Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07563 on 22 April 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.

Since the start of the pandemic the Scottish Government has provided local authorities with £240 million of additional investment, over two financial years (2020-21 and 2021-22), specifically for the recruitment of more education staff, and a further £145.5 million of permanent funding has been allocated from April 2022.

The recruitment and deployment of teachers is a matter for individual local authorities, and they are responsible for using available resources to provide a complement of staff, including Lead Teachers, which meets the needs of each of their schools and its pupils based on local needs and priorities.

Setting and paying the handling fee is a matter for return-point operators and the scheme administrator, as provided for by regulation 11 of the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020. That is in line with the principle of industry leadership of the scheme, and the Scottish Government is not involved in this process.

The Memorandum of Understanding for additional investment in the Aberdeen City Region allows for up to £10 million of funding to help extend digital infrastructure across the region. To date £5 million of this funding has been spent.

£2 million was invested in the City Network Extension project which connected 57 council sites to full fibre with build completing in 2021. This investment successfully stimulated around £40 million of commercial investment across the region by CityFibre and Vodafone who are utilising this infrastructure to help extend the reach of full fibre broadband across the region. In January 2022 CityFibre announced a further £19 million of investment in Aberdeen.

£3 million was invested in the Full Fibre Infrastructure project which will connect 192 public sector and NHS sites across Aberdeenshire. To date, 190 sites have been connected with one site expected to be completed in the coming months, and the final site – an additional site made possible by cost savings – to be connected once construction is completed in summer 2023.

We continue to work closely with the Aberdeen City Region Deal team as they develop options for the remaining funding.

Scottish Ministers are still considering the wealth of information provided through the recent National Care Service (NCS) public consultation.

In that consultation we sought views on a remit for the NCS to develop and manage a National Commissioning and Procurement Structure of Standards and Processes for ethical commissioning and procuring of social care services and supports. We will develop the approach to national and local level ethical commissioning and procurement with partners, stakeholders and those who deliver and receive care.

Local authority and other public service social care provision will remain important in delivering social care.

We know that the pandemic has had a significant impact on the mental health and wellbeing of many children and young people. There is help available for anyone struggling with their mental health, including support for young people feeling suicidal – details are set out on the NHS24 website. Young people who are struggling are urged to speak to a trusted adult; to contact their GP; seek help via the NHS24 helpline on 111, or call Childline on 0800 11 11.

The Scottish Government set up the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG) to oversee the delivery of the Suicide Prevention Action Plan ‘Every Life Matters’, published in 2018. The Plan continues to deliver a wide range of actions, including: improving suicide prevention skills of the workforce; ensuring effective, compassionate support to anyone in crisis, and supporting local suicide prevention planning. In addition, the NSPLG identified restricting access to means of suicide as a priority during the pandemic, and is currently drawing together international evidence to identify effective approaches to reducing access to means of suicide for people in crisis, including self-poisoning.

The NSPLG is setting up a Youth Advisory Group to bring together young people with lived experience of suicide, self-harm and poor mental health. This Group will ensure suicide prevention policies and approaches are designed to reach, and support, children and young people; this includes informing the new suicide prevention strategy which will publish in September. Finally, the NSPLG is planning a social media campaign over the coming months aimed at young people, with the objective of encouraging young people to talk more openly about suicide, and to seek help.

We recognise that for some people self-poisoning is a form of self-harm rather than a suicide attempt, and the Government is actively developing a stand-alone self-harm strategy to ensure the right policies and support are in place for people who self-harm. We are currently working closely with stakeholders and people with lived experience to inform the Strategy and supporting Action Plan. We are already investing approximately £1.5 million over three years to Penumbra to pilot self-harm support services for people currently self-harming, or people at risk of self-harming. The pilots will begin over the Summer, with the learning providing valuable insight to the development of the strategy.

We know that providing emotional support to school age children is vital, and we provide local authorities with £16m per annum so that every secondary school has access to counselling support. Additionally, a learning resource has been developed for school staff to help them recognise the signs of poor mental health among young people, including signs of self-harm, and giving them skills to respond.

Finally, having provided £11.25 million to local authorities to respond to the mental health impact of the pandemic on children and young people in Financial Year 20/21, since January 2021, we have provided significant additional funding enable them to deliver further mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people in their communities. This new investment totalled £15 million in Financial Year 21/22 and we are committed to doubling the funding for community mental health supports over the lifetime of this Parliament. In 2021-22 this funding included £2.87 million to local authorities within NHS Grampian, which has enabled a range of services including ‘Fit Like’ Family Wellbeing Hubs in Aberdeen, digital mental health support in Aberdeenshire and whole family support in Moray.

The recruitment and deployment of teachers is a matter for individual local authorities, and they are responsible for using the resources available to them to provide a complement of staff, including Lead Teachers, which meets the needs of each of their schools and its pupils based on local needs and priorities.

At the time of the Summary Statistics for Schools In Scotland 2021 publication, there were no Lead Teachers employed in schools. This data was collected in September 2021 and therefore will not reflect the current position.

Additional places were funded in academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21 to take into account the impact of changes to the SQA exams as a result of COVID-19. In the 2022-23 Scottish Budget it was announced a further £21m was allocated for the ongoing support of these additional places for the continuation of their studies.

The number of funded places for 2022-23 will be finalised when the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) publishes their final funding allocations in May 2022. With the exception of controlled subjects, the Scottish Government does not specify allocations of funded places for new entrants to university, as this decision is made by universities as autonomous institutions.

The Scottish Government appointed Dr Colin Church to act as Chair of the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland. As independent Chair, Dr Church determined the Review process, including seeking evidence from stakeholders through a written Call for Evidence and commissioning further research to inform the Review. Dr Church also held a series of public stakeholder events, which were attended by representatives from the waste industry as well as community groups, local authorities, non-governmental organisations and members of the public. Following these events, which were open to any individual or organisation who wished to attend, Dr Church held invitation-only roundtable discussions, one of which focused on representatives from industry and trade bodies.

Scottish Ministers are still considering the wealth of information provided through the recent National Care Service (NCS) public consultation.

In that consultation we sought views on a remit for the NCS to develop and manage a National Commissioning and Procurement Structure of Standards and Processes for ethical commissioning and procuring of social care services and supports. We will develop the approach to national and local level ethical commissioning and procurement with partners, stakeholders and those who deliver and receive care.