Chamber and committees

While there is no statutory requirement, the decision on whether an applicant should have further assessment is a decision for the local authority to make. Blue badge administrators may use desk-based screening tools to inform decisions and identify which applicants should be referred to regulated health care professionals.

Transport Scotland considers it good practice for local authorities to refer applicants for an independent mobility assessment, if that is required to make a clear and robust decision on eligibility.

In 2016, prior to the expansion, it was estimated 11,000 people (9,000 full time equivalent workers) would be required to deliver the transformative early learning and childcare (ELC) expansion.

To support those children who benefit most from high quality early learning and childcare (ELC) provision, the Scottish Government made a commitment that, from August 2018, nurseries in the most disadvantaged areas would benefit from an additional teacher or degree-qualified ELC professional. These posts are described nationally as Equity and Excellence Leads (originally Additional Graduates) and have different names and job specifications locally.

Snapshot figures of graduate level posts in ELC are published annually in the Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland publication. Data in the tables is gathered from centres (either local authority or partner provider centres) with children registered for the funded entitlement at the time of the Census. In 2024, this was collected from 9 – 13 September. As of September 2024, there were 356 (317 FTE) Equity and Excellence Leads in post, which equates to 73% of those that are funded.

The majority of the Scottish Government’s funding to Local Government is provided through the General Revenue Grant. As of 2024-25, and in line with the Verity House Agreement, this covers all funding for statutory ELC provision, including for Equity and Excellence Leads.

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on ELC, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

We are working with local authority partners to take forward an evaluation of the Equity and Excellence Leads programme, which will seek to identify good practice, any lessons learned and how best to support this critical resource going forward.

The National Standard and Funding Follows the Child policy framework was jointly implemented in 2021 by the Scottish Government and COSLA to support the 1140 expansion.

Operating Guidance on Funding Follows the Child and the National Standard sets out the Scottish Government’s expectations of local authorities and providers in delivering funded ELC hours. Whilst it is expected that local authorities will use the principles and criteria of Funding Follows the Child and the National Standard as a framework to shape local funded ELC delivery, it is for local authorities to ensure that this is delivered in line with their local service delivery plans.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing and monitoring compliance with the National Standard by all funded providers, including their own settings, as part of their contract management arrangements and in their role as guarantors of quality. The Scottish Government has no locus for intervention in matters relating to local authority operational service delivery.

Working with our Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group, the Scottish Government has set out a multi-year (2018-2025) strategy for evaluating the impact of the ELC expansion to 1140 hours on outcomes for children, parents and families. We expect to publish the 2018-2025 Evaluation Final Report in December 2025. This will draw together findings from across all the strands of the evaluation work.

As set out in our Evaluation Strategy, alongside the evaluation of outcomes, an economic evaluation is being undertaken to assess the economic costs and benefits of the 1140 expansion. The economic evaluation will include an element of standard economic appraisal technique using Cost-Benefit analysis. But we also recognise that it will not be possible to capture all of the possible impacts of the ELC expansion by focusing purely on benefits that can be expressed as a monetary value (i.e. in £). Therefore, this will be accompanied by a “Cost-Consequence analysis” – a type of analysis most commonly used in health-economics, which will allow the economic evaluation to draw on a wider range of data than monetary impacts and present a more comprehensive picture of the impacts of the policy intervention by reporting outcomes separately from each other.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme outlines the basis on which victims of violent crime will be compensated. For those who are direct victims of violent crime the scheme is open to police officers as it is to everyone. The scheme also compensates those injured indirectly through for example apprehending an offender where the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority are satisfied that the person was taking an exceptional and justified risk. The CICA considers each case on its own facts and will assess the case based on the information available. Some applications will by necessity take longer to decide.

The Scottish Government regularly meet with the CICA and performance is discussed. The majority of applications are decided by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority within 12 months.

It is the statutory role of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to monitor and enforce compliance with the Equality Act 2010. The EHRC have launched a public consultation seeking views on updates to their statutory Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations, which will run to 30 June 2025.

It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to issue specific guidance in advance of the EHRC’s publication given that they are the regulator and enforcer of the Equality Act 2010. Doing so increases the risk of inconsistency with the updated Code of Practice that is being prepared by the EHRC. The Scottish Government has informed the EHRC of our approach.

Public bodies should satisfy themselves that they are compliant with the law and that they are reviewing all necessary guidance and policies to prepare themselves for the EHRC’s updated Code of Practice.

The Scottish Government promotes a play-based, child-centred approach in early years settings, as outlined in Realising the Ambition: Being Me. Digital technology should be used in a balanced and purposeful way that supports, rather than replaces, active learning and relationships. The Scottish Government has not received information from either the Care Inspectorate or Education Scotland to indicate that screens are being overused in early years settings. We continue to monitor research and developments in this area, together with all relevant partners.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken analysis of the extent to which GP surgeries are offering an online appointment booking system for patients since the regulations were changed in 2022.

The Scottish Government does not have a role in assessing the performance of GP contractors as those contracts are between GP practices and NHS boards. GP practices are expected to regularly consider whether it is desirable, in order to meet the reasonable needs of their registered patients, to increase the proportion of appointments which are made available online to their registered patients and if it is desirable, to increase the proportion of those appointments. The needs of every practice population differ and the Scottish Government is not in a position to determine, at a national level, what the arrangements in any individual practice should be.

The Scottish Government wants all children and young people to attain the highest standard of health and wellbeing possible, but we know some patients are waiting too long and we’re determined to do more and our Budget will provide a record £21.7 billion for health and social care.

We recognise that the current levels of paediatric tooth extractions in hospital are too high - our aim is to reduce the number of children requiring referral as much as possible.

We continue to invest in our flagship preventative programme Childsmile, which provides oral health interventions for all children in Scotland, as well as targeted measures for children from the most vulnerable backgrounds.

The Programme has supported significant improvements in child oral health in Scotland and a narrowing in child oral health inequality over the longer term.

The 2024 National Dental Inspection Programme results show the gap between P1 children with no obvious tooth decay, living in the most and least deprived areas, is at its lowest on record – decreasing from 32.2 percentage points in 2010 to 23.5 percentage points in 2024.

These figures also show three quarters of Primary 1 children have no obvious decay – this is up from 45% in 2003.