On the establishment of Careers Scotland, the Executive made available to Scottish Enterprise (SEn) and Highlands and Islands Enterprise funding it had previously directed at a range of conjoining agencies. In the SEn area, this amounted to a total of some £30 million. The proportion of that total devoted to the Renfrewshire Council area and the manner in which it has been deployed are operational matters for Scottish Enterprise. That said, Careers Scotland's delivery is shaped by the targets the Executive has set. These address our economic development, social inclusion and education priorities and cover:increasing the number of disadvantaged young people continuing in post-compulsory education or training;increasing the proportion of school-leavers will a positive approach to the world of work;increasing the number of disengaged adults actively engaged in learning and training, andreducing the number of young people not in education, employment or training.

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.The whole range of New Deal programmes are available to all unemployed working age people in the Renfrewshire Council area who meet the qualification criteria. The Scottish Executive's Training for Work programme is also available on a voluntary basis to those aged 25 and over who have been unemployed for six months or more. In addition, there are some New Futures Fund projects available in the Renfrewshire Council area. The worst performing 10% of wards in Renfrewshire between 1996 and 2001 consist each year of four of the following six wards: Ferguslie, St James, Shortroods, Sandyford, Foxbar and Millarston. All of these wards form part of the Paisley Social Inclusion Partnership - Training for Work allows early entry for those clients resident in a social inclusion partnership. The following table compares Average Residence Based Claimant Count Unemployment Rates for Scotland and the worst 10% of wards in Renfrewshire (detailed above). It can be seen that overall the percentage point gap between the annual average residence-based claimant count rates for Scotland and the worst 10% of wards in Renfrewshire has been reduced from 10.7 in 1996 to 6.5 in 2001.

Year	1. Scotland	2. Worst 10% of Renfrewshire Wards*	% Point Difference Between 1 and 2
1996	7.6	18.3	10.7
1997	6.3	16.1	9.8
1998	5.7	15.7	10.0
1999	5.3	14.4	9.1
2000	4.9	12.6	7.7
2001	4.3	10.8	6.5

Note:*All the rates in the table will be subject to revisions in 2003. This is because they are dependent on information from mid-year population estimates and the Labour Force Survey. Revised mid-year population estimates will become available from analysis of the 2001 census and the Labour Force Survey will then be regrossed. This will give new estimates of economic activity.

Renfrewshire Council received a total of £438,400 in RSI grant in the years 1997-98 to 2001-02 for the provision of a team of outreach and resettlement staff, support staff for rough sleepers with mental health problems, and the reprovisioning of Paisley Social Christian Action Centre to provide self contained flats for people at risk. A further £103,181 per annum has been transferred to the council's Revenue Support Grant to ensure the continuation of services addressing the needs of rough sleepers in the area.In May 2001 the total number of people identified as sleeping rough in Renfrewshire in the two-week period covered by the study was 11. In the same two-week period in 2002 the number was seven. The weekly average number of people sleeping rough fell from two in May 2001 to one in May 2002.Renfrewshire Council is currently preparing its Homelessness Strategy, and revising its RSI local outcome agreement. In doing so, it has been asked in particular to address the apparent slight shortage of direct access accommodation available for rough sleepers and to consider how to improve access to existing available accommodation.

In July 2001, £24 million additional resources for child care were allocated through the child poverty package over 2001-04. The money was allocated as follows:

• £8.5 million was made available for child care grants for lone parents in full-time higher education to pay for child care. This grant is administered through the Students Awards Agency for Scotland. The Scottish Executive does not hold information on awards made by local area under this grant scheme.
• £7.5 million was made available to further education colleges throughout Scotland to widen child care provision, based on locally identified needs. Responsibility for administering this money lies with the Scottish Further Education Funding Council. Information on awards made by this body is not held centrally by the Executive.

£8 million was made available to local authorities to help stabilise and sustain out-of-school care projects, especially in disadvantaged areas. The money was allocated over a three-year period as £2 million in 2001-02, £3 million in 2002-03 and £3 million in 2003-04. Of this, Renfrewshire Council was allocated £48,600 in 2001-2 and £72,800 in 2002-03 and 2003-04. Allocation of this money within the Renfrewshire Council area is a matter for Renfrewshire Council as they have responsibility for the allocation of funds at a local level. The information requested is not held centrally.

5-14 attainment data are available from 1998-99.Data on pupils' performance up to 2000-01 is already available in the 5-14 Attainment in Publicly Funded Schools News Releases (Bib. numbers 25343 and 18788). The data for 2001-02 will be published on 4 December 2002.

The information requested is not held centrally.

There has been a wide range of measures introduced by the Executive since 1997 to increase the proportion of students in higher education (HE) from under-represented, disadvantaged groups and areas. These include:

• Funding an additional 2,800 full-time equivalent places in higher education institutions
• Waiving fees for all eligible full-time Scottish students at Scottish institutions
• Providing bursaries of up to £2,000 p.a for young full-time students from low income families
• A Wider Access Bursary Fund for mature full-time students
• Fee waiver for unemployed or low income student on part-time courses
• Access to loans for part-time students
• Child care support
• Piloting of Education Maintenance Allowances designed to encourage more young people from low income households to remain in full-time education which are now being rolled out across Scotland
• Introduction of a widening access premium for institutions to help support students from non-traditional backgrounds
• Introduction of a disability premium for institutions to help support students with disabilities
• Introduction of New Access Partnerships to encourage institutions to develop innovative partnerships with the private sector to widen participation
• Support for developments to provide higher education in rural communities such as the designation of UHI Millennium Institute and the collaboration at Crichton Campus.

In addition to these measures, young people in the Renfrewshire Council area, along with other schools in the West of Scotland, also benefit from the Greater Opportunities of Access and Learning with Schools (GOALS) project which provides a spectrum of opportunity for school pupils, aged 10 to 18, to learn about and become familiar with higher education. Targeted at schools with low rates of progression to HE and involving all the higher education institutions in the West of Scotland, the project aims to stimulate pupils towards achievement at school and ultimately, to progress to higher education and a rewarding career.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Executive has no initiatives directed specifically at the Renfrewshire Council area. Over the whole of Scotland, we have taken the following action:(a) On smoking:Following publication of the White Paper Smoking Kills in 1998 in which young people were identified as a priority group for action, Health Education Board for Scotland (HEBS) has been allocated an additional £3.4 million over three years (2001-04) from the Health Improvement Fund to target young people and smoking. This is in addition to their current anti-smoking budget.Since 1997 the HEBS has promoted non-smoking messages to young people, including 12- to 15-year-olds through their highly successful Think About It mass media campaign.In addition, within the schools sector, the 5-14 Health Education Guidelines developed in conjunction with HEBS address the issue of tobacco education, while the Health Promoting Schools approach focuses on the development of smoking policies in local authorities which includes schools.The Argyle and Clyde NHS Board appointed a Tobacco Co-ordinator in February 2000, overseeing a range of cessation services.(b) On teenage pregnancy:A Headline Target was set in the White Paper Towards a Healthier Scotland published in February 1999 of a 20% reduction in the rate of pregnancy among 13- to 15-year-olds for the period 1995-2010.In November 2000, the £3 million Healthy Respect project, one of four National Health Demonstration Projects which were proposed in the White Paper, was launched in Lothian and is still running. It aims to radically transform teenage attitudes to sexual health and sexual relationships, reduce the level of teenage pregnancies and prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections. The lessons learned will be applied across Scotland.In April 2000 a grant of £150,000 was made to Brook in Scotland (subsequently renamed Caledonia Youth) for start-up costs for four new drop-in centres in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and Falkirk. The Executive is also committed to a substantial contribution to running costs. The centre, in Glasgow, was opened by in May 2002 and will be accessible by young people from Renfrewshire.The Scottish Executive has announced its plans to develop a national sexual health strategy for Scotland. One of the strategy's main aims is to tackle the high level of unwanted teenage pregnancies in Scotland. An expert group has been established to assist in the development of the strategy, by harnessing the expertise of respected practitioners at both local and national level.(c) On suicides:On 2 December 2002, the Scottish Executive published a National Strategy and Action Plan to Prevent Suicide in Scotland, which highlights risk factors related to suicide, identifies priority groups (including young people) and sets out appropriate actions at both national and local levels.