Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises the negative impact the pandemic has had on some people’s mental health and wellbeing, including teachers and school staff. This has been evidenced through several UK and Scottish studies.

Since 2020, the Scottish Government has therefore made a package of support available for the education workforce which is designed to help staff look after their own wellbeing, those of colleagues and those they lead. This includes coaching and group sessions focussed on looking after individual mental health and wellbeing and that of any staff managed and also values based-leadership aimed at supporting teachers in the early phase of their career. An evaluation in 2022 found that 93% of participants report an increase in their confidence to manage their own mental health and wellbeing since engaging with this support.

Local Councils employ our teachers and school staff; as such they have a responsibility to ensure workplaces support and promote good mental health benefits for the individuals they employ.

The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for ensuring that local authorities comply with the legislation and requirements, and this includes the assessment of risks from asbestos.

The Health and Safety Executive undertakes school inspections to assess the management of risks from asbestos within schools.

The Scottish Government will consider the final revised EU environmental crime directive, once it is agreed, against our policy as stated in the Policy Statement issued under section 6 of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 to maintain alignment where appropriate with EU law, taking account of our existing actions to strengthen the legal protection of nature.

Conclusions drawn from the Health and Wellbeing Census are available on the Scottish Government's website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/health-and-wellbeing-census-scotland-2021-22/ .

It is essential that public services have a robust understanding of the issues affecting children and young people, so that appropriate support is put in place for them and their families. The Census data provides schools, education authorities, health and social care partners, as well as national Government, with the best source of evidence on children and young people’s health and wellbeing. The data collected in this first Census will provide a robust benchmark to measure future Census data collections against.

We will now work with local authorities to learn from their experiences of having undertaken the Census both to understand fully the benefit to them, and whether there are areas for improvement in the process.

All projects are subject to ongoing review and consideration. It is for NHS Grampian’s project team, in discussion with the contractor, to determine whether any client changes are actioned.

The Scottish Government has not had correspondence with Scottish Water regarding The Baird Family Hospital and The ANCHOR Centre. Scottish Water's engagement on this project is directly with NHS Grampian, who are responsible for delivering the project.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked Douglas Millican, Chief Executive, to respond. His response is as follows:

Since 1 April 2018, Scottish Water has approved 2775 burst allowance applications. The number by year is detailed in the following table.

The Health and Wellbeing census provides a dataset of just over 25,000 records from S4 to S6 pupils on relationships and sexual health. For the 16 local authorities who collected data, 39.1% of S4 to S6 pupils responded.

Before the introduction of the Health and Wellbeing Census in 2021, local authorities used a variety of approaches to gather the evidence they need to meet their duties to support pupil wellbeing, such as commissioning surveys at their own cost. Data gathered continues to cover issues relating to food and nutrition, sleep, relationships, bullying, sexual health, substance use and physical activity, as well as social media use and mental and emotional health and wellbeing.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is an absolute priority for the Scottish Government.

We know that children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing will have been affected during lockdown, and schools have a key role to play in supporting children’s and young people’s mental health. The Health and Wellbeing Census reported that across most of the measures, positive perceptions of life satisfaction, confidence and loneliness decrease up to S4, but the analysis shows small improvements (or no further decreases) for those in S5 and S6.

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 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.

Data on the proportion of school link enrolments at colleges by pupils in rural schools compared with those in urban schools is held by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

Information provided by the SFC shows that for 2021-22 around 20% of enrolments of school pupils at Scottish colleges come from rural areas of Scotland with around 80% from urban areas.