Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s Regeneration programmes work together to support resilient and sustainable communities, with communities directly involved in decisions on the future of their places. The Scottish Government values Coalfields Regeneration Trust’s (CRT’s) contribution to that approach. Since 1999, the Scottish Government has provided over £28 million in funding to CRT to invest in improving outcomes for coalfield communities.

In 2023/24 funding is being delivered within the context of the most challenging budget settlement since devolution. The Scottish Government is having to make difficult decisions while ensuring it does what is best for communities with the limited resources it has. This is impacting programmes across Government including the Empowering Communities Programme through which CRT is funded and which has been subject to a reduction in budget from 2022-23.

In addition to the dedicated funding for coalfield communities delivered through CRT, the Scottish Government also invests in wider regeneration programmes such as the Investing in Communities Fund and Regeneration Capital Grant Fund. These target our most disadvantaged and fragile communities and continue to support projects in our former coalfield communities.

Officials will arrange a meeting with the Scottish Stoma Forum after the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors (SEND) have considered the results of the information gathering exercise on the provision of stoma care and stoma specialist nurse coverage across Scotland's 14 territorial health boards.

Child abuse and neglect have significant detrimental effects on children and young people’s emotional, physical and mental health, social development, education and future employment.

Scotland’s approach to child protection is set within the “Getting It Right For Every Child” (GIRFEC) approach to planning and providing support and care to children and families. The GIRFEC approach supports prevention of child abuse and neglect by driving forward a multi-agency approach to working with and supporting children and young people.

The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021, updated in 2023, provides information to support practitioners to identify and respond to cases of child abuse and neglect. We are also developing national multi-agency training on inter-agency referral discussions (IRD), which are the start of the formal process of information sharing, assessment, analysis and decision-making following reported concerns about abuse or neglect of a child or young person. This will further support practitioners to prevent and intervene early so risk and harm to children and young people is recognised and acted on quickly and effectively.

We continue to learn from good practice both in Scotland and internationally to deliver positive action to reduce child abuse and neglect including initiatives like Scotland’s baby box, the Best Start Grant, Best Start Foods, Parent Club and universal free school meals for children from primary 1-5.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland run regular training courses aimed at organisations who work with children and young people and cover a range of topics regarding safeguarding and working with children and young people.

We also target newly registered organisations and signatories to ensure that they have a fuller understanding of safeguarding processes when they start to use disclosure products including the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme.

Since 2019, Disclosure Scotland have held 198 events to support organisations in understanding their legal duties in relation to PVG referrals about people who have displayed harmful behaviour towards children and young people. These have been attended by 1978 delegates from 979 different organisations.

We have also run 129 events entitled “Helping Employers Recruit Fairly” which aims to broaden the understanding of information disclosed by Disclosure Scotland, how to implement better risk assessment processes and make informed recruitment decisions. These have been attended by 1402 delegates from 390 different organisations.

All of Disclosure Scotland’s training products provide delegates with a range of materials to support their role in working with children and young people including links to downloadable guidance that is regularly reviewed and updated to ensure organisations have access to the most up to date information.

The Scottish Government is committed to making sure that the necessary resources and support are available for professionals and volunteers working in child protection roles.

We are working with partners and the workforce who support children and families to improve the skills, knowledge and shared values of all those who contribute to the national outcomes for children, young people and families through the implementation of Getting It Right for Every Child, UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, The Promise, and through delivery of our Early Child Development Transformational Change Programme.

The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland was updated in August 2023 and supports everyone who works with children, young people and their families in Scotland by outlining responsibilities and expectations regarding child protection. The National Guidance will be updated as necessary to remain up to date with significant legislative, policy or practice changes.

Last year, we commissioned the Scottish Social Services Council to lead on a refresh of the Common Core training framework for the workforce providing support to children, young people and families. The Framework focuses on the core skills, values and learning the workforce requires to deliver holistic family support and rights-based practice in accordance with UNCRC and GIRFEC principles.

We have also worked with partners on the development of NHS Education for Scotland eLearning resources to support health professionals in their child and adult protection roles. In 2022 four eLearning modules were published on Turas Learn, thereby improving accessibility to high quality learning and consistency in practice across Scotland.

Furthermore, we continue to work with partners to support the workforce to develop a wider trauma-informed approach to the provision of care. As part of the National Trauma Transformation Programme (NTTP), we continue to rollout 'Transforming Connections', a tailored ‘Trauma-Skilled’ level training and coaching package, to people who work alongside care experienced children and young people in priority sectors of the Children and Families workforce in Scotland.

To support the child protection workforce with learning and development, the Scottish Government is funding a National Learning and Development Co-ordinator post for two years. The post holder has worked with a stakeholder group and Scottish Government colleagues refreshed the National Framework for Child Protection Learning and Development in Scotland, which was published on 1 March 2024, and to develop a range of resources for Child Protection Committees (CPCs) which will be made available on a Knowledge Hub site later in March 2024. CPCs are the key local bodies for developing, implementing and improving child protection strategy across and between agencies, bodies and the local community.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland run regular training courses aimed at organisations who work with children and young people and cover a range of topics regarding safeguarding and working with children and young people.

We also target newly registered organisations and signatories to ensure that they have a fuller understanding of safeguarding processes when they start to use disclosure products including the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme.

Since 2019, Disclosure Scotland have held 198 events to support organisations in understanding their legal duties in relation to PVG referrals about people who have displayed harmful behaviour towards children and young people. These have been attended by 1978 delegates from 979 different organisations.

We have also run 129 events entitled “Helping Employers Recruit Fairly” which aims to broaden the understanding of information disclosed by Disclosure Scotland, how to implement better risk assessment processes and make informed recruitment decisions. These have been attended by 1402 delegates from 390 different organisations.

All of Disclosure Scotland’s training products provide delegates with a range of materials to support their role in working with children and young people including links to downloadable guidance that is regularly reviewed and updated to ensure organisations have access to the most up to date information.

The Scottish Government remain fully committed to the Verity House Agreement. Since the signing of the Verity House Agreement in June last year good progress has been made, and there are a number of positive examples of collaborative working between central and local government.

The Scottish Government is committed to an open and regular dialogue with Local government and are willing to meet at any time when any matters of concern arise. The level of engagement between our two spheres of government has never been so high.

The Scottish Government and COSLA meet regularly through a number of different forums under the Verity House Agreement to discuss progress towards our three shared priorities.

Revenue Scotland publish monthly data for Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) which sets out the number and value of transactions for residential LBTT, the Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) and non-residential leases and conveyances. These publications can be found on Revenue Scotland's website at the following link: Monthly LBTT Statistics | Revenue Scotland

Revenue Scotland also publish an Annual Summary of Trends in the Devolved Taxes which sets out detailed data and commentary for LBTT and Scottish Landfill Tax (SLfT). The latest publication covering 2022-23 was published in November 2023 and can be found at the following link: Annual Summary of Trends in the Devolved Taxes 2022/23 | Revenue Scotland