Chamber and committees

We have established a Place Based Investment Programme, backed with £325 million capital investment over 5 years, to accelerate ambitions for place, 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre revitalisation and community led regeneration. This programme will include support for repurposing of land and buildings, creating new space for local enterprises, facilities and services and support the resilience and wellbeing of communities across Scotland.

We have also launched a £10 million multi-year Scotland Loves Local Fund to support local people, businesses and community partnerships to bring new ideas and activity to towns and neighbourhoods to support local economic recovery and resilience.

The Town Centre Action Plan and our UK-leading town centre first approach provide a framework for those working to revitalise town and neighbourhood centres so that they can become more diverse, sustainable and thriving places for communities to live, work and enjoy. An independent review which considered the impact and lessons from the Town Centre Action Plan and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was published in February 2021. We are working collaboratively with COSLA and partners to respond to the review.

We support Scotland's Towns Partnership to work with local authorities, communities and businesses to provide information, support and services which contribute to the vibrancy, viability and diversity of our town centres and neighbourhoods, and to support the development of Business Improvement Districts.

To support the small businesses that will be vital to the recovery of our towns and high streets, we will maintain the Small Business Bonus Scheme for the lifetime of the Parliament - ensuring that 100,000 business properties pay no rates and that the majority of ratepayers continue to pay a lower poundage than elsewhere in the UK.

Our City Centre Recovery Task Force is working to identify innovative actions aimed at assisting city centres through their economic recovery. To kick-start the Task Force, we invested £2 million in a City Centres Recovery Fund. This has supported innovative actions with a focus on inclusive and sustainable growth to aid the recovery of our city centres.

In our Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan we committed to considering and addressing the causes of mental health inequality at a structural and individual level, particularly the impacts of the pandemic on the mental health of minority ethnic groups. We have established a Mental Health Equality and Human Rights Stakeholder Forum, with representation from organisations representing Race equality, to provide advice on the implementation of the Plan and wider equalities work within mental health policy. The Forum first met in February and we continue to consult with the group as we implement the Plan.

We recognise that there is a need to improve data collection to help us understand any barriers faced by people from minority ethnic communities accessing mental health support, as has been recommended by the Expert Reference Group on Covid and Ethnicity and the Mental Welfare Commission in its recent publication on Racial Inequality and Mental Health in Scotland.

As part of the Scottish Government’s Equality Data Improvement Programme, government analysts are assessing evidence, including on ethnicity/race, across the health and social care portfolio and are committed to developing an action plan to improve equality data. Scoping of requirements for initial research on mental health and ethnicity will take place over the coming months.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the lived experiences of young people who require additional support and listening to what matters to them. I refer to the response provided in S6W-02859 on 24 September 2021.

We will continue to seek input and advice from the Disabled Children and Young People’s Advisory Group (DCYPAG), our long standing practitioner forum.

The Scottish Government also commissioned the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland to deliver the Principles into Practice Trial Programme, using good practice principles for transition, in 10 local authority areas. Principles into Practice sets out practical steps to be taken locally to coordinate planning and practice to improve the transition to young adult life.

The learning from early adopters of this work will be used to inform the development of a National Transitions Strategy alongside direct engagement with children, young people, their parents and carers, to fully explore the gaps in provision and support as they see them.

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 Scottish Government has already given a point by point response [on 24 March 2021] to all recommendations from the four Committees that scrutinised our update to the 2018 Climate Change Plan.

As stated in that response, the Committees’ advice will be considered and incorporated as part of the wider approach to keeping our package of policies on climate change under review, with a view to outlining further policy action where appropriate in sector strategies or plans, as well as in the next statutory Climate Change Plan.

Self-directed Support (SDS) is Scotland’s mainstream approach to social care, applying to both children and adults and enshrined in law through The Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013. This approach to social care has been chosen to ensure individuals are empowered to be equal partners in their care and support decisions and to participate in social and economic life. It is, however, focused on social care and support, rather than access to health services. As such, the Scottish Government does not currently have plans to develop a self-directed support scheme for young people to access mental health services.

However, the Scottish Government continues to invest heavily to ensure a range of mental health support is available to children and young people, in line with their needs.

Our work with children and young people’s organisations - monitoring surveys, research and referral rates – helps Scottish Government and our partners to incorporate the lived experience and views of children and young people into our policy and service design processes; as we seek to ensure that the right help and support is available.

We continue to invest in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) which support children and young people in need of specialist mental health support, and have invested an additional £40 million in CAMHS services this year.

We have also provided £15 million of additional funding to local authorities to deliver locally based mental health and wellbeing support for 5-24 year olds in their communities. This includes funding new and enhanced community mental health and wellbeing services for 5-24 year olds with a focus on prevention, early intervention and the treatment of distress.

In addition we continue to prioritise support for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing in schools, including developing and delivering new mental health training and learning resources, and £16 million in funding to ensure that every secondary school has access to counselling services.

Furthermore, we continue to invest in a range of other measures to support children and young people’s mental wellbeing. This includes providing enhanced digital resources on mental health and wellbeing available via Young Scot’s website and expansion of the Distress Brief Intervention programme to under 16s.

Family Fund administers the Take a Break Scotland fund on behalf of the Scottish Government. Currently, it is one of four programmes which make up the annual £3 million voluntary sector Short Breaks Fund. During the period 2011-12 to 2021-22, 21,131 Take a Break Scotland grants have been provided to carers (please see the breakdown below for each year). The higher numbers of grants in 2020-21 and 2021-22 is due to additional funding provided to meet extra demand during the pandemic. It must be highlighted that this is the number of grant applications funded, and there may be more than one carer benefiting from each grant.

Number of Short Break grants provided by the Take a Break Scotland fund.

Future transport investment decisions, such as the reopening of the former station at Finnieston, are being considered within the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2). As concluded in the Initial Appraisal: Case for Change for the Glasgow City Region, the re-opening of disused rail lines and associated stations within Glasgow City Centre was one of the interventions recommended for the next stage of appraisal, together with wider proposals for a Glasgow Metro.

The appraisal process for STPR2 is considering the performance of all options against the transport outcomes we are seeking, the Transport Planning Objectives, which are aligned to our National Transport Strategy priorities and outcomes. The interventions will seek to contribute to our vision of a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors.

Therefore, we need to consider the social and economic benefits and impacts based on performance against these objectives and the five Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance criteria, to determine the overall Value for Money. This also takes into account risks, uncertainties and other factors such as affordability, deliverability and the wider acceptability of options. This will be an important consideration given pressures on current and future public finances.

Also underpinning STPR2 is the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy where we will aim first to reduce the need to travel unsustainably, make better use of and enhance existing infrastructure, before investing in new capacity. This hierarchy is also central to Infrastructure Investment Plan. STPR2 will conclude later this year, with publication of recommendations for investment and an appropriate statutory consultation period.

The Transport Scotland budget underspends form part of the Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity portfolio underspend reported in the portfolio outturn statement in the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts for the year ended 31st March 2020 of £232 million, which in turn forms part of the overall Scottish Government outturn, with underspends carried forward in the Scotland Reserve to support the delivery of the Government’s outcomes, meaning there is no loss of spending power to Scotland and no underspend remains unallocated. Overall changes to the Scottish Budget are set out in full at budget revisions.

The Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) provides a framework to identify and appraise transport interventions. The process is designed to provide investment decision-makers with the information they need in a clear, structured format. The second Strategic Transport Projects Review is following STAG as the basis for undertaking its appraisal, therefore all 58 station options are being appraised in line with STAG.

The Cabinet Sub-Committee on the Climate Emergency is currently being established. Once finalised, the remit of the new Sub-committee, including its membership and operating arrangements will be subject to approval by the First Minister.