The national action plan on relationships and behaviour published in August 2024. The first published progress report will publish in the coming weeks.

The Scottish Government values both museums and heritage sites as important assets and recognises the undoubted benefits they bring to communities across Scotland.

We will continue to support Museums Galleries Scotland, the dedicated national development body that supports museums and galleries, and Historic Environment Scotland, our lead public body for the historic environment. Both these organisations deliver direct and indirect support to heritage projects and groups across Scotland by providing expert advice and guidance, as well as through their grant schemes – details of which can be found on their respective websites.

Violent and abusive behaviours towards pupils or staff is unacceptable. Schools should be safe and consistent learning environments for all.

Concerns about behaviour at specific schools are a matter for the relevant local authority. We expect local authorities to consider how best to implement our national guidance to address particular areas of local challenge or concern.

The national action plan on relationships and behaviour published in August 2024. The first published progress report will publish in the coming weeks.

More frequent and meaningful budget engagement with COSLA and Councils was fundamental to informing the record funding settlement made available to Local Government in the Scottish Budget 2025-26.

That engagement included consideration of financial viability, the importance of sustainable local services and the critical need for transformation.

The Local Government Settlement was significantly more generous than Councils were expecting based upon the trajectories set out in previous Medium Term Financial Strategies. Despite this, all local authorities, along with the rest of the public sector, are facing difficult decisions as part of their budget setting processes including on how to meet the increased costs of employer National Insurance Contributions following the UK Budget in November 2024.

Whilst no specific concerns over financial viability in 2025-26 or 2026-27 have been raised since the Scottish Budget was published, Scottish Ministers remain committed to deepening and broadening budget engagement to ensure the sustainability of local services in the long term.

The 2025-26 Scottish Budget will deliver record funding of over £15 billion for Local Authorities, a 4.7 per cent real terms increase, along with full discretion over Council Tax.

More frequent and meaningful budget engagement with COSLA and Councils was fundamental to informing the record funding settlement made available to Local Government in the Scottish Budget 2025-26.

Ultimately it is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities but Scottish Ministers remain committed to ongoing meaningful engagement to ensure the sustainability of local services.

The average length of the local authority funding settlement since 2014-15 has been one year.

The opportunities of introducing three-year settlements are well understood but there are significant financial risks of doing so without the equivalent clarity from the UK Government given prominence of the adjusted block grant in the Scottish Government’s funding position. It is hoped that the conclusion of the UK Government’s Spending review later this year will create the foundations to allow the Scottish Government to adopt a multi-year approach to funding public services in Scotland. This will be taken forward through the next Scottish Spending Review.

The Scottish Government provided funding to Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland in 2018 to support a stroke awareness campaign. This was managed by Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland and delivered via NHS Boards. Scottish Government does not hold an evaluation of this campaign.

Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland launched a public FAST awareness campaign on 30 October 2024; World Stroke Day. Further information can be found at:

https://www.chss.org.uk/news/chest-heart-stroke-scotland-launches-new-f-a-s-t-campaign-to-improve-stroke-awareness/

The information requested is not currently held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Whilst the vast majority of funding distributed to councils through the Local Government Settlement is distributed using a needs-based formula, including factors such as population, rurality, road length and deprivation, there are a number of discrete funding lines to respond to specific local needs both within and out with the Local Government Settlement.

These include, but are not restricted to, specific funding for inter-island connectivity is currently only available to councils with island communities and specific grants are provided for Vacant and Derelict Land and Regional Transport Partnerships in specific local authorities. Such funding streams are included in the Local government finance circulars - gov.scot which will be published once the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order is agreed by the Scottish Parliament.