Chamber and committees

Ministers and Scottish Government officials hold regular discussions with Health Boards, including NHS Lothian, on matters of importance including on their planning and preparations relating to the response to COVID-19.

Discussions with NHS Boards, including NHS Lothian, on testing for COVID-19 started as the situation became apparent internationally.

Our revised approach to Individual Training Accounts and the manner in which they will be delivered, are based on updated labour market intelligence identifying sectors likely to have skills gaps and job openings, and restrictions necessarily placed on areas of the economy as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The impact of the restriction would mean that courses within Hospitality, Security, Adult Literacy and Numeracy, Health, Beauty and Fitness, and Languages will not be offered during Phase 1.

In terms of planning for Phase 2, we will use the interim period to review, adapt and refocus the programme in line with emerging labour market intelligence and ensure further recommendations of the ESSB Sub-Group are incorporated.

The COVID-19 Education Recovery Group recently published guidance to support continuity in learning to support education authorities and schools plan and prepare for pupils returning to school.

This guidance offers high-level advice to local authorities as they consider the support required to address the impact of interrupted learning and disconnection from school or early learning and childcare for many children and young people.

The guidance promotes health and wellbeing considerations and other areas where children, young people and their parents and carers may need support and in some cases, advice specific to the individual child or young person.

Local authorities and schools are already familiar and trained in a wide range of mental health interventions and strategies, which will be critical in supporting children and young people returning to school.

A mental health in schools working group has been established to develop and strengthen mental health resources available to schools, including a whole school approach framework to support positive mental health and a new professional learning course in mental health for all school staff. The group will develop the resource and training as part of a ‘toolkit’ of support which is expected to be available to school staff towards the end of 2020.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29615 on 15 June 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29615 on 15 June 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

From September 2020, school counselling services will be available to all primary, secondary and special school pupils age 10 and over; and is part of a range of services that schools may have in place to support the mental, emotional and social wellbeing of children and young people.

Local authorities are best placed to determine the appropriate measures to put in place, taking into consideration local circumstances and what best meets the needs of the pupils.

Any counselling provision that was in place prior to the COVID-19 pandemic will be continuing and in a way that meets the needs of the individual child or young person and delivered in a way to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions.

To address current labour market challenges, it was important that any delay in our ability to re-open in 2020-21 as a result of the pandemic was minimised, and wherever possible, learners are not negatively impacted in the long term.

Both SDS and my officials continue to engage with a broad range of stakeholders including, the Scottish Training Federation, Colleges Scotland, Capital City Partnership, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Apex and individual colleges on the re-opening of ITAs from 1 July 2020, and the development of ITAs in their second phase in 2020-21.

We are developing a responsive, flexible and coherent package of employability and skills interventions to address the emerging labour market challenges resulting from the Covid-19 crisis. The recommendations of the Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board on how we should respond to these challenges, which will be received by the Scottish Government on 30 June, are clearly important, and will help us to define the role of the Individual Training Accounts moving forward.

Following recommendations made by the independent review of student support, from 2019-20, we increased and expanded access to further (FE) and higher education (HE) bursaries for students from the lowest incomes. As part of that, we raised the HE bursary income threshold from £19,000 to £21,000, as well as providing increased bursary support for the poorest young students in HE which increased from £1,875 per year to £2,000. We also increased bursary support for the poorest independent students in HE from £875 per year to £1,000. Further to this, from 2018-19, the care-experienced bursary was increased to £8,100 per year across FE and HE. We are also raising the student loan repayment threshold to £25,000 from April 2021.

We are committed to ensuring that no student faces financial hardship over the summer months as a result of Covid-19 and have provided a package of new measures to support students until the start of the next academic year when bursary, grant and loan payments will begin again. The First Minister announced on 11 June that the Scottish Government has brought forward early access to £11.4 million of Higher Education discretionary funds, which HE students can apply to their college or university for access to this financial support.

This package builds on our £5 million emergency support plan for FE and HE students which was announced in April. There are no current plans to review bursary and loan thresholds in light of the summer support package we have provided which allows for immediate access to financial support for students experiencing hardship.

The Scottish Government recognise the need to ensure awareness of suicide and its prevention through schools. Our Programme for Government and Suicide Prevention Action Plan set out the actions we will take, with our partners, to deliver improved services for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training and SafeTALK awareness training is offered by a range of trainers throughout Scotland and free training materials under licence are provided by Public Health Scotland. Both courses are designed to enable staff to become more willing, ready and able to recognise and intervene effectively to help a young person at risk of suicide.

A mental health in schools working group has been established to develop and strengthen mental health resources available to schools, including a whole school approach framework to support positive mental health and a new professional learning course in mental health for all school staff. The group will develop the resource and training as part of a ‘toolkit’ of support which is expected to be available to school staff towards the end of 2020.