Chamber and committees

The independent evaluation highlighted the enabling role of the Just Transition Fund (JTF) in supporting a just transition in the region and found that 230 jobs had been created and safeguarded in the first two years. Additionally, the JTF supported the provision of more than 750 training places and leveraged over £34 million in additional investment. The JTF supports a range of activity in the North East and Moray, alongside the creation and safeguarding of jobs. This includes enabling innovative technologies, improving environmental outcomes, investing in communities, and empowering communities with our participatory budgeting approach.

From 2022 to date, £50 million of the Just Transition Fund has been allocated as capital grants. In addition, £25 million was allocated in financial transactions to the Scottish National Investment Bank to be invested on a commercial basis in line with the Bank’s Investment Strategy and its mission, including support for a just transition. A further £1.5 million in financial transitions was allocated to Social Investment Scotland to deliver the Social Enterprise Just Transition Fund.

The Scottish Government has outlined commitments to supporting local planning partners within the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy. This includes considering how to make the current children’s strategic planning environment as effective as it can be, including opportunities to strengthen the visibility and messaging around the importance of multi-agency partnership planning for transitions from children’s to adult services as part of this process.

As set out in the strategy, there is also an action to deliver an enhanced offer of practical support to Children’s Services Planning Partnership Strategic Leads as they begin to develop their 2026-2029 Strategic Plans. This will include a joint workshop with Children’s Service Planning Partnership Strategic Leads and the Integration Joint Board Strategic Planning and Performance Officers Group focused on best practice for transitions between children’s and adult services as well as the role of planning and commissioning in transitions.

A provision in The Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill further seeks to ensure that the statutory duties for Children’s Services Planning placed upon a local authority and the relevant health board, are also placed upon integration authorities. The policy intention for this is to improve transitions for children and their families by enhancing collaborative working and joining up of strategic planning activities across adult and children’s services.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39323 on 5 August 2025. 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.

As set out in the Foreword of the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy, the seven Principles of Good Transitions, developed by the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland, and endorsed by the Scottish Government, COSLA and many other partners, serve as a strong foundation for the strategy. These principles emphasise the importance of early, person-led planning and decision making, and access to information and co-ordinated support. They guide professionals across paediatric and adult health, children’s and adult social work, education, and other sectors to collaborate effectively to both plan and deliver support for young disabled people during this period of their lives.

The priorities within the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy build on the ARC Scotland’s Principles of Good Transitions. Stakeholders agreed with this approach during engagement on the Statement of Intent for the strategy. Whilst the strategy itself is non-statutory, it sets out the standards expected in delivery of transitions support for young disabled people across Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39323 on 5 August 2025. 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 outlined a number of actions that will be undertaken to improve data collection – both qualitative and quantitative - in the recently published National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy. The intention is to utilise this data to:

• build a more accurate picture across Scotland of the number of young disabled people;
• have a better understanding of the experiences and outcomes of young disabled people who are making the transition to adulthood;
• focus on making the right improvements at a national and local level; and
• report and monitor progress.

The Scottish Government is already providing funding to Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland who have developed Compass in response to the identified need to improve how we collect and use information from people with lived experience to better inform decisions about practice, commissioning and policy.

The development of a Children’s Services Plan requires planning partnerships to use available data and intelligence to undertake a multi-agency joint strategic needs assessment to identify the needs of children, young people and families living in that area, and inform service planning. This joint strategic needs assessment should be used to inform service planning and local strategic commissioning processes for the Children’s Services Plan, with specific consideration of the needs of young people as they move between receipt of children’s and adult services.

As set out in the strategy, there is also an action to deliver an enhanced offer of practical support to Children’s Services Planning Partnership Strategic Leads as they begin to develop their 2026-2029 Strategic Plans. This will include a joint workshop with Children’s Service Planning Partnership Strategic Leads and the Integration Joint Board Strategic Planning and Performance Officers Group focused on best practice for transitions between children’s and adult services as well as the role of planning and commissioning in transitions.

The Scottish Government is also progressing work to improve the equality evidence base more broadly which will support these intentions. This includes:

• developing the Equality Evidence Finder data platform, which will present available intersectional data on young disabled people;
• continuing to improve the availability of disability data through specific actions outlined in the Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025; and
• undertaking a Disability Evidence Review to support the delivery of the Disability Equality Plan. This Evidence Review will be finalised in partnership with Disabled People’s Organisations and will include intersectional evidence on disabled young people where possible.

Scotland’s Census also enables intersectional analysis of data on disabled young people, supporting a deeper understanding of experiences and outcomes across a range of policy areas at national and local levels.

The Scottish Government plan to publish the first progress report on the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy by the end of 2026.

The Scottish Government and its partners already collect and publish evidence on the outcomes of disabled people. However, we recognise that there are some areas where additional data publication would be valuable. The Data Collection and Measurement section of the recently published National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy outlines the Scottish Government’s actions to address these gaps.

As part of this commitment, we will conduct an audit of existing data collected and published on disabled children and young people. This audit will identify gaps in the data currently published on disabled young people, including instances where data is collected but not published. The findings will inform discussions on priorities for future evidence gathering to support better planning for transitions.

Officials will also engage with UK-wide developments on guidance on disability data collection and harmonisation. This will include considering where and how Scottish Government may adopt revised approaches, where appropriate.

In addition, the Scottish Government is continuing to provide funding to Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland through financial year 2025-26. Part of this funding will support ARC Scotland to maintain and continually improve the Compass tools; to promote the wider implementation of Compass and to publish anonymised evaluation reports with the data generated.

Data on how much each local authority spends on agency staff is not held or collected by the Scottish Government. It is the responsibility of local authorities to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including setting school budgets, on the basis of local needs and priorities, after fulfilling their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Data on local authority expenditure on teachers is available from the Local Government Financial statistics data collection. The latest figures are available from LFR01 at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-local-government-finance-statistics-slgfs-2023-24-workbooks/.

Teachers in Scotland are employed by local authorities, not agencies. This includes supply teachers and teachers on short term contracts.

Since August 2020 there have been 123 Critical Incidents and 1041 Disruptive Incidents on the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass section managed by Transport Scotland. This period covers approximately 1688 days. Critical Incidents cover the most significant incidents where there are full closures. Disruptive Incidents include these closures but also where the road has remained open but there have been significant delays caused, for example by breakdown or collisions. Unfortunately we are unable to confirm the delays associated with these incidents.