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Scottish Government officials last met with their Welsh Government counterparts on 29 June 2023. The meeting was a Four Nations introductory meeting to share knowledge, policy and practice on foster care. Officials have met their Welsh counterparts on 16 occasions since 2021 to discuss a range of policies relating to children in care and social care.

As Minister for Higher and Further Education, and Veterans, Scotland's Shared Apprenticeships sit within my portfolio of responsibilities.

Under the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, local authorities have a duty to assess someone’s need for adoption support services and then provide that support. This may include counselling and guidance for parents who have adopted or may adopt a child, as well as assistance in relation to the adoption process, including preparation for adoption.

In 2023-24, the Scottish Government allocated over £480,000 directly to organisations delivering support for adoptive families and practitioners. This funding supports a range of initiatives, including: a national helpline; services for practitioners; an Adoption Contact Register; Adoption Week Scotland; and Adoption UK’s PATHways service. PATHways is a free therapeutic intervention programme which helps adoptive parents to achieve better outcomes for their children by giving them early access to a clinical psychologist and peer support.

The Scottish Government has also allocated £32 million in 2023-24 to Children’s Services Planning Partnerships in local areas as part of the Whole Family Wellbeing programme of activity, which aims to deliver transformational change to improve holistic whole family support, including for adoptive parents.

Under the Adoption Agencies Regulations (Scotland) 2009, each local authority or adoption agency which is carrying out functions such as the assessment of prospective adopters must appoint an adoption panel.

The Scottish Government’s 2011 Guidance on the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 and the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 sets out that the adoption panel should reflect the community from which children and families may come, as adopters are wide ranging and panels need to be informed and sensitive to issues around ethnicity, beliefs, sexuality and lifestyles.

Scottish Government grant making is allocated across portfolios to various parts of the third sector to improve a wide range of outcomes. Some Scottish Government funding will be issued through third sector intermediary organisations. Spending is not all specifically classified as to whether or not it is allocated to third-sector organisations to deliver services. Consequently the information requested is not available.

Social Security Scotland routinely publishes information on Scottish Child Payment applications, payments and an estimate of the number of children actively in receipt of the payment.

While Social Security Scotland has not published the number of parents or carers in receipt of Scottish Child Payment to date, development is currently underway to do so in the next edition of the Scottish Child Payment Official Statistics publication. This will also include the number of parents or carers actively in receipt of Scottish Child Payment by age group. This next edition will cover the period to the end of June 2023 and is due to be published on 29 August 2023.

As of March 2023, around 12% (37,560) of applications for Scottish Child Payment were made by parents or carers aged under 25. It is important to note that these statistics relate to applications, not receipts of Scottish Child Payment. This information can be found in the latest Scottish Child Payment Official Statistics publication:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19380 on 11 July 2023. 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 National Trauma Training Programme (NTTP) provides freely available and evidence based trauma training resources for the whole workforce, including education and health professionals, supported by over £8 million investment since 2018. This is key to ensuring that children, young people and their families are supported effectively by workforces and services that recognise the impact of adverse and traumatic experiences, and provide support which is centred around relationships and causes no further harm.

In 2023, the Scottish Government will publish a long-term delivery plan for the NTTP which will include an outline of future commitments and priorities for supporting trauma-informed practice across the children and families workforce.

Education Scotland has also developed a Keeping Trauma in Mind professional learning programme to support education practitioners across Scotland with their knowledge, understanding and skills required to support children and young people (including adoptees) who may be impacted by trauma.

The Scottish Government's recently published National Innovation Strategy identifies Scotland's Health and Life Sciences sector as an innovation priority area, and outlines a tailored cluster approach to each of the innovation priority areas in order to scale innovative activity to drive economic outcomes, attract additional investment and elevate Scotland's impact on a global stage. The National Innovation Strategy further outlines encouragement and support for the breadth of Scotland's businesses to innovate, helping our business base to adopt the innovative technologies and processes that will help increase their resilience and capacity for growth. The Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness has also underlined the importance of continued support for innovation in life sciences and public health research in its Interim Report, published in August 2022. A strong and resilient life sciences sector, with highly innovative clusters involving our business and research base, will help Scotland be able to respond to upcoming challenges including any potential future pandemics.

In 2023-24, the Scottish Government has allocated over £480,000 directly to organisations delivering support for adoptive families, including parents. This funding supports a range of initiatives, including: a national helpline; services for practitioners; an Adoption Contact Register; Adoption Week Scotland; and Adoption UK’s PATHways service which provides therapeutic and peer support.

Future funding commitments are subject to the outcome of any spending review by the Scottish Government and approval of the annual Budget Bills by the Scottish Parliament.