Chamber and committees

The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 sets out a statutory duty for local authorities to provide adoptive families with the support that they require, like the provision of counselling, guidance and any other assistance in relation to the adoption process that the local authority considers appropriate in the circumstances of that particular case.

As the support required by adopters and their families varies significantly from case to case, the Act provides the flexibility for individualised support plans to be developed to best meet the needs of families, at a time that is right for them.

The Promise Report of the Independent Care Review made it clear that adoption has an important role in providing permanent, loving nurturing home and set out that an adoption placement should not be the conclusion of the support offered to adoptive families. The Promise makes clear that all families need support to thrive. Through the work of the Family Support Delivery Group we are working in partnership with the third sector, statutory services and across government to deliver a vision that ensures all families can access the right support when they need it for as long as they need it, aligned with the implementation of the Promise.

There has been no increase to the funding allocated from the Scottish Government’s Children Young People and Families Early Intervention Fund & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) Fund to the Scottish Youth Parliament in 2021-22.

The ‘Bairns’ Hoose’ refers to the Scottish Government’s application of the international concept of Barnahus to the Scottish context.

The Scottish Government has an unashamedly bold aspiration to create our own Bairns’ Hooses in Scotland. We believe that every child victim or witness has the right to consistent and holistic support that enables them to tell their stories, access specialist services and recover from their experiences, and that these services should be delivered under one roof.

Work is currently underway to understand the required infrastructure to support Bairns’ Hooses across Scotland. We would envision a number of bespoke child friendly spaces with both urban and rural accessibility to ensure that every child victim/witness will have support from a Bairns’ Hoose by 2025.

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to work with partners to take forward the recommendations of the National Review of Care Allowances, including development of a Scottish Recommended Allowance for foster care and kinship care. This will improve consistency and transparency for looked-after children, their families and their carers across Scotland.

The CYPFEI & ALEC Fund aims to support activities which build opportunities and improve outcomes for children, young people and their families.

The key components of the CYPFEI Fund are:

• Promote the GIRFEC wellbeing indicators and the implementation of the UNCRC.
• Delivery of prevention and early intervention activities.
• Improving parenting capacity and family support.

As part of the initial assessment process, applicants to the fund were asked to list up to 4 key national performance indicators that their organisation would contribute to improving. As part of the ongoing monitoring and evaluation process, all recipients of the CYPFEI and ALEC Fund are also asked to submit a 6-monthly monitoring report, outlining progress made against each of their identified outcomes.

The 5 outcomes which Scottish Youth Parliament have reported progress against are:

• Young people in Scotland influence, inform and contribute to policy making and practice.
• Young people who face inequality or barriers to participation are actively engaged in Scottish Youth Parliament.
• MSYPs have the skills, confidence, support and opportunities to carry out their role effectively.
• Young people in Scotland are aware of their rights are encouraged to participate and are seen as valuable contributors to a democratic society.
• Scottish Youth Parliament is an efficient and effective youth-led organisation, responsive to its MSYPs, young people other key stakeholders, and is robustly resourced in a sustainable way.

The number of Home Energy Scotland Loan applications and offers handled during the pandemic, compared to the three previous years is:

The Scottish Government and relevant agencies have, to date, spent £885,000 on transport planning, venue, communications and marketing in preparations for COP26. Scottish Ministers have made clear their expectation that all additional operational costs, such as transport planning, will be borne by the UK Government.

We regularly assess workforce requirements across the whole of the Scottish economy, including in construction.

The construction industry is a core sector of the Scottish economy, providing infrastructure to businesses across all sectors of the economy. We are aware that the pandemic and Brexit may impact on the supply of labour in this sector.

For a successful recovery and to ensure no one is left behind we have a heavy focus on employability and skills. We continue to support our apprentices during these challenging times, including those in the construction sector, and have introduced additional interventions, such as an enhanced Adopt an Apprentice programme, to encourage employers to recruit and retain apprentices supporting the long-term future of work-based learning and the economy. In addition, we supported a range of skills-related activity, including supporting 5,033 people into modern apprenticeships in the construction sector during 2020-21. In 2021-22 we will invest more than £1bn to drive forward our national ambition for jobs and to equip our workforce with the future skills it needs.

The Construction Recovery Plan launched in 2020 sets out a range of short, medium and longer term actions to support employment, fairness of work, encourage new entrants into the sector, and address upskilling and reskilling needs to enable the sector adapt to technological change and net zero carbon in the built environment.

The Scottish Government recognises that the global climate emergency will pose particular challenges for island communities. Our response is guided by the best available scientific evidence, including the latest independent expert assessment of the impacts of climate change in Scotland published by the UK Climate Change Committee on 16 June 2021. This assessment identifies 61 key areas of impact, including:

• Risks to transport infrastructure from flooding, extreme weather, erosion and subsidence. The assessment notes that some of these risks affect the islands disproportionately, for example in situations where disruption to passenger and freight transport can leave whole communities and economies isolated.
• Risks to housing from flooding, sea level rise and damage from driving rain. The assessment notes that sea level rise poses particularly significant risks for the viability of coastal communities in low lying islands.
• Risks, across all parts of Scotland, to agricultural productivity from pests, pathogens and invasive species, as well as risks to agricultural soils and land from changing climatic conditions and sea level rise. The assessment also notes that there could be some opportunities in terms of new crop species becoming viable, but these cannot be expected to outweigh the negative impacts.

The Scottish Government is building resilience to the impacts of climate change through the implementation of our second statutory adaptation programme. The programme covers the period 2019 to 2024 and includes over 170 policies across Scotland. Examples of particular measures that will help protect our island communities include:

• We are investing in climate resilience as part of a green recovery from COVID-19, including a further £12 million for coastal change adaptation as well as an extra £150 million over this Parliament to manage the risks from flooding.
• Our National Transport Strategy includes an outcome to ‘adapt to the effects of climate change’ and the first Delivery Plan sets out policies that will ensure the transport system adapts to the projected climate change impacts.
• Transport Scotland is currently working with CMAL and CalMac to develop investment programmes for vessels and harbours with the aim of increased standardisation and improved resilience, which will improve connectivity for our island communities.
• The results from the second phase of Dynamic Coast, Scotland’s National Coastal Change Assessment, will be published in August 2021. Dynamic Coast 2 assesses the impact that global sea level rise will have on erosion rates, improving our understanding of the measures needed to protect our coastal and island communities.
• Our Housing to 2040 strategy sets out the intention to develop a new Housing Standard for Scotland, set in law. The aim of the new standard is to ensure that there will be no margins of tolerance, no exemptions and no “acceptable levels” of sub-standard homes in urban, rural or island communities, deprived communities or in tenements.
• The Farming for a Better Climate programme continues to promote practical and cost effective measures for both climate change mitigation and adaptation to farmers and land managers. Alongside this, the farmer-led soil regenerative agriculture network focus on positive actions that can be taken on Scottish farms to support, enhance and protect their soils.

Building resilience to the impacts of climate change on Scotland’s islands also lies at the heart of the Scottish Government’s National Islands Plan. This commits to putting in place adaptation plans on islands that are at greater risk and working closely with local stakeholders to ensure that the voices of islanders are fully heard in the just transition to a net-zero society. A part of this transition also includes our manifesto commitment to supporting Carbon Neutral Islands which would include pilots for some islands to run on 100% renewable energy, to create circular economies tackling and processing waste and exploring more sustainable transport options.

In light of the Climate Change Committee’s recently updated risk assessment, the Scottish Government is clear that more will need to be done to build resilience to the impacts of climate change as part of Scotland’s just transition. In the run up to COP26, we will host a National Climate Resilience Summit to connect leaders from across the public and private sectors to build momentum for such action . We will respond in full to the Committee’s updated risk assessment through the development of the next statutory adaptation programme, which is due for publication in 2024.

A public consultation exercise, Building standards (fire safety) - a consultation on external wall systems - Scottish Government - Citizen Space , is currently being undertaken which includes consideration of high risk materials in external wall systems.

Responses to the consultation will be used to inform the Building Standards (Fire Safety) Review Panel 2020-21 work and final policy that will be prepared in support of any legislative changes in relation to high risk materials in external wall systems.

The consultation closes 08 October 2021 with the next panel meeting shortly thereafter.