Seòmar agus comataidhean

We have this morning placed an update to the paper published on
‎ 8 September entitled Mandatory Covid Vaccine Certification in Scotland in SPICe under BIB 62718. The paper is also published on the Scottish Government website: www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-certification-update-23-september-2021 .

Our shared policy programme with the Scottish Green Party recognises the important role that community housing trusts play in supporting our remote, rural and island communities and the delivery of more affordable homes in these areas. We will work with these organisations to achieve this aim, including through the availability of Scottish Government operated funds, for the continuation of their important work.

The Scottish Government unequivocally condemns all forms of hatred or prejudice, including anti-Irish racism, and understands the impact that recent events will have had on Irish communities in Scotland. There is no excuse – it is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Scotland is a diverse, multi-cultural society and this diversity strengthens us as a nation. That is why we are determined to tackle all forms of prejudice and discrimination.

We continue to work with Police Scotland who monitor the situation on reported hate crimes and hate incidents closely. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans also meets fortnightly with the Chief Constable of Police Scotland, where a number of matters are discussed.

Additionally the Scottish Government meets regularly with faith and belief organisations and consults with organisations representing the Irish-Scottish community. We are continuing to consider further engagement with representatives of communities impacted by recent events to provide reassurance that the Scottish Government take all forms of hate crime and bigotry seriously.

In the Programme for Government 2021 - 2022 we have updated the target from a minimum of 3,000 hectares per year of new native woodland creation, to a minimum of 4,000 hectares. That is an increase.

Both organisations already deliver a range of activity, such as Creative Scotland’s delivery of the Youth Music Initiative. The action in the Culture Strategy “Work with Creative Scotland and Education Scotland to help improve cultural experiences for learners of all ages” is driving a programme of joint work between the two organisations.

Education Scotland and Creative Scotland have been working closely together to update their approach to joint working in response to COVID-19, and to implement commitments against two existing frameworks: Scotland’s refreshed Creative Learning Plan and the Culture Strategy for Scotland. The two organisations have jointly developed a new Strategic Agreement which sets out five areas of focus for joint working over the next 3 years:

• Learners’ mental health and wellbeing is improved through creativity and arts experiences
• Learners are more confident and able to articulate their creativity skills and can apply them in all contexts.
• High quality cultural and expressive arts experiences are more widely accessible to all learners.
• Learners are directly influencing more of their own creative learning and creative experiences.
• Creative approaches are further embedded in curriculum design.

An action plan, aligned to the Strategic Agreement, is now being finalised, putting programmes in place to deliver on these areas of focus. Some of these actions are already underway, including the launch of the Creative Wellbeing Fund , offering six grants of between £12k -£15k to support schools to take a creative approach to addressing learner wellbeing, and the recent opening of the Creative Learning Network Fund for applications, offering grants of up to £7k per Local Authority to support the Creative Learning Networks to implement Scotland’s refreshed Creative Learning Plan. As per the agreement between Education Scotland and Creative Scotland, the Creative Learning Networks are being asked to look across the Culture Strategy for Scotland and explore their role in helping to improve cultural experiences for learners of all ages.

Additionally, the two organisations are currently overseeing artform-led research with both the visual arts and theatre for young audiences’ sectors to map and analyse the current level and extent of provision available in schools across Scotland. The concluding reports will suggest ways the delivery of expressive arts in schools could be enhanced.

ScotRail engages with key stakeholders, including Mobility and Access Committee Scotland, throughout the timetable development consultation process to seek their views which will help inform the final May 2022 timetable.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02863 on 23 September 2021 . All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The information requested is not held centrally.

Children and young people whose referral is not accepted by CAMHS are sensitively and appropriately signposted to a more suitable service within their community.

We are committed to improving the availability of community mental health and wellbeing services for children and young people. This year we have provided local authorities with an additional £15 Million to fund over 200 new and enhanced supports and services for 5 -24 year olds. These services are expected to set up links to local CAMHS with signposting the minimum expectation and direct referral to community services the aspiration. The recently published Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party shared policy programme commits to doubling the budget for community based mental wellbeing services for children and young people to £30 million.

In addition, we have implemented a National CAMHS Service Specification, which sets out the standards of service that children, young people and families can expect from CAMHS across Scotland and have provided funding to support Boards to implement the specification. The specification includes a clear expectation that services should have appropriate re-engagement policies in place.

There are a number of reasons why a referral may not be accepted which include: insufficient information, does not meet the health board provider referral criteria, service unavailable, consent issues, patient refused service. This data is not consistently collected by all Health Boards. A new core dataset, the CAMHS and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND) is currently being developed by Public Health Scotland. Public Health Scotland are working with all Health Boards to ensure this data collection is of sufficient quality to report on in full.

Children and young people whose referral is not accepted by CAMHS are sensitively and appropriately signposted to a more suitable service within their community. The Scottish Government accepted all of the recommendations in the 2018 Audit of Rejected Referrals Report 2018.

In addition, we have implemented a National CAMHS Service Specification, which sets out the standards of service that children, young people and families can expect from CAMHS across Scotland and have provided funding to support Boards to implement the specification. The specification includes a clear expectation that services should have appropriate re-engagement policies in place.

Policy on transport fuels is reserved to the UK Government and the roll-out of the E10 petrol grade is an initiative led on by the UK Department for Transport (DfT).

DfT's "Know Your Fuel" campaign has run across Scotland to inform motorists of the change and also offers an online vehicle compatibility checking tool. The Scottish Government's Traffic Scotland information service recently released tweets alerting motorists to the E10 introduction and provided links to DfT's online information resources."