Chamber and committees

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme outlines the basis on which victims of violent crime will be compensated. For those who are direct victims of violent crime the scheme is open to police officers as it is to everyone. The scheme also compensates those injured indirectly through for example apprehending an offender where the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority are satisfied that the person was taking an exceptional and justified risk. The CICA considers each case on its own facts and will assess the case based on the information available. Some applications will by necessity take longer to decide.

The Scottish Government regularly meet with the CICA and performance is discussed. The majority of applications are decided by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority within 12 months.

The National Standard and Funding Follows the Child policy framework was jointly implemented in 2021 by the Scottish Government and COSLA to support the 1140 expansion.

Operating Guidance on Funding Follows the Child and the National Standard sets out the Scottish Government’s expectations of local authorities and providers in delivering funded ELC hours. Whilst it is expected that local authorities will use the principles and criteria of Funding Follows the Child and the National Standard as a framework to shape local funded ELC delivery, it is for local authorities to ensure that this is delivered in line with their local service delivery plans.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing and monitoring compliance with the National Standard by all funded providers, including their own settings, as part of their contract management arrangements and in their role as guarantors of quality. The Scottish Government has no locus for intervention in matters relating to local authority operational service delivery.

To support those children who benefit most from high quality early learning and childcare (ELC) provision, the Scottish Government made a commitment that, from August 2018, nurseries in the most disadvantaged areas would benefit from an additional teacher or degree-qualified ELC professional. These posts are described nationally as Equity and Excellence Leads (originally Additional Graduates) and have different names and job specifications locally.

Snapshot figures of graduate level posts in ELC are published annually in the Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland publication. Data in the tables is gathered from centres (either local authority or partner provider centres) with children registered for the funded entitlement at the time of the Census. In 2024, this was collected from 9 – 13 September. As of September 2024, there were 356 (317 FTE) Equity and Excellence Leads in post, which equates to 73% of those that are funded.

The majority of the Scottish Government’s funding to Local Government is provided through the General Revenue Grant. As of 2024-25, and in line with the Verity House Agreement, this covers all funding for statutory ELC provision, including for Equity and Excellence Leads.

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on ELC, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

We are working with local authority partners to take forward an evaluation of the Equity and Excellence Leads programme, which will seek to identify good practice, any lessons learned and how best to support this critical resource going forward.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all eligible children have access to high quality early learning and childcare (ELC) in order to receive the support they need to reach their full learning potential, and to give them the best possible start in life. The Scottish Government and local government have worked in close partnership throughout the delivery of the 1140 expansion, underpinned by a joint policy framework and a multi-year funding agreement.

Questions about the scrutiny of ELC services should be directed to the relevant bodies:

• Local authorities are responsible for meeting their statutory duties in relation to funded ELC. Statutory requirements for the fitness of premises to be used for the provision of ELC are set out in Section 10 of The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Requirements for Care Services) Regulations 2011.
• Under section 53 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, the Care Inspectorate has statutory obligations to carry out inspections of all ELC and school age childcare settings that are registered with them. The Scottish Social Services Council is the regulator for the social work, social care and children and young people workforce in Scotland.

The Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) monitors the 1140 expansion infrastructure programme on behalf of the Scottish Government. The most recent data collected from local authorities by SFT shows that in October 2024, £16,920,519 of the £476 million of capital funding provided by the Scottish Government was allocated to projects that were not yet complete. All of the £16,920,519, 3.6% of the total Scottish Government funding, remains allocated to projects within local authorities’ 1140 expansion infrastructure programmes. 877 projects (98% of the projects in the programme) have been successfully completed.

I have been considering the Mother and Baby Unit Options Appraisal from NHS National Services Scotland. This has been impacted by financial restrictions, which have limited capital spending on new developments in Boards.

As those pressures may begin to ease somewhat, the Scottish Government would hope that the Options Appraisal could be published in coming months.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken analysis of the extent to which GP surgeries are offering an online appointment booking system for patients since the regulations were changed in 2022.

The Scottish Government does not have a role in assessing the performance of GP contractors as those contracts are between GP practices and NHS boards. GP practices are expected to regularly consider whether it is desirable, in order to meet the reasonable needs of their registered patients, to increase the proportion of appointments which are made available online to their registered patients and if it is desirable, to increase the proportion of those appointments. The needs of every practice population differ and the Scottish Government is not in a position to determine, at a national level, what the arrangements in any individual practice should be.

The Scottish Government wants all children and young people to attain the highest standard of health and wellbeing possible, but we know some patients are waiting too long and we’re determined to do more and our Budget will provide a record £21.7 billion for health and social care.

We recognise that the current levels of paediatric tooth extractions in hospital are too high - our aim is to reduce the number of children requiring referral as much as possible.

We continue to invest in our flagship preventative programme Childsmile, which provides oral health interventions for all children in Scotland, as well as targeted measures for children from the most vulnerable backgrounds.

The Programme has supported significant improvements in child oral health in Scotland and a narrowing in child oral health inequality over the longer term.

The 2024 National Dental Inspection Programme results show the gap between P1 children with no obvious tooth decay, living in the most and least deprived areas, is at its lowest on record – decreasing from 32.2 percentage points in 2010 to 23.5 percentage points in 2024.

These figures also show three quarters of Primary 1 children have no obvious decay – this is up from 45% in 2003.

While we work with NHS Health Boards through planning to make best use of existing NHS resources and capacity, we will continue to consider use of the private sector in a structured and prioritised manner. However, it is for local NHS health boards to determine how they use the private sector and to agree any contractual arrangements.

The Scottish Government promotes a play-based, child-centred approach in early years settings, as outlined in Realising the Ambition: Being Me. Digital technology should be used in a balanced and purposeful way that supports, rather than replaces, active learning and relationships. The Scottish Government has not received information from either the Care Inspectorate or Education Scotland to indicate that screens are being overused in early years settings. We continue to monitor research and developments in this area, together with all relevant partners.