Chamber and committees

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) records and publishes Official Statistics on Modern Apprenticeship uptake across a wide range of protected characteristics, including disability, on a quarterly basis. The published statistics for Quarter 2 of 2020-21 showed that 11.5% of MA starts self-identified as having an impairment, health condition or learning difficulty, which is a decrease compared with Quarter 2 in 2019-20 where 14.7% of MA starts self-identified as having an impairment, health condition or learning difficulty. SDS will monitor uptake and will continue to work with stakeholders to improve equality of access to apprenticeships for young disabled people.

As a result of the impact of the pandemic on MA numbers, we have introduced the Apprenticeship Employer Grant (AEG), which is administered by SDS. The AEG is a financial incentive to encourage employers to take on more apprentices during the pandemic. A payment of £5,000 is available to businesses to employ apprentices aged 16 to 24-year old, and those aged up to 29 years who have a disability, are care experienced or are from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background.

There is a range of childcare support available for all young parents, including those participating in the Young Person’s Guarantee.

Young parents can access up to 600 hours of funded Early Learning and Childcare a year (around 16 hours a week in term time) if their child is 3 or 4 years old. From August 2021, the entitlement will increase to 1,140 hours a year (30 hours a week if taken during term time), as part of the Early Learning and Childcare expansion. Scottish Government also funds Early Learning and Childcare to eligible two year olds who are most likely to benefit from early access. This includes all looked after children and children whose family receive a qualifying benefit.

Young parents can also get tax credits to help with childcare costs if certain eligibility criteria are met. They may also be able to claim for childcare costs if they are eligible for Universal Credit. The Lone Parents' Grant is also available to undergraduate students who are bringing up a child on their own.

The Scottish Government is aligning the Young Person’s Guarantee with the Parental Employment Support Fund, which provides intensive support to help low income parents get into work and to progress careers for those already working. An additional £7 million has been invested in the Fund this year to enhance links between local employability services and the expansion of Early Learning and Childcare in all 32 Local Authorities. This will help to reduce childcare as a barrier to training and employment.

The Scottish Government is clear that it expects employers to pay at least the living wage wherever it is possible to do so.

Funding under the Young Person's Guarantee has been distributed to Local Partnerships via Local Authorities, to enable them to deliver support for the benefit of eligible young people in the community. Local Partnerships have the flexibility to decide what level of 'In-Work Training Allowance' should be allocated to employers. Through the grant letters, Local Authorities commit to adopting the Fair Work First Criteria, which includes payment of the real Living Wage.

Recruitment Incentives play an important role in supporting those with the greatest barriers to employment and we are working with Local Authorities to develop a national Employer Recruitment Incentive Framework which sets out the minimum standards for public funded places. Delivery partners and the Scottish Government also promote payment of the Living Wage with a view to the young person receiving at least the Living Wage at the end of the period of support.

The Kickstart Scheme is a programme of work reserved to the UK Government and it is for the Department for Work and Pensions to report on the places created. We are continuing to work with the UK Government to better understand how the Scheme is operating in Scotland. We are also working with Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue & Customs and Skills Development Scotland to examine ways we can improve data sharing to better understand what activity young people are engaged in.

There is an opportunity for Kickstart to work more closely with the Young Person’s Guarantee and our delivery partners from across the public, third and private sectors to support the broadest range of young people possible. Alignment between Kickstart, the Guarantee and existing employability provision will be fundamental in improving the accessibility of services for young people and employers .

The Kickstart Scheme is a programme of work reserved to the UK Government and they are responsible for setting the terms of the Scheme.

In all our discussions with the UK Government on this issue, the Scottish Government has clearly and consistently set out our disappointment that the Kickstart Scheme hourly rate is based on the National Minimum Wage as opposed to the Living Wage.

The Scottish Government is committed to creating jobs and opportunities that promote the Living Wage. This is vital if we are to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces, and progress towards our vision for making Scotland a Fair Work nation by 2025.

The Kickstart Scheme is a programme of work reserved to the UK Government and they are responsible for setting the terms of the Scheme. While the Scottish Government has broadly welcomed the intentions behind the scheme, we have not been involved in its design.

We want to continue to work with the UK Government to ensure this intervention builds on and aligns with the strong employability infrastructure we already have in place in Scotland. We have also stressed to the UK Government the need for Kickstart to match the Scottish Government’s Fair Work and equality commitments. This would include having measures in place to ensure Kickstart placements do not replace permanent posts.

Through the Young Person’s Guarantee we are working in partnership with Local Government, Skills Development Scotland, the third sector and others to support young people progress towards work. As part of this, we are working with partners to explore ways to best align with Kickstart to help create longer-term placements for young people and how our additional investment in young people can provide additional training and development support to young people in Kickstart places.

All hospital admissions to emergency departments, acute assessment units, maternity units and emergency mental health units will be tested. All elective admissions to hospital have been tested since mid-December.

There are no age restrictions on hospital inpatients being tested for COVID-19.

Since 2015-16 there have been 14,525 Modern Apprenticeship (MA) starts who have identified as having an Impairment, Health Condition or Learning Difficulty. The official statistics relating to Modern Apprenticeships are published on Skills Development Scotland’s (SDS) website on a quarterly basis. The following table sets out the yearly breakdown from 2015-16 toQ2 of 2020-21 (September 2020):