Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of attracting and supporting new entrants into the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) workforce and ensuring clear progression pathways into employment and professional development.

We are working with Skills Development Scotland, training providers, local authorities and ELC sector representatives to promote careers in ELC and to strengthen workforce pathways. This includes supporting school-based vocational learning opportunities, Foundation and Modern Apprenticeships, and work-based learning that helps young people gain relevant experience and progress into employment.

The sector does not currently operate a single nationally mandated recruitment pathway. Rather, multiple routes exist to reflect the diverse nature of the workforce and differing employer needs.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with partners to consider how pathways into the sector can be further strengthened and better connected, helping to ensure that learners can progress from school-based learning and workplace experience into employment and subsequent qualification pathways that meet the workforce needs of the sector.

The Scottish Government keeps the sufficiency of the early learning and childcare (ELC) workforce under continual review through a range of national data sources, including Care Inspectorate statistics, Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) workforce data, engagement with local authorities and providers, and the ELC census.

The latest SSSC workforce statistics, published on 8 September 2026, show that the daycare of children services workforce increased to 42,450 in 2025, representing the highest recorded headcount for the sector.

We recognise that parts of the sector continue to face workforce and sustainability challenges. We are therefore working with local authorities, providers, sector bodies and other partners to support workforce sustainability through ongoing workforce planning activity, investment in training and qualifications, childminder recruitment, and additional funding to support payment of at least the real Living Wage for staff delivering funded ELC in private and third sector settings.

We will continue to monitor workforce and capacity trends closely to help ensure that funded childcare remains available to children and families across Scotland.

The Scottish Government is supportive of ensuring there is an effective fire safety regime for wildfire prevention and preparedness in natural and rural environments. This will help shape a more resilient and coordinated national approach to wildfire prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.

The Scottish Government’s Strategic Action Plan sets out a coordinated approach to preventing, preparing for and responding to wildfires and was published on 5 March 2026. The plan represents a call to action for government, public services, land managers owners, rural businesses, community groups and individuals alike, to work together in partnership – which is key to its successful delivery.

As part of the recent multi-agency response to the Cairngorm’s wildfire a review of the strategic plan was commissioned and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) have commissioned an independent review at a wider partner and multi-agency level to identify issues arising from the wildfire and to maximise organisational learning and public confidence. These reviews will provide an opportunity to explore issues and experiences from this incident involving partners that participated in the response and ensure that future arrangements are informed by operational experience and the expertise of those at the forefront of wildfire management.

Traffic Scotland is a service provided by Transport Scotland, the Scottish Government’s national transport agency. Traffic Scotland collects and distributes real-time traffic and travel information for the entire Scottish trunk road and motorway network. Traffic Scotland previously used ANPR camera technology to provide journey time information across the trunk road network until 2022. This service is now provided by a third party data source and there are no operational ANPR cameras used in the delivery of the Traffic Scotland service.

Police Scotland use ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) technology to help detect, deter and disrupt criminal activity at a local, force, regional and national level. This includes travelling criminals (those using the road network to avoid being caught), organised crime groups and terrorists.

ANPR provides lines of enquiry and evidence in the investigation of crime and is used by forces throughout Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A record for all vehicles passing by a camera is stored, including those for vehicles that are not known to be of interest at the time of the read. At present ANPR cameras nationally, submit on average around 60 million ANPR read records to national ANPR systems daily.

The Scottish Government has made clear to the UK Government that any move away from digital terrestrial television services must be guided by the principle of universal access. Television remains an important source of news, information, cultural content and social connection for many people, and we have emphasised that any decisions should take full account of the potential impacts on audiences, particularly those who may be at greater risk of exclusion, including people living in rural and island communities, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

The Scottish Government recently responded to the UK Government’s consultation on the future of media, including next steps on the future of TV distribution, setting out that any transition must be evidence-led and informed by assessments of affordability, accessibility, broadband availability, network resilience and audience readiness. We have urged the UK Government to ensure that no household loses access to television services because of any future changes to distribution models, and that appropriate support and mitigations are put in place.

The Scottish Government continues to help extend the reach of fast, reliable broadband infrastructure across Scotland through our £600m investment in the Reaching 100% (R100) programme and our key role in delivering Project Gigabit in Scotland. Alongside this investment in connectivity, we continue to work with Ofcom and partners to raise awareness of affordable connectivity options, including social tariffs.

The Scottish Government currently have a number of programmes in place and planned for the future to help create a safer online environment for children and young people. On 25 March 2026 the Online Safety Taskforce published its Action Plan which brings together our priorities for protection children and young people from online harm. This plan will continue to be built upon to ensure it evolves alongside the lived experiences of children and young people across Scotland.

We recognise that online safety is a complex problem and that there is a spectrum of harm that can occur – from damaging concentration, to wasted childhood years scrolling on one end, through to the absorption of harmful violent/misogynistic/radicalising content in the middle, to incitement to self-harm and grooming at the most acute end. We have therefore committed in our Programme for Government to take a public health approach to online safety to ensure children, parents and schools are better equipped to deal with online safety.

As part of this approach we launched Digital Wellbeing surveys on 19 August to hear directly from children, young people and parents/carers on the issues facing them and what further guidance they would like. On the 25 August we launched a public health campaign, with content on how parents can help keep their children safe online, as well as a public consultation on restricting access to mobile phones in schools.

We fund a range of initiatives that address social media usage amongst children and young people to help them navigate online spaces and use screens in a healthy, safe and positive way. This includes the Digital Discourse Initiative and the Mind Yer Time resource which is designed by children and young people to use social media and screens in a healthy way. We also work with Parent Club to provide a range of advice for parents and carers on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their children and families, including a range of advice and information specifically for parents of teenage children.

The Scottish Government has well-established and tested processes for preparing for and responding to severe weather. We are also monitoring the potential impacts of a more severe El Niño. Our central resilience operation can be activated in advance of severe weather and ensures Ministers are kept fully updated on any developing issues. Officials work year-round with key partners, including the blue-light services, councils, health boards, transport operators, the voluntary sector and others to support shared understanding of risks, plans and processes.

We are supporting our partners through the autumn/winter period, and providing practical advice to the public on preparing for and responding to emergencies, including the impacts of severe weather, including through our Ready Scotland website (ready.scot) and social media channels. In addition, the Scottish Government stands ready to activate its Ready Scotland media campaign in response to amber or red Met Office weather warnings. The campaign uses social media and, where available, local radio to provide warning and advice to audiences in affected areas.

With respect to transport, Transport Scotland colleagues work with our contractors and Scottish Government partners to plan, prepare and respond to both planned and unplanned events which impact the transport network. Whilst bad weather and its associated disruption cannot be prevented, Transport Scotland works year-round with partners to prepare for those conditions to minimise disruption and ensure the transport network can recover as quickly as possible. Additionally, a dedicated Met Office advisor to Transport Scotland commenced on 1 September 2026 at the Traffic Scotland National Control centre, and will provide specialist meteorological advice to support operational decision-making.

We continue to make significant financial investment in health and social care services. The 2026-27 Budget invests £22.5 billion in health and social care, including £17.6 billion in NHS Boards, £2.3 billion for social care and £2.4 billion in primary care. The Health and Social Care Improving Flow Plan is about ensuring that investment delivers maximum benefit by improving how services work together and shifting care towards prevention, community services and home-based care where appropriate. Delivery will build on that existing investment, while detailed implementation planning will continue alongside normal financial planning processes.

Improving A&E performance is a key priority of this Plan. We recognise that A&E performance is influenced by pressures across the whole pathway, including delayed discharge, hospital occupancy, ambulance handovers and community capacity. For that reason, the Plan focuses on improving flow across the entire health and care system, to support sustainable improvement in A&E performance.

In line with the commitment to tackle corridor care, we will work with Health Boards and Public Health Scotland to ensure we are taking the necessary steps to deliver improvements. This will include considering collecting data on patients who are being cared for in non-standard areas, such as hospital corridors. This consideration will be based on clinical advice.

Delayed discharge remains a key priority and the plan sets out the action we are taking to support this including strengthening the adoption of Discharge Without Delay, Home First and Discharge to Assess approaches.

To support our aim of a more connected system, with simpler routes to care, we are introducing digital appointment functionality through MyCare.scot. The first phase, planned for 2027-28, will allow patients to view secondary care appointment information and related communications online. Over time, the service will expand to include appointment management, self-management, two-way communication to support services such as e-triage, and remote monitoring. The Digital Health and Care Record will also support secure access to a more complete health and care record across organisations, while MyCare.scot will provide the public-facing route for people to access their information and services.