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Scoping work is ongoing to consider the additional data collection, recording, and quality assurance requirements necessary for implementing this action. Further information on the delivery of this action will be set out in our update to the National Workforce Strategy, to be published later this year.

We acknowledge the immense, highly skilled and unique contribution made by social workers to support individuals and families across Scotland. We also know that social workers face significant challenges and have taken steps to ensure they have the right support.

The Scottish Association of Social Work has been given £200,000 in 2021-2023 to provide a peer support service covering a range of issues including wellbeing and resilience.

The Independent Review of Adult Social Care (IRASC) recommended the establishment of a National Social Work Agency (NSWA) for oversight of professional development of social workers and it is our intention to establish a NSWA as part of the National Care Service.

It’s objectives will be to support and invest in the profession by providing national leadership and overseeing social work – ensuring we attract and retain the right people, developing them in their roles and raising the status of social work as a profession. The NSWA is to be established as part of the National Care Service infrastructure, at a national level, given the important links and function that social work has within the wider National Care Service structure and given the important relationship between social work, social care and community health.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is the professional regulator for the social services workforce in Scotland.

The SSSC will begin work this year to establish what further groups of social service workers should be considered for professional regulation.

On completion of this work SSSC will report to Scottish Ministers who will then decide on what groups should be brought into the scope of professional regulation.

The Scottish Government commends and congratulates the athletes competing at the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf later this year. The Invictus Games has been hosted in a range of locations worldwide, and has been successful in using sport to inspire recovery and support rehabilitation of injured and sick servicemen and women.

In terms of what consideration the Scottish Government has given to Scotland hosting the Invictus Games, the Scottish Government works with a range of organisations and partners, particularly VisitScotland's Events Directorate, to assess hosting opportunities to secure a strong and diverse pipeline of major events.

The Scottish Government is committed to investing in Changing Places Toilets over this parliamentary term, in order to increase the number of these facilities across the country and to support mobile Changing Places Toilets to allow people easier access to events and outdoor venues.

Further details will be available soon.

The Scottish Government remains committed to a mandatory supported first year in practice for newly qualified social workers (NQSWs). This is part of the ambition to create a strategic framework from qualifying education through to advanced practice for all social workers and social work employers in Scotland.

The Office of the Chief Social Work Advisor (OCSWA), the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and Social Work Education Partnership (SWEP) are working together to develop the infrastructure required to support this ambition. The indicative timeline to begin national implementation of the NQSW Supported Year is September 2024 to align with required regulatory change, regional developments and the advanced practice workstreams.

We do not have the information requested as we are still in the testing and policy development phase of the free bikes programme. In this government’s first 100 days, we established six pilot schemes with a further four running by the end of 2021. The pilot programme will run until the end of March 2023, testing different approaches and delivery models, including eligibility, to help inform a national rollout.

We do not record data on bike numbers at local authority level. However, considering bikes issued and associated training and promotion sessions, free bikes activities have taken place in 20 of 32 local authority areas. The pilots are running across a range of locations including in urban, rural and island communities.

Due to the breadth of this request, and changes made over the requested time period to the way Scottish Government records financial information, it has not been possible to provide the entirety of the information sought. The amounts listed relate to funding provided directly by the unit responsible for sexual health and blood born viruses (SHBBV) work to third sector organisations. It does not include other funding from other areas of Scottish Government to third sector organisations that carry out SHBBV work.

Between 2018-19 and 2020-21, over £800k of funding was provided to third sector organisations for work related to sexual health and blood borne viruses annually.

Information has been provided for 2021-22 until the date of this request. Further payments are anticipated during the course of this financial year.

The deposit will be fully returnable and retailers will be required to display information clearly about returns. Under the Deposit Return Scheme it is expected that most people will use returned deposits to cover future deposits on drinks containers.

Further work is currently underway to ensure that the interactions between Minimum Unit Price and the Deposit Return Scheme continue to be understood as the scheme evolves and kept under review, including once DRS launches on 16 August this year.