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It is clear that the changes in working practices and budgets will offer opportunities to right-size the portfolio and improve efficient delivery of services to the public. There are no details of any savings available yet as the multi-year programme has not started. The first phase of the programme will begin this year and will look to gather and validate existing estate information and to plan for a place-based approach across the public sector. Subsequent phases will identify opportunities to work towards an optimal, greener and interoperable public sector estate.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. Ultimately, it is for locally elected representatives to make local decisions on how best to deliver services to their local communities. It is also the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on Community Facilities, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government has increased local government funding by over £1 billion in 2022-23, a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent, despite a 5.2 per cent real terms reduction in the overall Scottish Budget.

In 2022-23, City of Edinburgh Council will receive £915.4 million to fund local services, which equates to an extra £86.7 million to support vital day-to-day services or an additional 10.5 per cent compared to 2021-22.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring the sustainability of the NHS and in March 2022 we published, in partnership with CoSLA, the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care . The Strategy outlines our shared vision: a sustainable, skilled workforce with attractive career choices where all are respected and valued for the work they do. To ensure all Health Boards have sufficient capacity, planning guidance has been issued to support the production of new Three Year Workforce Plans, supported by local systems’ workforce data.

Staffing across NHS Scotland is at record levels, having increased by 23.5% under this Government. There are also record high numbers of nursing and midwifery staff, up by 14.8% since September 2006, and numbers of student nurses entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 9% in 2022-2023, the 10 th successive increase in recommended student numbers.

We are investing £11 million over the next five years in new national and international recruitment campaigns and have established a national Centre for Workforce Supply to support the development and implementation of resource strategies and services across the system. We are also carrying out work to promote service innovation and redesign, such as utilisation of Associate Physicians, Advanced Nurse Practitioners and Health Care Support Workers; all of which will support maintaining appropriate staffing levels.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07994 on 6 May 2022. 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 Affordable Housing Supply Programme was allocated £134 million in Financial Transactions in 2022-23 and we have recently agreed that £60 million will be made available for the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme and £74 million for the Charitable Bond demand led programmes in 2022-23. A further £92 million in Financial Transactions was allocated to the wider housing budget for 2022-23, with £12 million of this earmarked for historic carry forward commitments. All options are being actively considered to maximise the use of the remaining Financial Transactions to support the delivery of homes.

Our Equally Safe Strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls emphasises the importance of challenging the underpinning attitudes which enable such violence to take place. Education settings have an important role in challenging these attitudes through teaching children and young adults about healthy relationships, consent and gender stereotypes which drive gender-based violence.

Our Equally Safe at School (ESAS) project, developed by Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance, applies a whole school approach to inequality and gender-based violence in schools. Since August 2021, Rape Crisis Scotland have reported over 60 schools have registered to ESAS. This year, Rape Crisis Scotland’s ESAS coordinator has been continuing to focus on the promotion of ESAS and working both nationally and with local authorities to build ESAS implementation strategies.

The Scottish Government also funds and supports other education-based programmes aimed at preventing gender-based violence. Our Mentors in the Violence peer education programme delivered in schools throughout Scotland seeks to enable young people to recognise and speak up against gender-based violence, bullying, abusive and violent behaviour, as well as the negative societal attitudes and assumptions which underpin this behaviour.

We have also established the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning, to identify ways in which systematic gender inequality in education and learning can be eradicated. In addition, the Gender-Based Violence in Schools Working Group is developing a national framework to ensure consistent messaging on gender-based harassment for everyone working with young people.

Furthermore, we are funding Rape Crisis Scotland to help deliver programmes which aim to tackle sexual harassment and violence in our schools including their national sexual violence programme which is aimed at local secondary schools across Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not require local authorities to record the grounds on which a tenant is evicted when they present as homeless.

Section 11 of the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 requires a landlord to notify the local authority when proceedings for possession are raised but there is no requirement for the local authority to record the grounds when it receives notice.

The Scottish Government’s code of guidance on homelessness recommends that on receiving notification, the local authority should take the most proactive approach possible to prevent homelessness occurring.

Local authorities can collect information on grounds for eviction when a household presents as homeless, especially if they can undertake activity which can prevent homelessness. Local authorities can also amend the section 11 notice to collect this information for their own purposes, in particular for the prevention of homelessness.

The Scottish Stroke Improvement Plan ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/stroke-improvement-plan/ ) outlines the requirements on NHS Boards to ensure they have a trained and competent workforce capable of delivering person-centred, safe and effective stroke care. The required level of education and training for members of staff is dependent upon on whether their contact with people affected by stroke is occasional, regular or in the context of specialist services.

Good governance and regulation is not captured by a single number. We will work with public bodies leaders and other stakeholders in the coming months, to agree the optimal public body landscape for achieving improved outcomes, good governance and regulation. The spending review provides a platform for engagement ahead of the next budget. We do not intend to take the same approach as set out by the UK Government, but we do need to reshape and refocus. We will work together across the public sector to look creatively at reform in order to become more efficient and deliver better outcomes.

The Scottish Government launched a public consultation on the draft physical intervention in schools guidance on 21 June. The draft human rights-based guidance makes clear that restraint and seclusion should only ever be used as a last resort and when in the best interests of the child or young person.

The draft guidance is a result of our 2019 agreement with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland and the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2019 that non-statutory guidance be developed as a first step to improve practice in this area.

The draft guidance has been developed carefully, over time, with extensive input from over thirty working group members and partners, including the Children’s Commissioner, young people, parents, staff, local government and third sector organisations.

The consultation period has been extended to 25 October to allow all those with an interest in this sensitive area, including children and young people, to feedback their views. We will work closely with partners, following final publication, to ensure the guidance is followed.

Details of the membership and notes of the meetings of the physical intervention working group are available on the Scottish Government’s website: Physical Intervention Working Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .