Chamber and committees

As we discussed in our meeting of 24 March and in my letter to you of 19 May, skills recognition is central to Scottish Government’s just transition ambitions, and is also set out in the North Sea Transition Deal. You will be aware that on 24 May OPITO published the People and Skills Strategy and the first of five Action Plans, which is focused on Aligning Offshore Standards. This work is supported by the Skills Passport Industry Steering Group which meets monthly, providing insight and sharing information to support the development of a Skills Passport. A range of energy industry organisations are represented on the Steering Group, ensuring different needs and perspectives across the industry are represented.

This must be an initiative led by industryand taken forward in partnership with the workforce. OPITO continue to engage with stakeholders, including the offshore unions. The Aligning Offshore Standards Action Plan, which includes key activities and timescales, was supported by unions at a recent meeting of the North Sea Transition Deal Delivery Group, attended by UNITE. The North Sea Transition Deal Delivery Group will continue to oversee delivery of the Deal commitments, including oversight of the Strategy and Action Plans.

Scottish Government funding schemes, in the main, do not fund community-run retrofit organisations directly.

However, a number of our schemes do support retrofitting. For example, our flagship Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), delivered by Local Energy Scotland, has offered advice to over 900 organisations and supported over 600 community and locally owned renewable projects throughout Scotland, offering funding of over £58 million since its inception in 2010. CARES has supported 119 organisations to retrofit decarbonised heat and/or install renewable generation into their buildings.

The following schemes also provide support to households, businesses and other eligible organisations for retrofitting, though not exclusively:

• Warmer Homes Scotland – more than £176 million has been invested through the scheme since its launch in September 2015 helping over 27,000 households throughout Scotland.
• Area Based Schemes – up until the end of the 2020-2021 programme, £400 million has been invested delivering 110,000 measures to homes since 2013.
• Home Energy Scotland loans and cashback – since 2017, the scheme has issued 6808 loans, valued at over £37 million, and 4097 cashback offers, valued at over £11 million, to existing homes.
• SME loans and cashback – since 2008, the scheme has paid close to £40 million in loans and cashback, funding more than 1627 projects.
• Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund – since August 2020, the fund has committed over £14 million to the retrofit of 1800 social homes across Scotland.
• Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme – this programme has provided grant support for the retrofitting of over 1000 homes to decarbonise their energy consumption.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09444 on 27 July 2022. 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 .

Audiology Waiting Times have not been published since 27 May 2014, following an agreement between the Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland that this was no longer required. Audiology services are currently measured as part of the 18 Weeks Referral to Treatment (RTT) standard. For more information on this standard, and to view the latest publication, please see the 18 Weeks RTT page . Please note that this publication does not go down to specialty level and shows the performance of NHSScotland and the Health Boards for all specialties only. This information can also be found at ISD Audiology Waiting Times website .

In January 2022 the Cabinet Secretary of Health and Social Care announced an Independent Review of Audiology would be established to examine hearing services provided to both children and adults in Health Boards across Scotland, to ensure public confidence in the quality and effectiveness of current service provision. The group will provide recommendations for a national plan for improvement of the service and its specific remit will be published by the Chair via its Terms of Reference in due course.

We provide year round support for children from low income families, including over the summer holiday period, through the Scottish Child Payment (worth £20 per week for every eligible child under the age of 6), Bridging Payments (worth up to £520 in 2022 with over 148,000 school age children benefitting and a further £130 paid for each eligible child ahead of the summer holidays) and School Clothing Grants (worth £120 for eligible primary school children and £150 for secondary). We recognise that holiday periods can present additional challenges for families, so we have provided local authorities with £21.75 million to fund free school meals alternatives for all eligible families. This is provided directly to families in the form of vouchers or cash payments. This year we have also invested a further £10 million into a targeted summer holiday programme, designed to reach those school age children and their families who can benefit most from access to free holiday childcare, activities and nutritious food.

In line with the Grant Agreement between Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd and ScotRail Trains Ltd, the first Service Level Commitment (SLC) has to be prepared within the first quarter from 1 April 2022 i.e. end of June 2022.

Transport Scotland’s will publish the Service Level Commitment on the Transport Scotland website once this process has been agreed and finalised.

There is no budget allocated as part of the Scottish Government marketing budget for 2022-2023 for campaigns on buses and coaches.

As the independent review of Additional Support for Learning (ASL) made clear, all teachers have a central role in assessing and supporting all children with additional support needs, including those from armed forces and veterans’ families.

Although the Scottish Government cannot mandate content for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses, as part of our jointly agreed ASL Action Plan, we have taken a number of actions to support the training and professional development of teachers:

• In 2021, the GTCS refreshed both the professional standards and the standards for ITE providers to make explicit reference to Additional Support Needs throughout.
• In June this year, the Scottish Universities Inclusion Group published an updated edition of the National Framework for Inclusion . This reflective tool supports both student and qualified teachers to continue developing their inclusive practice.
• Education Scotland, working collaboratively with the ADES National Transitions Officer and Forces Children Scotland, developed a professional learning resource – Supporting Armed Forces Families . This resource provides information about deployment, mobility, transitions and the impacts these can have on children from Armed Forces families.

As part of our ongoing work to implement the ASL Action Plan, we will continue to support the training and professional development of teachers in developing inclusive practice which supports all learners.

Further, the statutory Code of Practice on Additional Support for Learning which provides guidance to education authorities on their duties under the Act, makes clear that children of parents in the Armed Forces may have additional support needs.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act 2004 (as amended) requires education authorities to identify, provide for and to review the additional support needs of their pupils, including those from armed forces and veterans’ families. Local authorities are supported to carry out their duties under the Act by the statutory Supporting Learners’ Code of Practice, which provides guidance to education authorities and schools on their duties under the Act.

The Scottish Government and COSLA published our joint national response to the independently chaired review of implementation of additional support for learning in October 2020. The joint action plan sets out the measures we will take to implement her recommendations.

We published an updated action and progress report on 1 st November 2021. The action plan and governance arrangements for this work are available from: Additional support for learning action plan: progress report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Local authorities should consider these recommendations as part of implementation of additional support for learning policy locally.

In addition, the Scottish Government chairs the Scottish Armed Forces Education Support Group (SAFESG). This group takes a strategic approach to supporting the issues affecting children armed forces children and young people, working closely with Education Scotland, the Ministry of Defence, Tri-Service reps and third sector partners.

We also recently provided £50,000 of funding to continue the ADES National Transitions Officer (NTO). The NTO plays a key a role in supporting schools and school leaders, particularly through the Service Pupil Champions and head teacher’s networks. These networks enable the sharing of information and best practice among all local authorities, to improve the support offered to children and young people from armed forces and veterans’ families.

The Scottish Government does not hold this data.

The recruitment and employment of teachers in local authority schools are matters for individual councils, as they have the statutory duty for education expenditure and to deliver education.

Councils have the responsibility for providing a complement of teachers and all other education staff which best meets the needs of their schools and pupils within the resources available.