Chamber and committees

Parents/guardians who make the choice to home educate take on full responsibility for providing a suitable and efficient education for their child(ren) in place of the local education authority.

Scottish Ministers encourage local authorities and parents to work together to develop a positive relationship that functions in the best educational interests of the child. As set out in the Scottish Government home education guidance , local authorities are encouraged to take a reasonable approach and make available any resources or support that they can offer. Responsibility for the provision of home education rests with the parent/guardian of the child, however a local authority may be able to provide support at their discretion.

The Scottish Government encourages parents/guardians to refer to the Scottish Government home education guidance and liaise with their local authority to find out what support may be available to them.

I can confirm that the Care Inspectorate made a pay award offer for financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25 during week commencing 19 February 2024. There has been some variation in the timing of pay award offers due to differing governance processes and arrangements across Non-Departmental Public Bodies and Scottish Government departments.

Clinical outcomes are reported monthly and any clinical mental health incidents reported to NHS 24, through any feedback channel, will receive a full investigation and clinical review.

There is around 484,000 hectares of Common Grazing land in Scotland that is registered in claims and applications with Rural Payments and Services. Of this, there are an estimated 286,000 hectares of peatland (50cm depth), or around 60% of the total land area. Around two-thirds of this peatland is in a degraded state. The Scottish Government’s Crofting Bill Team and stakeholder group are considering a number of proposals that will make it easier for crofters to use their common grazings for other purposes than agriculture, such as peatland restoration.

The Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Scottish Enterprise (SE) have approved up to £24.5m in grant funding to the Sumitomo Electric UK Ltd high voltage cable manufacturing project. This comprises £19.37m in Scottish Government funding, £4.6m from HIE and £0.53m from SE.

The project will create around 330 jobs and bring £350 million inward investment to Scotland. This major investment in the Highlands will support the delivery of the First Minister’s flagship commitment of up to £500 million over five years to anchor our offshore wind supply chain and create good, green jobs.

The grant support was essential to progressing this significant investment into our renewable energy future. As a global player in the offshore cable market, Sumitomo’s decision to invest in Scotland required support to ensure that the case for the creation a new facility in Scotland could be considered competitively alongside alternative locations across the globe. Sumitomo’s Scottish Highlands investment is their first in Europe, and an indicator of the attractiveness of Scotland as a place to do business in what is a globally competitive market.

All frontline staff have monthly call reviews and one-to-one meetings with their line manager, real time clinical supervision and coaching with debrief sessions at the end of each shift. This is in addition to mandatory e-learning and personal development plans.

I understand that there has been reported concerns regarding the pay deal offer from the Care Inspectorate. I can confirm that the Care Inspectorate made a pay award offer for financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25 during week commencing 19 February 2024. The Care Inspectorate’s recognised trade unions agreed to ballot their members on this offer.

The results of the trade union ballots are expected in the second week of March. Should the offer be accepted, the Care Inspectorate intends to pay their staff the first element of the 2023-24 award in their March 2024 salaries.

As indicated in the answer to S6W- 24966, we asked the local authorities that did not maintain teacher numbers in the 2023 teacher census to provide an explanation for these reductions and any mitigating circumstances they wished to put forward.

The Consolidated Accounts are published annually and include a Performance Report which includes a Performance Overview and Performance Analysis, with high level financial information split by portfolio. The Consolidated Accounts for the years noted can be found at the following links:

The Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023 (www.gov.scot)

I receive regular performance delivery updates on the three Policy Prospectus missions of equality, opportunity and community. I also engage regularly with Cabinet Secretaries to support strong collaboration across portfolios and budgets and enable effective delivery of Mandate Letter commitments. These arrangements are routinely reviewed and improved where appropriate.

The statutory review of the National Performance Framework National Outcomes is underway and reporting on progress towards the National Outcomes will continue to be delivered via the NPF website nationalperformance.gov.scot

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDSs) are a fast-track diagnostic pathway for patients who present with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer – brain cancers don’t tend to present in this way.

The University of Strathclyde published a report, reflecting on two years of the RCDSs running, on Thursday 29 th February, highlighting the cancer types being detected by the model, with lung and HPB cancers most common, as expected.

Meanwhile, work continues with PHS to establish a national data collection for RCDSs.