Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-28467

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the processing time is from individuals signing up to be a volunteer through the Ready Scotland scheme to them becoming an active volunteer for an organisation.

The ‘Scotland Cares’ Campaign has been a huge success and it is testament to the generosity and compassion of the people of Scotland that there are now over 77,000 sign-ups, from all across the country, to support the NHS, other public services and our local communities. Those sign-ups are in addition to the thousands of people who had already stepped forward, quickly and spontaneously, to help with the response to COVID 19, as soon as initial needs emerged.

Following ‘sign-up’ through the Ready Scotland website, the NHS recruitment campaign involves the relevant officials working with Health Boards and social care providers, to match applicants to placements. Offers of employment are being made across all Scottish Health and Social Care Partnerships, and processing times for that will vary, but the necessary occupational health and employment checks people normally have to undergo, which can take several weeks, are being streamlined as far as possible. The safety of patients, clients, and of staff themselves, must remain the highest priority, however, and inappropriate short cuts will not be taken. Please note that these are all paid positions.

The ‘Scotland Cares’ campaign also connects British Red Cross and Volunteer Scotland schemes to local authority and third sector activity in communities, creating a pool of volunteers for local organisations to draw upon and deploy as required. Feedback from Local Authorities, Resilience Partnerships, and Third Sector Interface leads, confirms that the volunteering needs of local organisations are being met in a timely way. Volunteers have been contacted to underline Ministers’ appreciation of their goodwill and desire to help, as well as to reassure them that, although many of the volunteers who have signed up will not be needed immediately, they are likely to be critical in efforts to support and rebuild communities over the weeks and months to come.

Question reference: S5W-28463

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are signed up to the Ready Scotland volunteer scheme, and how many are currently in a volunteering role.

As at the week ending Friday 01 May, there were 77,057 sign-ups to the Ready Scotland volunteer scheme, the breakdown is provided in the following table -

Date	NHS Health & Social Care	British Red Cross	Volunteer Scotland	Total
Fri 1-05-20	23,101	18,695	35,261	77,057

Following sign-up through the Ready Scotland website, the NHS Health and Social Care recruitment campaign involves both NHS Education for Scotland officials working with Health Boards, and the Scottish Social Services Council working with social care providers, to match applicants to placements. Offers of employment are being made across all Scottish Health and Social Care Partnerships with nearly 700 applicants ready to be deployed and more than 3,600 NHS returners in the process of completing their pre-employment checks. Please note that these are all paid positions.

The new British Red Cross deployment recording process has confirmed that, since 13 April, 112 Community Reserve Volunteers have been deployed across the East, West and North Resilience Partnership areas. Volunteer Scotland do not currently track individual volunteer journeys from sign up through to formal volunteering roles, so those figures are not readily available. It should be noted that thousands of individuals were already volunteering in their communities before the launch of the ‘Scotland Cares’ campaign.

The ‘Scotland Cares’ campaign connects British Red Cross and Volunteer Scotland schemes to local authority and third sector activity in communities, creating a pool of volunteers for local organisations to draw upon and deploy as required. Although many of the volunteers who have signed up will not be needed immediately, they may well be critical in efforts to support and rebuild communities over the weeks and months to come.

Question reference: S5W-28469

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government which organisations (a) have received and (b) will receive additional volunteers through the Ready Scotland scheme.

The ‘Scotland Cares’ Campaign has been a huge success and it is testament to the generosity and compassion of the people of Scotland that there are now over 77,000 sign-ups, from all across the country, to support the NHS, other public services and our local communities. Those sign-ups are in addition to the thousands of people who had already stepped forward, quickly and spontaneously, across the country, to help with the response to COVID 19, as soon as initial needs emerged.

Following ‘sign-up’ through the Ready Scotland website, the NHS recruitment campaign involves the relevant officials working with Health Boards and social care providers, to match applicants to placements. Offers of employment are being made across all Scottish Health and Social Care Partnerships. Please note that these are all paid positions.

‘Scotland Cares’ connects the British Red Cross and Volunteer Scotland schemes to local authority and third sector activity in communities, creating a pool of volunteers for local organisations to draw upon and deploy as required. Feedback from Local Authorities, Resilience Partnerships, and Third Sector Interface leads, confirms that local volunteering needs are currently being met for the organisations which require support. Although many of the volunteers who have signed up will not be needed immediately, they are likely to be critical in efforts to support and rebuild communities over the weeks and months to come.

Question reference: S5W-28470

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 11 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what financial support the Ready Scotland volunteer scheme has received.

Question reference: S5T-02130

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 May 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when it will pass on £155 million in Barnett consequentials to councils.

Question reference: S5W-28461

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 30 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will use the £30 million of Barnett consequentials announced on 8 April 2020 to provide additional funding to charities.

The Scottish Government announced its support for charities via the £50 million Community Wellbeing Fund and £20 million Third Sector Resilience Fund on 18 March, more than 3 weeks before the UK Government announcement. These Funds provide support for charities, third sector and social enterprises in excess of the consequentials resulting from the UK Government announcement. I urge the UK Government to continue to recognise the importance of the charitable sector during these difficult times.

Question reference: S5W-28456

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 30 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government where the £30 million of Barnett consequentials announced on 8 April 2020 has been allocated, broken down by (a) amount and (b) what it is funding.

Question reference: S5W-28462

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 30 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £30 million of Barnett consequentials announced on 8 April 2020 will be put into reserves.

All COVID-19 related consequentials will be fully committed to funding the Scottish Government’s emergency response and therefore no amounts received will be placed in the Scotland Reserve. Scottish Ministers plan to publish a Budget Revision at the end of May for consideration by the Scottish Parliament before summer recess. The Budget Revision will detail all funding allocations made to date in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Question reference: S5W-28460

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 30 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when the £30 million of Barnett consequentials announced on 8 April 2020 will be available to each department, fund, local authority or public service.

Question reference: S5W-28475

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 29 April 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the average payment received by each successful claimant was from the Scottish Welfare Fund’s (a) crisis and (b) community care grant, since 18 March 2020.

This information is not held centrally. Applications to the Scottish Welfare Fund are administered by each of Scotland’s 32 local authorities. Data on the number of applications received, number of awards made and expenditure on awards are collected from each authority and published quarterly on the Scottish Government website:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/official-statistics-forthcoming-publications/

Chamber and committees