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In 2024-25, the Scottish Government invested £535,000 in college and university led SEEP projects.

Additional information on the year 2 projects can be found on the Scottish Government website: Scottish Education Exchange Programme: - Test and Learn: funded projects - gov.scot.

The information requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government does not collect or hold data about the condition of early learning and childcare (ELC) settings. Owners and managers are responsible for building management and for ensuring the safety of their premises. Statutory requirements for the fitness of premises to be used for the provision of ELC are set out in Section 10 of The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Requirements for Care Services) Regulations 2011.

In the 2 years of SEEP Test and learn Scottish colleges and universities planned to collaborate with over 100 international partners across 38 countries. Please see a list below of countries partnered with in year one and year two.

1.Argentina

2.Australia

3.Belgium

4.Brazil

5.Canada

6.China

7.Czech Republic

8.Denmark

9.Egypt

10.Estonia

11.Finland

12.Flanders

13.France

14.Germany

15.Ghana

16.Greece

17.Hong Kong

18.India

19.Indonesia

20.Ireland

21.Japan

22.Italy

23.Lithuania

24.Malaysia

25.Nepal

26.Netherlands

27.Pakistan

28.Singapore

29.Spain

30.South Africa

31.South Korea

32.Sweden

33.Taiwan

34.UAE

35.Uruguay

36.USA

37.Valencia

38.Vietnam

An independent review of the Community Learning and Development (CLD) landscape was commissioned in December 2023.

Following the review, the Learning: For All. For Life. report was published in July 2024 which set out 20 recommendations varying in complexity and scope. The report can be accessed at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/learning-life-report-independent-review-community-learning-development-cld/.

In December 2024, the Scottish Government and CoSLA accepted the first recommendation of the report to set up a CLD Strategic Leadership Group (SLG). The SLG are collectively considering the remaining recommendations of the report, including those relating to youth work.

Funding for the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit for 2025-26 has not been reduced.

The Scottish Government grant to the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit has been increased from £1.17 million in 2024-25 to just over £1.2 million for 2025-26. This represents an increase of £47000 (4%) on the Unit’s grant allocation in 2024-25, and is a £82000 (7%) increase on the Unit’s indicative grant allocation for 2025-26.

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.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Information on university retention rates is published by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) in the statistics publication Report on Widening Access. There is no breakdown by those with teacher assessed grades.

The latest publication is available on the SFC’s website: https://www.sfc.ac.uk/publications/report-on-widening-access-2022-23/.

The Scottish Education Exchange Programme (SEEP) Test and Learn Project was launched in 2023.

In year 1 the project did not directly fund any student exchanges. Institutions prioritised staff mobility projects supporting the development of sustainable partnerships.

Projects in year 2 of the test and learn provided opportunities for students from Scottish institutions who would not meet the criteria for Turing Scheme funding to participate in a mobility project.

Year 2 projects concluded on 31 March 2025. Institutions are currently submitting end of project reports which will feed into the external evaluation of the project, the report from which is due to be published late summer.

Additional information on the year 2 projects can be found on the Scottish Government website: Scottish Education Exchange Programme: - Test and Learn: funded projects - gov.scot.

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.

Since 2011 the Scottish Government has invested over £65 million to develop ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) with the aim of encouraging the uptake of electric vehicles (EV). To grow CPS, Scottish Ministers have provided grant funding to over 400 organisations across the public, private and third sectors to install charge points and make them publicly available on the CPS network. The grantees are the owners of the charge points on CPS and responsible for tariffs, ongoing maintenance and upgrades. CPS’ role as the operator is to make them available to the public so that drivers can easily locate and pay for charging sessions.

As a direct result of this funding and increasing private sector investment Scotland now has over 6,900 public charge points. A target for 6,000 public charge points was met in October 2024, two years ahead of schedule.

In addition to investment in public charge points, Scottish Ministers have also provided over £19 million for the installation of over 23,000 lower powered charge points at homes and at workplaces, complementing the public charging network. Ministers remain committed to supporting drivers in the year ahead, setting aside further funding to support consumer incentive schemes for the installation of EV infrastructure at people’s homes, workplaces and public places.

Scottish Ministers’ vision: Vision for world class public electric vehicle charging network | Transport Scotland for the future of public EV charging and the accompanying Draft Implementation Plan: Vision for Scotland's public electric vehicle charging network - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space both set out a clear direction for the future of EV infrastructure in Scotland. The Scottish Government will continue to enable increasing private sector investment, whilst targeting public funding towards those parts of Scotland less likely to benefit from standalone private sector investment in public EV charging. This includes the £30 million provided to local authorities through our EV Infrastructure Fund which is on track secure additional private sector investment in public EV charging and support the provision of a further 6,000 public charge points across Scotland.