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The Scottish Government is committed to delivering a Net Zero, Wellbeing economy and a highly skilled workforce is critical to this ambition. Our National Strategy for Economic Transformation is clear that we must adapt our education and skills system to become more responsive and agile so that it can deliver on our key priorities.

Published in 2020, the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) provides a framework for green skills planning and investment across priority sectors directly affected in the transition to net zero: Energy, Construction, Transport, Manufacturing and Agriculture and land-use.

The Scottish Government’s Making Scotland’s Future programme brings together public sector partners, including Skills Development Scotland, to support the manufacturing sector. The workstream intersects with CESAP and has identified the skills implications of the transition to net zero for the manufacturing sector including the rise in demand for data and digital skills, increased need for design, analytical and technical skills on top of the requirement for resilience and adaptability in the face of technological change.

SDS is working alongside the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) to support industry including SMEs which make up 97% of the manufacturing business in Scotland. NMIS supports businesses to define their skills needs and support the transition to net zero, as well as providing training and professional development courses.

SDS have also commissioned Ekosgen to work up an evidence base for energy skills in the Inner Moray Firth to support the ScotWind project in the area. The piece commissioned by SDS was to explore the existing skills in the area and where gaps would be in supporting the project. This work was carried out alongside work which has been undertaken by the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council, who have produced a skills roadmap to understand the skills needs to support the likely increased demand for Scotland’s potential offshore wind energy.

This work will support the development of a Just Transition Plan for the Manufacturing Sector.

a) Information on care home residents is reported on through the Care Home Census, published by Public Health Scotland (PHS). Information is published on a rolling 10-year basis; therefore, the figures below have been sourced from multiple Care Home Census publications. This includes historic extracts of publications from NHS Information Services Division, prior to the creation of Public Health Scotland. The Care Home Census was not run in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Table 1: The estimated number of care home residents aged 65+ years, 2007 – 2022

The Scottish Government is working with local government partners on the Additional Support for Learning Project Board to deliver the recommendations of the 2020 additional support for learning review by March 2026. As outlined in our updated action plan , published in November 2022, we committed to revise GIRFEC policy and practice guidance, and to consider a single planning process for children and young people.

It is the responsibility of Local Health and Social Care Partnerships to put in place services to meet local needs, including the needs of adults with ADHD.

The 2020 Programme for Government included a commitment to consider a National Clinical Pathway for ADHD. In order to deliver on this, the Scottish Government commissioned the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to carry out a feasibility study to investigate how such a pathway would work and benefit adults diagnosed with ADHD. The Feasibility Study was published in January 2021, with the report finding that a multi-disciplinary neurodevelopmental approach, inclusive of ADHD, was needed.

Following on from the study, the Scottish Government has provided funding of £650,000 for adult neurodevelopmental pathway trials. The final report , including the findings and recommendations of the trials were published in March. We have accepted the recommendations and we are working with NAIT on implementation.

The Scottish Government recognise that uncertainty while waiting can have an impact on health and wellbeing. That is why we are undertaking a new programme of work, ‘Waiting Well’, which aims to support an active waiting well period by providing access to good information, signposting to local services and community assets, and to professional support and services as required.

We also recognise the impact that long waiting times can have on a patient’s mental health. The Healthy living | NHS inform page provides advice and tools which includes information on mental wellbeing.

The Scottish Government is working with partners in local government, The Scottish Sensory Centre, Sense Scotland and the General Teaching Council for Scotland to update existing guidance on qualifications and teacher competencies for those who teach children and young people with sensory loss.

A public consultation on the updated guidance is planned for later this year.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering a Net Zero, Wellbeing economy and a highly skilled workforce is critical to this ambition. Our National Strategy for Economic Transformation is clear that we must adapt our education and skills system to become more responsive and agile so that it can deliver on our key priorities.

Published in 2020, the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) also provides a framework for green skills planning and investment across priority sectors directly affected in the transition to net zero: Energy, Construction, Transport, Manufacturing and Agriculture and land-use.

The Scottish Government Independent Commission to review land-based learning published their report (January 2023) with 22 recommendations on how to attract and improve the learning pathways to equip more people with the skills and knowledge needed to work in Scotland’s land-based and aquaculture sectors, including emerging green occupations that are crucial to our climate and nature targets. The Scottish Government is committed to considering the report and will produce a response in 2023.

This will support the development of a Just Transition Plan for Agriculture and Land Use.

Once a Community Payback Order (CPO) has been imposed, its management – including with regard to compliance and attendance – is a matter for the courts and local authority justice social work services. The Scottish Government therefore does not collect or collate this information.

Managing compliance effectively is critical to achievement of the purposes of a CPO. If an individual does not attend any part of their CPO, this will be investigated by justice social work services. If the reason for absence is not acceptable, this will result in the commencement of a formal warning process, which can result in the case being returned to court under breach procedures, where the court will consider the breach.

Seventy-nine per cent of orders which ended during 2021-22 did not involve any breach applications for the duration of the order. It is up to the independent courts to decide the most appropriate outcome where a CPO has been breached, based on all of the circumstances of the case, and ultimately this may include the imposition of a custodial sentence.

The following table details the support given from the enterprise agencies between 2017 and 2022 to the 5 mountain centres and Snow Factor (currently closed). Please note the drawn down figure can be lower than the overall allocation available from the enterprise agency. This does not include the £7 million in Covid-19 support provided by the Scottish Government.

Several recently published research reports support our understanding of the experiences of those affected by domestic abuse, including 'The sentencing of offences involving domestic abuse’, a literature review published by the Scottish Sentencing Council in June 2022, which can be found at https://www.scottishsentencingcouncil.org.uk/media/2231/20220624-domestic-abuse-final-report-as-published.pdf .

These will play a key role as we further develop and assess our policy approach to tackling domestic abuse. Both the research into the implementation of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 which can be viewed at https://www.gov.scot/publications/domestic-abuse-scotland-act-2018-interim-reporting-requirement/ and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of ‘Constabulary for Scotland’s Thematic Review of Domestic Abuse which can be viewed at https://www.hmics.scot/publications/hmics-thematic-inspection-domestic-abuse-phase-1 found that challenges exist in preventing domestic abuse and protecting those who are vulnerable from its harmful effects.

We will continue to take relevant research and information into account as we work with partners to prevent and address domestic abuse.