Seòmar agus comataidhean

I regularly meet with and engage directly with island communities to seek their views on the provision of ferry services and areas which the travelling public are keen to see improvements.

This work will be carried out as part of the preparatory work for the next Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service (CHFS) contract. We are committed to ensure that the views and perspectives of key stakeholders and communities are considered, reflected upon and help shape the detail within the next CHFS contract.

This decision was taken on 14 September.

There are more than 1,200 social care providers across Scotland, with local authorities responsible for providing or commissioning services. Local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships will wish to ensure that, in providing a range of services, their workforce planning arrangements take full account of the need to have safe and sustainable numbers of staff.

To maximise capacity to meet demand, and maintain integrated health and social care services throughout autumn and winter, our winter plan highlights the additional funding of £528 million allocated directly to Health and Social Care Partnerships for 2022 23. This funding was aimed at the following social care measures:

• £124 million to enhance care at home

• £144 million to support the December 2021 uplift to £10.02, as well as a   further -

• £200 million to increase the minimum hourly rate of pay in adult social care

• £20 million to support interim care arrangements

• £40 million to enhance multi-disciplinary teams

• Waiving fees for mandatory PVG checks for new entrants to social care

• Extension of the Social Care Staff Support Fund to 31 March 2023, to ensure   that social care workers absent with Covid-19 receive their full pay

Alongside this, SG have established a social care winter planning working group, to consider a number of potential/feasible options to ease the current pressures in the Adult Social Care Sector in advance of the winter period 2022-23. Local government are among those represented on this group.

To help alleviate the current pressures in social care, we are working with partners to scope out and design localised support with recruitment for the winter period. This will include marketing assets which can be adapted to meet local needs, and providing more in-depth support with recruitment where capacity to recruit is a barrier. This work is being taken forward in collaboration with key stakeholders representing the sector.

The Scottish Government will carry out the review required by section 41 of the EU Withdrawal from the EU (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021. This Act requires Ministers to review and consult on the effectiveness of the governance arrangements introduced by the Act, access to justice on environmental matters and whether the establishment of an environmental court could enhance the environmental governance arrangements. The report has to be presented to the Parliament within six months of Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) adopting its first full strategy.

The ESS strategy has recently been laid in the Parliament and is expected to be published shortly, subject to the Parliamentary process. The review is planned to be published and the subsequent consultation to be launched in spring 2023.

The Scottish Government is committed to introducing a new right to a healthy environment as a part of the planned Human Rights Bill.

The Scottish Government sees the only place for vaping is as a possible aid to help existing smokers from using tobacco, they are not a lifestyle accessory for children or adult non-smokers. We recently published our consultation analysis on proposed restrictions on vaping products and are aiming to bring forward new regulations in the New Year. Any action we seek to take will build on the regulations already in place to restrict the marketing, promotion and sale of vaping products to under 18s.

The majority of Integrated Joint Board reserves are earmarked for specific purposes, in particular the ongoing response to COVID-19 and cannot be used to fund new spending commitments.

Further Covid funding has not been available from the UK Government for Covid related pressures in 2022-23.

Further work will be carried out to assess the amounts to be re-couped from IJBs in line with Covid requirements

More than £1.6 billion has been provided for social care and integration in 2022-23in addition to support for Covid, and we are committed to increasing spend in social care by at least 25% by the end of this Parliament, an increase of over £840 million.

The Scottish Government delivers support for the Historic Environment through sponsorship of Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and we continue to invest and support the sustainable development of Scotland’s historic estate.

In 2021-2022 we provided HES with £75.9m of Grant in Aid funding which included £20m in Covid emergency funds. In 2022-23, we have provided £68.9m of Grant in Aid funding to support Historic Environment Scotland, maintaining our enhanced support given the impact of the pandemic on HES’s commercial income. This funding is still substantially more than the £42.8m funding provided to HES pre pandemic.

Sustainable development and protection of the historic environment is a vital area of work that HES delivers. More specific detail on the HES’s delivery of this work is available in their Annual Operating Plan 2022-23 | Historic Environment Scotland.

The Young Patients Family Fund is available to families of all young inpatients aged under 18 - no matter their diagnosis. Posters and leaflets to promote the Fund are available in all Health Boards and we continue to work with Health Boards to best ensure families are aware of the Fund.

The Managed Service Network for Children and Young People with Cancer is currently reviewing its web content and has confirmed that it will be signposting to the YPFF in its update.

Local Authorities (LA) in Scotland are the main conduit to local communities to help them develop emergency resilience activities and plans.

LAs have a wide range of pre-identified venues in their areas, which can be used as rest or assistance centres that can be stood up quickly in response to prevailing weather conditions or other incidents. However I have asked Resilience Division Officials to look at ways the Scottish Government can support the enhancement of rest centres and community facilities used not only in a resilience response but also for uses below that threshold.

Regional and Local Resilience Partnerships (RRPs/LRPs) are the principal mechanisms for multi-agency co-ordination under The Civil Contingencies Act (2004).

The Scottish Government supports resilience partnerships through the provision of twelve staff across the three RRP areas. These RRP coordination teams support the development and maintenance of response arrangements which are reviewed and refreshed regularly, to ensure a timely and effective response should severe weather impact or other incidents occur which necessitate the setting up of rest or assistance centres.

LRPs, supported by SG Resilience Coordinators, carry out multi-agency exercises involving severe weather scenarios and plans for rest centres are tested with partners on a regular basis.

This activity is further supported by national guidance, resources and online learning through the Scottish Government emergency planning portal ready.scot which assists the public, community groups and the voluntary sector by raising awareness of emergency resilience structures and processes, helping them to understand how they can participate in an effective and joined up response.

Ready Scotland also includes a free online learning module which provides an overview of the steps that every community can take to become more resilient and to be well prepared for responding to an emergency. It also provides information on building strong connections with local responder organisations.

Throughout the winter, the Scottish Government will increase the amount of weather-related advice and information shared through digital channels to:

• Raise awareness of different emergency preparedness resources, guidance and information available from Scottish Government and partner agencies;

• Proactively promote this information to better equip individuals and communities to prepare for, deal with and recover from severe weather emergencies;

• Encourage individuals and communities to take proactive steps to reduce the risks and negative impacts before an emergency occurs, as well as how to stay informed and updated during an incident.

Providing advice in this way, even when the weather is not especially severe, will ensure that more people are aware of the support available to them and the steps to take in advance of, as well as during, an emergency.

The national Community Asset Register (CAR), hosted by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), is a Scotland wide database of voluntary sector assets which might help emergency response. SFRS continues to expand and develop the CAR on behalf of Scotland’s resilience community.

Local registers of assets belonging to the resilience community, already exist across Scotland. These registers of assets are being further developed and updated by our LRPs in response to the lessons from Storm Arwen.

Homes for Ukraine is the UK Government scheme and the Scottish Super Sponsor scheme works within it to offer an alternative route for displaced people from Ukraine to come to the UK.

The review convened a number of experts from across national and local government, academia and the third sector. It also took account of the perspectives and experiences of Ukrainians who participated in focus groups.

Findings from the review are being taking into consideration when developing the next steps to enhance our ability to provide appropriate and sustainable longer-term support to those who are here, as well as those who are still to travel. I will provide a statement to Parliament soon to update on the findings of the review.