The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living in Scotland with long term conditions including Chronic Kidney Disease are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

We are running our public consultation on the Long Term Conditions Framework from 23 April to 20 July 2025. This is available at Health: Long Term Conditions Framework - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space.

We will take the results of the consultation into account when developing the framework which will include identifying areas where targeted condition-specific action will still be needed. In the development of the framework we will identify what funding is available for implementation.

Many parts of the childcare sector operate under a mixed economy model where they receive income from different sources, including directly from their local authority to support the delivery of funded early learning and childcare (ELC). For example, the 2023 Financial Sustainability Health Check reported that public funding accounted for, on average, around 46% of overall income for private childcare services who delivered funded ELC.

The payment of sustainable rates to providers delivering funded ELC is vital to the financial sustainability of these providers.

This is why the Scottish Government and COSLA undertook a joint Sustainable Rates Review in 2023. Through evidence from providers and local authorities, it identified a risk that some providers were not being as effectively supported as others by rates at the time of the review.

To address this, work is underway to improve the data available to inform funded ELC rates-setting by local authorities. The Scottish Government has contracted the Diffley Partnership to undertake a new funded ELC cost survey. The findings will inform future sustainable rates-setting and the Scottish Government and COSLA’s future financial planning.

While work is underway to improve rates-setting processes, the childcare sector in Scotland has been impacted significantly by the UK Government’s unilateral changes to employer National Insurance Contributions. We estimate that these changes will add £5 million per year to funded providers’ costs for the delivery of funded ELC (with higher additional costs expected for the whole of the childcare sector).

The Scottish Government called on the Chancellor to fund these costs in full, including the costs for commissioned services such as ELC, but she has failed to do so. The additional funding of £339 million being provided by the UK Government falls far short of the estimated additional costs and means that public services in Scotland still face a £400 million shortfall.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-38244 on 17 June 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/questions-and-answers.

When applying for funding, colleges and universities submit a projected budget which provides a detailed breakdown of costs relating to the implementation and delivery of the project. However, the information is not recorded in the manner requested.

An external evaluation due to be published later in the summer will provide an analysis of the SEEP projects which will include costs associated with the development and delivery of projects and funding allocated to student mobility.

The Scottish Government understands the importance of multi-year budgets to the agriculture sector and consistently makes the case to the UK Government that a single year budget settlement does not give the stability and certainty that we need. If the UK Government Spending Review provides multi-year funding, SG would expect to be able to provide that certainty in turn to the agriculture and marine sectors.

Youth work falls within the scope of The Requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013. This regulation, in effect, requires local authorities to identify need and plan provision of Community Learning and Development in their areas.

As the regulatory requirements for Community Learning and Development are placed with education authorities, the Scottish Government does not collate information on youth workers.

The National Specification is intended to be published by the end of 2025,

Decisions on whether to install defibrillators in schools are a matter for Local Authorities.

The Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy: 2021-2026 does not include a specific commitment to placing defibrillators in Scottish schools. Our policy is to work with Save a Life for Scotland partners, taking a data driven approach, to optimise defibrillator placement and ensure they are publicly accessible and registered with the Scottish Ambulance Service.

The Scottish Government provided the Resuscitation Research Group funding for PADmap. PADmap is a free to use, data-driven service to help defibrillator guardians make informed decisions about where to place their devices in order to have the most impact.

Public Health Scotland have advised that the findings of their investigation into the decline in alcohol treatment numbers over the last decade is due to be published in late Summer 2025.

Under the new model Neonatal Intensive Care will be delivered in three Units - the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Aberdeen Maternity Hospital. The change was recommended in the Best Start report published in 2017 and was supported by a review of evidence carried out by Dr Anna Gavine, Dr Steve MacGillivray and Prof Mary Renfrew of the University of Dundee and published alongside The Best Start.

The approach to high volume neonatal intensive care for the smallest and sickest babies is further supported by the publication in 2021 of the British Association for Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) Framework for Practice.

On the basis of this evidence, and data for Scotland, three units would be the best model for Scotland. The decision on the location of the final three units was based on advice from clinical experts who undertook an options appraisal to identify the units. The appraisal was published in July 2023.