Chamber and committees

We have committed to significantly increasing the level of the Scottish Child Payment, following the rollout to under 16s, and doubling it to £20 in the lifetime of this Parliament. In addition, as set out in our cooperation agreement with the Scottish Green Party we have a shared aspiration to actively seek ways to accelerate that commitment, including looking at options for staged increases. Final decisions about timing and increases will factor in to the spending review and be taken in the relevant budget.

Scottish Child Payment is unparalleled across the UK and we have already helped over 108,000 children, however our anti-poverty efforts are being seriously undermined by UK Government welfare cuts. So if Mr Balfour is serious about tackling poverty, can I suggest he take this opportunity to call on his own colleagues in Westminster to reverse its plans to cut the £20 increase to Universal Credit.

All of the services highlighted in the question, apart from social care in prisons, must or can currently be delegated to integration authorities. The Independent Review of Adult Social Care recommended the formation of a National Care Service, and the reform of Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to take full responsibility for commissioning and procurement of adult social care. Despite the Independent Review’s focus on adult services, it also highlighted integrated arrangements worked especially well where all social care, social work, and community based healthcare were delegated to the greatest extent, and highlighted potential dangers of fragmentation of services if a National Care Service was only developed for adult social care services.

The Review’s recommendations were based on extensive evidence gathering and engagement, as summarised in the evidence paper published alongside the main report. We have carefully analysed the Independent Review, including its evidence and recommendations, in order to develop proposals for the National Care Service.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on the scope of the National Care Service. All responses to the consultation and engagement events will be carefully analysed to inform the Government’s position on what services will be included in the remit of the National Care Service.

The proposals contained in the National Care Service consultation paper are based on the findings of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care (IRASC), which engaged extensively with people and organisations who have lived experience of using social care, including unpaid carers as well as trade unions, providers in the third sector and charitable organisations, and staff from local authorities. The IRASC met with over 1,000 people in total.

Prior to the election, Scottish Government and COSLA published a Joint Statement of Intent outlining how we would work together to deliver a number of areas in the IRASC. This covered topics including fair work, non-residential charging, overhaul of eligibility criteria and support for unpaid carers. There has been ongoing engagement with COSLA to take forward the Joint Statement.

We regularly meet and engage with stakeholders and partners, including trade unions, carers organisations, third sector organisations and professional bodies as part of our work to improve social care. A programme of formal engagement with relevant stakeholders is taking place during the consultation period, and engagement will continue after the consultation has closed.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02179 on
‎ 1 September 2021. 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 .

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented and continues to present unprecedented challenges for businesses across Scotland. Uncertainty in the labour market has led to many employers delaying and pausing recruitment decisions, which is impacting on apprenticeship starts.

Prior to the pandemic, we consistently exceeded annual Apprenticeship targets and were on track to meet our target of 30,000 Modern and Graduate Apprenticeships starts by 2020-21.

The Scottish Government will continue to work collaboratively with Skills Development Scotland to maximise apprentice uptake. As set out in our manifesto, we will build back up to 30,000 starts and assess demand to see how much further we can go, supporting the long-term future of work-based learning and our economy.

Official statistics published by Skills Development Scotland on 10 August 2021 show a positive increase in Modern Apprenticeship (MA) starts compared to the same time last year. There were 3,402 Modern Apprenticeship starts from 01 April to end of June this year – 3.7 times the number of MA starts at the same time last year. MA starts this quarter are still 21.5% lower than pre-pandemic levels in Q1 2019-20, reflecting continuing challenges from COVID-19 as many employers make difficult business decisions.

Scottish Government collaborates with a range of partners to ensure that schools have the information, advice and support to engage with both COP26 specifically, and climate change issues and climate change education more broadly.

Education Scotland, as the national inspection and improvement agency for education, is taking steps to help schools to engage with the themes of the COP26 summit, and to consider how and in what ways they could further improve their approach to climate education and Learning for Sustainability (LfS) at school level.

Highlights and resources include the following:

'Countdown to COP' will be an online initiative aimed at early years and primary to support engagement with COP26 and its five themes (nature, energy transition, finance, clean transport, adaptation and resilience). Countdown to COP will begin on 13 September and run to 29 October, although resources are not time-sensitive and can therefore be used beyond these dates. Countdown to COP will be promoted through Education Scotland's communications channels and its Local Authorities Network.

Scotland's Assembly , delivered by Education Scotland in partnership with the e-Sgoil initiative and available via the Glow system, will be focusing on COP and hearing from people working in the thematic areas across Scotland.

Education Scotland is working closely with Sustainability Partnerships (a teacher group based in Edinburgh and the Lothians) to develop a template resource pack that can be used by schools, education authorities and others to run their own COP26-style summits both locally and regionally.

The Learning for Sustainability Awards 2021 are being held in partnership with The Daily Record and will help to gather good practice examples of Learning for Sustainability across Scotland. Award categories are: Youth; Practitioner; Leadership; Learning Community; Educational Supporter; and Community Learning and Development.

Local authorities, funded by Scottish Government, also provide a key role in providing their own information resources to schools. A COP26/Learning for Sustainability Local Authority Forum is being run by Education Scotland and enables all 32 local authorities to share and plan activity around COP26 and Learning for Sustainability. Members of this forum are also planning a professional learning programme for post-COP26. One example of information and education resources and activities provided via local authorities is Glasgow City Council's 'Our Dear Green Place' initiative, launched on 12 May 2021. The local authority has put in place a range of resources to ensure access and engagement with both COP26 and Our Dear Green Place resources and professional learning. The resources will be continually updated as practitioner and partner engagement progresses.

An Education Scotland COP26 Partner Forum (jointly chaired with YouthLink Scotland) is providing a means for more than 50 Third Sector partners to co-ordinate their various offers for young people leading up to, during and post-COP26. Partner resources and offers are being shared with schools through a 'Wakelet'.

In addition to the above, Scottish Government funds Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) to provide the Eco-Schools and Climate Ready Classrooms programmes. As part of the lead up to COP26 KSB will be offering three new interactive teaching and training sessions: a week of workshops for upper primary classes; a Continuing Professional Development session for primary and secondary educators; and a climate action workshop for high school pupils and Eco-Committees.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 require Scottish Ministers to review the requirements at least once every 21 days. This review took place on 24 August 2021 where it was agreed that the existing Covid-19 requirements be retained for a further three weeks, and will be subject to review at that time.

As part of that ongoing review we have made a very minor amendment to the principal regulations to enable performers to perform or rehearse for a performance without face coverings in situations on stage where the wearing of a face covering is not possible, and distancing or partitioning is not possible. This exemption will only apply in situations where there is either a partition or a distance of at least one metre between performers and other people (including the audience) but that does not include people who are performing or rehearsing with the performers or assisting with the performance or rehearsal. Scottish Government will publish guidance to supplement these regulations.

The Regulations have been published at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ssi/2021/299 .

Any assessment of the number of employees required to carry out future trading standards work is a matter for councils and their national body COSLA to undertake. Trading Standards Officers are employed by Scotland’s local authorities, who are independent corporate bodies, responsible for the management and sustainability of their workforce. Scottish Ministers engage routinely with COSLA which provides an opportunity for areas of concern for local government to be raised should our partners in local government believe this issue requires further discussion in future.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of antisocial behaviour cases reported since 1999.

Since its formation as a national force in 2013/14, Police Scotland publish information on the number of publicly reported antisocial behaviour incidents. This is provided in the table below though should be interpreted with some caution as it is drawn from a live operational database, and not produced as Official Statistics. As the Highlands & Islands division was not added to Police Scotland’s National Command and Control system until 2018/19, data for this year onwards is not comparable with preceding years. Furthermore Police Scotland have noted that the reported increase in 2020-21 is mainly due to the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic, with a rise in complaints and neighbour disputes relating to potential breaches of Covid-19 restrictions.

As not all antisocial behaviour is reported to the police, measuring change over time is best done using population-based statistics. The Scottish Crime & Justice Survey shows the proportion of adults who feel people behave in an antisocial manner in their area has fallen from 46% in 2008-09 to 33% in 2019-20 (with no change identified between 2018-19 and 2019-20).

Trading Standards Officers are employed by Scotland’s local authorities. Local authorities are independent corporate bodies, responsible for the management of their workforce. The outcome and response to the findings of the SCOTSS survey is therefore a matter for councils and their national body, COSLA. However, in recognition of the sustainability challenges facing the service, we understand that SCOTSS and COSLA continue to engage on developing a workforce strategy for the future.