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Many items within the Baby Box such as thermometers, play mat, changing mat, books, and the box itself are all suitable for a premature baby, and the clothing will be suitable as the baby grows. The Scottish Government seeks to deliver best value by purchasing the contents of the Baby Box in bulk, in line with Scottish birth rates. Costs would increase significantly if we moved to purchase smaller amounts of different items. Therefore in the current financial climate we do not plan to make any adaptions to the Baby Box. The Scottish Government is keen to offer financial support to parents or primary carers of babies who are born prematurely and have to receive inpatient care. All parents whose children have to stay overnight in hospital are eligible for financial support through the Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF).

As part of our ongoing joint programme for delivery, following the launch of the Winter Heating Payment, Scottish Government officials have been working with counterparts at the Department of Work and Pensions to develop a revised timeframe that will allow payments to be issued earlier in Winter 2023-24 and subsequent years. I will provide a more detailed update to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee on this work in due course.

The information you have requested is set out in the following table. It should be noted that the key criteria for the Local Bridge Maintenance Fund was to rebuild and maintain key lifeline bridges, where diversionary routes are not available or limited.

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

I will lead the summit on behaviour and relationships in our schools, with the first stage of the taking place on 5 September. The views and experiences of school staff will be central to the summit process, which is focusing on practical support at classroom, school and local level to make a difference on this issue.

A multi-stage approach to the summit is planned to ensure the issues are considered in detail and to allow the later stages of the summit to benefit from the latest data following the publication of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools research. This research will provide a robust national picture in relation to behaviour in Scotland’s schools when it publishes in Autumn this year.

As well as our plans for the summit, I convened a Headteacher taskforce which includes representatives from across the education sector. The taskforce met in June and we considered the issue of school exclusions and consequences. We will use these discussions to inform our approach to the summit.

I will continue to update Cabinet colleagues in the usual manner.

The Scottish Government fully values the important contributions that both grassroots and large-scale music venues provide to Scotland. We recognise the role venues play in skills development and the talent pipeline.

It remains crucial that we continue to engage with live music venues of all sizes, and experts from all areas of the music industry, to hear directly the views and experiences from the sector first hand.

I will be meeting with the Music Venture Trust later this month to better understand how we can further support the music sector and grassroots venues.

Performance venues throughout Scotland make an important contribution to the cultural, social and economic life of Scotland. We have regular contact with Creative Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), and representatives of the music industry, as part of our on-going work to ensure that we understand the challenges and opportunities that the industry in the Highlands and Islands region, as well as across Scotland, face.

Many grassroots venues in the Highlands and Islands received support through the Scottish Government COVID-19 Emergency Funds, including Gellions Bar, Hootenanny, The Tooth & Claw, Aros Centre and The Sound Archive through the Grassroots Music Venue Stabilisation Fund.

HIE has supported a number of venues in the region and has directly supported venues to look at how they collaborate. HIE also support organisations, such as the Touring Network, a collaborative membership organisation that supports promoters in the region. HIE is also considering how digital tools and changing business models can support venues by generating new revenue streams.

More generally, grassroots music venues in Scotland can apply to Creative Scotland funds for specific projects and programmes of creative work.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing a long-term strategic approach to skills and careers in the sector across the creative sector.

The music talent pipeline is already supported through a very significant offer across Scotland’s Colleges at NC, HNC and HND level covering performance, production, sound engineering, music business and event management. There is also increased specialisation at degree level across Scotland’s Higher Education sector, covering classical, contemporary and traditional music disciplines. Further information should be available from Scottish Funding Council and the Scottish Qualifications Authority.

In addition, Creative Scotland plays a major role in talent development and supporting the creative talent pipeline through the National Lottery funded Open Fund for Individuals which offers early career funding to emerging artists. Through their Targeted Routes and organisations funds, Creative Scotland support organisations and events such as Wide Days, the SAMAs and Showcase Scotland Expo, which provide mentoring for young acts.

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