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The Scottish Government doesn’t inform the Met Office about landslips, as this is not an operational requirement of this UK Weather Agency. The role of the Met Office is to make meteorological predictions across all timescales from weather forecasts to climate change.

It should be noted however, The Met Office is one of a number of stakeholders the Scottish Government liaise with in the course of preparing responses to resilience and weather related events. The Met Office provide weather related advice to the Scottish Government, which in turn serves to inform our wider resilience response, including consideration of landslip risk in areas such as the A83, Rest and be Thankful.

We know through the views and experiences shared during the Independent Care Review that care experienced people can often feel stigmatised. Through the Each & Every Child initiative, we are working to shift public attitudes towards families, children and adults who are in care, leaving care or are care experienced. We also work alongside partners such as The Promise Scotland and Who Cares? Scotland to build on the aims set out in The Promise and broaden our understanding of, and to challenge, the stigma faced by Care Experienced people in the community.

On 23 November, the Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise announced that we will launch a consultation in Spring 2024 to inform development of a universal and inclusive definition of care experience. We will explore how this definition can best be reflected in relevant legislation to ensure a consistent and respectful use of this language.

Argyll and Bute Council requested activation of the Bellwin Scheme on 9 October and the Scottish Government responded on the same day to confirm that Ministers had activated the Bellwin Scheme in relation to the flooding on 7 and 8 October 2023.

The Bellwin Scheme allows Ministers to make additional revenue support available to local authorities to assist with immediate and unforeseen costs in dealing with the aftermath of emergency incidents. The key criterion of the Scheme is to safeguard life and property, and prevent suffering or severe inconvenience.

The Scheme addresses revenue and uninsurable expenditure incurred within a two month period from the date of the incident (or such later date as agreed between the Scottish Government and local authority).

Payments are only made once the local authority has exceeded its annual Bellwin Threshold which represents 0.2 per cent of their net revenue budget for the year in question. This is the amount local authorities are deemed to set aside to cover unforeseen emergencies across the financial year.

The 2023-24 Bellwin Threshold for Argyll and Bute is £528,662.

Under section 70 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, any interested party can make a complaint to the Scottish Ministers that a responsible body (the managers of a school or education establishment, an education authority, or other persons) has failed to discharge a duty imposed on them by, or for the purposes of any enactment relating to education.

For Independent Adjudication, applicants write officially to Scottish Ministers with their complaint. Ministers will nominate an Independent Adjudicator. However they do not have any involvement in decisions after that point. Ministers also officially appoint the panel of Independent Adjudicators.

Since 2016-17, 7 complaints have been made under section 70 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 relating additional support needs provision, and 13 complaints have been made through applications for independent adjudication.

Complaints under section 70:

1 – City of Edinburgh Council

1 – Perth and Kinross Council

2 – Highland Council

1 – West Dunbartonshire Council

1 – Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles)

1 – Midlothian Council

Complaints through Independent Adjudication:

1 – East Dunbartonshire Council

1 – Aberdeen City Council

2 – Scottish Borders Council

1 – Dundee City Council

2 – Glasgow City Council

1 – East Lothian Council

1 – Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles)

1 – West Dunbartonshire Council

1 – North Lanarkshire Council

2 – City of Edinburgh Council

Under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004, education authorities have duties to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. Parents and carers are encouraged to continue to engage with their child or young person’s school about the support that is in place. The aim is for disagreements to be resolved at as local a level as possible, and as quickly as possible, to ensure that children and young people receive the support they need to access and benefit from learning. As these complaints are dealt with at a local level, the information is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally.

However, the Pupils with complex additional support needs: research into provision published on 19 September 2023 reflects practice and provides examples of the transition process followed by a child or young person with additional support needs to a specialist settings.

The aim of the 4 Day Working Week public sector pilot is to assess environmental, health and wellbeing benefits, and efficiency gains, that a four-day working week could bring.

An expert partner with industry experience in 4 Day Work Week trials and research has been recruited through a Grant Funding exercise. They will facilitate the design and running of the pilot and support interested public bodies during the course of the pilot. Ministers will consider the findings of this work and will consider whether a final report will be published.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23120 7 December 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 Scottish Government will commence work on the 4 Day Working Week public sector pilot by the end of the calendar year. The pilot will take place over a 12 month period.

A number of public bodies expressed an interest in the 4DWW public sector pilot. Pilot participants are still being finalised, as are details of when participants will join the 4DWW pilot and initiate changes to their working week. Further details will be provided in due course.

The Scottish Government values and appreciates all the work that Who Cares? Scotland does to support and advocate for all Care Experienced people and we are committed to working with Who Cares? Scotland and other key partners to ensure that we Keep The Promise to care experienced adults and ensure that their voices are heard.

The Scottish Government is bringing forward legislation that will provide further protection to the rights of care experienced, children, young people and adults. This includes:

• A commitment to Scotland being the first UK nation to incorporate the UNCRC into domestic law, ensuring we are a country that respects, protects and fulfils children's rights.
• The Children's Care and Justice (Scotland) Bill, which is presently going through Parliament, and if agreed will bring an end to the placement of 16 and 17 years olds in young offenders institutions, and increase the age of referral to the Children's Hearing System to 18.
• A commitment to a Promise Bill by the end of this Parliamentary session, to make any further legislative changes required to Keep The Promise for children, young people and adults.
  

The term additional support needs under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (the 2004 Act) applies where for whatever reason children or young people are unable to benefit from school education without the provision of additional support. Therefore, the information requested in relation to colleges and universities is not applicable.

Local authorities have duties under the 2004 Act to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. Local authorities are supported in fulfilling these duties under the 2004 Act through the statutory code of practice on additional support for learning. Chapter 3 of the code covers identifying additional support needs and the assessment process.

As set out in Pupils with complex additional support needs: research into provision published on 19 September 2023, there were 241,639 pupils recorded as having additional support needs in 2022.