The information sought is not held centrally.However, as at September 2023, around 28,500 children and young people were reported to attend an independent school in Scotland. Of those 28,500 children and young people, around 700 children and young people were reported to attend an independent special school.

The following table outlines independent special school pupil numbers by Local Authority.

The information sought is not held centrally.However, it may be useful to note that Scotland’s independent school sector includes Queen Victoria School in Dunblane. Queen Victoria School is an independent, mainstream, boarding school funded by the Ministry of Defence. The school caters to the children of UK Armed Forces personnel either based in Scotland or with a connection to Scotland. In September 2023, the school reported that around 260 children and young people were enrolled.

The Board of His Majesty’s Commissioners (HMC) are responsible for the management of Queen Victoria School and can be contacted care of: The Secretary to the Board of His Majesty’s Commissioners, Queen Victoria School, Dunblane, FK15 0JY or the Director of Defence, Children’s Services, MOD.

Scotland’s ‘Getting it right for every child’ (GIRFEC) approach underpins the delivery of high-quality universal and targeted support through a single, coordinated approach to planning across education, social work, and health and social care; and between public services, the third sector and community partners.

The GIRFEC approach recognises that children, young people and their families need to know who they can contact when they require support. The named person, Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC): practice guidance 2 – role of the named person - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) or equivalent role, provides a clear point of contact within universal services for information, advice or help. A named person can provide or help families access further information on practical support from within their own service, or request support from other services or agencies across the community. For school-aged children, the named person is usually a head or senior teacher.

The non-statutory GIRFEC Child’s Plan remains an important element in the ways children’s and related services can work in a co-ordinated way to support the wellbeing of children, young people and their families. Using the GIRFEC approach, practitioners and lead professionals should support a child or young person's wellbeing by working alongside them and their family, and other practitioners involved in supporting their wellbeing. Where a child or young person is supported through a GIRFEC Child’s Plan, the lead professional Lead professional - Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) offers families a single point of contact who can work with them and any multi-agency team to help co-ordinate support and help everyone understand their respective roles in implementing the plan.

GIRFEC provides the foundation for all of the Scottish Government’s policies to ensure that children and young people receive the right support, at the right time. This includes Scotland’s legislative approach to collaborative local strategic planning. Children’s Services Planning duties are set out in Part 3 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. This requires services and support to be planned and delivered in a way which delivers on national and local priorities and meets the statutory aims of Children’s Services Planning, including the aim to ensure that support is experienced as joined-up from the point of view of children and families.

Each local authority and Health Board must work collaboratively with specified service providers, other public bodies, the third sector, and children, young people and families to develop their Children’s Services Plan (CSP). Each Children’s Services Planning Partnership (CSPP) has a multi-agency strategic governance group of local senior leaders, who are responsible for their CSP. This includes publishing an annual report to demonstrate what progress has been made to improve outcomes for children, young people and families living in that area.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 provides the legal framework for identifying and addressing the additional support needs of children and young people who face a barrier, or barriers, to learning. Parents, children, and young people have the right to ask for an assessment of whether additional support is required. Local authorities and other agencies should ensure that parents are fully aware of the processes for assessing and providing for children’s additional support needs, understand the planning approaches and are familiar with the support services available from the school, the education authority and from other agencies.

Scottish Ministers also fund Enquire, the national advice and information service on additional support for learning. Enquire operate a telephone helpline providing confidential and tailored advice to parents and carers on their children’s circumstances and rights to support. They have a range of resources and signposting on their website seeking to ensure that families can access the most appropriate support.

The Scottish Government recognises that parents and carers are the primary educators of their children and it is best practice for schools, local authorities and parents to work in partnership to ensure the best learning outcomes for children and young people. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 places responsibility on State Parties to provide appropriate assistance to parents and legal guardians in performing their parental responsibilities to guarantee and promote the rights set out in the Convention.

An update to the Learning together national action plan: update - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) was co-published with COSLA in December 2023. This is an update setting out an overarching framework that brings together relevant policies and guidance to support education authorities to develop parental involvement strategies, as set out in the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006. It sets out a vision for parental involvement, engagement, family learning and learning at home.

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with Clackmannanshire, Dundee and Glasgow to tackle child poverty through transforming the way public services are delivered. These partnerships are testing and embedding a deeper, person-centred approach which meets families where they are and seeks to move them out of poverty on a sustained basis.

This has included close working with schools and nurseries, such as:

• Close partnership with the Early Adopter School Aged Childcare Pilot in Dundee, to facilitate access to childcare for parents supported by the Dundee Pathfinder
• A family supper club in Rowantree Primary School in Dundee, which provides access to support services and hot evening meals.
• Financial Inclusion Support Officers based in primary and secondary schools in Glasgow
• ‘Community Around the School’ in Clackmannanshire, featuring a broad range of partners involved in reading, numeracy and confidence skills at Alloa Academy

Across the 3 partnerships, over 3000 families have benefited from direct support, with changes to how services are designed and delivered set to benefit many more.

The Scottish Government are also providing local authorities with £15 million per annum to fund community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children, young people and their families. The Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services Framework, which underpins this funding, encourages education, health, wider children’s services, youth work and the third sector to work together and take a whole-system approach to supporting children, young people and their families.

The mission of the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) is to use education to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap. The national operational guidance for Pupil Equity Funding to schools is clear that parents, carers and the local community are valuable sources of support, expertise and experience in working with children and young people experiencing poverty-related barriers to learning. In many contexts, particularly in rural areas, or within special schools or Additional Support Needs (ASN) provisions, schools may be able to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people by working with a range of bodies such as:

• parent groups
• parent councils
• other local authority and public sector services (such as community learning & development)
• third sector organisations (including youth work, family learning organisations)
• centres of expertise

The Scottish Government remains committed to this ambition and has prioritised investment in supporting local areas to develop preventative whole family support measures through the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding, with £50m being allocated for the programme in the 2024-25 budget. The Scottish Government continues to work with partners on how we can most effectively deploy future investment to support the system change required and will shortly publish an investment approach setting out our future approach to the Programme and associated funding.

The Scottish Government is providing £18 million funding in 2024-25 through our Children, Young People, Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) and Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learners (CYPFAL) third sector funds to support children, families and communities.

In addition to this, Children’s Services Planning is Scotland’s legislative approach to collaborative local strategic planning and delivery of services and support, to ensure this is delivered in a way which improves wellbeing outcomes for children, young people and families living in each area. Children’s Services Planning duties are set out in Part 3 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

Children’s Services Planning Partnerships are key to driving a holistic and whole systems approach in the local area, which embeds Getting it right for every child, delivers holistic whole family support, as well as action to Keep the Promise.

Supporting parents is key to improving outcomes for children and young people. We want to build the knowledge, skills and confidence of parents, so they can be and do the best they can for their children. Since 2010 the Scottish Government has funded the Scottish Book Trust’s Bookbug Programme, supported with £1.8 million in funding in 2024-25 the programme lays the foundations of early literacy, enhances attachment and promotes emotional intelligence as well as good communication and listening skills. To further support the promotion of parent-child relationships in 2024-25 we are also funding the PlayTalkRead and Pathways through Play programme. Supported with £645,000 funding, the programme is delivered by Smart Play Network across all 32 local authority areas in Scotland. The programme promotes the importance of playing, talking and reading with children from birth to four years old and supports targeted early speech and language development through play.

The Scottish Government has worked with NHS Education for Scotland on the Psychology of Parenting Project (PoPP) which aims to increase the availability of training in, and support the effective implementation of, evidence-based early intervention and prevention programmes for improving the mental health and wellbeing of children and families. This involves working collaboratively with Community Planning Partnerships to support implementation.

Additionally, the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Third Sector Fund provides funding of up to £1m per annum to third sector organisations supporting perinatal and infant mental health. This includes projects and services which support parent-infant relationships.

The Scottish Government is also providing £18 million funding in 2024-25 through our Children, Young People, Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) and Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learners (CYPFAL) third sector funds to support children, families and communities.

The Scottish Government’s Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme was established with the purpose of driving the system change required at local level, principally through Children’s Service Planning Partnerships (CSPPs), to deliver holistic family support so that families get the right support, at the right time, for as long as they need. Recognising the varying circumstances in local areas, the Programme does not seek to mandate a specific delivery model – an approach which has been welcomed by delivery partners.

• Delivery of the WFWF Programme involves a variety of collaborative work with CSPPs – of which local authorities are statutory members – including Providing direct funding to Children's Services Planning Partnerships to build local service capacity for change and transform family support services. Each CSPP is responsible deciding how to spend their allocation, based on a local assessment of need. Investing in a package of activity to support the development and sharing of learning across CSPPs and beyond, including the creation of the the Learning into Action Network and Knowledge Hub and dedicated collaborative partnerships with specific CSPP areas.
• Development of the Supporting Families - A National Self-Assessment Toolkit for Change (in collaboration with stakeholders) to support consistent and structured planning discussions about the design and delivery of holistic family support services at the local level.

The Scottish Government published our social isolation and loneliness strategy, A Connected Scotland’ in 2018 which set out our key priorities for tackling social isolation and loneliness. Our updated delivery plan published in 2023, set out a number of actions we are taking across Government to tackle this public health issue. Two themes within the plan, that develop better access to community facilities, focus efforts on creating opportunities for people to connect and support an infrastructure that fosters connections.

Practical work we are delivering under these themes include funding Befriending Networks as a critical partner to build capacity within the befriending sector, and share learning from the developing evidence base on befriending to highlight what works to tackle social isolation and loneliness. Our £3.8m Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund supports 53 community organisations throughout Scotland that provides opportunities for people to connect.

We are also focussing on place-making and community infrastructure to foster connections by supporting Scotland’s Public Library Strategy 2021-2025. Since 2021 we have provided the Scottish Library and information Council (SLIC) with £665K. This includes £450,000 for Public Library Improvement Fund (PLIF) to support creative, sustainable and innovative public library projects throughout Scotland.

We have invested £66 million in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults since 2021, with more than 3,300 grants made to local projects across Scotland in the first two years alone. The Fund was put in place to support those in the community with mental health and wellbeing, one of the top priorities of the Fund is social isolation and loneliness. More than 2,260 projects who have cited social isolation and loneliness as a main priority have received funding in the first two years of the Fund. This Fund provides a range of classes and activities to encourage people to re-engage with their community.

The relationships, sexual health and parenthood education consultation report will be published in the coming weeks. I will ensure the member is sent a link to the report when it is published.

Since 2022 over £110m of Whole Family Wellbeing Funding was invested by the Scottish Government to deliver a transformational change in holistic family support so that families get the right support, in the right way and at the right time. The funding was distributed as follows:

• £96m provided for Children’s Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs) (Element 1) to build local service capacity for change and to transform family support services.
• £1.6m National Support for Local Delivery (Element 2), includes a package of activity aimed at supporting local transformation. This part of the funding also supports the wider evaluation and research work for WFWF.
• £13.1m for taking a cross Scottish Government approach to system change (Element 3) which is supporting 12 projects across Scottish Government policy areas to help progress the aims of the Programme.