Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13151 on 6 January 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

As Mr Marra is now aware, there was no announcement on class sizes in my statement to Parliament on 8 December. Mr Marra has now confirmed that his question is about the reduction in class contact time.

We are continuing to discuss the Programme for Government commitment to reduce class contact time by one-and-a-half hours per week for teachers through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT). The SNCT is responsible for teachers’ terms and conditions, and as such it will be for the SNCT to agree the implementation of this change.

In 2022-23, we distributed £32m across all Children’s Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs). The purpose of this funding was to build local service capacity for transformation and to support the local scaling of existing transformational practice of holistic whole family support. This is being provided on a recurring, multi-year basis to 2025-26.

A package of activity aimed at supporting local transformation has commenced, including establishing collaborative partnerships between 3 CSPPs and a dedicated, multi-disciplinary national support team for transformation. A Learning into Action network is also being established. The aim is to ensure that all CSPPs are supported to come together to share learning and approaches, facilitate peer support, collaborate, and have solution focused discussions around the barriers and opportunities around whole system change in holistic family support.

Whole Family Wellbeing Funding (WFWF) is being used to support the resource and staffing requirements of this work; as well as the commissioning of external evaluation. This will evaluate the implementation and initial impacts of the programme to help shape and develop activity across WFWF going forward. Additionally, research has been commissioned to support continuous improvement of the transformation support provided to the CSPPs as well as to generate learning about how transformational capability is built. The final costs associated for this work in 2022-23 will be confirmed following the end of the financial year.

Multi-year funding allocations are also being finalised which will support wider transformational activity across Scottish Government portfolios which will support the preventative, person-centred ambitions and outcomes of the WFWF.

The agriculture bill will reaffirm our commitment to the highest production standards which are underpinned by Animal Health and Welfare standards, environmental stewardship conditions, and fair working conditions. As such high quality food production is a broad term encompassing a range of requirements individually defined through regulation and guidance such as the cross compliance regime.

The Scottish Government is aware of the decline of wading birds in Scotland. Wading bird ecology is complicated and varies between species. However, it appears wader declines in Scotland are linked to low breeding success which could be due a range of reasons. The changes in the Scottish countryside in recent decades has resulted in many wader habitats being lost. Some of this loss is the result of land management changes designed to increase agricultural efficiency. Increased afforestation also appears to adversely affect waders which naturally prefer landscapes with fewer trees. Higher numbers of generalist predators in the countryside may also leading to the waders that do nest from successfully producing young.

The Terrestrial Breeding Birds Official Statistic 1994-2021 was recently published by NatureScot https://www.nature.scot/doc/official-statistic-terrestrial-breeding-birds-2022

The latest figures (1994-2021) show that the decline in wetland birds is 17% rather than the 19% shown when compared to the 2019 value. Note that direct comparisons with the previous figure of 19% (1994-2019) are not possible due to the way the data are calculated.

The Scottish Government supports the work being done by Working for Waders initiative which was started in 2017 to tackle the decline of wading birds across Scotland. The project is open to anyone with an interest in waders and is currently co-chaired by SRUC and NatureScot, which includes public bodies, and is supported by conservation organisations, research organisations, individual farmers, gamekeepers and birdwatchers. The Working for Waders Action Groups are focusing on collaborative on-the-ground work, predator control, habitat management and developing best practice with a view to addressing the decline in our waders.

The Scottish Government also provides support to farmers, crofters and land managers through its Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS). The scheme encourages land management practices which can directly/indirectly benefit water birds, as well as other wildlife.

The Species on the Edge project, which is a partnership of NatureScot and seven conservation charities, is dedicated to improving habitats for 37 priority species. This includes enhancing habitat quality and availability; sowing and growing vital host and food plants for vulnerable species; excluding predators from sensitive sites; and removing invasive non-native species which will also benefit other wildlife including water birds. https://www.nature.scot/scotlands-biodiversity/species-edge-sote/species-edge-about-project

The Scottish Government has also made a commitment to invest at least £65m in multi-year funding available through the Nature Restoration Fund which specifically funds the restoration of habitats across Scotland, including coastal habitats, thereby helping to address declines in water birds. Since its launch in 2021, we have started over 100 projects, putting Scotland’s species, habitats and seas back on the road to recovery.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS do not currently hold this type of report and is not aware of any structural issues affecting these accommodation halls.

The Enhanced Psychology Practice (EPP) training course was established by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) in 2021, with the first round of training commencing in October of that year. Training numbers so far as follows;

• 14 learners from the Adult EPP Cohort 1 have completed training. 5 learners from Cohort 1 are still to complete due to extensions. Cohort 2 commenced in April 2022, with 22 learners currently in training.
• The Children and Young People (CYP) EPP pilot cohort commenced in April 2022 with 10 learners currently in training.
• Interviews concluded for the November 2022 cohorts of EPP-A and EPP-CYP learners in August. NES HAS issued offers for 32 places across both programmes.
• When at full capacity, an annual intake of approximately 100 learners will be possible. This will form a rolling programme of recruitment over several intake cycles.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) estimates that capacity for up to 100 newly created posts can be created each year when the programme reaches full capacity, with scope to employ up to 300 by 2026.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of providing compassionate, person-centred support for people who have been bereaved by suicide. This is reflected in the Scottish Government and COSLA’s new suicide prevention strategy and action plan, Creating Hope Together, which published in September. The strategy is supported by the Programme for Government commitment to double funding for suicide prevention to £2.8m per annum by the end of this Parliamentary term.

The new action plan includes a commitment to roll out bereavement support across Scotland, drawing on the evaluation of the current Suicide Bereavement Support Service pilot. The Scottish Government funds this pilot in two Health Board areas; Penumbra leads delivery of the pilot in Ayrshire and Arran and Change Mental Health (formerly Support in Mind Scotland) leads delivery in Highland. The total cost of the pilot service is £255,000 per annum, and this funding, split between the two organisations, has been allocated in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Additionally, we have allocated Cruse Scotland a total of £16,780 for 2021-22 and £33,560 in 2022-23 to provide bereavement support in workplaces which have been affected by the suicide of a colleague.

The decision to freeze the non-domestic poundage rate at 49.8p is expected to save ratepayers £308 million in 2023-24, compared to uprating the poundage in line with September’s measure of CPI which would have resulted in a poundage rate of 54.8p in 2023-24. This figure is broken down in Table 1 by property class, as the Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors. Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

These tables are based on an imputed Valuation Roll based on an incomplete draft Valuation Roll, as used by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts December 2022, and are therefore subject to change. Figures in this table are rounded to the nearest £1,000.

Table 1: Gross savings to ratepayers of poundage freeze compared with maintaining real terms income, by property class