Chamber and committees

Widening access to learning opportunities for those from disadvantaged areas continues to be a priority. Funds awarded for the period from 2003-06 will continue to support initiatives in this area and the Executive will continue to monitor the impact of these initiatives.

We are raising awareness about volunteering through our investment in infrastructure and capacity at both the national and local level in the shape of Volunteer Development Scotland and the network of local volunteer centres. A central purpose of both is to encourage and facilitate volunteering opportunities for the people of Scotland.In addition, we have introduced the Active Communities Initiative. Scottish Executive funding for the initiative in 2002-03 will amount to £2.2 million. The initiative is a five- to 10-year strategy for supporting volunteering in Scotland, which aims to involve people in their communities, improve society and the quality of life of people, change attitudes to volunteering and break down barriers to involvement. The initiative has the full support of the volunteering sector.There is a variety of ways in which we publicise volunteering opportunities. This includes an Active Communities newsletter, produced twice a year by the Scottish Executive and distributed to a wide range of organisations and groups, articles in the voluntary and volunteering sectors publications and the funding of various events such as Volunteers Week and Make a Difference Day. We also plan to launch a new Scottish Executive Voluntary Issues Unit website shortly.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-30126 today. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's Website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

Volunteer training and support is provided through Volunteer Development Scotland, which offers a range of generic training courses and runs events for volunteer agencies. In this financial year, Volunteer Development Scotland has held 13 courses for volunteer managers, attended by 146 people. It has also undertaken peripatetic training for volunteer centre staff. These assist volunteer engaging agencies to apply best practice and meet standards for the planning and delivery of volunteering. Similarly, volunteer centres work with organisations making use of volunteers to ensure that appropriate training and support is provided both to engaging agencies and volunteers.

It has always been made clear that the arrangements agreed with HM Treasury for dealing with local authority housing debt would, as is the case in England, only apply in the case of whole stock transfers. The Executive does not have the resources to meet these costs from within its own budget.

Following representations from COSLA I have agreed that COSLA and Executive officials should, on a no commitment basis, meet to discuss issues surrounding the use of capital receipts.

The success in increasing volunteering opportunities for young people will be achieved when, irrespective of their background, financial circumstances and location, young people can find, participate in and enjoy the volunteering experience. Increasing volunteering opportunities will also be a success when, as a result of their contribution, young people have helped improve and become more active in their communities, demonstrating acquired skills, knowledge, education, confidence and learning.

The Scottish Executive monitors and evaluates all of its funded volunteering programmes on a continuing basis against the formal performance criteria set for each project.The effectiveness and impact of the Active Communities Initiative, the Millennium Volunteers programme and the network of volunteer centres will determine how successfully we have tackled the obstacles to volunteering opportunities, raising awareness and providing support. We monitor and evaluate each of these strategies on an on-going basis, in collaboration with key agencies, including Volunteer Development Scotland, COSLA, Volunteer Centres Scotland and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.

The main obstacles to volunteering in Scotland that we intend to tackle are poverty, disadvantage and social exclusion and we are doing this through our programme for government. However, there are also institutional and operational obstacles, principally relating to an individual's ability to access advice and guidance on volunteering.

The purpose of promoting equality mainstreaming is to ensure the systematic integration of an equality perspective into the everyday work of government, and as such should be an integral part of organisational costs.