Chamber and committees

Information on referrals is not held centrally.

Local authorities have statutory responsibility for most secure placements and make referrals directly to the secure care services. A placement in respect of any child may only be accepted if the secure accommodation Head of Centre is confident that they can meet the needs of the individual referred child, while keeping safe all other children already in their care. The concept of any or all secure services ‘turning away’ a child has limited applicability.

In addition, the statutory criteria regulating children’s eligibility for referral to secure care are tightly drawn. A change in circumstances or a child’s own need and risk profile may mean that an alternative to secure care represents a more appropriate placement.

Secure centres have robust matching procedures in place, following the Care Inspectorate’s Admissions Guidance for Residential Services.

The Children’s Social Work Statistics 2023-24 – Secure Care Stats provide details of the number of admissions to this type of accommodation.

The provisions contained within Part 2 of the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill are proposed to allow for the sharing of information for the efficient and effective provision of public health and social care services. Within this context the provisions could enable the appropriate sharing of information in order to consider data-driven approaches to early intervention and targeted support, thereby helping to prevent individuals from experiencing homelessness at an earlier stage.

The Bill is informed by the extensive co-design work, commissioned by Scottish Ministers, to better inform the development of this legislation, which has included individuals with experience of homelessness. Details of this work can be found here: National Care Service - information sharing to improve care support: seldom heard voices co-design findings - gov.scot

Given that drug and alcohol related problems can contribute to loss of accommodation, the actions taken through Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) to provide recovery-based support can help prevent homelessness. To help align their contribution, ADPs bring together a range of partners at the local level with experience and responsibilities spanning the statutory, third sector, and community space to ensure that strategic planning reflects the wealth of local knowledge and expertise in providing services to those most in need. Whilst there is no prescriptive direction as to which individuals and organisations should sit on or contribute to an ADP, there is an expectation that local authorities will field representation with sufficient insight into wider services within their remit, such as Housing, Social Work, and Education, to ensure appropriate linkage to those areas of service provision.

The Scottish Government wants to ensure that progress is made based on the principles of shared public responsibility and earlier intervention to prevent homelessness, as set out in the proposals for new homelessness prevention duties in the Housing (Scotland) Bill currently before the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Government is currently working with COSLA, and in consultation with other partners, to revise the Partnership Delivery Framework to Reduce the Use of and Harm from Alcohol and Drugs, to bring greater clarity and consistency to the remit, membership, and organisation of ADPs.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Local Authorities are responsible for providing a range of public services, including education, so the member may wish to approach local government for the information requested.

International students have a positive economic impact. We want to attract and retain international students in Scotland. While immigration is a reserved matter, the Scottish Government is committed to working closely with the UK Government to make a positive difference. Student sponsor licences are arranged between colleges and the Home Office directly. We have had multiple engagements with the UK Government regarding the Immigration System following the change of UK Government last July.

This data is not held centrally; aggregated data for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is sent to Public Health Scotland from individual NHS Boards. This data reports on the following:

• number of referrals to CAMHS services;
• numbers waiting to start treatment;
• total waiting;
• numbers starting treatment;
• number of referrals that were not accepted

People who have started treatment, as well as those whose referral has not been accepted, will be removed from the waiting list, in line with the CAMHS Specification. The National CAMHS specification includes a clear expectation that children and young people whose referral is not accepted for CAMHS are sensitively and appropriately signposted to a more suitable service.

CAMHS waiting times statistics are published quarterly by PHS: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs-waiting-times-quarter-ending-december-2024/

This data is not held centrally; aggregated data for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Waiting Times is sent to Public Health Scotland from each NHS Board. This data does not contain specific information about the number of young people accessing CAMHS who are international students.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of people presenting as homeless to (a) A&E and (b) GP surgeries.

Transport Scotland doesn’t, as a matter of course, undertake assessments of traffic levels at Sheriffhall roundabout, or other locations on the strategic road network. Traffic data is captured on an ongoing basis for specific projects or studies.

Congestion and traffic levels were assessed as part of the transport appraisal that supported the first Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR), published in 2008, which led on to improvements to the junction being tabled under intervention 22.

Subsequently detailed consideration of traffic levels at this junction was undertaken in the SESplan A720 Cross Boundary Study, published in 2017, which recognised that the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass plays a fundamental role in providing strategic connectivity and supporting economic development within the region and noted that Sheriffhall roundabout is a well-known bottleneck for travellers using and crossing the A720.

Traffic counts were undertaken at the existing junction in 2014, 2017 and 2018 as part of the development of the A720 Sheriffhall Roundabout project. This information helped inform the projected traffic flows both with and without the proposed improvements as part of the scheme assessment process. In addition, traffic data from permanent automatic traffic counters maintained by Transport Scotland between 2008 and 2017 was also examined.

I have the utmost sympathy for the women who may have been adversely affected by diethylstilbestrol (otherwise known as DES or stilbestrol).

The regulations for the licensing, safety and efficacy of medicines is currently reserved to the UK Government and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Any review of diethylstilbestrol (otherwise known as DES or stilbestrol) would ultimately be a matter for them to consider.