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Members of the Children and Young People (Information Sharing) (Scotland) Bill Team attended the National Child Protection Leadership Group, a Social Work Scotland / Scottish Government Strategic Workshop and a NHS Information Sharing Group Meeting.

The Children and Young People (Information Sharing) (Scotland) Bill Team have had a phone conversation with the Scottish Guidance Association on the 2 October 2017 – no notes of this conversation were taken.

This information is not held centrally.

DATIX reports are held locally by individual NHS Boards and the information is part of Staff Governance Reporting (primarily through Boards' Health & Safety Departments). NHSScotland Workforce data published by ISD Scotland on 6 December 2017, available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/index.asp#2056

shows a record number of staff working in our health service, with an overall increase of 9.8 percentage points since September 2006.

This information is not held centrally.

Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) is additional to the core funding that local authorities receive. All schools could benefit, either directly or indirectly, as a result of the improved partnerships, increased resources, and opportunities for professional learning that Pupil Equity Funding provides.

95% of schools in Scotland have received Pupil Equity Funding in 2017-18.

As part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge, universal support is available to all local authorities and schools across Scotland to tackle the poverty related attainment gap. This support includes access to a named Attainment Adviser who will work directly with schools to help identify actions that will make the biggest impact. Access to the National Improvement Hub which contains learning and teaching tools and strategies also provides universal support.

Earlier this year all headteachers were invited to attend one of 8 regional Pupil Equity Funding events which provided an opportunity to hear from colleagues across Scotland on their work to close the equity gap. Building on the success of these, a second series of events will be held early next year. We are working in partnership with the new Regional Improvement Collaboratives to ensure once again a place is available for all headteachers.

Through the Scottish Attainment Challenge we have committed £750 million over the course of this parliament to tackle the poverty related attainment gap. This includes £120m Pupil Equity Funding in 2017-18 allocated to schools on the basis of the number of children and young people in P1-S3 known to be eligible for free school meals, a recognised proxy for families affected by poverty. Pupil Equity Funding extended the reach of the Scottish Attainment Challenge to every local authority in Scotland and provides additional resources to the majority of schools in rural communities.

The Government issued guidance on the use of Pupil Equity Funding to support schools and local authorities to work in partnership and to plan how to effectively invest the additional funds. This guidance is available on the Government website at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/Raisingeducationalattainment/pupilequityfund/guidance. This sets out that Headteachers can work at an individual school, cluster or community level to address common interests. This may include, for example, how best to target the funding to address the impact of rural deprivation on the educational outcomes of children and young people.

We are committed to developing national programmes to further extend the reach of the Scottish Attainment Challenge and are engaging with stakeholders to consider the impact of rural deprivation on attainment.

The Scottish Government record and process correspondence addressed to Scottish Ministers on its Ministerial and Corporate Correspondence System (MACCS). In the last 12 months correspondence recorded and processed by Directorate is indicated in the following table.