Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government are committed to supporting the growing digital sector and wider economy to enable them to grasp the opportunities that technologies present. As set out in the refreshed Digital Strategy ‘Realising Scotland’s Potential in a Digital World’ published in March, the Scottish Government are supporting a variety of projects, programmes and funds to:

• Align the education and skills pipeline with employer needs as set out in the ICT Skills Investment Plan; projects are governed via the Scottish Government’s digital skills public/private partnership;

• Support the wider economy to develop their digital capabilities through training programmes like ‘DigitalBoost’ delivered by Business Gateway; and through up-skilling and reskilling the current workforce via the recently announced £36m Digital Growth Fund; and

• Address the immediate technical digital skills needs of the Digital Technologies sector, through initiatives such as the Digital Skills Academy, CodeClan.

Recent independent research published by Skills Development Scotland “Scotland’s Digital Technologies: Summary Report” notes there are 12,000 opportunities every year which employers are currently struggling to fill; this is of course, an increasingly difficult task due to the implications of the outcome of the UK Government’s referendum to leave the EU and the impact this is already having on the sector's ability to attract and retain talent.

The Scottish Expert Advisory Panel on the Collaborative Economy, chaired by Helen Goulden, Executive Director of Nesta, met for this first time in May 2017. Membership was drawn from and representative of those with knowledge and expertise of the benefits and challenges of the collaborative economy, including from those with experience in regulation, industry, competition law, Global/EU awareness of the sector and economics. A range of organisations are represented on the panel full details can be found here.

The manufacturing action plan is based on a commitment to raising productivity through increased investment and innovation and a long-term partnership between government, industry, our Enterprise Agencies and other key stakeholders.

Key actions to date include:

Nine proposals for manufacturing have reached the final stage of evaluation to receive funding from the new £18m Circular Economy Investment Fund established by Zero Waste Scotland.

On 19 June 2017, the First Minister announced the funding of £8.9m for the new Lightweight Manufacturing Centre – a significant first step towards realising the plan’s commitment to establish a new joint Centre for Manufacturing Excellence and Skills Academy, and a National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland.

Over 125 business leaders have taken part in workshops to strengthen ambition and increase understanding of the latest available technology.

Scottish Enterprise has introduced a new Workplace Innovation service to provide support for firms to increase workplace innovation.

The Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) held a major conference in September 2016 attended by c.400 manufacturing leaders.

In summer 2016, Scottish Enterprise launched a new Capital Asset Review service delivered by SMAS. Over 100 reviews have already been carried out to support manufacturers to develop future proofing investment plans.

18 case studies on Digital World and 200 manufacturing related job profiles and case studies have been added to “My World of Work” site to improve awareness of careers in manufacturing and a major refresh of skills investment plans is underway led by Skills Development Scotland.

A number of Industry Leadership Groups have refreshed their sector strategies with an increased emphasis on investing in capabilities which will enhance manufacturing competitiveness going forward.

It would be inappropriate for Ministers to comment in detail on individual patient care or on individual tragic deaths. However we would expect NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to implement any appropriate safety improvements which might be required in light of these tragic deaths.

The Suicide Review Community of Practice http://www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk/suicidereviews.aspx (hosted by NHS Education for Scotland in liaison with Healthcare Improvement Scotland) provides very useful guidance for mental health services staff on the process of suicide reviews, with a view to helping improve safety and driving service improvements.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland is piloting an improvement programme supporting the development of practice of mental health observation within six pilot sites across Scotland. This includes NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The pilot aims to improve observation practice through therapeutic engagement with suicidal, violent or vulnerable patients, to prevent them from harming themselves or others at times of high risk during their recovery. Revised guidance on this is to be published by Healthcare Improvement Scotland in late 2017.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland is also available to provide tailored support, guidance and advice to NHS boards and services by request, or in response to identifying improvement needs - through external quality assurance processes. Requests can be made by emailing the Healthcare Improvement Scotland Suicide Review team on [email protected].

The Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness http://research.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/cmhs/research/centreforsuicideprevention/nci/ also provides evidence-based recommendations on improving safety in mental health services.

In 2010 we introduced legislation to reduce the maximum class size in P1 to its lowest ever level of 25, and we have committed £88 million to local authorities to maintain pupil-teacher ratios.

Our investment in teacher numbers will allow local authorities to take flexible decisions about how best to meet the needs of their schools. Had we not taken action to maintain teacher numbers, the number of teachers in our schools could have fallen further, resulting in larger classes with much higher pupil teacher ratios.

Scottish Government is working not only with Ayrshire and Arran, but with all NHS boards to review the circumstances that led to the attack, the multi-agency responses and steps that should be taken to enhance future resilience.

Internet safety is a reserved matter. However, Scottish Ministers do have significant scope to develop and implement policy relating to child internet safety as a direct result of devolved responsibility for education, policing and child protection.

The Scottish Governments National Action Plan on Internet Safety for Children and Young People published on 21 April 2017 sets out a number of actions to improve internet safety. Its priorities include equipping children and young people to build their own personal resilience to stay safe online, supporting professionals, parents and carers and continuing to work with digital and social media providers to ensure children are not exposed to harm.

The Scottish Government also launched ‘A National Approach to Anti-bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People’ in 2010. This approach forms part of our wider attempts to improve the health and wellbeing of our children and young people. In recognition that there have been a number of significant policy developments since the publication of the National Approach a working group was established in January 2015 to refresh the guidance.

The Deputy First Minister recently agreed to a request from the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee for further engagement by the Committee on this issue. We will carefully consider the issues raised by the Committee before we publish the refreshed guidance later this year.