Chamber and committees

As outlined in the Programme for Government, we are committed to further regional devolution through Regional Partnerships. We see empowering regions as a key lever to strengthen Scotland’s economy – and we will provide more detail on how we plan to do that before the end of this parliament.

Scottish Government’s grant conditions require all funded youth organisations to comply with the clauses as set out in their grant letter. Clause 4.7 requires them to: have robust safeguarding policies and procedures in place to protect vulnerable adults and children which comply with current national guidance in Scotland; report all and any cases of suspected abuse or malpractice relating to anyone involved in delivery of the agreed Activities or any beneficiary of these Activities to Scottish Ministers and the relevant authorities immediately; and provide, upon request, copies of their policies and procedures.

It is a legal requirement for people carrying out regulated roles with children or protected adults to be in the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme. Organisations must not offer a regulated role to an individual without confirming scheme membership.

Disclosure Scotland carried out a major public communications campaign earlier this year to ensure that stakeholders, including youth groups, understand that the PVG Scheme is now a legal requirement for people doing regulated roles with children and protected adults.

In 2025-26, the Scottish Government are providing grant funding to Youth Scotland to deliver capacity-building for youth workers and volunteers through training and workforce development. This includes further development of a suite of online resources including safeguarding policies and procedures.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-41771 on 24 November 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.

The Scottish Government currently provides Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) with £341,250 core grant funding per year through the Children and Young People Early Intervention Fund to support Members of the Youth Parliament (MSYP) to become confident and resilient young people and develop the skills they need to influence change and reach their full potential. They also receive £30,000 for their role in supporting MSYPs to meet with the Scottish Cabinet and Executive team once a year.

My officials have sought reassurance from the SYP about its child protection and safeguarding procedures in the context of the management of these grants. In September 2025, SYP provided reassurance that they work continuously to strengthen their safeguarding guidelines and procedures in line with evolving national child protection policies.

The Scottish Government currently provides Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) with £341,250 core grant funding per year through the Children and Young People Early Intervention Fund to support Members of the Youth Parliament (MSYP). Scottish Government’s grant conditions include a requirement that all funded youth organisations must have robust safeguarding policies and procedures in place to protect vulnerable adults and children which comply with current national guidance in Scotland and that, upon request, they provide copies of their policies and procedures. The SYP safeguarding policies can be found here on its website: https://syp.org.uk/safeguarding/.

I also refer the member to the SYP Board statement from 2022. The statement provides details of action taken to strengthen safeguarding policies to ensure they are in line with legislation and also meet national standards. That statement can be found here: https://syp.org.uk/statement-from-syp-board/.

The organisation continues to review their safeguarding polices annually to ensure they are as comprehensive as possible.

Decisions around the Scottish Government’s Budget are being considered over the coming months. The Scottish Government will continue to work collaboratively with Universities Scotland on developing a framework for the sustainability of universities, including considering future funding needs.

Through our International Education Strategy, we are committed to strengthening global connections through education and research exchange, in working collaboratively with our world leading universities and colleges, while promoting Scotland as a destination to live, work, and study.

As outlined in the Programme for Government this year, we are considering how best we can empower regional partnerships, so that local authorities can work together more with enterprise agencies, businesses, and the third sector at regional scale to drive growth.

The vast majority of funding allocated to councils by Scottish Government is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, in the spirit of the Verity House Agreement, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Local Authorities’ gross revenue expenditure for Education has now increased in real terms for nine consecutive years, up to 2023-24, the most recent year for which we have this data. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimated in February 2025 that in 2024-25 school spending per pupil was around £1,700, or 20%, higher in Scotland than in England. This is welcome, given the additional funding the Scottish Government has provided for this purpose.

Decisions on future local government finance settlements, will, as in previous years, be the subject of negotiations with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities and announced as part of the outcome of future Scottish Budgets. However it is then for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities.

The local government finance funding formula provides a complex but objective assessment of need and uses the most up to date information for the full range of indicators, including factors such as population, rurality, road data and deprivation.

The needs-based formula used to distribute the quantum of funding available for local government is kept under constant review and is agreed each year with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities.

While the Scottish Government is always open to suggestions to improve the funding formula, any proposals for change must properly come through COSLA in the first instance.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-41790 on 20 November 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