Chamber and committees

Funding is available to support the implementation of the strategy over the next two years.

£2 million over two years has been allocated to the implementation of the Sensory Impairment Strategy.

Data collected from local authorities on a monthly and quarterly basis is used to monitor HEEPS: ABS delivery by Scottish Government officials. This monitoring process provides assurances that projects are proceeding on the basis agreed between the Scottish Government and local authorities. In the event that projects run into difficulties, that funding can be quickly re-allocated between projects or across local authorities.

Given the flexible nature of HEEPS projects we do not publish monthly or quarterly progress data. In May 2013 we advised local authorities that HEEPS: ABS funding for 2013-14 did not need to be spent by local authorities until the end of September 2014, in line with standard financial practice with projects of this nature. This means that full details on what have been delivered via HEEPS: ABS funding will not be known until after the end of September 2014. The publication of final outcomes for 2013-14 will then follow.

There are no plans to change the definition of fuel poverty in Scotland. In its final report on the Scottish Government’s fuel poverty strategy, published in March 2014, the independent Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum recommended “that the definition currently used in Scotland is still relevant, but that it needs to be reviewed and updated to reflect a more accurate assessment of the energy demands with in homes in a modern age.”

Research into the robustness of the assumptions underpinning the current definition of fuel poverty was commissioned by the Scottish Government on behalf of the Fuel Poverty Forum and members of the forum are currently considering the results of this research and will make recommendations to Scottish Ministers in due course. The four assumptions being considered are the heating regime, the definition of vulnerability, the treatment of under-occupancy and the definition of household income.

The forum led on the research and is responsible for the final report.

For every application to the Scottish Welfare Fund, we ask for the gender of each person in the household, including the main applicant, their partner, children and any other person living with them. Whilst this question is completed for 94% of people overall, the gender of the main applicant is known in 99.98% of applications.

Further details of the information we collect can be found in the data monitoring specification. This is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/15257/1529/swf-dataspec.

The Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) is intended to help vulnerable people across Scotland, regardless of gender.

An equality impact assessment (EQIA) on the differences between the Discretionary Social Fund and SWF was published in April 2013. It did not find any evidence to suggest that there would be a differential effect between men and women under the SWF.

Gender issues have been mainstreamed in guidance by ensuring that vulnerabilities which are more commonly experienced by women are taken in to consideration in the decision making process.

Factors listed in the guidance as increasing a person’s vulnerability include: people fleeing domestic violence, looking after children for a relative or friend as a kinship carer, being a lone parent, being pregnant, recent childbirth or adopting a child and having responsibility as a main care giver. There are also several vulnerabilities listed relating to the presence of children which are intended to impact child poverty but will advantage women who are mothers.

The EQIA can be found at the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/welfarereform/socialfund/FullEQIA.

Occupational segregation contributes to the gender pay gap, restricts women's employment opportunities and prevents them from achieving their fullest potential in the labour market.

We know that the causes are complex and include issues relating to gender stereotyping during education and career formation, inflexible work practices, and the under-valuing of roles and occupations associated with ‘women’s work’.

To translate these factors into a financial ‘bottom line’ is a challenge but one we are beginning to address, building on the work carried out by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) with the advice of the late Professor Ailsa MacKay, on the economic impact of transforming Scotland’s childcare in an independent Scotland.

The CEA will follow up that work with an analysis of further steps Scotland can take to maximise economic opportunities for women.

We have also funded The Fraser of Allander Institute, via our key partners Close the Gap, to look at the economic benefits, measured in gross value added to Scotland of removing barriers to women’s participation and progress in the labour market.

This will include estimating the loss of economic activity caused by barriers to women’s participation and progress in some sectors, detailed in the Scottish Government’s economic strategy.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) publishes management information on government supported training programme, including modern apprenticeships on a quarterly basis.

The published data is broken down by gender, age, framework followed (which relates to the apprentice’s occupation) and local authority area.

I attach a link to SDS published data:

http://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/statistics/modern-apprenticeships/.

When the Scottish Government and the STUC held the Women’s Employment Summit in September 2012, discussion covered a wide range of areas. Since that time, a ministerial strategic group on women and work has met regularly to consider actions underway and what more can be done at all levels to enable women to fulfil their potential in the labour market. While we know many issue still remain, progress is being made in a number of areas, including occupational segregation.

With over 69% of women in paid work today, in Scotland women are represented in every sector in the labour market and at every level. Women’s contribution to the economy through unpaid work must also be recognised. However, steps to tackle occupational segregation are a priority for the Strategic Group on Women and Work, which I chair and we are closely monitoring the actions on this which are being co-ordinated through a cross directorate group on occupational segregation.

The Scottish Government, through Skills Development Scotland (SDS), ensures that there is fair and open access to all our national training programmes, including modern apprenticeships. Training interventions are designed to help us address skills gaps across the economy in response to employer demand and learner preferences.

The Modern Apprenticeship (MA) programme is a fully employed programme in Scotland and as a result recruitment decisions are in the hands of participating employers. There is therefore an important role for employers in terms of adapting their behaviour to attract and retain a balanced workforce. We agreed with the Equal Opportunities Committee recommendation that SDS should campaign to raise awareness of the MA programme with disadvantaged groups, and Scottish apprenticeship week in May 2014 will have equalities as a major focus.

The biggest impact in addressing the occupational choices of individuals comes through the provision of good careers advice, making young people aware of opportunities in any given sector and allowing them to undertake the appropriate qualifications and training to move into these opportunities.

Achieving a balanced workforce which reflects Scottish society as a whole is a challenge for the labour market as a whole and is not specific to government supported training programmes. We appreciate, however, that we need to do more to ensure young people understand the nature and opportunities available across the labour market, and that employers recognise the economic and social value of a balanced workforce.

The recent interim report from the Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce makes a number of recommendations relating to government supported training programmes, and I am currently considering these recommendations, with the final report due in early summer. An important stage in the second half of the Wood Commission will be a focus on equality issues, looking to make meaningful recommendations to improve employment outcomes in relation to gender, disability and ethnicity.

We will use the findings from this work to develop a way forward for government supported training programmes which will better meet our aims and ambitions for Scotland.

The Scottish Welfare Fund comprises of community care grants and crisis grants.

The table below shows the total number of community care grants and crisis grants decided between 1 April and 31 December 2013, broken down by the gender of the main applicant and whether the applications were successful or not.

For community care grants, 62% of males were successful and 68% of females were successful. For crisis grants, 69% of males were successful and 73% of females were successful.

Statistics on the Scottish Welfare Fund can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/swf.