Chamber and committees

The Residential Rehabilitation Development Working Group defines residential rehab as facilities offering programmes which aim to support individuals to attain an alcohol or drug-free lifestyle and to be re-integrated into society, provide intensive psychosocial support and a structured programme of daily activities, and which residents are required to attend over a fixed period of time.

The Scottish Government recognises that diversity of treatment options is important to empower individuals to have more choice and to meet the needs of individuals seeking different types of recovery, and this includes taking a person-centred approach to treatment length.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) follows statistical disclosure control (SDC) when publishing data, including those submitted for their most recent report on statutory-funded residential rehabilitation placements.

PHS applies the SDC to data due to the sensitive nature of the topic, and to reduce the risk of identifying individuals, (especially those from small geographic areas) who in this case were the number of people accessing residential rehabilitation for substance use in River Garden.

The data was therefore suppressed and an asterisk used to denote this in the published report.

The Scottish Government will address the impact of changes to service provision on access and availability to alcohol and drug recovery services by continuing to ensure that the specific needs of women are considered in the design and delivery of services, and that a gendered approach is taken in all new or developing initiatives across the National Mission to reduce deaths and improve lives.

The Scottish Government provided specific funding of around £1.5m per year to Glasgow City Council to support the 218 Service. As a result of that funding relationship, Glasgow informed the Scottish Government of its plans to re-tender the service last year and discussions took place to confirm that the funding would still be available following that exercise.

Glasgow City Council has provided assurances that it worked closely with Turning Point Scotland to support individuals in transitioning to other support arrangements and that other services, including residential placements, are available to support people with similar needs. In particular, it has confirmed that all 218 service residents had moved on from the service as of 31 January 2024 – some residents naturally came to the end of their stay, while others moved back to their own tenancy or to accommodation with support.

The Small Business Bonus Scheme Evaluation Short-Term Working Group was established to inform advice to Scottish Ministers in respect the recommendations made in the Evaluation of the Small Business Bonus Scheme Report , and in particular “that the Scottish Government begins to collect new information that will make a more robust assessment of the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) (and potentially other reliefs) possible in the future.”

This Group met twice and minutes of the meetings are published on the Scottish Government website . Members were clear that SBBS relief is of great benefit to many small businesses, and also raised concerns about the burden that the collection of any additional information would entail.

Recognising these concerns, the Scottish Government has not introduced any additional information-sharing requirements for this relief at this time and the Small Business Bonus Scheme remains the most generous scheme of its kind in the UK.

The provision of education is the responsibility of Local Authorities and so the detailed approach to lesson planning is a matter for individual schools – however it has always been the case that Scotland’s teachers are entrusted to plan their lessons as they see fit. There are a variety of different approaches which may be deployed in the development of lesson plans and it would not be the role of central Government to dictate how that might look in individual classrooms.

In relation to avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy, the Statement from HM Inspector of Education from 2016 remains in place. That Statement sets out what teachers and practitioners are expected to do to effectively plan learning, teaching and assessment for all pupils, and also suggests what should be avoided. The guidance is available at the following hyperlink: https://education.gov.scot/media/m1nlboum/cfe-statement.pdf

To further support effective lesson planning, Education Scotland continues to provide advice and support to educators on lesson planning with the provision of resources on the Education Scotland website and using their subject-specific networks, professional learning events and professional support visits.

Teachers in Scotland are required to spend 35 hours on professional learning per year and to engage in a Professional Update process every five years as a requirement for registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland.

As set out in the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers Handbook, it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure a wide range of professional learning development opportunities and the teacher’s responsibility to undertake a programme of agreed professional learning. This should be capable of being discharged within contractual working time.

In terms of the provision of professional learning for teachers at a national level, Scotland’s national education agency will have an important role in supporting a thriving professional learning sector through a national framework for professional learning and will build on the existing and well-regarded national leadership professional learning programmes.

Establishing the new Centre for Teaching Excellence will also ensure every teacher is supported in delivering high-quality teaching. Effective professional learning, development and dedicated time for collaboration is critical to improving performance in the classroom.

The Scottish Government values teachers and is committed to understanding their needs and providing them with the right support.

While teacher wellbeing is ultimately a matter for the employer, since 2020 we have invested more than £2 million specifically in supporting wellbeing in the education workforce. In 2023-24 we provided £0.2 million to Know You More, to offer free wellbeing coaching to teaching staff and educational professionals across Scotland.

We also worked in collaboration with the Association of Directors of Education Scotland to fund an Education Workforce Support Project, to gain a comprehensive understanding of how we support the wellbeing of our education workforce. We are currently considering the outcomes of this work and next steps to improve the existing wellbeing support that is provided by local authorities and teaching unions.

While employment practice is a matter for local authorities as employers, the Scottish Government values teachers and recognises the concerns around teacher workload that are identified in this research.

We are committed to working with COSLA and the teacher unions, through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers on matters such as teacher workload.

While employment practice is a matter for local authorities as employers, the Scottish Government values teachers and recognises the concerns around teacher workload that are identified in this research.

We are committed to working with COSLA and the teacher unions, through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers on matters such as teacher workload.

Whilst there are no current plans to update the Teachers’ Agreement 2001, any future changes to teachers’ terms and conditions would be matters for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers, which was established as part of the Teachers’ Agreement.