Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is currently preparing the first national Good Food Nation Plan, as required by the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022.

The national Good Food Nation Plan will set out the main outcomes in relation to food-related issues that we wish to see achieved in Scotland; the indicators or other measures by which progress towards the outcomes can be assessed; and the policies we will pursue in order to secure those outcomes. The Plan must be prepared with regard to the scope for food-related issues to affect outcomes in relation to, among other things, health and physical and mental wellbeing, and the environment. It must also have regard to the principle that high quality, nutritious and culturally appropriate food has the ability to improve the health and physical and mental wellbeing of people, and to the role of a sustainable food system and supply chain in contributing to mitigation of climate change, halting and reversing of loss of biodiversity and improvement in animal welfare.

The national Good Food Nation Plan offers us an opportunity to take a fresh approach to food policy in Scotland, and to consider all aspects of the food system.

As a statutory inquiry, The Edinburgh Tram Inquiry is independent of the Scottish Government.

Questions concerning the conclusion of the inquiry, including its timeline, are a matter for the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry team and Lord Hardie.

We are aware of the update on inquiry’s website advising that Lord Hardie’s report has been handed over to the publishing company and is due to be with them for several weeks. We look forward to receiving Lord Hardie’s report when it is ready.

The Scottish Government have been working with Scottish Swimming, Education Scotland, sport scotland and Scottish Water to develop interventions and approaches to provide opportunities for children to become confident, safer and competent swimmers.

sport scotland’s investment into Scottish Swimming includes support to enable delivery of 4 school swimming pilot projects for evaluation and to develop a School Swimming Framework that can be used by partners.

The Delivery Model Pilots will take place across 2022-23 to support schools to understand and consider different approaches and models of delivery to help educate and provide opportunities for children across Scotland to experience the water in a fun, safe and inclusive approach. This reflects the many different scenarios faced by schools when deciding how best to support young people to access school swimming.

Active Schools has a key role to play in complementing PE in schools by developing opportunities for physical activity and sport. Specific activities, such as swimming, provided through Active Schools is at the discretion of each local authority/Active Schools team.

In addition Active Schools plays a role in supporting local swimming clubs to link to schools, making pupils aware of the opportunities that exist to participate in swimming in the club setting, and we would encourage local authorities to provide Active Schools activity free of charge to ensure activity is accessible to all.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17625 on 15 May 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is an absolute priority for the Scottish Government and we continue to prioritise support for mental health and wellbeing in schools.

We support our local authority partners with £16 million in funding to ensure that every secondary school has access to counselling services to support delivery of the commitment. We also published a Whole School Approach Framework and a professional learning resource to assist school staff in supporting children and young people’s mental health in schools.

To help raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing, we currently support NUS Think Positive which sign-posts help for students, where colleges and universities can share good practice and where, through Student Mental Health Agreements, students’ associations and institutions collaborate on institutional mental health practices.

We will also be producing a Student Mental Health Plan which, by linking to our Suicide Prevention Strategy and the forthcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which will assist in bringing all aspects of mental health to the fore.

Reform of the employee contribution structure in the NHS Pension Scheme (Scotland) was postponed from 1 April 2023 because of ongoing concerns about the cost of living pressures affecting NHS staff. We will shortly publish a revised consultation on proposals to reform the contribution structure with effect from 1 October 2023.

The Scottish Government continues to invest in a range of mental health and wellbeing training and education materials to support all staff working with children and young people.

This includes the NHS Education Scotland (NES) Children and Young People's Mental Health and Wellbeing Knowledge and Skills Framework , published in 2021 and available to the entire children and families workforce through the Turas learn platform. The knowledge and skills framework is accompanied by a Digital Learning Map, which has been available since December 2022. This enables staff to access high quality training resources and plan their learning journeys; whilst assisting leaders in the development of learning and development pathways for staff groups.

Through the Scottish Government/COSLA Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board, NES worked with a range of stakeholder groups to identify ways to encourage wider use of the Knowledge and Skills Framework and Digital Learning Map. This work led to the development of new resources and improvements such as a training checklist, a ‘One Good Adult’ job description and an evaluation toolkit to make it easier for all professionals to make best use of the Framework and Learning Map.

In addition, in June 2021, Scottish Government launched a new professional learning resource available to all school staff as part of our Mental Health and Wellbeing: Whole School Approach Framework. This new resource, developed by the Mental Health in Schools Working Group, will help to ensure all school staff can recognise the range of mental health and wellbeing concerns that young people may experience and work effectively to support them.

Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) has been rolled out in in seven Health boards including NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Dumfries & Galloway, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian and The State Hospital.

The six North of Scotland Boards have worked collaboratively together to develop a regional HEPMA and have implemented capability for the region. NHS Grampian, NHS Highland, NHS Tayside and NHS Orkney have gone live and are now planning for a wider roll out across each of their estate. Both NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles are finalising preparations for go live in the coming weeks.

Work is underway to rollout HEPMA systems in the remaining Health Boards of NHS Borders, NHS Fife and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital. We expect these implementations to begin in 2024.

The 2022 Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL) data tells us that 79% of P7 pupils achieved the expected Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) level for reading by the end of primary school, which represents an increase of around 4 percentage points on the previous year. 2022 also saw increases in overall pass rates for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher English since the last exam year in 2019.

Education Scotland continues to support teachers’ understanding of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in the area of reading at national, regional and local levels. Their literacy networks, the National Literacy Network and the Literacy and English Curriculum Network, provide the forums to share effective literacy practice with local authorities and schools.

A National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL) co-led by Education Scotland, Scottish Government and ADES, is underway to identify excellence as well as opportunities for improvement in literacy. The NRIL programme board consists of representatives from a range of stakeholder organisations including each of the six Regional Improvement Collaboratives and The Scottish Council of Deans of Education.

In addition, the Scottish Government also funds the Scottish Book Trust to deliver a range of programmes aimed at improving a young person’s literacy levels and encouraging a reading for pleasure culture in schools, at home and in the community.

Staff welfare, including consideration of caring responsibilities, is a matter for SFRS as the employer.

One of the key priorities in the Fire and Rescue Framework 2022 is that SFRS continues to promote a culture that values inclusion, promotes fairness, equality and respect for all. This is reflected in the current SFRS Strategic Plan and in the HR policies SFRS has in place to support staff with caring responsibilities.