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The proposals contained in the National Care Service consultation paper are based on the findings of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care (IRASC), which engaged extensively with people and organisations who have lived experience of using social care, including unpaid carers as well as trade unions, providers in the third sector and charitable organisations, and staff from local authorities. The IRASC met with over 1,000 people in total.

Prior to the election, Scottish Government and COSLA published a Joint Statement of Intent outlining how we would work together to deliver a number of areas in the IRASC. This covered topics including fair work, non-residential charging, overhaul of eligibility criteria and support for unpaid carers. There has been ongoing engagement with COSLA to take forward the Joint Statement.

We regularly meet and engage with stakeholders and partners, including trade unions, carers organisations, third sector organisations and professional bodies as part of our work to improve social care. A programme of formal engagement with relevant stakeholders is taking place during the consultation period, and engagement will continue after the consultation has closed.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02179 on
‎ 1 September 2021. 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 COVID-19 pandemic has presented and continues to present unprecedented challenges for businesses across Scotland. Uncertainty in the labour market has led to many employers delaying and pausing recruitment decisions, which is impacting on apprenticeship starts.

Prior to the pandemic, we consistently exceeded annual Apprenticeship targets and were on track to meet our target of 30,000 Modern and Graduate Apprenticeships starts by 2020-21.

The Scottish Government will continue to work collaboratively with Skills Development Scotland to maximise apprentice uptake. As set out in our manifesto, we will build back up to 30,000 starts and assess demand to see how much further we can go, supporting the long-term future of work-based learning and our economy.

Official statistics published by Skills Development Scotland on 10 August 2021 show a positive increase in Modern Apprenticeship (MA) starts compared to the same time last year. There were 3,402 Modern Apprenticeship starts from 01 April to end of June this year – 3.7 times the number of MA starts at the same time last year. MA starts this quarter are still 21.5% lower than pre-pandemic levels in Q1 2019-20, reflecting continuing challenges from COVID-19 as many employers make difficult business decisions.

Scottish Government collaborates with a range of partners to ensure that schools have the information, advice and support to engage with both COP26 specifically, and climate change issues and climate change education more broadly.

Education Scotland, as the national inspection and improvement agency for education, is taking steps to help schools to engage with the themes of the COP26 summit, and to consider how and in what ways they could further improve their approach to climate education and Learning for Sustainability (LfS) at school level.

Highlights and resources include the following:

'Countdown to COP' will be an online initiative aimed at early years and primary to support engagement with COP26 and its five themes (nature, energy transition, finance, clean transport, adaptation and resilience). Countdown to COP will begin on 13 September and run to 29 October, although resources are not time-sensitive and can therefore be used beyond these dates. Countdown to COP will be promoted through Education Scotland's communications channels and its Local Authorities Network.

Scotland's Assembly , delivered by Education Scotland in partnership with the e-Sgoil initiative and available via the Glow system, will be focusing on COP and hearing from people working in the thematic areas across Scotland.

Education Scotland is working closely with Sustainability Partnerships (a teacher group based in Edinburgh and the Lothians) to develop a template resource pack that can be used by schools, education authorities and others to run their own COP26-style summits both locally and regionally.

The Learning for Sustainability Awards 2021 are being held in partnership with The Daily Record and will help to gather good practice examples of Learning for Sustainability across Scotland. Award categories are: Youth; Practitioner; Leadership; Learning Community; Educational Supporter; and Community Learning and Development.

Local authorities, funded by Scottish Government, also provide a key role in providing their own information resources to schools. A COP26/Learning for Sustainability Local Authority Forum is being run by Education Scotland and enables all 32 local authorities to share and plan activity around COP26 and Learning for Sustainability. Members of this forum are also planning a professional learning programme for post-COP26. One example of information and education resources and activities provided via local authorities is Glasgow City Council's 'Our Dear Green Place' initiative, launched on 12 May 2021. The local authority has put in place a range of resources to ensure access and engagement with both COP26 and Our Dear Green Place resources and professional learning. The resources will be continually updated as practitioner and partner engagement progresses.

An Education Scotland COP26 Partner Forum (jointly chaired with YouthLink Scotland) is providing a means for more than 50 Third Sector partners to co-ordinate their various offers for young people leading up to, during and post-COP26. Partner resources and offers are being shared with schools through a 'Wakelet'.

In addition to the above, Scottish Government funds Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) to provide the Eco-Schools and Climate Ready Classrooms programmes. As part of the lead up to COP26 KSB will be offering three new interactive teaching and training sessions: a week of workshops for upper primary classes; a Continuing Professional Development session for primary and secondary educators; and a climate action workshop for high school pupils and Eco-Committees.

The exact information is not available, as National Records of Scotland only began collecting this data from 2017 onwards. The latest report, ‘Deaths of People Experiencing Homelessness in Scotland’, can be found here: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/homeless-deaths/19/homeless-deaths-19-report.pdf .

Please note that these are experimental statistics and remain under development. Users should refer to the limitations section of each report before interpreting these statistics.

Earlier reports can be found here: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/deaths/homeless-deaths/2017-and-2018 .

Supplementary data tables can be found here: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/homeless-deaths/19/homeless-deaths-19-data.xlsx .

Homeless Deaths 2017 and 2018 | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk) .

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of antisocial behaviour cases reported since 1999.

Since its formation as a national force in 2013/14, Police Scotland publish information on the number of publicly reported antisocial behaviour incidents. This is provided in the table below though should be interpreted with some caution as it is drawn from a live operational database, and not produced as Official Statistics. As the Highlands & Islands division was not added to Police Scotland’s National Command and Control system until 2018/19, data for this year onwards is not comparable with preceding years. Furthermore Police Scotland have noted that the reported increase in 2020-21 is mainly due to the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic, with a rise in complaints and neighbour disputes relating to potential breaches of Covid-19 restrictions.

As not all antisocial behaviour is reported to the police, measuring change over time is best done using population-based statistics. The Scottish Crime & Justice Survey shows the proportion of adults who feel people behave in an antisocial manner in their area has fallen from 46% in 2008-09 to 33% in 2019-20 (with no change identified between 2018-19 and 2019-20).

Trading Standards Officers are employed by Scotland’s local authorities. Local authorities are independent corporate bodies, responsible for the management of their workforce. The outcome and response to the findings of the SCOTSS survey is therefore a matter for councils and their national body, COSLA. However, in recognition of the sustainability challenges facing the service, we understand that SCOTSS and COSLA continue to engage on developing a workforce strategy for the future.

The following table contains details of instances over the last five financial years where the Scottish Government has waived the Right to Recover Housing Association Grant on previously grant funded projects and where the grant was not recycled within the Affordable Housing Supply Programme.

This Government has a strong track record in encouraging and supporting more and new people into crofting. In 2019-20 there were over 830 new entrants into crofting - 44% were women, and 32% were under 40 years of age. We have now appointed the islands-based Crofting Development Officers who will work with crofting communities and strengthen links between the Commission and the communities it serves, building constructive local relations and a greater understanding of the Commission’s role within the crofting community.

The Commission has also expanded its Residency and Land Use Team, to enable it to increase its work in addressing absenteeism and bringing crofts back into productive use. We will monitor this activity closely and consider what more might need to be done in this regard during the lifetime of this Parliament.

The Scottish Government has not and does not plan to hold any discussions with the Scottish Funding Council on this matter unless approached or asked for support by our partners in local government. Scottish Ministers routinely engage with COSLA which provides an opportunity for areas of concern for local government to be raised.

Trading Standards Officers are employed by Scotland’s local authorities and it is therefore a matter for them, as independent corporate bodies with responsibility for the management of their workforce, to ensure that there is sufficient capacity to meet their future needs and requirements.