Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. Scottish Health Service Costs are published annually in arrears by Public Health Scotland.

The most recent cost book data available covers 2020-21 and was published on 22 February 2022. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services spend is not routinely published in the cost book publication but is available from Public Health Scotland on request through [email protected].

Data for 2021-22 is not currently available, but will be available on request after publication of the 2021-22 cost book, which is currently scheduled for November 2022.

The Scottish Government is unable to comment on a live investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. Our priority is to support Scotland’s strategically important steel sector and the highly-skilled jobs it provides.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting and empowering women and girls to reach their full potential through our sustainable and inclusive economic growth ambitions.

In our recently published Best Start, Bright Futures: Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-26, we committed to building on existing work to remove barriers to employment, taking a strategic and intersectional approach to tackling employment inequalities. We know that the voice of lived experience is vital in developing and implementing policy to tackle poverty, and will continue to work with partners in the delivery of this plan.

To incorporate understanding of women’s experiences, we will be working in partnership with our key stakeholders and partners, as well as key advocacy groups who work directly with parents in the priority families groups outlined within the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan. We have committed to establishing a Parental Lived Experience Panel in Summer 2022, to help inform our activity around employability. This will build on the on the success of our existing Lived Experience Panel, which has been invaluable in co-designing No One Left Behind, and aligns with our wider commitments to embedding the Scottish Approach to Service Design in employability. Work is also underway to develop a lifetime skills offer to support individuals and businesses to develop the skills needed now and in the future, and as these proposals are developed, we will link with key expert groups to inform the process.

The Scottish Government is not at this stage considering options for a national slavery museum. The remit of the independent Empire, Slavery and Scotland’s Museums steering group is to explore the most appropriate model and mechanism of delivery of a museum. The group was asked not to explore costings or specific locations of a potential building.

The Empire, Slavery and Scotland’s Museums steering group is an independent group and the Scottish Government is not, therefore, able to comment on its discussions.

Since its launch in October 2020, the value of the Self-Isolation Support Grant has been aligned to the value of the Real Living Wage (RLW) during the period that a worker might be required to self-isolate.

The Grant was initially available to workers in receipt of Universal Credit, but was expanded to workers who earn less than the RLW on 16 February 2021.

The Scottish Government recognises that physical bank branches provide an important service for many individuals and businesses across Scotland. The closing of branches in Scotland raises concerns around access to cash and banking services - particularly for rural communities, vulnerable individuals and digitally excluded customers

I engage regularly with the banking sector through bilateral ministerial meetings and the Financial Services Growth and Development Board, engagements in which concerns around the ability for consumers to access cash and banking services are raised. Following the Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) announcement in March to shut 19 Bank of Scotland branches, I met with LBG representatives to discuss their decision and Governments concerns on the potential impacts on affected communities.

The responsibility for the regulation of the financial services industry is reserved to the UK Government and Scottish Ministers are unable to intervene in the commercial decisions made by banks. HM Treasury announced their intention last year to legislate on “access to cash” and in the Queen’s Speech on 10 May 2022, “ensuring continued access to cash across the UK” is referenced as an intended outcome of the Financial Services and Markets Bill.

The Scottish Government is ready to work constructively with the UK Government on this matter to ensure that Scotland’s communities have fair access to convenient, local cash and banking services.

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People, published in September 2021, which specifies service standards that all children’s services should follow, to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland.

In 2021-22, through our Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund, we allocated around £40 million to NHS Boards across Scotland to improve their Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Neurodevelopmental services for children and young people.

The Scottish Government understands that delivering service improvements can only be achieved with the right workforce capacity and capability. Therefore to support this, £3.06 million from the Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund was allocated to NHS Boards in 2021-22 to build professional capacity within Boards to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs.

Against a backdrop of a 6% increase in NHS Psychology staffing in 2021, we are also working in collaboration with NHS Education for Scotland and NHS Boards to undertake a UK level National Psychology Recruitment drive. In addition, we are increasing the student intake for Psychology Masters and Doctorate training programmes and creating new roles, and Enhanced Psychology Practitioners in primary care, community, early years, and schools. These professionals can support the delivery of the National Neurodevelopment Specification, including contributing to diagnosis, but also importantly in training and support for universal services and delivering family support interventions tailored for children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs.

Alongside the important role played by psychologists, other registered health and social work professionals can be trained in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnostic tools such as Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), and provide ASD assessment, contributing to diagnosis. Diagnosis is recommended from at least 2 professionals using a number of information sources, including parental reports.

NHS Scotland expenditure on mental health, including children and adolescents, is reported in the Scottish Health Service Costs , published annually by ISD Scotland.

Expenditure in financial years 2016-17 to 2020-21 in NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Forth Valley and NHS Dumfries and Galloway, identified as relating to mental health services delivered in hospitals or in the community aimed specifically at children and adolescents, is shown in Table 1. The financial resource allocated to reduce waiting times for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is not held by Public Health Scotland.

Table 1:

The Scottish education system is set up in such a way that decision making is devolved to the most appropriate level, enabling local education authorities to make choices that meet their local circumstances and needs. As a result schools, supported by their local authority, plan the reading curriculum to meet the needs of the learners within their own local context.

Access to literacy specific research is available through the National Literacy Professional Learning Community on Glow.