Chamber and committees

Physical Activity referral schemes are operated by Health Boards according to local need. The information requested on waiting lists is not held centrally.

These issues are not caused by Social Security Scotland systems. They are being caused by the way DWP systems are sharing information about Carer’s Allowance and Carer Support Payment awards, which is impacting a small number of carers’ wider support including Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction and Universal Credit. We are engaging with DWP who are continuing to investigate. DWP have issued advice to Local Authorities and Universal Credit staff setting out how to access the correct data to administer their benefits. Any carers who are experiencing problems or have any concerns with their Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction should contact their local authority, or contact DWP for any concerns with their Universal Credit, who can investigate their award and correct any issues.

Social Security Scotland recognises that clients have complex and varied accessibility needs for communicating with us. Clients have told us that they require a choice in how we communicate with them. For example, some clients may prefer to engage with us through paper-based communications and some clients may prefer digital communications to allow them to use assistive technology.

All of our applications can be made online, on paper, over the phone or face to face with our Local Services team. Clients can contact us to discuss their circumstances and payments by phone, face to face or via webchat. Communications are sent to clients by letter, email and SMS.

Plans are in place to expand the use of email and SMS as a communication channel as initial testing in this area has proven that this is something that clients want and need. The approach to how clients' communication preferences are captured is being carefully considered to ensure that digital communications are available to those clients who would benefit from this without excluding those for whom digital communications are not accessible.

There are fourteen Allied Health Professions (AHP) across Scotland and Paramedicine is the only AHP that has a controlled intake target. There are currently no plans to extend this to any other professions within the AHP family, including Speech and Language Therapy.

The Scottish Government funded Scottish Education Exchange Programme test and learn project enables Scottish colleges and universities to re-establish some of the opportunities Erasmus+ provided, which the UK Government Turing Scheme does not. In particular, to encourage the development of partnerships between institutions that could enable staff and inward exchanges.

The test and learn project has been developed with stakeholders from across the sector. Feedback from institutions to the working group has been positive and we have committed to working collaboratively on the project moving forward.

The project focuses on closing the shortfall between the UK Government Turing Scheme and Erasmus+. In year 1 the project did not directly fund any student exchanges. Institutions prioritised staff mobility projects supporting the development of sustainable partnerships.

Projects in year 2 of the test and learn are providing opportunities for disadvantaged students from Scotland, who are excluded from the UK Government Turing Scheme, to undertake an exchange.

These projects are live. Details of the number of students who participated will be shared after the projects conclude in March 2025.

Additional information on the Scottish Education Exchange Programme projects can be found on the Scottish Government website. Link

The Scottish Government funds the School Library Improvement Fund which has provided £1.85m of funding to support improvement in library provision across Scotland since 2017.

The Scottish Government is working with partners and stakeholders to reconvene the School Libraries Education and Policy Working Group to build on the success of the National School Library Strategy – Vibrant Libraries, Thriving Schools at a national level.

Trainee educational psychologists enrol as students and do not have an employment contract. Students are allocated a placement in Local Authorities to gain experience and to gather evidence so that they can complete their coursework. The grant for educational psychologist trainees, in addition to tuition fee funding, is not income assessed and is provided to help towards living costs associated with studying.

In Scotland trainee clinical psychologists are recruited through a UK clearing house system to NHS employment on nationally evaluated NHS Agenda for Change band 6 job roles in common with their peers across the UK. NHS Education for Scotland provides funding for salaries to NHS Scotland Boards via service level agreements and funding for fees to university programme providers. The training is a three year postgraduate doctoral programme and Clinical Psychology trainees provide clinical services during training as part of supervised and assessed practice, including contributing to the NHS Scotland Psychological Therapies waiting time standards.

In partnership, the Scottish Government and COSLA provide £2m investment per year to deliver the training programme for educational psychologists.

The Scottish Government assessed all of these options in reaching the conclusion to locate the accreditation functions in Qualifications Scotland. This involved seeking the views of a range of organisations and stakeholders, which included the Scottish Funding Council and the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Partnership.

The key factors considered as part of this assessment included: the need to ensure appropriate independence from ministers, alongside suitable governance, accountability and operational arrangements for the accreditation function and any other functions it shares a body with; the need to avoid misaligned priorities between functions and not introduce any confusion between these; the need to avoid creating new and complex conflicts of interest and disrupting other parts of the system; and the need to retain existing benefits of other functions in the system, such as the charitable and independent status of the SCQF Partnership.

Across all these options there were a number of shared factors that influenced the decision not to locate the function in any of these bodies. This included the levels of staff disruption particularly with staff terms, conditions and employment status; costs; the available resource and capacity of organisations to absorb such a function compared to Qualifications Scotland; and planned reviews, such as the Skills Delivery Landscape Review, that created uncertainty over other functions managed by Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council.

The Scottish Government is working with partners in the North-East of Scotland on a pilot to evaluate the impact of Free School Meal data sharing on university admissions. Partner organisations leading on the work are Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council, Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen.

Partners are currently finalising the necessary data protection impact assessments in order to begin data sharing in early 2025. Plans for evaluation of the pilot are currently being finalised with evaluation to take place later in 2025.

There are a number of potential supports available to young disabled people living in Scotland, depending on their individual needs, circumstances and eligibility. These include: the Independent Living Fund; the Independent Living Fund Transition Fund; the Independent Living Fund Technology Grant; Adult Disability Payment; and Young Scot National Entitlement Card.

Young disabled people who choose to study a course of Further Education or Higher Education are also eligible to apply for Additional Support Needs for Learning Allowance and the Disabled Students Allowance respectively.