Chamber and committees

Throughout the 1140 hours expansion the Scottish Government has sought to improve conditions across the private, third and childminding workforce delivering funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC). This includes our investment to support local authorities to set sustainable rates at a level that enables payment of the real Living Wage to those workers delivering funded ELC. Payment of the real Living Wage is a key measure in tackling in work poverty, and Scotland is the only part of the UK to apply this to the ELC sector.

Overview of Local Authority Funding and Support for Early Learning and Childcare Providers: 2022-23 , highlights that average rates paid to providers in the private and third sector to deliver funded ELC to 3-5 year olds have increased by 57% between 2017 and 2022, from £3.68 per hour in 2017-18 to £5.77 per hour in 2022-23.

The investment for the payment of sustainable rates has supported real progress in pay. For example, in 2016, before the ELC expansion to 1140 hours, the Financial Review of Early Learning and Childcare in Scotland estimated that approximately 80% of practitioners delivering funded ELC in private and third sector providers were paid less than the real Living Wage.

The Financial Sustainability Health Check , published in August 2021, reported that 88% of private and third sector providers delivering funded ELC intended to pay the real Living Wage to all of their staff from August 2021.

However, public funding and Scottish Government policy can only effect a certain amount of change in pay. The childcare market is a mixed economy - the August 2021 Financial Sustainability Health Check reported that funding for the delivery of funded ELC accounted for, on average, around 33%-45% of overall income for private childcare services – and employers in the private and third sectors are responsible for making their own decisions about pay and conditions.

We are working with partners and sector representatives, including through our Real Living Wage and Fair Work Implementation Group, to understand any barriers to paying the real Living Wage and to ensuring all childcare staff perform their essential work under terms and conditions which meet Fair Work criteria.

I refer the member to the Scottish Government’s second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan. Further to the commitment set out in the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social care, we committed to a new target of creating 500 apprenticeship opportunities across NHS Scotland in 2022-2023, to support those wishing to join the health and social care workforce. We closely monitor NHS Boards progress towards promoting the range of opportunities available and their progress towards this target, including through taking period management information, and in our planning, assurance and scrutiny engagements with health board representatives.

The Scottish Government continues to work with key partners within health and social care to promote NHS careers with a focus on widening access and providing progressive career development pathways including exploration of “earn as you learn” models such as apprenticeships for new and existing staff.

ScotRail Trains Ltd. is currently developing a training plan with associated costings to roll out menopause awareness across the organisation. It is anticipated that this will include, among other things, “Train the Trainer” sessions with Henpicked, which will enable the delivery of awareness sessions across the organisation. Henpicked works with organisations to help develop the right menopause in the workplace training, education, policies and practices to make an organisation menopause friendly.

Scottish Rail Holdings has advised that ScotRail Trains Ltd.’s expenditure on menopause-related initiatives to date are as follows:-

• 2022 and 2023 - Annual Membership fee to Henpicked to become a Menopause Friendly Accredited organisation - £1500 plus VAT each year
• 2022 and 2023 - speakers fees for events for World Menopause Day/World Menopause Month – Total £1000

The control of invasive non-native species is already a priority in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy which states that a key aim for the Strategy is that by 2045:

“Harmful invasive non-native species (INNS) will be managed so that established INNS no longer degrade native habitats and species or impede their restoration and regeneration and new introductions are managed quickly and effectively”

The Strategy will be supported by a delivery plan which will set our approach to tackling INNS in Scotland, including the grey squirrel.

NatureScot, the key statutory agency for delivering the Biodiversity Strategy states in its business plan for 2022-23 that it will:

“Deliver invasive non-native species controls and reduce the biodiversity impacts of established invasive non-native species”

Work on the ground at present includes Scottish Government to support the work of Local Action Groups including the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative (SISI), an ambitious 5-year partnership project led by NatureScot that is tackling invasive non-native species alongside rivers and water courses in an area of 29,500km2 within northern Scotland.

Since joining the Scotland + Venice project in 2016, Architecture and Design Scotland has supported the commissioning and work of external curatorial teams on behalf of the Scotland + Venice partners, (Scottish Government, Creative Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, the British Council (Scotland), the V&A Dundee, and Architecture and Design Scotland).

Funding allocated directly by Architecture and Design Scotland towards the Scotland + Venice project in the years 2016-17 to 2022-23 is provided in the following table.

The Scottish Government carried out a consultation on the Future of Gaelic and Scots as part of the work to develop the proposed Scottish Languages Bill. As part of the consultation, the Gaelic and Scots Division undertook a variety of public engagement events to ensure views of local communities were reflected. This included attendance at conference run by the authors of the research, The Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community. The responses to the consultation are now being analysed and will help shape any future legislation.

Against the backdrop of continued impacts from Covid-19, public spending constraints and the cost of living crisis, we are doing all we can to protect Scotland’s culture and historic environment, to ensure our diverse and world-class cultural scene and rich heritage continue to thrive, delivering on the vision of the Culture Strategy.

The Scottish Government will invest £278m in Scotland’s culture and heritage sector in 2023-24 which will support a range of actions set out in the Culture Strategy. Further information about the breakdown of individual budget lines will be shared in the coming weeks. Additionally, we will publish a refreshed Culture Strategy Action Plan in spring 2023, which will set out how we will continue to deliver on the aims of the Culture Strategy.

We continue to support active farming and food production with direct payments to provide certainty to the industry. We delivered 2021 Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) payments to schedule with over £564 million issued. In 2022, we brought forward the payment date to as early in the year as was practicably possible in order to provide support to businesses with immediate cash flow challenges. Over 17,356 businesses have already benefitted from this change with around £417.4 million paid out to date.

The Scottish Government is working with the industry and partners with an interest in delivering a thriving, sustainable, rural economy, to co-develop and co-design future agricultural support structures and delivery, to offer clarity, and through a just transition, avoid cliff edges for Scotland’s farmers and crofters.

The Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board (ARIOB), co-chaired by Cabinet Secretary RAI and NFU Scotland President Martin Kennedy, provides advice to the Scottish Government on actions that will assist the sector in addressing the climate and biodiversity crises at pace, and enable it to make targeted investment for longer-term benefits and outcomes.

Scotland has been a member of the Open Government Partnership since 2016. The Open Government team works collaboratively with civil society to promote transparency, participation, inclusivity and accountability across the Scottish Government and internationally. This includes sharing learning with governments around the world, and funding to promote participation and co-production work in Scotland. Scottish Government strongly supports these priorities and recognises the value of this work. We are currently delivering Scotland’s third Open Government Action Plan, which includes a focus on health and social care, climate change, fiscal transparency, improving participation, and data and digital.

It is not possible to accurately identify costs to support membership of the Open Government Partnership for the years 2016 - 2020. This is due to changes in the organisation of teams and categorisation of resources.

The number of staff working to support membership of the Open Government Partnership since 2016 is comparable to current numbers of staff.

You will also want to note that the costs of the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights’ attendance at the OGP Europe Regional Meeting in October 2022 were recently published in response to S6W-13376 on 17 January 2023.

Breakdown of Open Government team approximate spend, excluding staff costs

All Ukrainian displaced persons have the right to access free NHS dental care in Scotland. They are also entitled to register as a NHS patient with a General Dental Practitioner, depending on whether the practice is taking on new NHS patients.

For children and adults under the age of 26, exemption from NHS dental charges is automatically applied. For Ukrainian displaced persons aged 26 or over, dentists have been advised to select ‘Universal Credit’ and then ‘evidence not produced’ when submitting GP17 claim forms for payment. Guidance on this was issued to Health Boards on 6 April 2022: https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/publications/nhs-scotland-services-ukraine.pdf .