Chamber and committees

The following tables show a breakdown of the number of children in households reassessed as homeless within one year, between one and two years, between two and three years, between three and four years and between four and five years for the years 2015-16 to 2020-21.

In order for a household with children to be reassessed as homeless all adults on the application must be the same as a previous application and children (any number of) must also have been present on the previous application. It is possible for the number of children to have changed between applications.

Information at individual household level cannot be provided due to data confidentiality.

Data on the number of cases of child abuse reported to social services are not collected centrally by the Scottish Government.

You may wish to note that Children’s Social Work Statistics are published annually, and although these do not give the information you have asked for, they do show the number of children on the child protection register and the number of concerns at the case conferences at which they were registered.

To date the Scottish Government has made no formal assessment on the possible welfare consequences for animals that have been stolen.

We are aware that Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Development International, the Scottish National Investment Bank and Screen Scotland have each had some engagement with PSL Land and Scottish Government officials attended a small number of meetings. According to Companies House records, PSL Land Ltd (SC491629) was dissolved on 29 Dec 2020.

The Scottish Government welcomes private and public sector projects to develop film studio infrastructure in Scotland. With our enterprise and development agencies, we will continue to offer support with various aspects of business planning, including to secure financing, land and specialist advice, while respecting commercial confidentiality.

Attendance and absence information is only collected every two years so no figures are available for 2017-18 or 2019-20.

Figures for 2018-19 and 2020-21 show that:

Primary Schools

• 14.6% of primary pupils were absent more than 10% of the time in 2018-19. In 2020/21, 25.4% of primary pupils were not in school more than 10% of the time.
• 0.2% of primary pupils were absent more than 50% of the time in 2018-19. In 2020/21, 1.0% of primary pupils were not in school more than 50% of the time.

Secondary Schools

• 29.3% of secondary pupils were absent more than 10% of the time in 2018-19. In 2020-21, 49.6% of secondary pupils were not in school more than 10% of the time.
• 2.0% of secondary pupils were absent more than 50% of the time in 2018/19. In 2020-21, 4.0% of secondary pupils were not in school more than 50% of the time.

The 2018-19 figures refer to absences from school. Pupils may be recorded as attending school without being in class in situations including attendance at school trips or work experience, when receiving educational provision outside of their school, when attending short medical or dental appointments or when physically in school but not in their class. These figures are from the biennial Attendance and Absence data collection and cover the entire school year. Published outputs from this collection are classed as National Statistics and data are subject to robust quality assurance procedures.

Whereas, figures for 2020-21 are based on daily management information and have only been subjected to limited quality checking. The results only cover the period from 17 August 2020 - 23 December 2020 (inclusive - primary and secondary schools), 15 March 2021 – 2 April 2021 (inclusive - primary schools only) and 12 April 2021 – 25 June 2021 (inclusive - primary and secondary schools) - as these were the periods when schools were fully open to all pupils in a particular school sector. Also, only pupils who had a total of at least 100 half-day sessions have been included in the analysis (note: where half-day sessions refer to mornings/afternoons when schools were providing learning).

Most schools operate 9 or 10 openings a week.

Figures from the 2020-21 daily management information are not directly comparable to the 2018-19 National Statistics due to differences in collection methods, the level of quality assurance undertaken and COVID-19 related school closures in 2020-21. The National Statistics on attendance and absence in 2020-21 are due to be published later this year.

The Scottish Government recognises the impact that periods of imprisonment, including time on remand, can have on families. That is why we are committed to reducing the use of short-term imprisonment, including remand and increasing the use of community-based interventions.

SPS are committed to ensuring that people in prison are able to maintain contact with their family during their time in custody. The SPS Family Strategy puts families and family contact at the heart of supporting prisoners during their time in custody. The Strategy doesn’t differentiate between convicted or remand prisoners and recognises the positive contribution that close family contact and involvement can make in supporting the reintegration of prisoners back into the community.

SPS support family contact during a person's time in custody - including on remand - in a number of ways. This includes in-cell telephony, letters and family contact through visits. Under the Prison Rules, those remanded have a greater visits entitlement than those convicted. Remand prisoners have the opportunity of access to daily family visits in prisons holding remand prisoners.

The Scottish Government has provided £3.9m in grant funding for Prison Visitors Centres since 2016/17. Visitors Centres provide a range of support for families and work in partnership with other organisations to make referrals to more specialist advice and support services for things including financial support, childcare, housing support and welfare counselling. This is in addition to £138k p.a. provided to Families Outside, an organisation which supports families affected by imprisonment so that they can readily access appropriate information and support at a time they need it.

We will continue to work with partners to develop approaches in this area, learning from those with lived experience.

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (“The 2014 Act”) first introduced and defined the term ‘early learning and childcare’ (ELC). Prior to the 2014 Act, there was no statutory duty to provide pre-school education to 2 year olds.

The 2014 Act increased the number of funded ELC hours for all 3 and 4 year olds and introduced the statutory duty to provide access to funded ELC for eligible 2 year olds.

Since 2014, data on the number of registrations of 2 year olds receiving funded ELC has been collected for the annual census of ELC [1] . Prior to 2014, data was collected on registrations for funded pre-school education . Prior to 2012, data was not collected on registrations for children aged 2.

As we see children return to school after summer I understand how important it is for families to feel involved, especially where children are attending school for the first time. However, as we monitor the impact of important changes to self-isolation policies amongst children and young people, it is also important that we continue to minimise the risks of infection and transmission in the school environment.

Updated guidance, published on 3 August, makes clear that visitors to schools should be agreed in advance and arrangements appropriately risk-assessed. Parents/carers may accompany children onto school premises where this is agreed with the school and strictly necessary to support children and young people, for example where there are concerns about individual children making a successful transition from Early Learning and Childcare to P1. Otherwise, where virtual arrangements for parental engagement are already in place and working well, these should continue to be used.

The updated guidance is available at the following link: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-reducing-the-risks-in-schools/ . These arrangements will be kept under careful review, and are expected to be in place for up to six weeks at the start of the new term.

The following table provides information on gross revenue expenditure in Scotland per primary school pupil.

Table 1: Gross revenue expenditure per primary school pupil across Scottish Local Authorities in 2019-20

Our thoughts and condolences are with the families and loved ones of those who have recently lost their lives in water-related incidents.

Ensuring that every child learns to swim is a priority for both Scottish Swimming and the Scottish Government. The National Learn to Swim Framework, which is supported by Scottish Water and delivered by aquatic partners every week, already helps children to become safe, competent, and confident swimmers and these water safety themed lessons are an essential part of the Framework to help educate on water safety.

Within schools, Curriculum for Excellence’s flexible guidelines allow teachers to decide upon the content of lessons that best meets the local needs and circumstances of all children and young people in attendance. However, we are working with stakeholders consider the greater opportunities for children and young people to engage in community swimming lessons.