Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government and COSLA jointly wrote to local authorities on 15 May 2020. This letter offered local authorities flexibility to use the £508 million of ELC expansion funding for 2020-21, underspends against specific ELC revenue grant funding in previous years, and other funding streams where appropriate, to secure critical childcare provision for children of key workers and vulnerable children, and to support education recovery needed locally.

The Scottish Government and COSLA, through the ELC Finance working group, are carrying out a cost modelling exercise to determine the financial impact of COVID-19 on local authority ELC funding. The Group will continue to work through the financial implications of critical childcare during the pandemic response on ELC funding going forward.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5O-04437 on 25 June 2020. All answers to Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=12720

In addition throughout the pandemic we have been concerned that some members of the public are staying at home with potential symptoms of cancer and other serious illnesses, rather than seeking the support that the NHS can provide. As a result of this, we ran the NHS is Open campaign between 24 April and 7 June, which urged people to contact their GP or local hospital if they had urgent health worries, or to get in touch with their Consultant in order to help manage their symptoms. This advice continues to be relevant as paused NHS services are resumed.

Data on the percentage of children in each local authority area attending education hubs is publicly available from the following link:

https://public.tableau.com/profile/sg.eas.learninganalysis#!/vizhome
/Covid19ELCandHubs/Introduction

The Scottish Government does not hold detailed information on the number of devices issued to households to support home learning, blended learning or virtual classes across all local authorities. We do know that a number of authorities have pre-existing device rollout programmes and a number of others have issued devices in response to the pandemic.

The Scottish Government has committed to investing a total of £25m to support digital inclusion amongst school aged children suffering from digital exclusion. We are working closely with SOLACE, ADES and Cosla on that investment and on the rollout of devices across Scottish local authorities.

Under the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 introduced to the Scottish Parliament on Monday 8 June, anyone returning from overseas to the UK must undertake a 14-day quarantine period unless they are classed as exempt.

These regulations include an exemption for Seamen and masters as defined in section 313(1) Merchant Shipping Act 1995, maritime pilots as defined in para 22(1) of schedule 3A of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, and inspectors and surveyors of ships appointed under section 256 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.

This means that seamen (including those in the Merchant Navy) will need to complete the Public Health passenger locator form before they travel to the UK, but will not be required to self-isolate for 14 days.

On 20 June, the Scottish Government made a minor drafting amendment to the original regulations in order to clarify the original policy intention with this exemption in Scotland. The full regulations can be found at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ssi/2020/169 .

We know that island families are acutely feeling the pain of being separated during the pandemic. The National Islands Plan, which was published on 27 December 2019, recognises that every member of society has a right to live with dignity and to enjoy high quality public services, wherever they live.

The Plan fully aims to meet the needs of all islanders - including older people who make a hugely valuable contribution to their communities. The Plan, which will now be delivered through a COVID lens, recognises the need for on-island support for older people and we will work hard with partners to ensure that we support them as they move out of the current crises.

More generally we have put measures in place to protect those at highest risk, which includes some older people, through shielding, and letters were sent with information on what support is available, including deliveries of essential items, through a text service.

A national helpline has also been set up to help people not shielding, but who are at risk, to access help. As of 10 June over 37,000 calls had been received, but we know this number is just a proportion of the calls Local Authorities are handling to support their communities every day. The helpline is operating during core working hours, and all Local Authorities also offer an out of hours service.

To date we have provided around £1.7 million to organisations who are directly supporting the needs of older people during the pandemic. Around £700,000 of that funding has been awarded to Age Scotland’s Helpline as an established and trusted voice for advice to older people and their families on wide ranging issues, but also to offer friendship.

Most recently, the £5 million ‘Connecting Scotland’ project will enable 9,000 people, including some older people clinically at risk or on low incomes, get online with dedicated training and support. This will have a positive impact for older people who are currently digitally excluded.

We continue to support Scotland’s businesses by passing on every penny we receive from the UK Government for this purpose, and more directly to businesses, as well as continuing to press the UK Government to ensure that key sectors, where it is clear that difficulties will be longer-lasting (such as Tourism and Hospitality), are supported; and that Scottish businesses are not disadvantaged where phased approaches to lockdown differ across the UK.

Our package of business support now totals over £2.3bn, and comprises four elements;

1. Our £972 million package of rates relief and other Non Domestic Rates Income measures;

2. Our Small Business and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Schemes, which are worth over £1 billion (£1,172m);

3. Our package of seafood/fisheries measures worth over £18 million; and

4. Our package of £100m of grant funding for business – later topped up to £185m. This funding is divided across 3 business support funds;

a) £34m for the Newly Self Employed Hardship Scheme – of which £3m will be re-purposed from 15 June to support Bed and Breakfasts who were ineligible for other support due to the lack of a business bank account;

b) £30m for the Creative, Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund;

c) £120m for the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund.

• As of 2 June, awards from the above three funds totalled £104m to over 2500 businesses and 4160 self-employed people.
• Additionally, the Scottish Government is also providing £1 million to top up Creative Scotland’s Bridging Bursaries scheme in the not-for-profit sector.

Government officials and account managers across our enterprise agencies are in regular contact with companies across the country. Through this engagement we hope to better understand their needs and pressures, and direct them towards appropriate advice and support that will help them through the crisis and contribute to our economic recovery when it ends. We are also publishing guidance to help companies restart their businesses safely.

The Scottish Government recognises the hugely important work of the shipping sector, and the skilled workforce who ensure vital goods and essential travel can continue throughout this critical situation. We are aware of the difficulties caused by global restrictions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with some shipping companies unable to carry out crew changeovers.

We understand the distress that those currently unable to return home to Scotland must feel, particularly if they are unable to disembark their vessels. I raised the matter with the FCO minister responsible for consular affairs on 21 May and pressed for support to be provided to enable their safe return.