Chamber and committees

Research, carried out by the Training and Employment Research Unit at Glasgow University, has identified an emerging skills gap in construction. The Scottish Welfare to Work Task Force has established a group to develop a New Deal construction sector pathway in Scotland. Working with the industry this group is focusing on disadvantaged groups and long-term unemployed, and is working to develop short, modular courses which could lead to a full Modern Apprenticeship. The Executive will also work through Future Skills Scotland and Careers Scotland to promote employment and training opportunities in construction. The Glasgow Construction Forum was launched on 1 May by Glasgow City Council. The forum will be working with Scottish construction firms primarily on skills issues arising from the housing stock transfer. The Housing and Employment Working Group has examined key issues affecting the industry by involving individuals from the construction sector, employment initiatives, the voluntary sector, public sector and trade unions.

The Scottish Compact commits the Scottish Executive to ensuring that, in the process of policy-making, the impact of changes in policy and procedure on voluntary organisations, volunteering and community groups is considered and taken fully into account. This commitment is supported by a Good Practice Guide, published in June 2000. Implementation of the compact is monitored jointly with the voluntary sector on an annual basis.

Details of all of the services provided for disabled people who visit the Parliament can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/welcoming_you/disability.htm.The Participation Services team are available to discuss customer requirements and to recommend services or visit options as appropriate to individual need.

If a publication is being aimed at an audience who have disabled needs, the department producing the publication would consider supplying the alternative formats of Braille, audio tape and large print. Where an audience includes groups who would benefit from a 14 point text, or Plain English writing then these are also often employed in the main document. All publications are produced at 12 point, in accordance with the spirit of the Disability Discrimination Act (the act does not stipulate rules as to font sizes etc).If there are no special needs groups with particular format needs, and no stated demand for this, departments have the option of producing the master document with a statement on the reverse cover to the effect that alternative formats are available on request. These alternative versions are then produced on a demand basis. Each document and its audience is considered individually, and in deciding on the most suitable publication approach the Scottish Executive aims to take into consideration all pertinent factors including the needs of the audience, the subject and context of the document, and appropriate use of finances.

The Scottish Health Plan Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change set out our target of 50% of mothers breastfeeding at six weeks by 2005. It also laid out our intention to support breastfeeding by local breastfeeding strategies; implementation of the joint WHO/UNICEF initiative on breastfeeding; raising awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding through support by peers and professionals, and enhancing the opportunities for women to continue breastfeeding after returning to work. The Scottish Breastfeeding Group (SBG) and the Health Education Board for Scotland (HEBS) are working to promote, support and sustain breastfeeding and this work includes plans to re-run the advertisement Breastmilk: The World's Best Baby Food during Breastfeeding Awareness Week May 12-18 2002. HEBS has launched a CD-ROM, Breastfeeding: images from Getting off to a Good Start, which can be used royalty free to promote breastfeeding throughout Scotland.The National Breastfeeding Adviser is also working with NHS boards to encourage and increase the incidence and duration of breastfeeding through, for example, the UNICEF Baby Friendly initiatives. Most NHS boards are now implementing a breastfeeding strategy. There are also several Peer Support programmes across many NHS board areas and breastfeeding initiatives are part of a number of Social Inclusion Partnership programmes.

The Women in Scotland Consultative Forum (WiSCF) last met on 15 May 2000. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the World Conference on Women's Rights held in Beijing in 1995 and address the topics raised in the Platform for Action. A smaller group the Women in Scotland Consultative Review Group met on 26 April 2001 to discuss the future role of the forum. It was agreed to work with Engender and Glasgow Women's Library to develop the WiSCF database and to develop local fora across Scotland. An event has already been held in Glenrothes Fife which was the culmination of a pilot project set up as part of the review. A programme of events based in different communities and areas are being planned during the summer.

Volunteer Development Scotland, which receives core funding from the Scottish Executive, has, in partnership with COSLA, issued guidance to all local authorities on how to develop and implement volunteering policies. It is for local authorities themselves to determine how best to make use of volunteers.

Communities Scotland will establish a development centre, to take forward a work programme supporting practitioners involved in improving literacy and numeracy levels across Scotland. This will include developing: a framework for a fully accredited national training programme for literacy and numeracy practitioners; a national curriculum for literacy and numeracy; pathfinders to raise awareness of literacy and numeracy, and test out innovative ways of delivering literacy and numeracy provision; e-learning options; a national online databank of resources; and further research.

Arrest referral schemes currently in existence have been instigated at a local level, so the information sought is not held centrally. We have announced that the Executive proposes to take legislative powers which will allow us to fund local authority criminal justice social work services to support interventions at the pre-court stage, such as arrest referral schemes. We will consider in due course what information should be collected centrally in relation to such schemes.

Donald Dewar, the then Secretary of State for Scotland, announced on 8 May 1998 that the 12 Priority Partnership Areas designated in November 1996 would evolve into Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIPs) and that SIPs would also be set up in other areas across Scotland.In July 1998 the Scottish Executive wrote to all Scottish local authority chief executives outlining the key characteristics of SIPs and inviting expressions of interest in this initiative. These expressions of interest were evaluated and the relevant partnerships were invited to draw up detailed proposals from which a final selection would be made.This final selection was made by an advisory group drawn from members of the Social Inclusion network, who assessed the proposals received on the following basis:Need, with a particular focus on preventing social exclusion;Extent to which the proposals complemented current programmes and were compatible with existing strategies;Innovative nature of the proposals;Ability to demonstrate the commitment of partners, including the voluntary and private sectors and local communities, andThe extent to which the proposals appear to be deliverableThe present situation is that there are no plans to extend the areas currently designated as SIPs or to award SIP designation to further areas.