Seòmar agus comataidhean

The number of Gaelic teachers are published each year in Teachers in Scotland, available on the Scottish Government website using the following links:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/03/18093809/42;

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/04/25165316/53393.

Information is not available prior to 2003.

The number of teachers of Gaelic are published in tables 8.9 and 8.10 of Teachers in Scotland 2007, available on the Scottish Government website using the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/03/18093809/0.

One of the guiding principles of getting it right for every child in foster and kinship care is: unless there are clear reasons why placement within the family would not be in the child''s interests, care within the wider family and community circle will be the first option for the child.

The steps being taken to achieve this include:

Guidance on the assessment and approval process for kinship carers of looked after children will be published shortly. This will cover the provision of support to kinship carers to ensure they are enabled to take on care of a child wherever this best meets the child''s needs;

Revised looked after children regulations will be issued for consultation by the end of 2008, which will make clear the role of the family in decision-making about the child and also the role of and responsibilities of approved kinship carers of looked after children, and

Training, information and guidance to support the implementation of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 has been commissioned. This will include the role of kinship carers in providing a permanent home for the children in their family.

The Scottish Government and COSLA recognise more support is necessary for many kinship carers, including carers of children who are not looked after, and that includes practical and emotional support as well as financial assistance. Our work includes:

Commissioning jointly the national reference group, which is taking forward implementation of getting it right for every child in kinship and foster care, to produce a long-term vision for kinship care in Scotland, and will deliver guidance covering holistic support of kinship carers;

Providing a central government grant to Citizens Advice Scotland to deliver a specialist advice and information service to all kinship carers, which will be launched in September 2008. COSLA is a member of its national advisory group;

Working in partnership on the development of an early years framework to support the building of parenting, family and community capacity.

Scottish Government officials met with HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officials in August 2008 to discuss their current consultation on the modernisation of the tax credits system. As part of the consultation process, officials have stressed the Scottish Government''s desire that the child care element of the working tax credit and child care vouchers should be merged to create a straightforward, progressive and more accessible system.

The Scottish Government will continue to liaise with HMRC regarding the simplification of the tax credits system to make the process easier for parents and improve uptake for those families in need of support.

Standard subsistence rates are specified within NHS staff''s terms and conditions. Employers do have discretion in certain circumstances to reimburse beyond these rates where there are genuine business reasons to do so, i.e. where a meal within the specified rate was not available. However, any general increase to subsistence rates would need to be discussed in partnership between health service trades unions and staff representative groups, NHS employers and UK health departments through the relevant negotiating machinery.

Agenda for Change, the terms and conditions package which covers most non-medical staff, does allow NHS employers to negotiate and agree subsistence arrangements locally and in partnership where such arrangements are more appropriate to local operational circumstances. However, any NHS employer wishing to diverge from the rates agreed at UK level would need to be able to justify why introducing this element of inconsistency was appropriate.

Whilst different staff groups within NHSScotland do work under different terms and conditions, the standard subsistence rates contained within these terms and conditions are currently the same. These rates are uniform and do not change according to the seniority of the claimant within a given staff group.

Any changes to current terms and conditions for NHS staff, including subsistence rates, would be discussed on a UK-wide basis between health service trades unions and staff representative groups, NHS employers and UK health departments through the relevant negotiating machinery. No such discussions are currently taking place.

Subsistence rates for all non-medical staff are specified within Agenda for Change terms and conditions. Rates for medical staff are covered by the terms and conditions for their particular staff group.

The information is contained in the following table. The column headed Basic Employer gives the percentage of total local authority expenditure relating to employers'' contributions for existing members. The column headed Additional Employer gives the percentage of local authority expenditure in cases where a member has been given early retirement and as a consequence councils have paid a strain cost to the relevant Local Government Pension Fund.

Employer Contributions as a % of Local Authority Gross Expenditure ^1,2,3,4

	2003-04		2004-05		2005-06		2006-07
	Basic Employer	Additional Employer	Basic Employer	Additional Employer	Basic Employer	Additional Employer	Basic Employer	Additional Employer
Aberdeen City	3.05%	0.04%	3.15%	0.07%	3.14%	0.14%	3.21%	0.24%
Aberdeenshire	2.78%	0.04%	2.96%	0.05%	2.93%	0.04%	3.14%	0.08%
Angus	3.16%	0.03%	3.30%	0.00%	3.37%	0.02%	3.68%	0.30%
Argyll and Bute	2.42%	0.13%	2.56%	0.10%	2.52%	0.04%	2.72%	0.09%
Clackmannanshire	2.21%	0.01%	2.44%	0.15%	2.68%	0.15%	3.18%	0.21%
Dumfries and Galloway	2.83%	0.03%	2.93%	0.12%	3.17%	0.13%	3.26%	0.48%
Dundee City	4.54%	0.05%	4.87%	0.01%	4.72%	0.40%	5.06%	0.08%
East Ayrshire	2.62%	0.14%	3.16%	0.25%	3.24%	0.21%	3.11%	0.08%
East Dunbartonshire	2.55%	0.12%	2.79%	0.21%	2.83%	0.20%	2.93%	0.60%
East Lothian	3.20%	0.14%	3.23%	0.11%	3.46%	0.08%	3.60%	0.05%
East Renfrewshire	2.56%	0.04%	2.74%	0.08%	2.89%	0.11%	2.93%	0.41%
Edinburgh, City of	3.00%	0.09%	3.23%	0.08%	3.29%	0.07%	3.34%	0.07%
Eilean Siar	2.48%	0.08%	2.67%	0.00%	2.87%	0.12%	3.25%	0.07%
Falkirk	2.08%	0.02%	2.33%	0.14%	2.54%	0.08%	2.92%	0.12%
Fife	2.99%	0.16%	3.41%	0.16%	3.64%	0.12%	3.82%	0.25%
Glasgow City	2.07%	0.25%	2.06%	0.07%	2.16%	0.10%	2.28%	0.23%
Highland	2.32%	0.10%	2.49%	0.09%	2.59%	0.07%	2.86%	0.06%
Inverclyde	2.20%	0.19%	2.25%	0.40%	2.37%	0.18%	2.71%	0.20%
Midlothian	2.94%	0.00%	3.22%	0.01%	3.46%	0.02%	3.43%	0.10%
Moray	2.89%	0.02%	2.98%	0.02%	3.14%	0.03%	3.31%	0.02%
North Ayrshire	2.49%	0.01%	2.72%	0.07%	2.69%	0.05%	2.94%	0.10%
North Lanarkshire	2.58%	0.06%	2.72%	0.01%	2.66%	0.04%	2.83%	0.03%
Orkney Islands	4.00%	0.00%	4.30%	0.00%	4.96%	0.02%	4.98%	0.00%
Perth and Kinross	2.73%	0.25%	2.98%	0.13%	2.98%	0.25%	3.24%	0.31%
Renfrewshire	2.77%	0.08%	2.88%	0.14%	2.89%	0.08%	3.08%	0.26%
Scottish Borders	2.86%	0.07%	3.08%	0.44%	3.26%	0.13%	3.47%	0.06%
Shetland Islands	5.14%	0.14%	4.72%	0.15%	5.25%	0.48%	4.81%	0.31%
South Ayrshire	2.77%	0.02%	2.92%	0.09%	2.89%	0.28%	2.86%	0.21%
South Lanarkshire	2.80%	0.19%	3.03%	0.19%	3.08%	0.24%	3.29%	0.42%
Stirling	2.10%	0.16%	2.40%	0.14%	2.63%	0.12%	2.96%	0.40%
West Dunbartonshire	2.65%	0.13%	2.88%	0.15%	3.06%	0.26%	3.19%	0.36%
West Lothian	3.23%	0.00%	3.45%	0.02%	3.66%	0.05%	4.12%	0.01%

Source: Local Financial Returns and local authority pension authorities

Note on pensions data:

1. Additional employer costs - This strain cost is calculated by the fund actuary to take account of the fact that a benefit is being paid out of the fund earlier (and therefore for longer) than would otherwise have been the case.

Notes on basis of LA gross expenditure used to calculate %:

2. Police and fire and council tax and non-domestic valuation expenditure is apportioned to councils using the amount that the Police, Fire and Valuation Joint Boards requisition from them.

3. For 2006-07 only, Regional Transport Partnerships expenditure is apportioned to councils by population (GRO 2006 mid year estimates)

General note:

4. The table contains all readily available data for the last five years. Returns for 2007-08 are collected in September 2008 and completed in November 2008.