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The membership of the Best Start Review Group and the Best Start Sub-Groups is published in Appendix E and Appendix F of the Best Start Report , published in 2017. This includes the members job titles and organisation, and the remits of the sub groups. The remit of the Neonatal Models of Care sub group was agreed by the Best Start Review Group and is published in Appendix F. The role of each member of the sub group was to deliver the remit.

Members were appointed to the Review Group for the duration of the review (October 2015 to January 2017) and the Neonatal Models of Care Sub Group for the duration of that group (February 2016 – August 2016)

The Perinatal Sub Group of the Best Start Implementation Programme Board was convened in 2017 to take forward the Neonatal Intensive Care recommendation, and other Best Start recommendations. The Group continues to meet and the membership has changed over the lifetime of the group. The members at the time that the Options Appraisal Report was sent to Ministers is listed on page four of that report.

The Scottish Government’s national mission to close the poverty related attainment gap will be supported by the establishment of a Centre of Teaching Excellence.

The Centre is being progressed as part of the Education Reform programme; I updated Parliament in my statement on 6 November 2023 to that end.

With its focus on learning and teaching, the Centre will help Scotland remain at the cutting edge of teaching practice by, for example, distilling research and evidence into practical and digestible support for every teacher and practitioner in Scotland, meeting a widely recognised need in the system.

The Scottish Government is committed to co-designing the Centre with teachers and practitioners, professional associations, local government and Scotland’s national education bodies, to ensure it meets the needs of its users and stakeholders.

The role and remit of the Centre, how it operates, its interaction with teachers and practitioners, performance measures, and associated costs and timescales will be considered as part of that design process.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22299 on 16 November 2023. 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22299 on 16 November 2023. 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 SQA has responsibility for developing and delivering the vast majority of Senior Phase qualifications and this responsibility will pass to its successor body. Teaching professionals are, and will continue to be, involved in the delivery of qualifications.

Link Workers provide a vital contribution to patient care and our efforts to address health inequalities. Since we learnt of the risk to services from April 2024, we have engaged extensively, over several months, with Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership.

I am therefore pleased to confirm that we have committed to provide the Partnership with up to £1.2 million to sustain Community Link Worker capacity in Glasgow. This commitment fills a gap in funding that the Partnership had identified. The funding is in addition to the Partnership’s expected Primary Care Improvement Fund allocation in 2024/25 and we have offered the funding on a recurrent basis for three years to offer link worker services a degree of stability.

The Scottish Government are facing significant financial challenges, therefore, this funding announcement underlines just how seriously Ministers have taken this threat to services for some of the country’s poorest communities. It reflects the high value that Ministers place on Community Link Workers, and recognition of the levels of need in Glasgow City.

The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme was launched in December 2022. The figures provided show the demographic between this launch date and the end of August 2023.

The scheme is open to all domestic owner occupied households in Scotland, and therefore data on the age and income of applicants are not collected as part of the application process. In the following table, the data requested has therefore been supplied by local authority area only.

The Scottish Government runs a number of targeted delivery programmes which are tailored to the needs of the specific sector they are aimed at. We continue to evolve and adapt these schemes to ensure that the outcomes delivered by the scheme can be maximised for the funding allocated to them.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22629 on 16 November 2023 for information on a full range of ongoing actions we are taking to raise awareness of our schemes. 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 .

A range of skills will be required to deliver the transition to clean heat. Our Heat in Buildings Supply Chains Delivery Plan sets out practical steps that we will take to support the growth of the green heat sector.

We continue to work in partnership with the sector to ensure that the appropriate support and training provision are aligned at a local level with business needs and future local demands.