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There are a range of approaches in place which support the prevention of harm to vulnerable young people by those who work with them.

If an organisation has employees or volunteers doing a regulated role, it has a legal duty to report harmful behaviour to Disclosure Scotland. This duty applies whether the person is a member of the PVG scheme or not.

There are also a range or regulatory organisations whose function are to maintain professional standards. For example, the General Teaching Council for Scotland.

We are committed to tackling the underlying issues which influence ideologies and seek to protect the rights of all young people. For example, in schools we have undertaken work, aligned to the implementation of the Equality Act to prevent discrimination; through challenging racism, misogyny, and bullying and through approaches such as LGBT Inclusive Education and Supporting Transgender Young people in Schools Guidance which makes clear the responsibility of schools to support young people who are considering or who have changed their gender identity in order to ensure that they do not experience discrimination within schools and can reach their full potential.

Four organisations submitted a tender to host the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland:

1.Edinburgh Innovations Ltd and University of Edinburgh

2.Impact Funding Partners

3.University Court University of Glasgow

4.University of Strathclyde

The bids were evaluated in line with standard procurement processes.

The bid received from the University of Strathclyde, in partnership with the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights, outlined that the Observatory would be hosted at the University of Strathclyde.

The Scottish Government remains committed to reducing class contact time, and we will continue to explore with COSLA and the teacher unions, through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), how best to deliver this commitment.

Local Government are also undertaking local scoping and modelling work to inform delivery of this commitment. This work is scheduled to be completed by summer 2025.

The intention behind the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 is that we have an inclusive approach to Education with a needs-led approach in Scotland.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the inclusive approach to meeting the needs of all young people, in-line with the principles of Getting it Right for Every Child.

The nature of ASN is individual to each child or young person, highly varied, and encompasses a wide range of needs; therefore, some variation should be expected in how this is reported. All children and young people with identified needs which require additional support are entitled to this, they do not require a diagnosis to receive this.

The Audit Scotland review into ASL recommended that the Scottish Government and councils fundamentally evaluate, both nationally and locally, how ASL is planned for, funded and staffed as part of core education provision.

In partnership with our local authority colleagues, we are giving careful consideration to the recommendations set out within the briefing and I am meeting with the Auditor General in the coming weeks to discuss in more detail.

The Scottish Government is working closely with our local government partners to improve the experience of children and young people with additional support needs at school, implementing the recommendations of the 2020 review of additional support for learning.

During a debate in Parliament on the Review of Additional Support for Learning and Implementation of Mainstreaming, held on 14 May 2025, the Scottish Government committed to engaging in a cross-party roundtable with Local Government to discuss what more can be done to support Additional Support Needs in our schools and to undertaking a review of Additional Support for Learning.

The scope and detail of the review will be informed by the outcome of the roundtable discussion and will also draw on the evidence set out in the recent reports from the Education, Children and Young People Committee Inquiry Report, Audit Scotland briefing and the Children and Young People Commissioner’s Report.

The Scottish Government commissioned Pupil projections and implications for teacher resourcing needs: education workforce modelling and research, which was published on 7 May 2024. This independent research has informed our engagement with partners on the commitment to reduce class-contact time for teachers.

Local Government are also undertaking local scoping and modelling work to inform delivery of this commitment. This work is scheduled to be completed by summer 2025.

The Ireland Scotland Joint Bilateral Review 2021-25, co-produced by both Scottish and Irish governments, recognises the strong cultural and people-to-people links between the two countries and commits to strengthening these.

The funding from the Scottish Government to Belong To in Ireland is a contribution to the Empowering Voices project, which is also supported by the Welsh Government and British Council. The project is coordinated by Belong To (Ireland), and involves LGBT Youth Scotland (Scotland), Education Authority (Northern Ireland), The Proud Trust (England), and Viva LGBT+ (Wales). The project provides a platform for young LGBT+ people from each of the five nations to share their lived experiences.

While the percentage of school leavers in S4 remains unchanged in 2023-24 from the previous year at 14.4%, we acknowledge the importance of understanding the factors influencing early school leaving.

After a rise last year, the Scottish Government have been exploring with partners factors influencing young people deciding to leave school at S4. These include the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of living crisis, and also an increase in availability of entry-level jobs.

We are continuing to work with our partners to find ways to support young people to stay in learning.

Scotland continues to demonstrate strong participation in education among 15–19-year-olds, as recognised by the OECD, with over half of pupils (57.1%) leaving school at S6.

The Scottish Government has already published the estimated financial contribution made to public spending by the voluntary Ministerial pay freeze since it was established on 1 April 2009. Between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2025, Ministers made an estimated £2.2 million available for public spending from their own pay packets. This is public funding that would not have been available had Ministers not voluntarily decided to return a proportion of their pay. In 2024-25, Ministerial pay was 30.4% below where it would otherwise have been. From 1 April 2025, the MSP element of the pay of all Ministers except the First Minister was equalised with that of all other MSPs, while the freeze on the Ministerial element of their pay continues for a seventeenth consecutive year. In 2025-26, Ministers will make an estimated £166,000 available for public spending from their own pay packets and, as such, public funds this year will again be higher than they would have been without the pay freeze. This is the point that the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport was making.

Calls to the 111 service can go unanswered for a variety of reasons, including callers choosing to end their call after being connected to the automated messaging service and hearing the options available to them – including an NHS 24 callback service during busier periods.

Other options include accessing self-care advice via the NHS Inform website or contacting another area of the health service which may be more appropriate to meet their needs.

We continue to support NHS 24’s ongoing work to help reduce unanswered calls, including recently revising NHS 24’s key performance indicators to better reflect and understand the current demands on the service.

This work allows the Service to capture any unmet demand, and any potential risks where callers have made multiple attempts to access 111 without success.

In addition, over the past two financial years NHS 24 has received additional funding of £28.3m to support their wider role in the re-design of unscheduled care. This has allowed the service to boost their staffing numbers with 22 WTE additional clinicians recruited this year and the Service now almost at desired capacity in terms of call handlers.