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In March 2023, the Scottish Government requested Public Health Scotland (PHS) to undertake an independent review of the Paediatric Scottish National Spinal Service (SNSS) which is hosted in NHS Lothian.

The review was requested to identify any variance between the number of cancellations reported by PHS and those held locally by SNSS. PHS confirmed cancellation data held by SNSS is aligned to PHS reported data.

PHS also assessed the application of National Waiting Times Guidance for children that were referred to SNSS, particularly focusing on children that required further diagnostic tests before a decision to treat was made. PHS found NHS Lothian to be adhering to and applying the waiting time guidance correctly.

Therefore, PHS concluded through this external assurance process that SNSS, hosted in NHS Lothian, in all of the areas reviewed adheres to and applies National Waiting Times Guidance with no apparent variation in the local data to that published by PHS.

A copy of the report can be found at Publications - Public Health Scotland .

The Scottish Government’s vision for Scottish education is excellence and equity and ensuring that every child has the same opportunity to succeed regardless of their social circumstances or support needs.

The school’s approaches to closing the poverty related attainment gap and achieving excellence and equity for all children and young people form a key part of every school inspection.

HM Inspectors consider the quality of education provision and how well schools are meeting the needs of all children and young people including those children who require additional support and are entitled to free school meals.

HM Inspectors are provided with key information about the school. This includes the number of children with additional support needs, the nature of those needs, the percentage of children living in each area identified in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation and the percentage of children and young people entitled to free school meals.

When evaluating the quality of education provision, HM Inspectors take account of the school's specific circumstances. They look closely at the needs of individual learners and groups of learners with additional support needs and those affected by poverty. They evaluate how well the school is supporting children and young people by looking closely at their support plans, observing learning and teaching and speaking to them. HM Inspectors consider the extent to which schools promote equity of success and have raised attainment and achievement for all children and young people, including those who are most disadvantaged.

Table 1 provides the number of school leavers who left school with one or more National Qualification(s) at Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework (SCQF) Level 6 or better from 2012-13 to 2021-22. This covers attainment in National Qualifications such as Highers and Skills for Work.

The figures are taken from the Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations publication and cover the attainment of leavers from mainstream, publicly funded schools.

Table 1: Number of school leavers with one pass or more at SCQF Level 6 or better, 2012-13 to 2021-22

The Scottish Government publishes statistics showing the number of young people who were in a positive destination three months and nine months after the end of each school year. These statistics are available on a comparable basis for school leavers from academic years 2009-10 to 2021-22. They cover all young people who left from a publicly funded mainstream secondary school in Scotland.

Table 1 shows the numbers and proportions of school leavers in a positive "initial" destination, three months after the end of the school year, for 2009-10 to 2021-22. Table 2 provides the same information for "follow-up" destinations, nine months after the end of the school year.

Positive destinations are: higher education, further education, employment, training, voluntary work, activity agreements (from 2010-11 to 2017-18 inclusive) and personal skills development.

The time period covered by these statistics means they contain data that will be affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The pandemic could have affected the opportunities available to some school leavers, either directly or due to an impact on attainment caused by the alternative approaches taken to grading National Qualifications in 2020, 2021 and 2022. This should be kept in mind when making comparisons over time.

Table 1. Number and percentage of school leavers in a positive initial destination, three months after the end of the school year, 2009-10 to 2021-22.

The requested information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Responsibility for school libraries is devolved to local authorities, who already have a statutory duty to ensure there is adequate provision of library services for their residents. There are no plans to impose a specific statutory duty on local authorities in relation to librarian services in schools. It is for local authorities to allocate their resources appropriately and aligned with the needs of the people they represent. Authorities should work in partnership with communities to explore ways of delivering services, based on need.

The Scottish Government has accepted the recommendation of the Joint Vaccination of Immunisations and Vaccinations (JCVI) that the age cohorts for the Shingles vaccination programme be expanded to protect individuals at an earlier age.

The vaccine will be offered free of charge to those aged 65 and 70 as defined by the patient’s age at 1 September 2023. NHS Health Boards are responsible for delivering vaccination programmes in Scotland and will invite eligible individuals forward for their appointments ahead of the programme commencing.

The changes to the programme have been outlined in the Chief Medical Officer Letter published on 31 July 2023 and can be accessed here: sehd.scot.nhs.uk/cmo/CMO(2023)11.pdf

The Home Energy Scotland (HES) Grant and Loan Scheme offers funding for a range of zero direct emissions heating systems, energy efficiency measures and additional measures, including solar PV and energy storage systems in some circumstances.

The Scottish Government has not closed this scheme, but has changed the conditions for funding of solar PV and energy storage systems.

For an answer to the question asked, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19952 on 9 August 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website .

Codebase, the operator of Scotland's Techscaler network, has acquired CodeClan’s training materials and other assets.

The Scottish Government has agreed to provide financial support to Codebase for the explicit purpose of allowing students who have paid for courses to complete their studies. Guidance has been issued to students and operational arrangements are being finalised.

Since 2015, CodeClan have received a total of £3.03m from Scottish Government.