Chamber and committees

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 was put in place to ensure that all children and young people with additional support needs receive the support they require to achieve their potential.

The Act places strict duties on local authorities to meet the additional support needs for all children for whose school education they are responsible, and to tailor provision according to their individual needs. The "Supporting Children’s Learning" code of practice explains these duties, providing guidance to local authorities on the Act's provisions as well as on the supporting framework of secondary legislation.

In addition, the Scottish Government is currently reviewing the guidance on the presumption of mainstream education. The review is being undertaken in partnership with key stakeholders and will be published for consultation early in 2017.

Life expectancy in Scotland is increasing. The gap between life expectancy for men and for women is Scotland is continuing to narrow.

Reducing health inequalities is one of the biggest challenges we face. To tackle this we recognise that the root of health inequalities can be found in income inequalities. We’re taking action focused on addressing the underlying causes of ending poverty, fair wages, supporting families, and improving our physical and social environments.

In Glasgow, the Scottish Government is funding the pilot Links Worker pilot programmes, which is right on the front line of the battle against health inequalities. The Link Worker programme sees a dedicated individual working in GP surgeries, helping patients on a one-to-one basis with non-medical problems that are making them feel unwell. We are committed to increasing the number of community Links Workers in disadvantaged areas to 250 over the next five years, with 40 to be recruited by September 2017.

The retail sector remains a very significant part of Scotland’s economy employing over 240,000 people in 2015, 9.6% of total employment in Scotland. The reduction in retail workforce since 2014 equates to less than 2% of total sector employment.

We recognise that the retail sector in Scotland is transforming in response to, among other things, changes to shopping habits and through new technology. The proportion of retail businesses in the UK (with 10 or more employees) making e-commerce sales has increased from 25.8% in 2009 to 39.8% in 2015 and this trend is likely to continue.

The latest Office for National Statistics Retail Sales Inquiry statistics show that the value of on-line sales in Great Britain increased by 26.8% between October 2015 and October 2016, and that online sales took a 15.2% market share in October 2016, compared with 12.7% in October 2015.

This shift to on-line shopping, coupled with UK Government austerity measures, which served to curtail consumer confidence, has had an impact on the sector.

Ministers and officials regularly engage with the Scottish Retail Consortium and other key stakeholders in the retail sector to discuss policy priorities and to better understand the challenges and opportunities that transformational change in the sector will present.

We are using all available levers to create the economic conditions to enable Scotland’s economy to thrive, working closely with delivery partners, including local authorities, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and Skills Development Scotland, to ensure that businesses of all sizes and sectors can access the support they require. This year Ministers and partners across Scotland supported the Small Business Saturday campaign to celebrate the success of businesses and to encourage people to ‘shop local’.

We continue to support the retail sector through the small business bonus scheme and other business rate reliefs. It is estimated that the Small Business Bonus Scheme helped just over 31,000 shops in 2015, more than half the shops in Scotland.

We are promoting investment and economic growth in town centres through the Town Centre Action Plan, designed to support their revitalisation and to assist local action towards achieving this. The Town Centre First Principle that underpins the action plan is about adopting an approach to decisions that consider the vibrancy of town centres as a starting point. The principle is about open, measured and transparent decision making that takes account of medium to longer term impacts on town centres.

In the 12 months to March 2016, 2,031 people started a retail modern apprenticeship in Scotland, all of whom are in employed posts while undertaking their apprenticeship.

In addition, more than 50,000 training places, across all sectors, have been delivered through the Employability Fund since its launch in 2013 supporting people to find employment: a further 11,650 opportunities are on track to be delivered in 2016-17.

The number and provision of mental health beds is a matter for each board to determine in terms of its service design.

We have been working with Health boards, to introduce the Inpatient Bed Census for mental health, addictions and learning disability. Undertaken in 2014 and 2016 the census has provided detailed data that identifies the status of bed usage across Scotland and provides a basis for planning and development of future mental health services. The census shows a continuing reduction in the number of psychiatric inpatients, with more people being treated in a community setting or while living at home. This reflects the longer term shift in the provision of care from hospital based to community based and that bed occupancy was 85% - achieving the best practice figure set by the Royal College of Psychiatrists for provision in meeting need across Scotland.

In addition we are allocating £30 million a year to health and social care partnerships to help them tackle delayed discharges. In addition we announced a further £3 million in November to support NHS boards prepare for winter. One of the key ways of ensuring hospitals have sufficient capacity is to reduce the number of people inappropriately delayed, and we fully expect that to happen over the coming months. Glasgow City received £3.99 million of this funding

The Glasgow City Partnership have seen significant improvement in performance following the introduction of discharge to assess, which aims to ensure patients are discharged within 72 hours of being medically fit. This, alongside the increase in step-down Intermediate Care beds, commissioned from private sector care homes, has resulted in significant reduction in delays over winter.

Local authorities have the duty to deliver homelessness services in their area including providing appropriate out of hours services in case of emergency. It is for the local authority to determine what form this should take.

This is supported by the statutory Code of Guidance on Homelessness from the Scottish Government which makes it clear that homelessness advice and assistance must be available and accessible to everybody that requires it.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to relocate its staff and departments away from the major cities.

NHS Boards are responsible for providing diagnostic services for people with autism in line with their statutory obligations and Scottish Government policy.

Reducing diagnostic waiting times for children and adults is a priority for the Scottish Strategy for Autism. However, we are not considering a waiting times target for autism. You may be aware that the Scottish Government is currently taking forward a review of national NHS targets.

You can find out more about Autism ACHIEVE Alliance's report on their investigation into waiting times for autism diagnosis at the following link;http://www.autismstrategyscotland.org.uk/strategy/key-documents.html.

Immediately following the media speculation of 20 November 2016 suggesting that T in the Park might not take place in 2017, my officials contacted DF Concerts to seek clarification on its future plans for the event. At that point DF Concerts stated it was not in a position to confirm anything with regard to the recent media reporting. My officials reminded DF Concerts that the Scottish Government grant of £150,000, made in 2015 to support operational costs associated with the move of T in the Park to its new site at Strathallan, had a condition attached to it stipulating that the sum of £50,000 should be repaid to Scottish Ministers by DF Concerts for each and any year up to and including 2017 that the event does not take place at Strathallan.

Following DF Concerts’ announcement on 24 November 2016 that it would not be staging the T in the Park event in 2017, I have written to DF Concerts’ Chief Executive requesting that he meet with me to discuss the organisers’ future plans for the event. My letter also highlights the claw-back condition attached to the 2015 grant and confirms that arrangements are being made for a DF Concerts to make a repayment of £50,000 to Scottish Ministers.

The following table shows the full-time equivalent count of directly-employed staff working within the core directorates of the Scottish Government, its executive agencies, and non-departmental public bodies & other bodies within Glasgow City Council area as at 31 March each year.

This information relates to public sector staff held on the Scottish Government HR system. The executive agencies with a presence in Glasgow which are included in the table are Accountant in Bankruptcy, Communities Scotland, Disclosure Scotland, Education Scotland, HM Inspectorate of Education, Social Work Inspection Agency and Transport Scotland. The non-departmental and other public bodies with a presence in Glasgow which are included in the table are Additional Support Needs Tribunals, Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland, Police Investigations & Review Commission, Private Rented Housing Panel, Risk Management Authority, Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission and Scottish Housing Regulator.

Information on Public Sector Employment overall in Scotland is available from the Scottish Government’s National Statistics Publication Quarterly Public Sector Employment in Scotland. The latest information is for Q2 2016 and can be located at the following link: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/PublicSectorEmployment. The statistics in this release are based on administrative records and surveys of individual public sector bodies carried out by the Scottish Government and the Office for National Statistics. Although the number of staff working across Glasgow in all public sector organisations is not included in this publication information on local government employment by council area is provided in Web-Table 9.

The Scottish Government, along with other public bodies, also collates staff headcount information annually for the Business Register & Employment Survey. This survey does contain geographic information and is published by the Office for National Statistics on the NOMIS website for labour market statistics.