Chamber and committees

Social Security Scotland announced at the end of last year that Carer’ Allowance Supplement payments would be made in June and December 2019. It was confirmed on the 5 June that the majority of carers will get their June payment on 24 June. This information was shared through the media, social media and stakeholders.

Those eligible for a payment were a sent a letter in advance, informing them they were due to receive a payment. Similar arrangements will be made for the December 2019 payments.

The Scottish Government will uprate Carer’s Allowance Supplement every year in line with inflation. Carer’s Allowance Supplement increased by 2.4% between 2018-19 and 2019-20.

17 SGBs supported activities to accelerate and expand reach with the inactive and under-represented across multiple groups. This included young people, women and girls, older people, disabled people, those living in deprived areas, ethnic minorities communities, and the LGBTI community.

It is not possible to specify how much funding went directly to BAME communities, as these projects targeted multiple groups (including BME-specific groups).

The awards made to the five projects referenced in the Scottish Government Race Equality Action Plan: Year 1 action report are:

• Badminton Scotland – awarded £30,000
• Scottish Athletics – awarded £30,000
• Scottish Gymnastics – awarded £50,000
• Scottish Squash – awarded £27,000
• Tennis Scotland – awarded £20,600

The Children & Young People’s Mental Health Taskforce was charged with taking forward the 2018/19 Programme for Government (PfG) commitment of developing services to aid community mental wellbeing.

Following the resignation of the Chair in May 2019 due to ill health, a joint announcement from Scottish Government and COSLA on 4 July 2019 advised that the work begun by the Children & Young People’s Mental Health Taskforce would be taken forward by a new programme board – the Children & Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Programme Board. The Board will develop and monitor the delivery of support in the community as set out in the PfG commitment.

The Programme for Government sets out the actions the Scottish Government will take in the forthcoming year. In the case of the commitments announced by the 2018-19 Programme for Government, these will begin implementation from the 2019/20 financial year onwards. It is too early in our financial reporting processes to record an accurate breakdown of spend at this time.

The Scottish Government are supportive of integrated care systems across health and social care.

That is why work is currently underway through the NES Digital Service (NDS) to develop a National Digital Platform to support the secure and effective flow of people's data across both health and social care. It aims to breakdown traditional integration barriers between for example primary and secondary care, across health board boundaries and between health and social care.

The Scottish Government jointly launched the Local Governance Review with COSLA to consider how powers are shared across national and local government, and with communities. The Review reflects our shared commitment to Scotland’s different places and diverse communities having a direct say over decisions which affect them.

Talks with opposition parties and COSLA, our local government partners, to identify options for the replacement of the present council tax that would be supported by Parliament are progressing.

Scottish Government support for the Green Party amendments to the Transport Bill on the Workplace Parking Levy was contingent on the exclusion of hospitals and NHS premises, because of their particular circumstances. The Workplace Parking Levy provisions give wide powers to local authorities to apply local exemptions to reflect local circumstances. It would be for each local authority to determine if there was a need for a workplace parking levy in its area and to determine any additional local exemptions that might apply.

The Scottish Government jointly launched the Local Governance Review with COSLA to consider how powers are shared across national and local government, and with communities. The Review reflects our shared commitment to Scotland’s different places and diverse communities having a direct say over decisions which affect them. We are taking a whole system approach. This means looking across Scotland’s public services, and ensuring that measures to empower people and places in different spheres of governance are cohesive and mutually supportive.  

We will shortly be consulting on a new National Transport Strategy for Scotland. Part of the development work for the Strategy, included a review of transport governance which considered arrangements at national, regional and local levels. It is recognised that there is a need for change, in the current arrangements, and that further work is required to determine what a future model or models might be acknowledging that a one-size-fits approach all may not work. This work will commence when the outcomes from the NTS consultation are known.

We know that quick and decisive treatment is necessary when patients present with stroke symptoms and that’s why 60% of patients requiring thrombolysis were treated with one hour of arrival at hospital which is a similar rate as seen in the rest of the UK.

We are actively considering how we can increase the pace of improvement across Scotland.