Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05135 on 22 December 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 .

A list of the NatureScot Better Places Fund recipients can be found on its website using the link below. It includes both recipients of the first round of the Better Places Fund in 2020-21, a NatureScot initiative, and a second round of funding in 2021-22.

Better Places Green Recovery Fund - Closed for applications | NatureScot

This second round of funding was provided by the Scottish Government specifically to support communities, local authorities and public bodies as they prepared for the 2021 season.

In total the £3.2m fund has supported 125 projects including 75 ranger posts, 54 visitor operatives and infrastructure such as advisory signage, recycling litter bins, temporary toilets, over-flow parking areas, car park upgrades and other developments.

Projects have covered a variety of locations across the majority of the country.

The Scottish Government has received the following amounts in (a) health and social care related Barnett consequentials; and (b) Covid-19 Barnett consequentials related to health and social care spend:-

The Scottish Government currently forecasts a balanced resource budget position by the end of 2021-22.

The £200 million of additional Covid support for Business’s and for Self Isolation Support Grants announced by the First Minister on 14 December 2021 has been reprioritised from existing budgets.

The 2022-23 Scottish Budget assumes £179 million of capital and financial transactions will be made available for carry-forward in 2021-22 through the Scotland Reserve.

There is no legislative or other provisions which specifies timescales within which inspections must take place. The HM Chief Inspector of Education agrees on an annual basis with the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills the scale and priorities of the inspection programme.

Schools are selected for inspection each year on a proportionate basis, using a sampling approach and predetermined set criteria rather than a cyclical approach. Therefore there is no set time between full inspections.

The criteria for selecting a school for inspection takes account of the context and characteristics of the school, the type of school, deprivation and balance across local authorities. Other factors include local circumstances as well as the length of time since the last inspection.

Education Scotland has strengthened its scrutiny functions and prior to COVID-19 had increased the number of school inspections carried out in each academic year. Routine inspections of early learning and childcare settings and schools have been paused since March 2020 as a result of the impact of COVID-19. On 3 December 2021, the HM Chief Inspector of Education announced that taking stakeholder views into account, along with the ongoing challenges settings and schools face dealing with COVID-19, HM Inspectors of Education will not resume routine early learning and childcare and school inspections in January 2022 as originally planned.

HM Inspectors of Education will continue to keep plans to resume the routine programme of inspections under review to changing circumstances linked to the pandemic.

Routine inspections of early learning and childcare settings and schools have been paused since March 2020 as a result of the impact of COVID-19. HM Inspectors of Education are aware of the ongoing challenges faced by local authority staff, education staff, learners and communities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Scottish Ministers requested HM Inspectors conduct an inspection of Spark of Genius Harbour Point School in accordance with section 66 (1) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980. This inspection was carried out in May 2021.

Between January and March 2021, to support and improve the delivery of high-quality and effective remote learning, HM Inspectors of Education developed a national overview of practice of remote learning. During this period HM Inspectors of Education engaged with all 32 local authorities and 474 schools. They also reached 12,105 parents and 2,667 learners through surveys. This resulted in 12 weekly National Overview of Practice Reports publishing between January and April 2021.

In March to April 2021 HM Inspectors of Education undertook a national review of local authority approaches to quality assurance as part of the Alternative Certification Model. This review was to ensure that the range of measures being undertaken by local authorities ensured that the approach to certification delivered for young people across Scotland. As part of this review, HM Inspectors of Education engaged with all 32 local authorities, headteachers, SQA co-ordinators, teachers and representatives of professional associations. This national review was published on the Education Scotland website.

On 3 December 2021, the HM Chief Inspector of Education announced that taking stakeholder views into account, along with the ongoing challenges settings and schools face dealing with COVID-19, HM Inspectors of Education will not resume routine early learning and childcare and school inspections in January 2022 as originally planned.

Between September and December 2021, HM Inspectors of Education visited over 200 schools and services. This included visits to establishments and services that were due to have a further inspection or as part of national thematic inspections.

For visits, HM Inspectors of Education will follow public health and local authority guidance complying with the COVID-19 mitigations for each establishment. Plans are continually reviewed and are linked with public health guidance and local circumstances.

From February 2022, if COVID-19 conditions have improved, HM Inspectors of Education will carry out ‘recovery focus’ visits to engage with a selection of early learning and childcare settings and schools to support the education sector as it continues to respond to the impact of the current pandemic. HM Inspectors of Education will continue to keep plans under review to changing circumstances linked to the pandemic.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to run public awareness campaigns on deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and there has been no public awareness campaign on DVT by the Scottish Government since 2011.

The Scottish Government carries out a regular planning process to identify which topics may require support from marketing activity, including public awareness campaigns.

NHSinform.scot contains information on DVT ( https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/blood-and-lymph/deep-vein-thrombosis/ ).

Limited information is published in the Stage of Treatment publication on cancellation by service rates. You will find this information at: Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients 30 November 2021 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Information covering October 2021 to December 2021 will be published by PHS in February 2022.