Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 137 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-24910

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to concerns that the best outcome for a child is not being delivered when a local authority denies them an extra year of funded childcare in situations where their parent has used their legal right to defer their entry into primary school for a year due to their birthday falling between the start of the school term and the end of December.

Question reference: S5W-24909

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to address the issue with children who turn five between the start of the school term and the end of December not being entitled to an extra year of funded childcare, compared with those who turn five in January and February who are.

For children with August to December birthdays, local authorities have discretion to fund additional early learning and childcare when parents choose to defer the school start, where this is in the best interests of the child. This should be based on an assessment of the child’s wellbeing, as set out in the Early Learning and Childcare statutory guidance that accompanied the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

We are currently working with stakeholders from across the early learning and childcare sector to update this guidance to reflect legislative changes since 2014 and to align with wider policy developments. As part of these updates, I have committed to strengthen the guidance on providing an additional year of funded early learning and childcare in a deferred year. A draft of the updated Statutory Guidance will be published for consultation before the end of 2019.

Question reference: S5W-24855

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 20 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many local authorities have reported that they have positive relationships with partner childcare providers in their area.

The Overview of the Local Authority Support and Funding Early Learning and Childcare Providers report (bib number 60909), sets out the actions that local authorities are taking to support partnership working and the range of benefits on offer to settings who become funded providers.

To support genuine and meaningful partnership working the Scottish Government and COSLA established the ELC Partnership Forum. This has met five times since October 2018 and provides an opportunity for funded providers and local authorities to work together to further strengthen relationships; and to identify and showcase good practice in partnership working across Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-24856

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 20 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reports that several independent schools have pulled out of partnerships with local authorities in delivering childcare, and what impact it believes this will have on overall provision.

Independent schools can continue to offer the funded early learning and childcare entitlement from August 2020, if they meet the National Standard, are willing to enter into a contract with the local authority, and they have a place available.

We understand that some independent schools have indicated that from August 2020 they may withdraw from offering the funded early learning and childcare entitlement if they are unable to charge top-up fees for the funded hours. It is important to highlight that the longstanding legal position, as clearly laid out in the early learning and childcare statutory guidance published in 2014, is that the entitlement to mandatory early learning and childcare should be provided without the payment of fees, including where this is delivered through partner providers under a section 35 arrangement . It is therefore unlawful to charge parents and carers top-up fees for a child’s statutory early learning and childcare hours.

We remain confident that all local authorities and their partners will be ready to deliver when the 1140 hours' entitlement comes into force next August, and are aware that some local authorities have made changes to their implementation plans to respond to changing circumstances, as well as learning from early phasing of the expanded entitlement.

Scottish Government officials have met with the Scottish Council for Independent Schools and representatives from independent schools across Scotland on a number of occasions to discuss their views on the expansion in funded early learning and childcare.

Question reference: S5W-24857

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 20 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20524 by Maree Todd on 8 January 2019, and in light of reports that there is a lack of trust between private, voluntary and independent sector childcare providers and councils, whether it would consider requiring local authorities to publish financial data relating to the revenue rate per child per hour that they operate on when delivering funded childcare in their own settings, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S5W-24851

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 20 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the assertion that those local authorities that have adopted the cost-modelling approach following the publishing of the guidance for setting out sustainable rates from August 2020 have not delivered a fair or sustainable funding rate for private, voluntary and independent childcare providers.

As highlighted in the answer to S5W-23088 the four potential approaches set out in Section 5 of Funding Follows the Child and the National Standard for Early Learning and Childcare Providers: Guidance for Setting Sustainable Rates from August 2020 would support local authorities to establish an average rate for the cost of Early Learning and Childcare in their area, all of which could deliver a fair and sustainable rate for funded providers.

However, as set out in section 5.4 of the Guidance document (on Cost Modelling), it is imperative that where mechanisms or formulas are used, these are clearly set out and explained. Additionally, the local authority should record and be transparent with regards to what has been taken into consideration during the process and what has been omitted, including the reasons for this.

Question reference: S5O-03573

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 September 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the timeline for the devolution of the powers set out in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.

Question reference: S5W-24850

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to NHS Forth Valley meeting just two of its eight national performance targets, and missing four of them by more than 10%, in 2018-19.

Officials are working closely with all NHS Boards including NHS Forth Valley to ensure that key improvements are made against each of the 8 key performance indicators.

In terms of A&E we continue to support NHS Forth Valley through the National Unscheduled Care programme to implement sustainable solutions to ensure delivery of the four hour A&E target. Officials met with the Chief Executive recently to agree key areas of focus over the coming weeks, including improving Patient Pathways for minors flow to putting in place a more robust Escalation and Responsive operational management process and reviewing staff rotas and job plans to maximise capacity during periods of high demand.

In October 2018 the Waiting Times improvement Plan was launched to assist in the reduction of waiting times to ensure future delivery of waiting time standards and guarantee for patients across Scotland by the Spring of 2021. To support improvement since October 2018 we have invested almost £7 million in Forth Valley to support specialties such as ENT, Trauma and Orthopaedics, General Surgery as well as providing additional funding to NHS Forth Valley in 2018-19 to support the recovery of cancer waiting times performance. This money was directed to providing additional diagnostic capacity (MRI and CT), colorectal theatre capacity, additional Nurse Endoscopist sessions and a review of cancer pathways.

NHS Forth Valley has also worked with the Mental Health Access Improvement Support Team (MHAIST) to develop a focused improvement plan which identifies ways to maximise the effectiveness of existing capacity and where additional staffing capacity is required. This plan is now being implemented and the expectation is that FV will perform at or above the Standard in the next quarter as set out in their Annual Operational Plan.

Question reference: S5W-24853

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 17 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that, in each year since 2016-17, NHS boards that received higher funding per head of population met more key national performance targets than those that received lower funding per head.

Question reference: S5W-24852

Asked by: Alison Harris, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 August 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 11 September 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the impact that the amount of funding per head of population that an NHS board receives has on its ability to meet performance targets.

The Scottish Government allocates funding to NHS Boards based on the NRAC formula. The NRAC formula takes into account factors in addition to population levels, including relative deprivation and need for healthcare of different NHS Board areas.

The Scottish Government has invested significantly in supporting NHS Boards that are behind NRAC parity, and has committed an additional £1.5 billion over an eight year period to bring all NHS Boards within 0.8% of their target funding shares.

NHS Boards are expected to make best use of all available resources, financial and otherwise, to meet all agreed performance standards. In addition to the provision of this funding, there is a range of ways in which the Scottish Government offers support to Boards to meet these standards, including through the Waiting Times Improvement Plan and programmes such as the Unscheduled Care Six Essential Actions and the Scottish Access Collaborative, to ensure resources are being used as effectively as possible.