Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is currently preparing the first national Good Food Nation Plan, as required by the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022.

The national Good Food Nation Plan will set out the main outcomes in relation to food-related issues that we wish to see achieved in Scotland; the indicators or other measures by which progress towards the outcomes can be assessed; and the policies we will pursue in order to secure those outcomes. The Plan must be prepared with regard to the scope for food-related issues to affect outcomes in relation to, among other things, health and physical and mental wellbeing, and the environment. It must also have regard to the principle that high quality, nutritious and culturally appropriate food has the ability to improve the health and physical and mental wellbeing of people, and to the role of a sustainable food system and supply chain in contributing to mitigation of climate change, halting and reversing of loss of biodiversity and improvement in animal welfare.

The national Good Food Nation Plan offers us an opportunity to take a fresh approach to food policy in Scotland, and to consider all aspects of the food system.

Universal Credit is reserved to Westminster and the UK Government has deliberately introduced age discrimination within it. We agree with campaigners that it should be paid at the same amount to everyone.

Universal Credit should be supporting families and children, not punishing them and we continue to call on the UK Government to urgently review Universal Credit, as it is fundamentally not fit for purpose.

We already take action to protect people against the impact of UK Government policies including the bedroom tax and benefit cap but we cannot mitigate every action from our fixed budget.

The Scottish Child Payment was doubled in April 2022 to £20 per eligible child and increased again to £25 when we extended it to under 16s in November, an increase of 150% in less than eight months.

Social Security Scotland is committed to building a trauma-informed workforce. All client facing staff undertake a 6 week “Routeway” training course featuring specific sessions on Trauma Informed Practice and on Mental Health and Supporting Vulnerable People.

Social Security Scotland has been designed with the people who use it to ensure that processes are clear and inclusive and that it delivers support to people with dignity, fairness and respect. 94% of people who took part in the latest annual client survey said they were treated with kindness.

Social Security Scotland have signed the Scottish Government’s Leadership Pledge of Support for trauma-informed practice and are fully committed to building an awareness and understanding of the impact of trauma into their work. This includes understanding when trauma might create barriers for people.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The TSI Scotland Network is not a formally constituted group; it is a grouping of organisations with a shared purpose namely the TSIs. It does not have Office Bearers.

Some TSIs are partnerships where the role is shared across two or more organisations, others are single entities. Most of the organisations which form TSIs are registered charities, and often they are also registered companies. More information about the Network can be found at www.tsi.scot .

A list of the organisations which make up the TSI Network is given in the following table.

The 2022 Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL) data tells us that 79% of P7 pupils achieved the expected Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) level for reading by the end of primary school, which represents an increase of around 4 percentage points on the previous year. 2022 also saw increases in overall pass rates for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher English since the last exam year in 2019.

Education Scotland continues to support teachers’ understanding of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in the area of reading at national, regional and local levels. Their literacy networks, the National Literacy Network and the Literacy and English Curriculum Network, provide the forums to share effective literacy practice with local authorities and schools.

A National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL) co-led by Education Scotland, Scottish Government and ADES, is underway to identify excellence as well as opportunities for improvement in literacy. The NRIL programme board consists of representatives from a range of stakeholder organisations including each of the six Regional Improvement Collaboratives and The Scottish Council of Deans of Education.

In addition, the Scottish Government also funds the Scottish Book Trust to deliver a range of programmes aimed at improving a young person’s literacy levels and encouraging a reading for pleasure culture in schools, at home and in the community.

The Bute House Agreement includes a commitment to further protect Scotland’s ancient woods through establishing a National Register of Ancient Woodlands. We are discussing with NatureScot and Scottish Forestry the best approach to developing a new National Register of Ancient Woodlands, which will build upon the existing Scottish Ancient Woodland Inventory, and be published when that work is complete. A new National Register of Ancient Woodlands will be an important element of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and Delivery plan which we will consult on later this year.

The Scottish Government has provided funding of £2m since December 2020 to a number of third sector organisations to pilot Autism Post Diagnostic Support Schemes. The pilots and associated funding were extended to March 2023. We are currently working to develop a permanent Autism Post Diagnostic Support scheme, which will be informed by the pilot, and will confirm arrangements soon.

We are keeping stakeholders up to date with progress.

Following a meeting with Ministers on 14 March 2023 the Scottish Government is in regular contact with Hospice UK and the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group, as representative organisations, on the issues discussed at that meeting, including the financial challenges facing hospice.

The Scottish Government remains committed to removing non-residential charges for social care within the lifetime of this Parliament.