The Scottish Government’s National Carers Strategy published in December 2022 sets out a cross-government approach to tackling issues that affect carers, including through health and social care policies. The Strategy sets out our intentions regarding carers’ healthcare at chapter 3. We are considering whether it is feasible to provide flexible health appointments for carers, including replacement care for appointments as part of the implementation process of the Strategy.

There are already a range of services in place, including access to personalised, flexible short breaks and preventative support through the Carers Act, that can support unpaid carers to better manage their health. Some have a carer-specific focus, while others are more general. The Scottish Government will continue to raise awareness of these services among unpaid carers and will ensure that our health services consider the needs of carers. Taking a strategic approach to this will support a joined-up approach that supports all aspects of carers’ lives, and this will be done under the auspices of the National Carers Strategy.

Details of all ministerial visits can be found on the Parliament website, available at the following link - Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot

Scottish Ministers have visited Skye House on several occasions since 2017 as part of routine engagements to meet patients and thank staff for their work.

Increases to the timelines relating to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax Additional Dwelling Supplement were introduced with prospective effect from 1 April 2024, following a process of consultation.

The Scottish Government made clear in the initial December 2021 call for evidence and views on the Additional Dwelling Supplement that any changes arising from the process would not be made retrospective. The subsequent consultation on draft legislation published in February 2023 confirmed that the proposed changes, including to the relevant timelines, would have prospective effect only.

In this context, the Scottish Government has not considered backdating the 36 month time limit to claim an Additional Dwelling Supplement repayment to 1 October 2022.

Our workforce plans remain under regular review as we deploy the workforce in line with Ministerial priorities, providing public services as efficiently and effectively as possible, and operating within the direction set out in the Budget.

The core Scottish Government has grown its workforce in the last decade in order to respond to newly devolved powers, such as Social Security, the impact of exiting the European Union, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since March 2022 the core Scottish Government has enhanced its recruitment controls and has been reducing its total workforce. This has decreased in each financial year, including the current financial year to date, with the reduction reaching 4% for the period from March 2022 to December 2024. In this period the workforce has been deployed to new priorities such as the establishment of ScotWind and to respond to the conflict in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis.

The Scottish Government reviews the workforce size routinely in governance forums, alongside information on the delivery of the organisation and the financial position both of the portfolio and more specifically the operating cost. The delivery reviewed is both in terms of progressing the Programme for Government, as well as activities such as responding to Freedom of Information requests. It also includes the delivery of corporate services that are resourced from the core Scottish Government, and provided to many different public bodies.

These regular reviews ensures that there is an ongoing assessment of the efficiency and effectiveness of the workforce.

We have provided local authorities with over £65 million since 2020 to fund community mental health and wellbeing services for children, young people and their families. This investment will continue with the baselining of £15 million per annum funding into the local government finance settlement from 2025-26.

The community-based supports and services are focused on prevention and early intervention, promoting positive mental health and wellbeing, and tackling emotional distress. Supports and services are available in every local authority area, and more than 300 have been put in place across the country, including supports for trauma, anxiety and depression. Local authorities have reported that nearly 83,000 people used the supports and services between July 2023 and March 2024, including more than 10,000 family members and carers.

In addition, we continue to provide £16 million a year to local authorities to ensure that all school pupils aged 10 and above have access to school counselling services, and local authorities have confirmed that services are in place across Scotland. We have also supported school staff to understand and recognise the range of mental health and wellbeing concerns that young people may experience through a professional resource, which complements 2021 guidance to support whole-school approaches to mental health and wellbeing.

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) service specification highlights that all children and families should receive support and services that are appropriate to their needs. For many children and young people, such support is likely to be community based, and should be easily and quickly accessible. We continue to work with NHS boards to monitor the service specification’s implementation, to improve services and support for children and young people and their families.

We continue to invest in mental health services for children and young people and we have directly allocated £123 million to NHS boards and integration joint boards for a new enhanced mental health outcomes framework in 2024-25. The framework provides a single, flexible funding stream to support continued improvements and better outcomes across a range of mental health and psychological services in line with the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, including CAMHS. The priorities for the funding this year are to continue delivering improvements in CAMHS, psychological therapies, eating disorders and neurodevelopmental services, as well as ongoing innovation and service reform for mental health services.

Although there is a clear legal framework within which allocation policies must operate, local authorities have considerable discretion within these constraints to develop their allocation policy and practice to meet the needs of the communities in which they operate.

The code of guidance on homelessness aims to guide local authorities in their duties to assist people who are threatened with or who are experiencing homelessness. It sets out that local authority staff should ensure that accommodation and services are offered on the basis of a thorough assessment of the applicant's support or health needs and that these needs are addressed in a holistic fashion. We remain committed to a fuller review of the code of guidance on homelessness, in consultation with stakeholders – including those who represent the interests of children – once the new homelessness prevention measures have been introduced.

The Scottish Social Housing Charter sets out the outcomes and standards that all social landlords should be delivering for their tenants and other customers. This includes an outcome (outcome 12) that describes what councils should achieve by meeting their statutory duties to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Scottish Ministers will review the current charter in 2026-27 in consultation with stakeholders and this will provide an opportunity to ensure the charter continues to focus on matters that are important to tenants and others that use social landlord services.

The Scottish Government’s Continuing Care and Aftercare policies provide the framework for supporting young people transitioning from care on to more independent living. Through the Local Government Settlement, the Scottish Government funds local authorities to provide this support.

Continuing Care enables eligible young people from age 16, living in foster, kinship or residential care to remain in their care setting with the same level of support until their 21st birthday, maintaining and building on the strong and positive relationships developed with their carers and offering a pathway to safe, sustainable and affordable accommodation. Aftercare provision is available to all young people leaving care from age 16, regardless of their care setting, and enables them to request support, assistance and advice, based on individual need, from their local authority up to age 26, and beyond in some cases.

The type of accommodation that a young person leaving care is provided with should be informed by the Aftercare pathways assessment and plan, undertaken with a holistic and person centred approach. The pathway plan will set out the type of accommodation which best meets the needs of the young person and how this is to be obtained. Some young people will need more support than others on a range of matters and therefore the provision of suitable accommodation should also be accompanied by appropriate levels of support, bespoke to the individual needs of each young person.

Care leavers in receipt of Universal Credit Housing Element or Housing Benefit who find that their benefit does not cover all their rent can apply to their local authority for a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP). DHPs can also be used where local housing allowance (LHA) rates for benefits recipients in the private rented sector are insufficient.

The Scottish Government provides a broad package of financial support for those leaving care. Section 30 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 sets out financial assistance available through Aftercare.

A Care Experience Bursary of £9000 is available for care experienced young people in Further and Higher education. In addition, a Summer Accommodation Grant of up to £1,330 is available to support Care Experienced students with their accommodation costs through the summer break. Some institutions may also offer discretionary support for childcare and travel costs or rent guarantees for private accommodation. The ‘Care Leavers Council Tax Exemption’ means that young people leaving care are not liable for Council Tax until their 26th birthday.

Work is also currently underway to develop the Care Leaver Payment. The Care Leaver Payment as currently proposed will provide a one-off payment of £2,000 to young people leaving care, with the intention of helping to reduce some of the financial barriers young people face whilst transitioning into adulthood and more independent living.

Following the publication of the analysis of our ‘Moving On’ from care into adulthood consultation on the current and potential package of support for young people leaving care, work is underway across the Scottish Government and with our partners to ensure that our response to the changes called enables young people to access the support they need to thrive in young adulthood

The latest Graduate Apprenticeship statistics are available on the Skills Development Scotland website covering the 2021-22 academic year - https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/publications-statistics/statistics/graduate-apprenticeships

Information broken down by age can be found within the publication in Table 4.

Prior qualification by SCQF level is not held centrally by the Scottish Government or included in the above publication.

The Scottish Government does not have any plans to review the legal status of first-cousin marriages in Scotland.