Chamber and committees

I am pleased to confirm that the Relationships and Behaviour in Schools Action Plan 2024-27 progress report was published today:

https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836914686

The progress report sets out actions that have been taken to support relationships and behaviour in schools between November 2023, when I announced my intention to develop an action plan, and March 2025.

The Programme for Government 2024-25 committed to publishing annually on progress against the action plan. Further progress reports will be published in 2026 and 2027.

The safety of patients and staff is an absolute priority. Assaults on patients or staff are completely unacceptable, and everyone has the right to access healthcare, or their place of work, without the fear of verbal or physical abuse.

NHS Boards have reporting systems to capture data on violence and aggression - including sexual assault. I strongly encourage staff to report any and all instances of violent and aggressive behaviour. All instances of such behaviour should be reported and escalated to Police Scotland as quickly as possible for consideration of necessary action. The courts have extensive powers to deal robustly with sexual offending.

Health Improvement Scotland are working with all NHS boards and partner organisations to standardise the reporting of adverse events, and have developed a national framework which was published in February.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of national standards of reporting and the requirement for monitoring and publishing of data. We have committed to work with HIS and Health Boards to improve the collection of data nationally.

The number of Care Experienced Bursaries that have been awarded in each year since the establishment of the support in the 2017-2018 academic year is as follows:

Information on the number of pupils accessing colleges courses is collected by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). Data on the number of enrolments by category of student, which includes school based students in S4, S5 and S6, is published in the SFC annual College Statistics publication.

Latest publication: College Statistics 2023-24 - Scottish Funding Council (sfc.ac.uk)

Available in background table 13. No data is published by local authority.

Further information can be requested directly from the SFC.

The Scottish Government has been consistently clear that it opposes fire and rehire practices.

All three- and four-year-olds, as well as eligible two-year-olds, have a statutory entitlement of up to 1140 hours per year of funded ELC.

The most recent ELC Census shows that uptake of the funded ELC offer for 3- and 4-year-olds was around 95% of eligible children in 2024. For eligible 2-year-olds, the proportion was 59%.

According to Improvement Service data in September 2024, around 98% of children aged 3 or more receiving funded ELC in September 2024 were reported to be accessing more than 600 funded hours, and 89% were reported to be accessing the full 1140 funded hours. This data also shows around 92% of eligible 2-year-olds reported to be receiving funded ELC in September 2024 were reported to be accessing more than 600 funded hours, and around 77% were reported to be accessing the full 1140 funded hours.

Data for previous years on the number of eligible children accessing funded ELC is available from summary statistics, available here: Early learning and childcare statistics - gov.scot.

Data for previous years (reported quarterly) on the proportion of children accessing funded ELC who have used the full 1140 hours in previous years is available from Improvement Service reports, available here: ELC data collections, reporting and analysis | Improvement Service.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting and growing our childminding sector, which is why we launched the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future in June 2024, in partnership with the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA). The programme is supporting the recruitment of new professional childminders across Scotland, offering a package of funded support and training in addition to a £750 start-up grant, providing everything needed to establish a new childminding business from home.

The programme also includes a range of pilot measures to address the retention of the childminding workforce, and to encourage more childminders to deliver funded early learning and childcare. This includes trials of a mentoring scheme and ‘funded time off the floor’ designed to deliver more practical support to ensure our existing professionals are supported with their workloads and professional development.

The recruitment support is available across 19 local authorities during year 1 (2024-25), and 12 local authorities are currently participating in the retention pilots.

To keep The Promise requires a whole systems approach to connect the different strands of policy work, new and ongoing commitments and financial programmes across Government that can impact on the lives of care experienced children, young people and their families.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-35713 on 27 March 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-35689 on 27 March 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.