Chamber and committees

Throughout our engagement with COSLA, Councils, and opposition parties ahead of the 2025-26 Scottish Budget, there was a clear consensus that Councils should have full flexibility for decisions on Council Tax rates. The Scottish Budget delivered that ask in full, as part of a record Local Government Settlement worth over £15 billion including real terms protection of General Revenue Grant, another key ask of COSLA and opposition parties.

Council Tax is a local tax, and decisions on rates are therefore a matter for local authorities to take in consultation with local communities.

The most financially vulnerable will continue to be protected through the Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme. The CTR scheme exists to ensure that nobody in Scotland should have to meet a council tax liability they cannot be expected to afford, and reduces a household’s liability based on an assessment of their income, capital, and other circumstances. Over 460,000 households receive some level of CTR, and on average recipients save over £850 a year.

Household water charges in Scotland are set by Scottish Water’s Board within the charge cap set for the regulatory period 2021-27, with approval from the independent economic regulator. Ministers do not have the powers to directly intervene in the process to set annual charges.

Charge increases in the first half of the regulatory period were significantly less than the charge cap, reflecting the financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis on households. The average bill for 2025-26 is expected to be £490 (£446 in 2024-25), which we expect to remain lower than the average in England and Wales (expected to be £603 as published by Discover Water).

Support for households with their water charges is linked to the exemptions, discounts and reductions they receive on their Council Tax. 52% of households receive some form of discount or reduction on their water charges, automatically applied by local authorities alongside reductions in council tax. One such scheme is the Water Charges Reduction Scheme (WCRS) which is available to customers in receipt of full Council Tax Reduction – we’ve already increased the maximum reduction from to 25% to 35% and the estimated value of the reduction provided is £74m in 2025-26. Consumer Scotland’s October 2024 report on affordability of water charges report shows that the number of households in water poverty has remained largely unchanged over the current regulatory period. We will be working with Consumer Scotland to look into affordability measures for the next regulatory period starting in 2027.

More frequent and meaningful engagement with COSLA and Councils, in the spirit of the Fiscal Framework with Local Government, was fundamental to the decisions that led to record funding of over £15 billion for Local Authorities in the 2025-26 Scottish Budget.

All new policy or changes to existing policy that have a financial cost for local government are routinely considered through the formal financial governance processes including assessment through the joint Scottish Government and COSLA Officers’ Settlement and Distribution Group prior to political endorsement from Scottish Ministers and COSLA Leaders.

As independent corporate bodies, it is then for individual councils to manage their own budgets and workforce.

I am pleased to confirm that the Relationships and Behaviour in Schools Action Plan 2024-27 progress report was published today:

https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836914686

The progress report sets out actions that have been taken to support relationships and behaviour in schools between November 2023, when I announced my intention to develop an action plan, and March 2025.

The Programme for Government 2024-25 committed to publishing annually on progress against the action plan. Further progress reports will be published in 2026 and 2027.

In circumstances where the authority considers that a person’s need for services is a matter of urgency, they have the power to provide community care support to individuals, carers and their families without an assessment under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.

Local authorities also have duties under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 to provide adult carer support plans (ACSP) or young carer statements (YCS) for any carer that wants one and to provide support to carers according to their eligible needs. In circumstances where a carer is caring for someone with a terminal illness, the authority must offer and prepare an ACSP or YCS in set timescales, ensuring associated support is provided in an efficient and timely manner. These responsibilities are set out in the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 Statutory Guidance.

The Scottish Government works closely with local authorities and partner organisations to embed the principles of The Promise in their policies and practices.

I regularly meet with Councillor Tony Buchanan, the COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, to discuss progress and how we can work together to recognise and share good practice.

There is a large amount of positive work underway across Scotland through local authorities, partnerships and across the public and third sector. During my time in office I have had the honour to meet with children, young people, families and workforce across the country to see and hear of the impact of the projects and initiatives that are underway.

This includes work supported by our multi-year commitment to funding Children’s Services Planning Partnerships to transform family support in their local areas which was recently raised from £32 m to £38 m a year.

Children’s Services Planning Partnerships and local authority Promise teams capture local progress that they are undertaking and for example, I am aware that Renfrewshire recently published their Promise Report for 2025 which highlights all of the activity that they have undertaken over the past 5 years.

Understanding both good practice and the barriers and challenges to change is essential to support the next stages of national and local progress. While there is excellent work happening at local authority level, I am aware that there needs to be more consistency with progress across the country. I continue to encourage local authorities to share and learn from each other to make this happen.

I have asked The Promise Scotland to provide a picture of the activity underway in localities across Scotland to keep The Promise. This will draw on a range of sources as well as being informed by insights.

The Promise Progress Framework, which was published in December, will be instrumental in understanding how we are keeping The Promise and I welcome the recent recognition from the Promise Oversight Board of the important role that this will take.

The Framework has been developed by COSLA, The Scottish Government and The Promise Scotland, with input from key stakeholders including local authorities, Public Health Scotland, the Improvement Service, CELCIS, Who Cares? Scotland, the Care Inspectorate, Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The Scottish Government’s Statutory Guidance on Corporate Parenting sets out how local authorities and public bodies consider their contribution towards providing safe, secure, stable and nurturing homes for young people leaving care. As corporate parents, all public bodies have a collective responsibility to help shape lives and provide opportunities for our children living in care and care leavers.

In January, the Scottish Government published the third statutory corporate parenting report which outlines the activity across Scotland by the Scottish Government and Executive Agencies, as well as other public bodies, to help uphold the rights and secure the wellbeing of children and young people in care and care leavers.

The Scottish Government provides Who Cares? Scotland with grant funding to deliver support and training to Corporate Parents.

The Budget has established the total operating cost for the next financial year and workforce plans will be adjusted accordingly, with an expectation that there will be reductions in the workforce.

The service standards in the temporary accommodation standards framework states that local authorities should assess the needs of all members of the household. Assessments should be followed up with referrals and support to enable the household to engage with the relevant housing, health, education, social care service and independent advice services.

The temporary accommodation standards framework also states that local authorities should offer support to enable households to access information and appropriate services, including counselling, substance use, mental health, domestic abuse, medical, dental, optical and money/welfare advice services.

The Scottish Government has been consistently clear that it opposes fire and rehire practices.

We have provided local authorities with over £65 million since 2020 to fund community mental health and wellbeing services for children, young people and their families. This investment will continue with the baselining of £15 million per annum funding into the local government finance settlement from 2025-26.

The community-based supports and services are focused on prevention and early intervention, promoting positive mental health and wellbeing, and tackling emotional distress. Supports and services are available in every local authority area, and more than 300 have been put in place across the country, including supports for trauma, anxiety and depression. Local authorities have reported that nearly 83,000 people used the supports and services between July 2023 and March 2024, including more than 10,000 family members and carers.

In addition, we continue to provide £16 million a year to local authorities to ensure that all school pupils aged 10 and above have access to school counselling services, and local authorities have confirmed that services are in place across Scotland. We have also supported school staff to understand and recognise the range of mental health and wellbeing concerns that young people may experience through a professional resource, which complements 2021 guidance to support whole-school approaches to mental health and wellbeing.

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) service specification highlights that all children and families should receive support and services that are appropriate to their needs. For many children and young people, such support is likely to be community based, and should be easily and quickly accessible. We continue to work with NHS boards to monitor the service specification’s implementation, to improve services and support for children and young people and their families.

We continue to invest in mental health services for children and young people and we have directly allocated £123 million to NHS boards and integration joint boards for a new enhanced mental health outcomes framework in 2024-25. The framework provides a single, flexible funding stream to support continued improvements and better outcomes across a range of mental health and psychological services in line with the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, including CAMHS. The priorities for the funding this year are to continue delivering improvements in CAMHS, psychological therapies, eating disorders and neurodevelopmental services, as well as ongoing innovation and service reform for mental health services.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information, as teachers’ absence is a matter for local authorities as the employer.