Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on average current spend on play per child in Scotland and does not hold such data for England or Wales.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children across Scotland can access high quality play opportunities in a range of settings that will aid their growth, development and wellbeing. In March 2025 we published Scotland’s Play Vision Statement and Action Plan 2025-2030 that builds on our 2013 play strategy and emphasises our commitment to play and our vision for the future of play in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is also making the following investments in programmes that support play opportunities for children across Scotland:

• £60 million to renew play parks during the course of this Parliamentary term;
• £500,000 in 2025/26 for the Outdoor Community Play Fund to increase play opportunities for children and families in disadvantaged communities;
• £1.8 million funding to Scottish Book Trust to deliver the Bookbug Programme in 2025-26;
• £645,000 funding to Smart Play Network for the delivery of PlayTalkRead programme in 2025-2026;
• £250,000 funding to Actify, Inspiring Scotland and partners to explore how the reach and impact of Active Play can be extended across Scotland;
• Through the CYPFEI & ALEC and CYPFAL third sector funds we fund organisations that promote play, such as Starcatchers (£157,500), Play Scotland (£210,000), Outside the Box (£34,125), Learning through Landscapes (£52,500) and the Yard (£94,500);
• In a joint initiative with the Scottish Football Association, £5.5 million to fund the ‘Extra Time Programme’ in 2025-2026, supporting local football clubs and trusts to provide before, after school and holiday clubs to targeted primary school children from low-income families.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland is currently performing within its Service Level Agreement (SLA) to process 90% of applications within 14 days.

Disclosure Scotland is forecasted to spend £9.84 million on staff costs in financial year 2025 to 2026 to deliver our disclosure processing and support services. This is against a total forecasted Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit (RDEL) spend of £34 million. Of the £9.84 million, £900,000 has been allocated to improve processing times this financial year.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland’s service level agreement is to process 90% of applications within 14 days and we are currently performing within this target.

As of Monday 20 October 2025, there were 1,132 Protecting Vulnerable Group (PVG) applications relating to people working with children outstanding beyond 14 days.

Note 1: Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) applications from 1 April 2025 onwards, with the implementation of the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020, represents: Level 2 PVG scheme disclosure (Join), Level 2 PVG scheme disclosure (Existing), Confirmation of PVG scheme membership (Join) and Confirmation of PVG scheme membership (Existing). Prior to 1 April 2025, PVG applications represents: Scheme Record Disclosure, Short Scheme Record Disclosure, Existing Scheme Record Disclosure and Statements of Scheme Membership.

Note 2: This figure relates to PVG applications solely applying to work with children with a processing time of 14 days and above at the time of data extraction.

Note 3: The processing time for applications currently being processed on the system incorporates all time between an application being received by Disclosure Scotland, through to the time of data extraction. Disclosure Scotland deducts any time which the application was suspended on our system, such as being suspended for customer contact. Weekend days are included in the number of processing days for applications, but national holidays and Scottish Government public and privilege holidays are excluded.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

15.8% of Disclosure Scotland’s total workforce is made up of agency or temporary employees. This is based on September full-time equivalent work figures and includes IT contractors as temporary employees.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to delivering all recommendations of the Independent Care Review, as part of its pledge to Keep The Promise by 2030.

The Promise Implementation Plan, published in March 2022, set out the Government’s approach to fulfilling these recommendations. A comprehensive update on progress was provided in the Implementation Plan Update published in September 2024, which outlined the actions taken and the ongoing work required.

Implementation of the Care Review’s recommendations is an ongoing and evolving process, and as such, it reflects the Government’s strategic approach to systemic change, with milestones and actions being continuously developed in collaboration with partners, stakeholders, and care-experienced people. Examples of this include the Promise Scotland’s Plan 24-30 and the Promise Progress Framework, which was published jointly by COSLA, the Scottish Government and The Promise Scotland in December 2024.

The Scottish Government continues to lead from the front and remains resolute in its commitment to ensuring that all children and young people in Scotland grow up loved, safe, and respected, with full delivery of the Care Review’s recommendations by 2030.

This information currently is not held by the Scottish Government.

The £60 million play park renewal funding is allocated to local authorities to use across their whole play estate during the course of this Parliament term. It is the responsibility of the individual Local Authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them based on local needs and priorities. The Scottish Government recognise that the extent of renewal and refurbishment will be influenced by local plans and investment priorities and engagement with children and young people.

Local authorities have a general responsibility to maintain play parks that serve their communities and this investment provides a boost in funding to accelerate local plans and improve play experiences for all children in Scotland.

The Scottish Government worked with COSLA on the national principles for the play park renewal programme, which is used to guide Local Authorities’ renewal programme. The national principles set out that Local Authorities should review their existing estate, prioritise renewal work, and design play parks that offer improved play opportunities for children and families. The national principles state that access to play should be as wide-reaching and inclusive as possible, ensuring all children have access to play spaces where they feel safe and comfortable to use them.

The Scottish Government values the commitment that adoptive families and practitioners make to providing safe, loving, nurturing homes for children and young people across Scotland.

We have awarded the following total funding since 2020 to the Association for Fostering, Kinship and Adoption (AFKA) Scotland; Adoption UK Scotland; St Andrew’s Children’s Society; Health In Mind; and Birthlink, who deliver services and support to adoptive families and practitioners:

The Scottish Government has not incurred any spend on consultancy fees in relation to The Promise since 2020. Martin Whitfield may wish to refer to the recent Freedom of Information (FOI) response which provides a full breakdown of expenditure associated with The Promise Scottish Government spend on The Promise: FOI release - gov.scot

The Scottish Social Services Council publishes data annually on vacancies in social care services. The latest report, published on 10 March 2025, showed that as of 31 December 2023, 32% of Day Care of Children services reported a vacancy.

The Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on how many children have been injured in play areas operated by local authorities in the last 12 months. Responsibility for the safety, management and maintenance of play parks rests with individual Local Authorities.