Chamber and committees

The total amount paid to employers from the Apprenticeship Employer Grant for Modern Apprenticeships was £19,023,900 and £119,750 for Graduate Apprenticeships.

No local authority has submitted a request seeking an extension to the deadline of 1 October for establishing short-term let licensing schemes in their area. Officials remain in regular dialogue with local authorities in the lead up to schemes opening.

I have recently written to local authority Housing Conveners and Chief Executives to remind them of their duty to establish short-term let licensing schemes by 1 October 2022, and we continue to work with local authorities on implementation matters as they prepare to open licence schemes in their areas by this date.

Scotland’s Redress Scheme has been designed and developed to offer survivors support at every stage of the process. Trained case workers, working on behalf of the Scottish Government, are there to communicate with applicants throughout the application process and are available to answer questions about how to complete an application form, what documents applicants might need to provide and where to get further support. 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.

The Scottish Government have awarded a grant to the ‘In Care Survivor Alliance’ to provide this Redress Support.

There are numerous initiatives currently in operation across the country that enable children to walk, wheel and cycle to and from school, through our Active Travel Delivery Partners (ATDPs).

Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel event in April of this year had 360 schools across Scotland take part. The Sustrans' Ibike project sees dedicated officers provide a programme of classroom-based and outdoor learning, aligned to the Curriculumn for Excellence, tailored to the schools needs and reflecting the local area.

Cycling Scotland's Bikeability Scotland Cycling Training Scheme is available to all schools in all 32 Scottish local authorities. This training provides lifelong learning skills from how to balance on a bike to tackling roundabouts and junctions, where awareness of other road users and road position is crucial.

Living Streets coordinates the "WOW" project which encourages school children to walk once a week to school and provides schools, with both online and physical resources to encourage more walking, through an inter school competition. Over 130 schools took part in the WOW event at the end of the 2021-22 academic year.

However, it is the responsibility of the local roads authority to ensure that all road users are able to travel safely to their destination. To help deliver this, the Scottish Government is investing record levels of funding for active travel, and as part of our £150 million investment this year, £35 million goes directly to local authorities for Cycling, Walking and Safer Routes projects. Local authorities are also able to bid for further funding through our ATDPs, mainly Sustrans, for infrastructure projects, such as segregated walking, wheeling and cycling paths, including routes to schools .

In the last year our active travel delivery partners have focussed on building on established projects within schools and early education settings, as part of the continued efforts to promote walking and cycling as modes of travel for getting to and from school.

Living Streets coordinates the "WOW" project which encourages school children to walk once a week to school and provides schools, with both online and physical resources to encourage more walking, through an inter school competition. Over 130 schools took part in the WOW event at the end of the 2021-22 academic year. For 2022-23, Living Streets have established Walk to School Week (May), which saw 70 schools take part in the inaugural event, and Walk to School month (October), which it is currently preparing for. Further activity is underway with 6 secondary schools to support school travel planning, and 15 nurseries to deliver the Little Feet walking initiative.

Cycling Scotland's Bikeability Scotland Cycling Training Scheme continues to be available to all schools in all 32 Scottish local authorities. This training provides lifelong learning skills from how to balance on a bike to tackling roundabouts and junctions, where awareness of other road users and road position is crucial.

We fund Sustrans to deliver behaviour change programmes, including £745K for the successful Ibike project in schools in 2022-23. This project empowers children, parents and teachers to walk and cycle together through activities such as cycle and scooter training, led rides, and road safety awareness sessions. In 2022-23 this programme will work with at least 10 LAs and target 16,000 pupils.

The Family Justice Modernisation Strategy (available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/family-justice-modernisation-strategy/pages/1/ ), published in September 2019, is a result of the 2018 consultation on potential changes to Part 1 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and related matters. We remain committed to the continued implementation of the Strategy’s actions.

As I stated in my foreword, the Strategy sets out work that was ongoing at the time of publication, work to be implemented through secondary legislation and improved guidance, areas that were subsequently covered by the Children (Scotland) Act 2020, and policy areas that require longer-term development. The Scottish Government is preparing an update to the Strategy, which will outline the actions that have been completed, the actions that have been superseded, and the actions which remain to be taken forward. We will publish this update in due course.

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:

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.

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.