Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government continues to engage with key skills stakeholders and Historic Environment Scotland on this matter to ensure that Scotland has the required traditional skills to meet the demands of the historic environment sector.

We deliver our support for the historic environment through sponsorship of Historic Environment Scotland which continues to champion traditional skills and is working with stakeholders to address heritage skills gaps to help ensure Scotland’s historic buildings can thrive as part of the country’s sustainable future.

The Scottish Government is also working with Skills Development Scotland to promote careers in construction and heritage skills as part of our Youth Employment Strategy, Developing the Young Workforce.

The Scottish Government appreciates the contribution volunteers make to society. Volunteering at creative and cultural events offers unique opportunities to gain new skills, get experience and to be part of something special. While there are currently no plans to increase the provision of microgrants to support and promote volunteering via Creative Scotland, direct funding to national and local intermediaries supports the national and local volunteering infrastructure. For example, Creative Lives, a Creative Scotland Regularly Funded Organisation, supports volunteer-led and community-focused activity through microgrant schemes. They have worked closely with Creative Scotland to develop Cash for Culture, a fundraising guide for voluntary arts and community-led creative groups seeking funding for activity.

We provide Volunteer Scotland with a core grant of £832,000 (2023-24) and Third Sector Interfaces receive £8,481,200. In addition, the Volunteering Support Fund (£3.3m over 2021-24 period) delivered by Impact Funding Partners on behalf of the Scottish Government, is helping people overcome barriers to volunteering. The funding is for local community grass-roots organisations to support and promote volunteering among a variety of groups who experience disadvantage or barriers to volunteering.

It is for the Church of Scotland to make decisions about its estate management based on the changing needs of its own membership.

The Scottish Government has been engaging with Historic Environment Scotland, Church of Scotland and other stakeholders on the closures of historic and listed churches. We will continue to work closely with the Church of Scotland and leaders of all faiths and denominations, to regularly discuss issues impacting on their communities.

The refreshed Skills Investment Plan for Scotland’s historic environment sector is being led by Historic Environment Scotland in collaboration with key stakeholders within the sector and is expected to be published in Spring 2024.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of the Skills Investment Plan for Scotland’s historic environment sector to support our workforce in developing the skills required to manage, protect and conserve our built heritage.

We acknowledge that action delivery from the 2019 plan was impacted by both the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.

The Scottish Government will continue to deliver support for Scotland’s historic environment through sponsorship of Historic Environment Scotland, which is leading on developing the current Skills Investment Plan, building on the lessons learned from previous plans and increasing resource to maximise delivery.

The role of the Scottish Government is to provide frameworks, policies, and resources to enable Scotland’s NHS Boards to deliver healthcare services. It is for NHS Boards to determine how they utilise the funding provided by the Scottish Government to meet the needs of their local populations.

It is important to note that the £19.6m funding for diabetes technology was in addition to, and not a replacement for, local budgets. We also provide baseline funding to NHS Boards and expect them to continue to fund provision locally to meet patients’ needs.

The numbers of teachers who have participated in the Teacher Induction Scheme since 2016 is provided in the following table:

£350,000 was allocated in 2023 to the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) pathway workstream based at the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD). This funding was provided to establish a national onboarding team for closed loop systems, based at NHS Golden Jubilee. Therefore, territorial Boards did not receive any share of the funding.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23112 on 4 December 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23112 on 4 December 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .