Chamber and committees

Childminders are an essential part of the childcare sector, offering a high-quality, nurturing experience to children of all ages, and the Scottish Government is committed to supporting and growing the sector.

We have seen declines in the childminding workforce over recent years – a trend that is mirrored elsewhere in the UK – and we have worked with the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA) and other partners to understand the reasons behind the decline, and to identify priorities and further steps we can take to better support, recruit and retain childminders.

Backed by over £1m of Scottish Government funding, together with the SCMA we launched the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future in June 2024. The Programme will support the recruitment of new professional childminders across Scotland, offering a package of funded support and training in addition to a £750 start-up grant, providing everything needed to establish a new childminding business from home. Aberdeenshire Council are actively involved in the childminder recruitment strand this year, and we are seeing positive engagement and progression from candidates across the local authority area.

The programme also includes a range of measures to address the retention of the childminding workforce, delivering more practical support to ensure our existing professionals are supported with their workloads and professional development.

Planning legislation requires that any particular planning application is timeously determined on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration relevant planning considerations of the individual application. This is the responsibility of the relevant planning authority in the first instance. It is a matter for the applicant to decide when any application is submitted. Where planning permission is granted, it is then a matter for the applicant to decide whether, and when, to implement that permission before it expires.

A grant of planning permission that enables grid connection for future possible renewable energy proposals does not affect the consideration of separate applications for those renewable energy developments.

The information you requested is as follows:

The Scottish Government recognises that online platforms, including social media, can have a positive and negative impact on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing and that it is important to support people to use social media in a healthy and balanced way. We have provided over £400,000 to children and young people’s organisations since 2020, to fund a range of initiatives including the Young Scot ‘Aye Feel’ online hub and the ‘Mind Yer Time’ resource, with some of the work focusing on addressing social media usage amongst children and young to help them navigate online spaces and use screen time in a healthy and positive way. Additionally, our national resource for parents - Parent Club - has a range of information and advice to support parents to manage their child’s screen time, and to have informed conversations with their children on screen time, social media and internet use.

Keeping children and young people safe online is a priority for the Scottish Government and while we recognise that regulation of the internet remains a reserved matter, we have successfully engaged with the UK Government to strengthen protections for children in its Online Safety Act. We continue to press for stronger protections for our children and young people online, in cooperation with the new UK Government and the online safety regulator, Ofcom. The Minister for Victims and Community Safety and I will be meeting with Ofcom in August to discuss their strategy for online safety in Scotland.

In addition, the Scottish Government has recently published guidance for schools on the issue of mobile phones in schools, which supports education authorities and schools in their consideration of limiting access to mobile phones in schools. This approach will reduce distraction and support increased engagement in learning. 

As an independent charity, any curatorial decision regarding the Paisley Art institute’s collection is a matter for them and their Board of Trustees. They are free to manage and dispose of the collection as they choose, in line with their charitable objectives.

Betting, gaming and lotteries are generally reserved matters and their regulation is primarily the responsibility of the UK Government. The UK Government regulates gambling through the operation of the Gambling Commission which has responsibility for regulating commercial gambling. The Gambling Commission works in partnership with local licensing authorities to regulate gambling in Scotland.

As such, this is a matter for the Gambling Commission and local licensing authorities (i.e. the 32 Scottish local authorities) and the information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29084 on 26 August 2024.The Gambling Commission maintains a national register of premises licences for gambling. 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29084 on 26 August 2024. 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.

The topic of Scottish independence was not discussed.

Service innovation and redesign are central to the future of NHS, and the CytoSCOT programme is an excellent example of how innovation in diagnostic services can support patients to access alternatives to traditional endoscopy closer to home, helping to reduce demand on health services.

NHS Scotland’s Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) continues to support island Health Boards to implement this service, with NHS Orkney and NHS Shetland expected to begin roll out later this year.