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The Scottish Government recognises that supporting parents is key to improving outcomes for children and young people and that monitoring and evaluating of our parenting support programmes is an essential component to ensure the effectiveness of these programmes. Monitoring and evaluation are a key element of all grant funding conditions issued by the Scottish Government.

In respect of both the Bookbug and PlayTalkRead/Pathways Through Play programmes, they provide quarterly reports on progress against outcomes along with a final annual report showing all activities undertaken, the outputs and outcomes achieved as well as an overall evaluation of the programme.

The Psychology of Parenting Programme is monitored through outcomes briefings provided by NHS Education for Scotland (NES). The most recent is available in the Psychology of Parenting Programme section of the NES website alongside a published evaluation of the programme. NES also provide monthly updates on the rollout of Solihull Online.

With regards to our third sector funding programmes – the Children, Young People, Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities fund (CYPFEI & ALEC) and the Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learners fund (CYPFAL) - all 137 CYPFEI & ALEC and CYPFAL funded organisation provide six monthly and annual progress reports. The reports provide key information on the outcomes achieved through the provision of funding, including the number of people directly supported and the work delivered in the reporting period.

Independent external evaluation of the Programme is a core component of delivery. A Year 1 process evaluation report of the programme was published on 31 January 2024: Whole Family Wellbeing Funding (WFWF) - year 1 process evaluation: final report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and evaluation of Year 2 is currently underway. Both focus on impact of the Programme in relation to short-, medium- and long-term outcomes set out in our WFWF logic model. A full evaluation report of Year 2 will be available in early 2025. Planning for the evaluation of Year 3 and beyond is underway, supported by a Research Advisory Group comprised of external experts and stakeholders.

Scotland’s ‘Getting it right for every child’ (GIRFEC) approach underpins the delivery of high-quality universal and targeted support through a single, coordinated approach to planning across education, social work, and health and social care; and between public services, the third sector and community partners.

The GIRFEC approach recognises that children, young people and their families need to know who they can contact when they require support. The named person, Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC): practice guidance 2 – role of the named person - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) or equivalent role, provides a clear point of contact within universal services for information, advice or help. A named person can provide or help families access further information on practical support from within their own service, or request support from other services or agencies across the community. For school-aged children, the named person is usually a head or senior teacher.

The non-statutory GIRFEC Child’s Plan remains an important element in the ways children’s and related services can work in a co-ordinated way to support the wellbeing of children, young people and their families. Using the GIRFEC approach, practitioners and lead professionals should support a child or young person's wellbeing by working alongside them and their family, and other practitioners involved in supporting their wellbeing. Where a child or young person is supported through a GIRFEC Child’s Plan, the lead professional Lead professional - Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) offers families a single point of contact who can work with them and any multi-agency team to help co-ordinate support and help everyone understand their respective roles in implementing the plan.

GIRFEC provides the foundation for all of the Scottish Government’s policies to ensure that children and young people receive the right support, at the right time. This includes Scotland’s legislative approach to collaborative local strategic planning. Children’s Services Planning duties are set out in Part 3 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. This requires services and support to be planned and delivered in a way which delivers on national and local priorities and meets the statutory aims of Children’s Services Planning, including the aim to ensure that support is experienced as joined-up from the point of view of children and families.

Each local authority and Health Board must work collaboratively with specified service providers, other public bodies, the third sector, and children, young people and families to develop their Children’s Services Plan (CSP). Each Children’s Services Planning Partnership (CSPP) has a multi-agency strategic governance group of local senior leaders, who are responsible for their CSP. This includes publishing an annual report to demonstrate what progress has been made to improve outcomes for children, young people and families living in that area.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 provides the legal framework for identifying and addressing the additional support needs of children and young people who face a barrier, or barriers, to learning. Parents, children, and young people have the right to ask for an assessment of whether additional support is required. Local authorities and other agencies should ensure that parents are fully aware of the processes for assessing and providing for children’s additional support needs, understand the planning approaches and are familiar with the support services available from the school, the education authority and from other agencies.

Scottish Ministers also fund Enquire, the national advice and information service on additional support for learning. Enquire operate a telephone helpline providing confidential and tailored advice to parents and carers on their children’s circumstances and rights to support. They have a range of resources and signposting on their website seeking to ensure that families can access the most appropriate support.

The Scottish Government recognises that parents and carers are the primary educators of their children and it is best practice for schools, local authorities and parents to work in partnership to ensure the best learning outcomes for children and young people. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 places responsibility on State Parties to provide appropriate assistance to parents and legal guardians in performing their parental responsibilities to guarantee and promote the rights set out in the Convention.

An update to the Learning together national action plan: update - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) was co-published with COSLA in December 2023. This is an update setting out an overarching framework that brings together relevant policies and guidance to support education authorities to develop parental involvement strategies, as set out in the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006. It sets out a vision for parental involvement, engagement, family learning and learning at home.

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with Clackmannanshire, Dundee and Glasgow to tackle child poverty through transforming the way public services are delivered. These partnerships are testing and embedding a deeper, person-centred approach which meets families where they are and seeks to move them out of poverty on a sustained basis.

This has included close working with schools and nurseries, such as:

• Close partnership with the Early Adopter School Aged Childcare Pilot in Dundee, to facilitate access to childcare for parents supported by the Dundee Pathfinder
• A family supper club in Rowantree Primary School in Dundee, which provides access to support services and hot evening meals.
• Financial Inclusion Support Officers based in primary and secondary schools in Glasgow
• ‘Community Around the School’ in Clackmannanshire, featuring a broad range of partners involved in reading, numeracy and confidence skills at Alloa Academy

Across the 3 partnerships, over 3000 families have benefited from direct support, with changes to how services are designed and delivered set to benefit many more.

The Scottish Government are also providing local authorities with £15 million per annum to fund community-based mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children, young people and their families. The Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services Framework, which underpins this funding, encourages education, health, wider children’s services, youth work and the third sector to work together and take a whole-system approach to supporting children, young people and their families.

The mission of the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) is to use education to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap. The national operational guidance for Pupil Equity Funding to schools is clear that parents, carers and the local community are valuable sources of support, expertise and experience in working with children and young people experiencing poverty-related barriers to learning. In many contexts, particularly in rural areas, or within special schools or Additional Support Needs (ASN) provisions, schools may be able to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people by working with a range of bodies such as:

• parent groups
• parent councils
• other local authority and public sector services (such as community learning & development)
• third sector organisations (including youth work, family learning organisations)
• centres of expertise

Safe and legal routes are crucial to enabling people to seek safety when forced to flee war and persecution. We will continue to engage with the UK Government on issues which impact people living in Scotland, including refugees, people seeking asylum and displaced people. This engagement includes sharing lessons from the experience of over 27,000 Homes for Ukraine visa-holders arriving in Scotland, over 21,000 of which were sponsored by the Scottish Government. We also hope other governments can learn from our work implementing the pioneering New Scots refugee integration strategy; which is a UK-leading integration approach built on a partnership led by the Scottish Government, COSLA and Scottish Refugee Council. We look forward to working closely with the UK Government to deliver a system that is effective and more humane.

The information sought is not held centrally.However, it may be useful to note that Scotland’s independent school sector includes Queen Victoria School in Dunblane. Queen Victoria School is an independent, mainstream, boarding school funded by the Ministry of Defence. The school caters to the children of UK Armed Forces personnel either based in Scotland or with a connection to Scotland. In September 2023, the school reported that around 260 children and young people were enrolled.

The Board of His Majesty’s Commissioners (HMC) are responsible for the management of Queen Victoria School and can be contacted care of: The Secretary to the Board of His Majesty’s Commissioners, Queen Victoria School, Dunblane, FK15 0JY or the Director of Defence, Children’s Services, MOD.

The Marine Directorate has recorded no collisions between its Marine Protection Vessels and (a) whales, (b) dolphins, (c) porpoises, (d) basking sharks, (e) seals and (f) other large marine species since 2021, and is not aware of any collisions.

The relationships, sexual health and parenthood education consultation report will be published in the coming weeks. I will ensure the member is sent a link to the report when it is published.

We do not think it is right that ownership and control of much of Scotland’s land is still in the hands of relatively few people.

A 2019 report by the Scottish Land Commission: The Model CHP for the Scottish Government and Associated Public Authorities Sector in Scotland - Word Template (landcommission.gov.scot) concluded that highly concentrated landownership can have detrimental effects on rural development outcomes, and that these effects arise because landowners have the power to decide who can access land, when, for what purpose and at what price.

Analysis by the James Hutton Institute to support the Bill identified 1066 landholdings above 1000 hectares, representing 4.32 million hectares, or 55% of Scotland’s land.

The information sought is not held centrally.However, as at September 2023, around 28,500 children and young people were reported to attend an independent school in Scotland. Of those 28,500 children and young people, around 700 children and young people were reported to attend an independent special school.

The following table outlines independent special school pupil numbers by Local Authority.

Battery storage will play a role in the future energy mix of Scotland. As set out in our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, battery storage offers fast responding, dispatchable power when required. They also provide a number of ancillary services required to maintain stability within the electricity networks.