- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 20 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37806 by Natalie Don-Innes on 4 June 2025, how many early learning and childcare settings have been evaluated as "good" by the Care Inspectorate, in each year from 2015 to 2024, also expressed as a percentage.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37806 on 4 June 2025.
The Care Inspectorate report data publicly on their Data Store which may be able to assist with this question or alternatively the Care Inspectorate could be approached directly for a response.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 20 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37806 by Natalie Don-Innes on 4 June 2025, how many early learning and childcare settings have been evaluated as "excellent" by the Care Inspectorate, in each year from 2015 to 2024, also expressed as a percentage.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37806 on 4 June 2025.
The Care Inspectorate report data publicly on their Data Store which may be able to assist with this question or alternatively the Care Inspectorate could be approached directly for a response.
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
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 20 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37806 by Natalie Don-Innes on 4 June 2025, how many early learning and childcare settings have been evaluated as "very good" by the Care Inspectorate, in each year from 2015 to 2024, also expressed as a percentage.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37806 on 4 June 2025.
The Care Inspectorate report data publicly on their Data Store which may be able to assist with this question or alternatively the Care Inspectorate could be approached directly for a response.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 20 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37806 by Natalie Don-Innes on 4 June 2025, how many early learning and childcare settings have been evaluated as "adequate" by the Care Inspectorate, in each year from 2015 to 2024, also expressed as a percentage.
Answer
This information is not held by the Scottish Government.
The Care Inspectorate report data publicly on their Data Store which may be able to assist with this question or alternatively the Care Inspectorate could be approached directly for a response.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 19 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the Armed Forces Covenant obligation on NHS boards to have due regard for the unique challenges faced by service children, what discussions the veterans minister has had with ministerial colleagues in relation to ensuring that relocations for military postings do not lead to service children being reprioritised to the back of NHS waiting lists, including through the provision of guidance to clinical teams to ensure that this does not happen.
Answer
Access to NHS treatment is based on clinical need, however we recognise that service children should not be disadvantaged when accessing the NHS as a result of their parent’s service in the Armed Forces.
We regularly communicate the Covenant legal duty and paying ‘due regard’ to all NHS Boards via the NHS Armed Forces and Veterans Champions, who are responsible for ensuring its implementation.
Additionally, the General Practice Armed Forces and Veterans Recognition Scheme aims to raise awareness of the health challenges that veterans and Armed Forces families face as a result of military service.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 18 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether the Minister for Higher and Further Education has held any meetings with youth organisations since May 2021, and, if so, whether it will provide a breakdown of any such meetings by (a) date and (b) topic.
Answer
I regularly meet with youth organisations such as Youth Scotland, YouthLink Scotland and Scottish Youth Parliament.
The First Minister of Scotland and other Scottish Minister’s also regularly meet with youth organisations. This includes a summit on 12 June attended by the First Minister of Scotland that brought together experts and grassroots youth organisations to discuss how to tackle youth violence.
Information on Ministerial engagements is published on the Scottish Government website and can be found at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/. The engagements are published three months in arrears.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received any reports from local authorities or representative bodies regarding financial distress, debt accumulation or insolvency risk among early years providers in the past three years.
Answer
The Scottish Government monitors trends across the whole childcare sector, drawing on data published by the Care Inspectorate. In recent years the Scottish Government has published financial sustainability health checks and the Sustainable Rates Review, which considered issues relating to financial sustainability.
As part of the evidence gathering phase of the joint Scottish Government and COSLA Sustainable Rates Review, local authorities reported that “they had seen very little evidence of funded services in the private, third or childminding sectors reporting to them that they had been under financial duress or of services closing due to financial sustainability pressures”.
Under the Business Sustainability criteria in the National Standard for funded ELC, providers are required to demonstrate to the local authority that they are financially viable. If a service delivering funded ELC was at risk of closure due to financial difficulties, they would therefore be obliged to make their local authority aware.
The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the sector representative organisations and as part of this engagement we regularly receive updates from these organisations regarding pressures faced by their members. The representative organisations will often highlight any concerns in reports which draw on the responses from members to surveys (and these reports are usually available on the organisations’ website). For example, Early Years Scotland recently published a report highlighting the potential impact on providers as a result of the UK Government’s changes to Employer National Insurance Contributions.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken or commissioned any national reviews or audits of youth centre provision since 2019, and, if so, whether it will publish the findings.
Answer
An independent review of the Community Learning and Development (CLD) landscape was commissioned in December 2023.
Following the review, the Learning: For All. For Life. report was published in July 2024 which set out 20 recommendations varying in complexity and scope. The report can be accessed at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/learning-life-report-independent-review-community-learning-development-cld/.
In December 2024, the Scottish Government and CoSLA accepted the first recommendation of the report to set up a CLD Strategic Leadership Group (SLG). The SLG are collectively considering the remaining recommendations of the report, including those relating to youth work.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it holds any national benchmarking or audit data regarding the accessibility and quality of youth centres.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-38244 on 17 June 2025 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/questions-and-answers.
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 June 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 17 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on the number of qualified youth workers that are currently employed in Scotland.
Answer
Youth work falls within the scope of The Requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013. This regulation, in effect, requires local authorities to identify need and plan provision of Community Learning and Development in their areas.
As the regulatory requirements for Community Learning and Development are placed with education authorities, the Scottish Government does not collate information on youth workers.