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To date, there have been no cash settlements awarded to defenders in any civil or criminal cases regarding Low Emission Zones.

The Strategic Board for Teacher Education met on 4 September to consider their workplan including recruitment and retention issues. This work is ongoing and will be complemented by the project I am commissioning on education workforce modelling and research, which will be completed by the end of the year. The SBTE will use findings from the education workforce modelling and research project provide me with further advice on initial teacher education programmes.

The Care Inspectorate publishes annual statistics on the numbers of childminders operating across Scotland. The most recent data, for 2021, were published in September 2022 and are set out in the following table.

The first meeting of the Cabinet Sub-Committee for the Promise will take place when the membership and remit have been confirmed.

Scottish Government fleet purchases for the last 5 years, broken down by category, are provided in the following table.

I meet quarterly with the COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, Chair and attend further meetings and events where COSLA is represented, and meet directly with Councillors across Scotland to discuss mutual areas of interest. In the period since my appointment I have met with COSLA eight times, in a range of settings. In addition, officials across the Education & Skills portfolio are in constant contact with COSLA officials, frequently engaging on a daily or weekly basis and it is not possible to collate the total number of such engagements.

Getting it Right for Every Child is Scotland’s national approach to improving outcomes for children and young people. We are committed to investing £500m in Whole Family Wellbeing to improve holistic family support so that families get the right support, in the right way and at the right time. The GIRFEC approach is not directly comparable to the Early Help Scheme.

As set out in answer PQ S6W-20065 Local Authorities are expected to have robust processes and guidance for children who do not attend school from the first day they are absent until they are re-engaged with education. I have expressed concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on attendance and have asked Education Scotland to undertake work to better understand the current barriers and challenges experienced by schools, children and young people and their families and which influence school attendance, and to provide clear examples of effective strategies that are supporting improved attendance, and clarity on what further support or intervention is required in areas where attendance is not improving. I am welcome to learning from approaches to improving attendance from elsewhere.

In accordance with the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, the provision of education is the responsibility of local authorities, meaning that each of Scotland’s 32 local authorities are responsible for ensuring young people in their area receive adequate provision of school and pre-school education; including in STEM subjects.

The Scottish Government leads on national policy, as set out in the STEM Education and Training Strategy, and helps to fund a series of national programmes which local authorities and schools can access. This includes:

• the Raising Aspirations in Science Education (RAiSE) programme which has been in place since 2016 and is delivered in partnership with the Wood Foundation and Education Scotland. The programme aims to improve primary teacher confidence in delivering inspiring science learning.
• the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (SSERC) which is a local authority shared service, available to all education authorities in Scotland. SSERC offers STEM professional learning courses for early years, primary and secondary teachers as well as technical support staff.

Local authorities are also involved, either directly or indirectly, in other STEM education development programmes supported by the Government including Maths Week Scotland and a professional learning programme for computing teachers.

In addition, the Education Scotland STEM Team work with local authorities to support a range of initiatives to encourage STEM leadership in the classroom, promote greater equality of access to STEM subjects and build on effective practice in STEM education. For example, grants have been provided by Education Scotland to Milnathort Primary School to help them develop a conceptual approach to teaching numeracy and Campsie View School has received funding to develop STEM teaching skills for young people with additional support needs.

The Scottish Government has provided funding to Age Scotland, as a strategic partner, to support a range of housing related work in 2023-24. As part of that work Age Scotland is planning a piece of qualitative research with older people to improve the evidence on older people living in private rented sector.

Last year the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the Scottish Government commissioned research on the priorities for change of low-income renters in the private rented sector. This included older renters and explored tenants’ rights and adaptations in the private rented sector. Last year, the Scottish Government's Housing and Dementia Forum published a report on housing needs of people with dementia in Scotland including private renters.

Nationwide Foundation’s RentBetter Project, of which a Scottish Government Analyst is an advisory group member, are doing research which is examining the impacts of private rented sector reform on landlords and tenants, including changes to and knowledge of tenants’ rights, including older tenants.

The Scottish Government has also consulted recently on adaptation in the private rented sector as part of their New Deal for Tenants Consultation, and on the principles for a tenure-neutral accessible housing standard as part of this summer’s consultation on Enhancing the accessibility, adaptability and usability of Scotland’s homes.

As outlined in our response of 16 June 2023 to the COVID-19 Recovery Committee report on long COVID, I wrote to NHS National Services Scotland on 16 June 2023 to request implementation of a range of actions to support internal and external communication regarding activities being undertaken by the long COVID Strategic Network. NHS National Services Scotland has confirmed that these actions are in progress, and include the identification of an appropriate web solution to share priorities, key outputs, and meeting minutes.

The Scottish Government is represented on the Strategic Oversight Board of the long COVID Strategic Network. The Strategic Oversight Board provides oversight of the workplan and programme outcomes of the Strategic Network.