Chamber and committees

I am aware of the situation at Thornwood Primary school and the Director of Education has plans in place to address this, to ensure continuity of children's learning is maintained.

I know that recruitment of teachers is currently a challenge for some local authorities and the Scottish Government is taking a range of actions.

We have:

• committed £88m this year to make sure every school has access to the right number of teachers with the right skills;

• provided support to universities in developing new innovative routes into teaching;

• recently announced STEM bursaries of £20,000 for career changers to train to become teachers of priority STEM subjects, which includes maths, starting in August 2018;

• launched the second phase of our “Teaching Makes People” recruitment campaign on 30 August and

• created a new route into teaching specifically designed to attract high quality graduates in priority areas and subjects. The tender exercise for this closed on 16 November and the evaluation process will commence shortly.

We work very closely with education authorities in the future planning and improvement of Scotland’s school estate – and over the past seven years we has seen 449 schools built or substantially refurbished. This work is underpinned by our £1.8 billion Scotland's Schools for the Future Programme, which will see the construction of 117 new schools and benefit some 60,000 pupils by March 2020.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

SPS has worked in partnership with Respectme, Scotland’s anti-bullying service, to update the organisation’s approach to bullying in prisons throughout 2017. The resulting strategy, ‘Think Twice’, details how to address and support individuals who are displaying or are victims of such behaviour.

SPS is currently developing an associated training and awareness package to ensure Think Twice is successfully implemented across all prisons in Scotland, with plans in place to launch the policy in early 2018.

Data is not centrally available.

The data held in the ISD CAMHs database is aggregated data and is not split by type of diagnosis. It is therefore not possible to provide a specific response regarding waiting time for children and young people with an eating disorder. The ISD CAMHs database also does not hold information on patients referred to the independent sector.

We welcomed this report from the Care Inspectorate, which builds on our existing evidence base and highlights a number of positive findings in relation to fostering in Scotland. For example, the report states that the number of fostering households in Scotland has in fact increased during 2016. Although this is a slight overall increase from 2015, I acknowledge that the report highlights a need for more foster carers.

Local Authorities are responsible for recruiting sufficient foster families within their areas to meet the needs of children and young people who come into their care. The Scottish Government provides support funding through the Local Government Settlement and through the Children Young People and Families Early Intervention Fund we support The Fostering Network who run the annual 'Foster Care Fortnight' campaign to raise awareness about foster caring and recruit new carers.

The independent Care Review - being led by children with experience of care - is looking at Scotland’s underpinning legislation, practice and culture to identify where policies need to be improved. I would emphasise that foster care of the highest standard is provided Scotland-wide by 59 local authority and independent providers who are collectively responsible for recruiting and training sufficient foster carers to meet the needs of the children who come into their care.

This data is not centrally held by ISD.

The Scottish Government has several strands of work underway to support children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse. The Chief Medical Officer chairs the Taskforce for improving services for adults and children who have experienced rape and sexual assault. The national leadership provided by this Taskforce brings together experts from health, justice, social work and the third sector. In respect of children, the remit of this Taskforce is focussed on developing the clinical pathway for children who have experienced a sexual assault. Child centred, trauma informed care is at the heart of the current paediatric services provided to children in Scotland who have experienced sexual abuse The 3 Managed Clinical Networks for services related to child protection and child abuse have developed standards for service delivery which have been issued to the executive leads in each Health Board to help ensure consistency across Scotland. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice recently announced the chair for the newly created Expert Group for Preventing Sexual Offending involving Children and Young People. This Group will bring together professional and academic expertise from across justice, education, child protection, health and the third sector to identify actions to better prevent sexual crime involving children and young people and mitigate the harm it causes. It will build on existing good work across Government and through partners.

A National Trauma Skills and Knowledge Framework and National Training Framework is being developed which will support the strategic planning and delivery of training for those who have contact with people affected by trauma across all parts of the Scottish Workforce. We have commissioned NHS Education Scotland to lead the development of a comprehensive National Trauma Skills and Knowledge Framework and National Training Framework for those working with people across the lifespan, including children and young people, who are affected by trauma and abuse in Scotland. The Framework is designed to support the recognition of learning and development needs in the workforce and support trainers and managers in meeting them. It details the knowledge and skills necessary to ensure that people affected by trauma can access services that understand and can respond to their needs.

Equally Safe is the Scottish Government’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls. It has promoted a concerted effort from relevant sectors to deliver a holistic response to tackling violence against women and girls.

We are developing a ten year Child and Adolescent Health and Wellbeing Action Plan which aims to take a cross-policy, rights based approach to improving the physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people within Scotland. The Action Plan will support this with emphasis on prevention, and intervention at the earliest possible stage to provide the level of support necessary to ensure the best outcomes for Scotland’s children and young people. Additionally, an increasing focus of our work going forward will consider the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), transitions and poverty. This involves working across Government and with partners in every part of Scottish society, so that we can learn what works best and put that learning into practice. We aim to launch the action plan during the Year of Young People in 2018.

The Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice, funded by the Scottish Government, published a research paper ‘Secure Care in Scotland: Young People’s Voices’ in October 2017. The paper presents key messages and calls for action about secure care from care experienced young people, most of whom were in secure care at the point that they talked about their lives and their care journeys. Mental and emotional wellbeing is one of the key areas explored and the research is informing the work of the Secure Care Strategic Board.