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All local authorities are under a statutory duty to ensure their menus comply with the standards set out in The Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020. What food and drink they choose to include on their menus, including locally sourced, is a matter for each local authority taking into account local needs and preferences.

We encourage local authorities to use local and sustainable produce in school catering, which is supported by the Scotland Excel procurement framework.

In September 2024, the Scottish Government published guidance for schools and education authorities on school uniform and clothing. This was published alongside supporting resources for pupils and parents and carers. The total cost of publication was £2,106.32.

The Scottish Government are currently funding a dedicated resource in NHS Education for Scotland to scope the current skills landscape and identify where earn as you learn programmes could be expanded and where further development work is required with aim of widening the pathways into health and care careers.

The Scottish Government are currently funding a dedicated resource in NHS Education for Scotland to scope the current skills landscape and identify where earn as you learn programmes could be expanded and where further development work is required with aim of widening the pathways into health and care careers, including in rural and island areas.

We already work collaboratively with professional bodies and higher education institutions (HEI) on the delivery of education programs that can meet the needs of the NHS workforce. Work is underway through the AHP Education and Workforce Policy Review to support the development of alternative delivery models of education such as part time and distance learning.

Approximately £1.36 million was initially allocated to NHS Grampian to support 980 additional orthopaedic joint procedures at Woodend Hospital over a 9 month period. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, NHS Grampian were unable to commence activity in the timeline originally anticipated and currently expect to deliver 95 additional joints at Woodend by end of March 2025.

The remainder of the funding from the £1.36 million will be redirected to other priority areas, including orthopaedic capacity at the Golden Jubilee University National Hospital.

We are working with Health Boards, including NHS Grampian, to develop detailed annual delivery plans for 2025/26 to support waiting list reductions and improve productivity, and orthopaedics will be a key priority area.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information, however the data can be found by contacting the Care Inspectorate directly or searching the Care Inspectorate datastore.

Scottish Government is committed to supporting and growing our childminding sector, which is why we launched the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future in June 2024, in partnership with the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA). The programme is supporting the recruitment of new professional childminders across Scotland, offering a package of funded support and training in addition to a £750 start-up grant, providing everything needed to establish a new childminding business from home.

The programme also includes a range of pilot measures to address the retention of the childminding workforce, delivering more practical support to ensure our existing professionals are supported with their workloads and professional development.

The recruitment support is available across 19 local authorities during 2024-25, and 12 local authorities are participating in the retention pilots. SCMA are currently in discussions with local authorities regarding participation for year 2 (2025-26), and we welcome their commitment to supporting the childminding workforce.

Information on the proportion of eligible children accessing funded ELC, both nationally and by local authority, is published each year in the ELC census. This includes uptake rates for all 3-4 year olds, and deferred registrations. The census does not record the proportion of their 1140 hours entitlement that each child is utilising.

The most recent publication includes the most recent uptake data by local authority area within Figure 26 at the following page:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-for-schools-in-scotland-2023/pages/early-learning-and-childcare-elc/

A breakdown for previous years can be accessed within the appropriate years publication, which are listed at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/early-learning-and-childcare-statistics/#earlylearningandchildcarecensus.

The Improvement Service also provide information on the number of eligible children accessing their full 1140 entitlement nationally. The most recent service delivery report is available at:

https://www.improvementservice.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/52618/ELC-Delivery-Progress-Report-Apr-24.pdf

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Following the introduction of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, SPS took the decision to not seek to amend its mandatory drug testing policy to include testing for psychoactive substances. This was due to the continual changing compounds used within psychoactive substances and remains the position to date.

By working closely with partners such as Police Scotland, SPS must and does remain vigilant to the continuously evolving nature of drug use to ensure our use of technology and tactical measures remain current, adaptable, and capable of detecting and preventing drugs from entering our prisons; and we continue to consider what testing options may be most effective for the SPS to use.

SPS will continue to work with partners to prevent the introduction of contraband and seek convictions where appropriate.

Scottish Government publishes data each year on the rates paid by local authorities to funded providers in the private and third sector, and to childminders, to deliver funded early learning and childcare (ELC). Data for 2023-24 showed that rates increased by on average 4.1% between 2022-23 and 2023-24.

While the average rate has increased, there remains variation in the rates paid across Scotland. That is why work is being undertaken to reform the process for setting sustainable rates. This will see the delivery of the actions set out in the joint COSLA and Scottish Government Sustainable Rates Review, which was published in December 2023 and was informed by evidence from both childcare providers and local authorities.

The review recommends a wide-ranging set of actions to improve the existing sustainable rates process, including updating the Sustainable Rates Guidance with a view to greater standardisation; and working with local government and funded providers to undertake a new cost collection exercise to ensure that our long-term investment to support the setting of sustainable rates is informed by a robust and reliable evidence base.To ensure that providers can input directly into this programme of work a series of Provider Reference Groups have been held this Autumn.

Following the Review, refreshed Scottish Government and COSLA guidance was published for 2024-25 setting out a clear expectation that there should be minimum increase of 7.6%. Data for 2024-25 will be published in early 2025. These rates do not take into account the costs to local authorities of commissioning, administering and overseeing the delivery of funded ELC.

From 2024-25 onwards, funding for ELC has been distributed to local authorities by Scottish Government through the General Revenue Grant. This now includes the previously ringfenced funding for Early Learning and Childcare following the removal of the ringfence as part of the Scottish Government’s commitment under the Verity House Agreement to increase funding flexibilities to local authorities. It is then for locally elected representatives to decide how to deliver services, including ELC, to their local communities, whilst fulfilling their statutory obligations and a jointly agreed set of delivery priorities.

As local authorities have a statutory responsibility to commission services that meet the needs of their population, they may choose to run services that would not be commercially viable for other providers, such as in rural and island communities.

To support the development of the Strategy since 23 November 2023, we have spent approximately £19k on engagement, and on the publication costs of our analysis of engagement on the Statement of Intent. In addition, staffing costs to develop the Strategy have continued to be met from our operating costs budget for 2023-24 and 2024-25.

During this timescale, the Scottish Government has also continued to provide funding to a number of organisations whose work supports transitions and the development of the Strategy including, but not limited to, the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland, Capability Scotland, Enable Scotland, and the Independent Living Fund Scotland.