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The draft Islands Connectivity Plan (ICP) Strategic Approach paper was published for public consultation earlier this year. Building on the Fair Fares Review, we said that we would take forward detailed consideration of a number of ferry fare proposals, including on Road Equivalent Tariff, islander fares and under 22s.

The outputs from the consultation and engagement, published on 3 September, will support the finalisation of the ICP Strategic Approach, and will inform the development of the remaining elements of the ICP, including work on future ferry fares policy.

Information on how many children and young people have accessed community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services is provided retrospectively to the Scottish Government by local authorities. Reporting provided by Scottish Borders Council for the period 1 July 2023 to 31 March 2024 indicates that 3,967 children and young people used the community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services delivered by Scottish Borders Council through its share of the £15 million per annum funding provided to local authorities by the Scottish Government. Data is not collected on whether those accessing these supports and services are also accessing, or have accessed, CAMHS.

In addition, young people aged 16 and over residing in the Scottish Borders have benefitted from grassroots community-based projects supporting mental health and wellbeing provided through the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults. However, the Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of young people using these projects or those accessing other community-based mental health support that may be available in the Scottish Borders but not provided through the Scottish Government funding streams referenced above.

In 2024-25, the following community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services are available to children and young people in the Scottish Borders Council area through its share of the £15 million per annum funding provided to local authorities by the Scottish Government:

The Scottish Government has provided funding to community-based mental health and wellbeing support services for children, young people and their families in the Scottish Borders since 2020. This is broken down into:

Our ambition is for everyone to have a safe, good quality and affordable home that meets their needs in the place where they want to be, including women and families. Since 2007, we have supported the delivery of more than 133,000 affordable homes, over 94,000 of which were for social rent, including over 26,000 council homes. We remain committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 with at least 70% for social rent and 10% in rural and island areas, and between 23 March 2022 and end of June 2024, we have delivered 22,743 affordable homes towards the 110,000 target, of which over 17,000 have been homes for social rent.

We continue to work closely with partners to deliver the right homes in the right places and it is for local authorities through their Local Housing Strategies and Strategic Housing Investment Plans to identify the type, location, size and tenure of homes required in their areas.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes figures on homes delivered, which can be found online at:

Housing statistics quarterly update: new housebuilding and affordable housing supply - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Funding for Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services for children, young people and their families has been distributed to each local authority area as follows:

Every child and young person should be able to access support for their mental health and wellbeing when and where they need it. Not all children and young people need specialist services like CAMHS, and many will find more suitable support in their local community.

Since 2020, we have provided local authorities with over £50 million to develop and deliver community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children, young people and their families, with a further £15 million being made available in 2024-25. The services are focused on prevention and early intervention and, where appropriate, offer an alternative to CAMHS by providing support in a community setting.

Supports and services are available in every local authority area, with more than 300 now in place across the country. This includes mentoring services, art-based therapies, digital services, whole-family supports, counselling services and supports involving sport or physical activity.

Local authorities have reported that over 58,000 people used the supports and services in the first half of 2023. We have also ensured access to counselling services in all secondary schools, and continue to give local authorities £16 million per year to fund this.

The draft Islands Connectivity Plan (ICP) Strategic Approach paper was published for public consultation earlier this year. Building on the Fair Fares Review, we said that we would take forward detailed consideration of a number of ferry fare proposals, including on Road Equivalent Tariff, islander fares and under 22s.

The outputs from the consultation and engagement, published on 3 September, will support the finalisation of the ICP Strategic Approach, and will inform the development of the remaining elements of the ICP, including work on future ferry fares policy.

The Scottish Government, its partners and agencies, have undertaken a range of measures to address the reported decline in capercaillie populations. This includes providing funding through schemes to support capercaillie conservation directly.

Funding has also been awarded to projects that would indirectly benefit capercaillie conservation. This could include supporting new pine wood planting in capercaillie areas, the management and improvement of existing habitat as well as its extension through actions such as controlling deer numbers, fence marking or removal, and thinning to improve light levels. Funding has been awarded to estates as well as eNGOs and individuals and we expect this to continue.

NatureScot is working closely with the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) to support capercaillie conservation in Scotland. Last year NatureScot’s Scientific Advisory Committee provided advice on possible measures that could be taken to save capercaillie.(Measures to save capercaillie)

In June 2023, the Scottish Government requested that the CNPA and NatureScot work with stakeholders to look at ways to improve capercaillie populations. The publication of this work, known as the Capercaillie Emergency Plan 2025-2030, was published on 30 September 2024 and can be found on the CNPA website here .

The plan identifies priority actions that public, private and third sector organisations will take to promote capercaillie numbers within the Cairngorms National Park. These actions include looking at expanding and improving habitat; reducing the impact of predation; removing and marking; reducing disturbance; capercaillie monitoring; and reinforcement feasibility. We will work with NatureScot and the CNPA, as well as other partners, to monitor progress as our efforts to support capercaillie in Scotland continue.

This data is not centrally available; whilst Public Health Scotland publish the total number of patients waiting for specialist mental health services, detail of the individual types of assessment or diagnosis is not held. The publications for both CAMHS and Psychological Therapies waiting times for each quarter can be found at Publications - Public Health Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People, published in September 2021, which specifies service standards that all children’s services should follow, to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland.

The Scottish Government have also established the National Autism Implementation Team, in partnership with Queen Margaret University, to support Health and Social Care Partnerships to consider best practice and support improvement through the redesign of autism diagnostic services.

The National Implementation Team is supporting NHS Boards to examine diagnostic pathways for autism and establish regional experts to assist with improving tiered autism specialisms across health boards.