bring their sector expertise in strategic improvement to bring together professionals from a range of disciplines and agencies, as well as people with lived experience, to form a Practitioner Peer Support Network to learn and share best practice. The network will provide a space for local teams to learn from others who have implemented successful services and processes, for collaborative problem-solving and to pool resources such as staff or buildings.

This is a key step in our Coming Home programme of work, which aims to reduce delayed discharge and inappropriate out-of-area placements for people with learning disabilities and complex care needs.

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board, chaired by COSLA and Scottish Government produced a number of learning resources for the workforce to support children and young people’s mental health. All resources are hosted on the Digital Learning Map and will continue to be supported by NHS Education for Scotland (NES). These resources have been disseminated through key networks.

Further details on the work of the Board and links to the resources can be found in the report Children and Young People's Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board: final report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

11 December 2023

Monica Lennon (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour Party): To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental health and wellbeing: workforce action plan 2023-2025, whether it will provide an update on the development of a resource toolkit for Mental Health Unscheduled Care Practitioners.

S6W-23404

Maree Todd: The Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan, makes a commitment to develop the Mental Health Unscheduled Care resource, in partnership with key stakeholders. This will look similar to the Resources for Mental Health and Wellbeing in Primary Care Services published on the Scottish Government website ( www.gov.scot ) on 27 July 2022.

The work to develop this resource will be taken forward with partners over the coming year.

The Scottish Government opposes the inappropriate use of fire and rehire practices and we are clear that the practice does not represent Fair Work. In cases where contractual changes are necessary, there should always be appropriate and meaningful consultation

While employment law remains reserved, we encourage employers in Scotland to follow good practice in decisions regarding their workforce.

I was concerned to hear of the situation at Tots Bots Ltd and the people affected by this announcement are our immediate priority. The Scottish Government is providing support through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE). A PACE event was held on 17 November which was attended by 10 former Tots Bots employees and to date 17 further PACE engagements have taken place.

Businesses in Scotland can access advice, guidance and financial support from a wide range of organisations across the public sector. There are over 750 publicly funded interventions to support businesses in Scotland including through grants or loans, consultancy, research, training opportunities and self-help guides. Most of this is available to any business, anywhere in Scotland, whatever stage of growth it is at.

On non-domestic rates, the Scottish Budget 2023-24 ensures the lowest poundage in the UK for the fifth year in a row and supports a package of reliefs worth an estimated £749 million. This includes the most generous Small Business Bonus Scheme relief in the UK which is estimated to save ratepayers £249 million this year.

The Scottish Government is also working with the enterprise agencies, local government, and other public bodies to improve the way we support businesses through the Business Support Partnership. A range of business support is available via Business Gateway and Scottish Enterprise and can be accessed via findbusinesssupport.gov.scot

Through the Circular Economy Bill, the Scottish Government is committed to a co-design process to develop a new Household Recycling Code of Practice with local authorities and other stakeholders to provide a clear strategic direction for recycling in Scotland.

This includes enabling progress against future local recycling and reuse targets, informing how the monitoring and reporting framework for local authority waste services can be strengthened, and consideration of further measures to incentivise waste reduction at a household level.

Engagement with Cosla and local authority representatives is ongoing, and Scottish Government officials are currently developing plans for a local authority workshop to be held in early 2024 to continue this process.

The Scottish Government remains committed to a public consultation on the separate kerbside collection of textiles by 2025. Evidence from the consultation will inform the development of the new Household Recycling Code of Practice.

The consultation on the Report on the Effectiveness of Environmental Governance was open for responses for 19 weeks, closing on‎ 13 October. The Scottish Government will publish the responses to the consultation on Citizen Space, at the same time as providing an update to Parliament in early 2024, which will include recommendations in response to the views raised.