Chamber and committees

Childcare providers in the private, third and childminding sectors who deliver funded early learning and childcare (ELC) receive a sustainable rate from their local authority for the delivery of these hours.

There is no standard payment and local authorities set sustainable rates for providers in their area in-line with the joint Scottish Government and COSLA guidance .

The Scottish Government is committed to collecting data annually on the sustainable rates set by each local authority. This includes information on any variations in the rates paid to children in different age groups.

We published data on sustainable rates for 2021-22 in ‘ Overview of local authority funding and support for early learning and childcare providers’. Data on sustainable rates for 2022-23 will be published in the Autumn.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) collects and analyses data relating to the provision of further and higher education in Scotland. Table 1 below highlights data from SFC showing both the recommended and actual intakes to pre-registration nursing and midwifery programmes, broken down by year from 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22. Nursing and Midwifery at the Open University in Scotland (OUiS) were funded through the SFC for the first time in 2021-22. As such figures for the SFC Early Statistics Collection are only available in 2021-22 and have been provided separately in Table 2.

Table 1

NHS Boards received notification on the 11 August of their share of the £50 million investment which has been allocated in its entirety to support NHS Health Boards to improve A&E waits through a new National Collaborative for Urgent and Unscheduled Care.

Each board’s share of the £50 million fund is listed below:

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting and growing our nursing and midwifery workforce. That is why student nurses and midwives entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 8.7% in 2022-23, to a total recommended target intake of 4837 nursing and midwifery students.

Universities are continuing their recruitment for programmes commencing in the 2022-23 academic year. Final data on the number of placed applicants on nursing and midwifery programmes commencing in the 2022-23 academic year will not be available until January 2023.

Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDS) – formerly known as Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres (ECDC) – are fast-track diagnostic pathways taking patients from referral to diagnosis, not treatment.

Scotland’s first three RCDS are early adopters to help inform wider roll-out of an optimal model for patients with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer.

All three Services are using a nationally agreed minimum data-set, capturing consistent data from age, gender, symptoms at presentation etc. A sub-section of this data will be published by the three Boards in 2022.

Meanwhile, work is underway with Public Health Scotland to scope and progress national data collection as more sites are expected to be established.

Three Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDS) – formerly known as Early Cancer Diagnostic Centres (ECDC) – have been opened in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Fife. An interim report on the rollout of RCDC's is expected shortly and are actively considering further rollout of Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services.

All Boards have recruited both medical and non-medical staff to manage the new referral pathway for patients with non-specific symptoms, including navigators who support patients from the point of referral.

Recruitment for clinical services is the responsibility of individual Boards and it is therefore for them to provide specific details.

Scottish Ministers determine windfarm proposals exceeding 50 megawatts under the Electricity Act (1989) which is reserved to UK Government.

Local planning authorities are statutory consultees under the Electricity Act and their capacity to scrutinise large scale windfarm proposals varies across planning authorities. The Scottish Government is working with planning authorities to understand where capacity needs to be bolstered and is supporting planning authorities to increase capacity where it is needed most. As such, there has been no formal analysis of capacity across all planning authorities.

The University of Strathclyde has been commissioned to undertake critical evaluation of early adopter sites to inform wider roll-out, ensuring learnings from the first three Services are embedded, working towards equitable access across NHS Scotland, as set out in the NHS Recovery Plan.

In the meantime, officials are working with Boards to open additional early adopter sites.

Recruitment will be undertaken by the host Board, and will be dependent on their locally agreed pathway and resourcing requirements.

Priority is given to applicants who are aged 68 or over and to those who have a terminal illness.

Many applicants to Scotland’s Redress Scheme, for a variety of reasons, require additional support in relation to practical support to complete an application, sourcing of evidence and supporting information, and also in relation to the emotional impact going through the process can have. Support is available to applicants at all stages of the process.

When additional support is required, case workers refer applicants to the Redress Support Service provided by the In-Care Survivors Alliance. The In-Care Survivors Alliance draws on its existing network of over 70 delivery partners to provide support.

The Redress Support Service can help applicants access the emotional, practical or access to records support they require. They currently have contracts with two delivery partners; Birthlink and Wellbeing Scotland, who provide additional support for applicants in accessing records.

We understand that applying for redress may bring up difficult emotions. Applicants, and potential applicants, can call the Redress Emotional Support Helpline which can be contacted on 0800 211 8403. This service provides listening ear support to those who need it while applying, or thinking about applying for redress. Applicants do not need to go through a case worker to access the helpline which is in addition to other emotional support available.

Through the Survivors of Childhood Abuse Support Fund, the Scottish Government fund 29 organisations across Scotland. These organisations support people who have suffered child abuse. They are very experienced at offering confidential support tailored to the needs of the individual. Information on the organisations and their services can be found here Survivors of Childhood Abuse Support Fund: 2020-2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The Scottish Government is investing record levels of funding for active travel, in particular around schools and places of education. The £150m active travel budget for 2022-23 includes £12.3m of funding for behavioural change initiatives which local authorities can access through our active delivery partners dedicated programmes for schools and communities. The budget also includes a record £35m for the Cycling and Walking Safer Routes fund, which goes directly to local authorities on a pro-rata basis, enabling them to make the changes to the public realm that they see as having most impact for supporting safer daily journeys by walking and cycling.