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The Scottish Government uses a range of measures and sources to consider and report on the impact of the Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund.

Nationally published data, such as the annual Educational Outcomes for Looked after Children is used to consider the impact of this fund. It is encouraging that the latest statistics show an improving position for care experienced children and young people. Whilst real progress has been made, there remains a sizeable gap between the educational outcomes of care experienced children and young people and all pupils. It’s within that context that Scottish Government officials are currently working with local government to develop a long-term approach to improving these outcomes in response to the Promise.

The impact of the Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund is also considered as part of the Evaluation Strategy for the Attainment Scotland Fund 2022 – 2026 . The first annual evaluation plan for 2022-23 , published in February 2023 and, most recently, the SAC Leads Survey Report published 22 September 2023. Evidence from the latter of those shows the Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund is viewed to have supported strategic decision-making to improve attainment or outcomes for care experienced children and young people within respondent local authorities. Dedicated postholders such as Virtual Headteachers were also highlighted for their positive contribution towards joint working and capacity building.

Existing local authority Education Standards and Quality reports (or local equivalent reports) are also used to report on the progress being made with the support of all Attainment Scotland Funding, including the Care Experienced Children and Young People Funding. Within these reports each local authority presents a clear narrative on the extent to which this funding has influenced and supported local approaches to making progress towards identified stretch aims and achieving the mission of the Scottish Attainment Challenge. Many local authorities have also set specific targets for care experienced children and young people in their stretch aims and these are published as part of the aggregated measures .

The National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan is designed to help us deliver the twin aims of excellence and equity; galvanising efforts and aligning our collective improvement activities across all partners in the education system to address our key priorities. At national level, this Improvement Plan summarises the key evidence and identifies both ongoing and new improvement activity that we will be taking forward or supporting at national level. These plans also play a role in measuring ongoing activity and the impact of this fund.

The Scottish Government remains committed to introducing Land Reform legislation to further improve transparency of land ownership, help ensure large scale land holdings deliver in the public interest, and empower communities by providing more opportunities to own land and have more say in how land in their area is used.

It is important that the proposals in the Bill are robust to address the problems identified and to ensure this we are giving further consideration to measures in the Bill. Land reform is complex, and we are taking time to ensure that we have fully considered all responses to the consultation and subsequent comments from stakeholders.

To allow time for this further consideration and ensure we get the proposals right for introduction, we are planning a slight delay to the introduction of the Bill but it remains a Programme for Government commitment for 2023-24.

The Scottish Government also remains fully committed to ensuring that tenant farmers and small landholders are given equality of opportunity to access the new agricultural support framework. We will ensure that the future four tier agricultural support framework is able to work for all types of land tenure.

The Health and Social Care system continues to face a number of pressures across finance, performance and workforce coming out of the pandemic and meeting high levels of demand across all parts of the system.

The NHS Scotland Support and Intervention Framework is one of the key elements of evidence-based approach to monitoring performance and managing risk across the NHS in Scotland .

All NHS Boards have recently been reviewed against the framework for finance purposes. Four of the 22 NHS Boards now sit at level three of this framework which is the first formal escalation stage. Those Boards are NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Borders, NHS Highland and NHS Orkney.

We will discuss the specific support required for these Boards, as well as across all NHS Boards to support financial sustainability across the system.

We continue to prioritise investment in frontline services, supporting services in the immediate and the essential reform required to deliver sustainable services, providing an increase of £730m (6%) for NHS Boards in 2023-24.

There have been 49 personal injury accidents on the A90 between Dundee (Emmock Roundabout) and Stonehaven, where Slug Road crosses the A90 since 1 April 2021.

Information on non-injury accidents is not held by the Scottish Ministers

We understand there is a role for private healthcare in delivering planned care however, the Scottish Government is absolutely committed to keeping our NHS true to its founding principles and providing the best value for the people in Scotland. We have invested in nursing and midwifery staffing, which already at a record high has increased further by 1.6% from September 2022 to 65,269.8 WTE. The Allied Health Professional workforce (excluding paramedics) has seen similar growth to 11,857.7 WTE in September 2023, representing a 3.6% increase since last year.

The Scottish Government does not hold information about the number of NHS Scotland staff who may have left their position to take up alternative employment in the private healthcare sector.

In June 2023, NHS Scotland Assure completed a desktop review of the entire NHS estate which identified 254 health properties that were assessed to have a high or medium likelihood of RAAC. The Scottish Government made a commitment that all 254 priority properties would be subject to an intrusive survey by the end of November and that work is now complete; RAAC has been identified in 32 properties across NHS Scotland. Across NHS Scotland, the approach taken when RAAC is discovered follows the risk-based approach recommended by the Institution of Structural Engineers.

One property, Denburn Health Centre, was permanently vacated in September as a result of risks associated with RAAC. Prior to the identification of RAAC, there was an intention to vacate Denburn Health Centre at the earliest opportunity, so disruption was minimal and all services have now transferred to Carden Place which has much improved facilities. RAAC was also identified in one plant room in the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh where an initial review on the area did not highlight any structural concerns and although some repair work is required, the structural engineer confirmed the area is structurally sound. For the remaining 30 NHS properties identified with RAAC, there is no immediate disruption or concern, though additional monitoring and management of the situation is required in all cases.

Since the commencement of the survey programme, a better and wider understanding of the incidences of RAAC and a general raising of awareness has resulted in several NHS Boards approaching NHS Scotland Assure with additional properties to add to the desktop triage process. We expect somewhere in the region of 150 additional buildings will require a survey along with the 148 properties which were originally identified as having a low likelihood of RAAC.

The survey programme is now continuing with the additional properties identified as having a high or medium likelihood of RAAC followed by all properties identified in the desktop review with a Low likelihood of RAAC.

As of 7 December 2023 a total of 281 properties have been surveyed.

Details of the survey programme are available on NHS Scotland Assure’s website which also contains a link to each NHS Boards RAAC webpage for current information about progress of the survey programme:

https://www.nss.nhs.scot/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-raac-discovery-survey-programme-list-of-properties/

In the 2023-24 Programme for Government we have committed, as part of developing an approach to fairer funding for the third sector, to deliver improvements in grant-making arrangements, including providing greater clarity and consistency of practice.

We understand that organisations need timely grant decisions and payments in order to reduce financial uncertainty and effectively resource delivery.

In line with the commitment given by the First Minister, we are working, within the context of the Scottish Budget process, to issue notifications of funding arrangements to third sector organisations, as soon as is practicably possible and no later than end of March for funding beginning on 1 April.

There has been 1 fatality as a result of road accidents on the A90 between Dundee (Emmock Roundabout) to Stonehaven, where Slug Road crosses the A90 since 1 April 2021.

There have been 5 fatalities as a result of road accidents on the A90 north of Aberdeen from where the A944 intersects with the A90 to where the A90 meets the A98 in Fraserburgh since 1 April 2021.

The cross-policy working group last met on 11 October 2023.

Members were provided with an update on the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy, including the engagement on the Statement of Intent, and the work of the Disabled Children and Young People’s Advisory Group Engagement Sub-Group.

The Group also discussed Getting It Right For Everyone (GIRFE), a multi-agency approach of support and services from young adulthood to end of life care currently being co-designed. This included an update on pathfinders’ co-design work with people with lived experience, including young people in transition.

In addition, members were informed of the publication of the Education, Children and Young People Committee’s Stage 1 report on the Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill.