Chamber and committees

Since October 2022 we have invested £4 million to deliver innovative school age childcare services to around 600 children from 500 families through our Early Adopter Community projects in Glasgow, Inverclyde, Clackmannanshire and Dundee.

On 22 May 2024, the First Minister announced a further £16 million investment over the next two years in the early adopter community projects including expanding delivery to communities in Fife and Shetland. This will enable participating local authorities to increase the number of families supported across these communities, expanding parents’ access to childcare, particularly for those families most at risk of living in poverty.

The early adopter community projects are a key driver for change. They will be a leading source of evidence, data, insights, and evaluation relating to the impact, approach and economic outcomes associated with place-based, people-centred systems of childcare focused on understanding the changes local authorities can undertake to expand access to childcare for those families who need it most, and the difference that can make towards reducing poverty. This work is already informing what system changes are needed at national and local levels to support sustainable delivery of childcare services within communities, and how these link with wider public services which families need.

We are committed to sharing learning across the early adopter community network and with all Local Authorities, to ensure we support future development at a national level. Our independent process evaluation report for the early adopter communities, being carried out by IPSOS Scotland, will be published in September 2024. IPSOS have engaged with project leads, service staff, local delivery partners and families to understand what is working well for them and what could be improved, to support next steps and future investment.

The Scottish Ambulance Service started using the GoodSAM system in 2017 in a limited capacity – initially this was aimed at SAS clinicians to register. This was paused during the Covid-19 pandemic. Full implementation of GoodSAM, which was open to all, was launched in October 2022. Since this date, effectiveness has been measured based on month on month increase to both registrations and alerts accepted through it. Data modelling is now ongoing to establish how best to optimise the system for different parts of Scotland.

The 2019 recruitment and retention Action plan for Disabled People has been superseded by the Diversity and Inclusion Employer Strategy for Scottish Government published April 2024. Having a workforce more representative of the people of Scotland it serves, remains one of our Employer Equality Outcomes. We have higher levels of disabled staff than ever before but still have further progress to make. The overall proportion of disabled people working in the Scottish Government has more than doubled over the last ten years, rising from 6.4% in 2013 to 14.1% in 2023.

The Scottish Government intends to publish costs of the tribunal, which will include payments it has made towards the legal costs of Sheriff Jack Brown in relation to his fitness for judicial office tribunal proceedings. Following a recent Freedom of Information request for this information, the Scottish Government will publish these details on its website, as soon as possible after the Freedom of Information response is issued.

Information on college withdrawals is collected and published by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) in their annual College Performance Indicator publication. College Performance Indicators 2022-23 - Scottish Funding Council (sfc.ac.uk)

The SFC publish the number of students that withdraw from a course, but not broken down by week the student withdrew.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS recognise the importance of those in our care maintaining contact with family and friends coupled with their ability to access support services such as the Samaritans.

Last summer SPS rolled out in cell telephony throughout our estate, which continues to support the positive mental health and wellbeing for those we care for and enables access to the Samaritans free of charge, 24 hours per day.

Any envelopes not marked with the “Freepost Samaritans Letters" address are being removed from use in establishments.

Whilst the Transport (Scotland) Act was implemented in 2019, sections 120 and 121 required secondary legislation to be enacted. This secondary legislation was enacted and came into effect on 1 October 2023.

We expect reports from Health Boards in Winter 2024. Assessments will be made once these reports are received.

The Scottish Government hasn’t undertaken any analysis of the number of students articulating from college to university in the last financial year.

Latest data covering articulation from college to university is published in the annual Scottish Funding Council (SFC) publication ‘Report on Widening Access’, which relates to those starting university in the 2021-22 academic year.

Report on Widening Access 2021-22 - Scottish Funding Council (sfc.ac.uk)

Data covering the 2022-23 academic year will be published later this year, with 2023-24 data in 2025 and the current academic year (2024-25) being published in 2026.

The 2019 recruitment and retention Action plan for Disabled People has been superseded by the Diversity and Inclusion Employer Strategy for Scottish Government published April 2024. Having a workforce more representative of the people of Scotland it serves, remains one of our Employer Equality Outcomes. The Scottish Government has made excellent progress towards meeting the target of 25% of external recruits declaring a disability. Latest figures show 35% of successful applicants declared a disability, exceeding the 25% target.

The Scottish Government prepared its draft Transport to Health Plan in 2023, we are currently engaging with the relevant partners on the commitments contained within the plan. It is expected that the plan will be finalised by the end of September 2024. We do not intend to publish the draft plan while it is still being developed.