Chamber and committees

Channels of communication between the Scottish Government and Tata Steel UK remain open so both parties are aware the other’s position on this commercially sensitive topic.

Each year since 2010-11, and as demonstrated through the Budget publications, the Scottish Government has delivered its commitment to pass on frontline health consequentials to the Health Portfolio. This refers to resource consequentials arising from increases in funding allocated by HM Treasury to the Department of Health and Social Care.

As the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy has made clear in Parliament, there are some areas of required spend where Covid consequentials have fallen short of expectation. In addition, there are some timing differences between spend in England and equivalent spend in Scotland .

In this context, the Scottish Government has taken steps to align funding from the UK Government with actual spending profiles in Scotland. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy highlighted in her letter to the convenor of the Finance and Public Administration Committee, Covid 19 Financial support Scottish Government update | Scottish Parliament Website , that the Scottish Government has required to repurpose some health consequentials to specifically support wider public health measures. Further detail will be provided in the Spring Budget Revision.

There are very strong links between education and health on the matter of mental health and wellbeing in schools.

Formally, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board, established in 2021, oversee reform across relevant areas of education, health, community and children’s services and wider areas that impact on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. Membership on the delivery board includes a wide range of stakeholders from health and education.

The Mental Health in Schools Working Group was established in 2019 to support the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to supporting positive mental health in children and young people in school. The Group has a large membership including national organisations who work to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing and representatives from the education and health sector.

The Working Group has sought to establish a comprehensive approach to supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing in schools through a Whole School Approach Framework, published in August 2021. The framework is clear on the importance of a holistic approach to mental health and wellbeing and encourages partnership working with community and health partners.

Our commitment to invest in school counselling services across secondary schools in Scotland, announced in our 2018-19 Programme for Government, is now delivered across all local authorities. The first reporting exercise for the commitment highlighted the various referrals made by schools to health services, including GPs, school nurses and other health professionals. The approach to counselling in schools has been developed and implemented by education officials using resources provided by the health department and progress has been jointly reported to Ministers with portfolio responsibility for both health and education.

Health and Wellbeing is one of the eight curricular areas in Curriculum for Excellence. Its substantial importance is reflected in its position at the centre of the curriculum and at the heart of children’s learning. Mental health and wellbeing has specific experiences and outcomes, within this framework.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving Mental Health services and the Programme for Government commits to ensuring that by the end of this Parliament, a minimum 10% of frontline NHS spend goes towards mental health, with at least 1% going towards child and adolescent mental health services.

We also remain committed to meet the standard that 90% of children and young people begin treatment within 18 weeks of referral. We have allocated nearly £40m additional funding in 2021-22 to NHS Boards to improve CAMHS from our £120m Recovery and Renewal fund. £4.25m of that allocation is directly focussed on offering treatment to those already on CAMHS waiting lists, with a view to clearing all backlogs by March 2023.

We are closely monitoring those NHS Boards with significant performance challenges and supporting the continuous development of their detailed local improvement plans. The creation of these plans is further supported with direct enhanced support from subject matter experts and the sharing of best practice. This support is centred around and supported by the implementation of the CAMHS national service specification which outlines the expectations of the quality of care that families can expect.

NHS Boards who are receiving this enhanced support have provided trajectories to meet the 90% waiting times standard and we are using these to monitor and drive improvements within CAMHS.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is an absolute priority for the Scottish Government.

Education authorities and schools have a wide range of approaches in place to support pupils’ mental health and wellbeing.

Our refreshed Scottish Attainment Challenge, backed by record investment of £1bn in this Parliament, empowers schools and local authorities to drive education recovery and accelerate progress in tackling the poverty-related attainment gap.

We continue to support our local authority partners with £16 million in funding to ensure that every secondary school has access to counselling services.

The Mental Health in Schools Working Group, established in 2019, has overseen the development of a professional learning resource for school staff, published in June, and guidance to support whole school approaches to mental health, published in August. These resources help school staff respond to the range of mental health and wellbeing concerns that young people may experience.

The Scottish Government also published the Mind yer time and Aye Feel resources which provide sources of support and information for children and young people.

I can confirm that we have published our report this morning, and the review report is available at www.gov.scot/publications/storm-arwen-review .

The review is the result of a wide range of local debriefs which took place in the aftermath of Storm Arwen. The Scottish Government has used this information, from those involved at the frontline of the response, to develop a range of recommendations which we hope will support the evolution of our resilience planning. I would like to express my thanks to those who participated in this process, during what has been a time of considerable pressure across the sector.

Table 1 shows the number of non-sexual crimes of violence recorded by the police in Scotland from 2011-12 to 2020-21. From 2019-20 onwards this includes new crimes recorded under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, following its enactment on 1 April 2019. In addition to this, Table 2 shows the number of common assaults recorded by the police over the same time period. Both of these tables are available from the Recorded Crime in Scotland National Statistics ( Recorded Crime in Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Table 1. Recorded crimes of non-sexual violence in Scotland, 2011-12 to 2020-21

Less than two percent of agricultural holdings in Scotland, covering 52 per cent of agricultural land, are estimated to be above a threshold of 2,500 acres. Less than one percent of owned or tenanted holdings with crofts are above 2,500 acres in size. Five per cent of tenanted holdings without crofts and two per cent of owner occupied holdings without crofts are above 2,500 acres in size.

The data presented in the paragraph above refers to data collected as part of the June Agricultural Census 2021. The data included contains holdings with a registered croft, not all crofts have registered holdings and are therefore excluded from this analysis. A small number of large holdings include a registered croft on the holding. As these figures relate to the land area of the holding and not the croft these areas will have a large impact on reported area of crofts. A single holding may comprise both rented and owned land, these categories are based on majority area for the holding.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05774 on 27 January 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is about providing young people with a well-rounded education that prepares them to thrive in today’s world.

Where available, psychology is most likely to appear as a standalone subject in the senior phase and national qualifications are available. Many schools also offer ‘elective’ courses in psychology for senior phase learners, not always leading to a specific qualification. Outside the senior phase, aspects of psychology may well be explored within different curricular areas.

Schools and Local Authorities are encouraged to consider innovative ways to ensure that there is a wide choice of subjects available to their learners; CfE empowers schools and teachers to design their curriculum in ways which best suit all their learners. It would be for schools and Local Authorities to plan what subjects are available in their areas and how these may be accessed.