Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-04230 on 11 November 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

There is no analysis undertaken as the data is not gathered or held centrally. As digital transformation plans are developed, a full assessment of the impact at all levels including equality, business and people, will be undertaken.

We’re committed to ensuring the public sector workforce is fit-for-purpose and can deliver on our digital transformation ambitions. This includes ensuring the resources we have are invested in front-line services.

Digital transformation in itself requires the employment of a range of professions as we design digital services, standardise our processes across the public sector and simplify processes for the user. Potential effects of ‘automation’, are problematic to quantify, as there are often unforeseen developments in any given labour market with technological advances.

However, the report by Deloitte also indicated that Brexit was an important threat to Scotland’s economy, jobs and long-term prosperity.

Analysis shows that the potential cost of leaving the European Union to the Scottish economy is up to £11.2 billion per year by 2030. And the independent Fraser of Allander Institute has forecast that Brexit could cost Scotland up to 80,000 jobs over the next decade.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting all staff to have a healthy work-life balance. The Flexible Working Policy is a key part of this and in line with the Scottish Government vision for the future. Flexible working is one way we can adapt to the challenges of being more open, responsive and capable.

The majority of Scottish Government staff have informal flexible working arrangements that are agreed by individual staff and managers to respond to the changing needs of the organisation. All Staff except those working shift patterns can apply to work flexibly. The different types of flexible working available are detailed in the following table.

As at end June 2016 we had 5,416 directly employed staff in the core SG. This number is consistent with our published headcount, which can be found in table C1 here: http://www.gov.scot/About/Information/workforce-information/workforce-information-q2-2016

Of those, the staff who are less likely to have access to flexible working arrangements include:

Offshore marine staff (161)

House Teams (91)

Motor Services (27 staff)

These three groups of staff comprise 5.2% of our directly employed staffing complement.

Our consideration of relevant statistical information indicates that there has been clear progress on access since the reintroduction of free tuition in 2008. In 2014-15 14.0% of Scottish domiciled, full-time first degree entrants to Scottish universities were from the 20% most deprived areas, up from 11.3% in 2008/09.

We recognise there is more to do. That is why we have accepted the recommendations of the Commission on Widening Access, including the target that, by 2030, students from the 20% most deprived communities should represent 20% of entrants to University.

Funding of £2 million was allocated in 2014-15 and £6.8 million in 2015-16. Further funding was included in the Outcomes Framework funding that was issued to Health Boards for 2016-17. Our planned funding levels should allow us to meet the manifesto commitment by 2018 but the final 2017-18 budget value is subject to the Spending Review and will be published in the 2017-18 Draft Budget on 15 December 2016.

Responsibility for implementing the Commission's 34 recommendations is distributed across a number of education sectors and organisations. For those recommendations that are directly for Government we remain focussed on delivering within the timescales set out by the Commission.

Many of the recommendations involve systemic change and do not entail an additional cost. The Commission also argued that a significant sum is already invested in access and that it is important to ensure this resource delivers maximum impact. We are committed to working with delivery partners to ensure this happens.

We are currently in the process of gathering detailed information on the available capacity within the early learning and childcare sector.

In line with National Records of Scotland 2014-based population projections, we do not expect any significant demographical changes in terms of eligible children by 2020.

In order to ensure that the expansion of funded entitlement will support the delivery of more flexible provision, the Scottish Government is committed to substantially increase the number of qualified early years practitioners and invest in early learning and childcare infrastructure.

We do not collect specific data on the number of parents not using funded early learning and childcare. We do collect data on the number of funded registrations through an annual census in September which is published in December.

We are working with partners to explore the extent of on-site provision and will set out more information in the Scottish Government’s response to the consultation in Spring 2017.