Chamber and committees

All local authorities are under a statutory duty to ensure their menus comply with the standards set out in The Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020. What food and drink they choose to include on their menus, including locally sourced, is a matter for each local authority taking into account local needs and preferences.

We encourage local authorities to use local and sustainable produce in school catering, which is supported by the Scotland Excel procurement framework.

Local authorities have a statutory obligation to comply with the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (Nutritional Regulations).

The nutritional quality of local authority school catering provision is evaluated as part of Education Scotland’s school inspection programme.

Specialist Health and Nutrition Inspectors (HNI) join some school inspection teams to evaluate compliance with the Nutritional Regulations, including the nutritional quality of school meals. This involves engaging with staff and reviewing documentation. In academic year 2023/24 HNI visited 100 schools.

If a school or local authority does not meet the expected standards, HNI provides clear advice on the improvements needed. Local authorities are required to provide evidence to HNI showing how they have addressed any areas of non-compliance

As part of the Scottish Government's response to the Education, Children and Young People Committee's Inquiry on Additional Support for Learning, I committed to engage with our partners to consider this issue further.

My officials engage with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists as well as our wider partners on a regular basis and I will provide an update to the Committee on the outcome of these considerations in due course.

The Royal College will be invited to attend the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools to ensure they can contribute to the delivery of our Relationships and Behaviour in Schools National Action Plan.

Local authorities are under a statutory duty to comply with the standards set out in the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020 when designing menus. How they do this is a matter for local decision making taking into account local needs and priorities. The Scottish Government provides advice via ‘Better Eating, Better Learning’ guidance and encourages local authorities to involve pupils, parents and carers in menu development in order to take account of local preferences and feedback as they design new menus and encourage uptake.

Information on the proportion of eligible children accessing funded ELC, both nationally and by local authority, is published each year in the ELC census. This includes uptake rates for all 3-4 year olds, and deferred registrations. The census does not record the proportion of their 1140 hours entitlement that each child is utilising.

The most recent publication includes the most recent uptake data by local authority area within Figure 26 at the following page:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-for-schools-in-scotland-2023/pages/early-learning-and-childcare-elc/

A breakdown for previous years can be accessed within the appropriate years publication, which are listed at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/early-learning-and-childcare-statistics/#earlylearningandchildcarecensus.

The Improvement Service also provide information on the number of eligible children accessing their full 1140 entitlement nationally. The most recent service delivery report is available at:

https://www.improvementservice.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/52618/ELC-Delivery-Progress-Report-Apr-24.pdf

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

Following the introduction of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, SPS took the decision to not seek to amend its mandatory drug testing policy to include testing for psychoactive substances. This was due to the continual changing compounds used within psychoactive substances and remains the position to date.

By working closely with partners such as Police Scotland, SPS must and does remain vigilant to the continuously evolving nature of drug use to ensure our use of technology and tactical measures remain current, adaptable, and capable of detecting and preventing drugs from entering our prisons; and we continue to consider what testing options may be most effective for the SPS to use.

SPS will continue to work with partners to prevent the introduction of contraband and seek convictions where appropriate.

In accordance with the Reimbursement of Members’ Expenses Scheme the SPCB is responsible for setting and maintaining minimum terms and conditions for the employment of staff by MSPs and for the terms and conditions of parliamentary service staff. I can confirm that the SPCB plans to review the terms and conditions of staff employed by MSPs early in the New Year. The SPCB regularly benchmarks its terms and conditions with other employers to ensure that they continue to support the objective of attracting and retaining staff.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with partners including Higher Education Institutions, Health Boards, Skills Development Scotland, and the Scottish Funding Council on skills development, employability and widening access to NHS Scotland careers. As part of this work part time, distance learning and earn as you learn models of education, which may benefit rural and island areas, are currently being explored by the Allied Health Professions (AHP) advisory group that oversees the implementation of the AHP Education and Workforce Policy Review recommendations.

The Scottish Government, in collaboration with the Centre for Workforce Supply and the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care is developing a model of sustained ongoing direct support for employers across health, social care, social work and children’s services in rural and island areas to overcome barriers to recruitment and retention The direct support model will consist of three key elements including a Rural and Island Recruitment Forum, a Living Library and a Recruitment Toolkit.

The first cohort of 52 ScotGEM students graduated in summer 2022 after completing the four year course. Of these, 45 undertook Foundation training in Scotland with 42 completing their required foundation year 2 (FY2) in August 2024; a small number opted to go less than full time. Of those 42 individuals, 10 have chosen GP training and have taken up GPST 1 posts in Scotland, with two of these in the North which contains the areas denoted by the question, as follows:

a) Highland - 2 trainees

b) Western Isle – 0 trainees

c) Orkney – 0 trainees

d) Shetland – 0 trainees

e) Grampian – 0 trainees

The Scottish Government plans to commence the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024 in its entirety in early 2025.