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As part of Education Scotland’s Anti-Racism Mentors project, selected alumni from the Building Racial Literacy programme are working to take forward anti-racist action at local and national levels, with some of their activities exploring models of parental engagement.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30894 on 11 November 2024. 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 Scottish Government’s Anti-Racism in Education Programme continues to consider the best ways in which the voices of young people, particularly those with lived experience, are centred within the programme. Since 2021, we have provided funding to a range of young people’s organisations, including Intercultural Youth Scotland, Show Racism the Red Card, the Scottish Youth Parliament and the Children’s Parliament, to participate in discussions and support the development of all of our resources, guidance and professional learning.

We expect schools and local authorities to record all incidents of bullying and violence in schools.

In 2019 we introduced a consistent national approach to recording and monitoring bullying incidents in schools. HMIe carried out a thematic review of approaches to recording and monitoring incidents of bullying in schools and published its report in February 2023.

As part of its response to this review, the Scottish Government established a working group to review Respect for All, its national anti-bullying guidance as well as the supplementary guidance on recording and monitoring bullying incidents. The updated guidance will be published in November 2024.

The Graduate Apprenticeship Enhancement Group was established in spring 2024 to make recommendations on the development of future policy and a delivery model for GAs in line with Scotland’s economic growth opportunities, skills need, and the wider reform of the post-16 education landscape. The Group's membership includes the Scottish Funding Council, Skills Development Scotland, Colleges Scotland, Universities Scotland, and representation from businesses.

The Group’s work is evidence and data informed and is taken forward through workstreams. It will include engagement with employers and their industry representatives, public sector partners and apprentices. The Group anticipates completing its work over the winter.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

HMP Glasgow will have a design capacity of 1,344 prisoner places which includes 120 cells designed to accommodate two people.

The Digitisation of records is an operational responsibility of individual Health Boards and GP practices. At a national level and building on the existing use of electronic patient record systems, we are focussed on allowing medical records, including cancer, to be stored, linked, and shared securely. This will support our ambition set out in the 2021 Digital Health & Care Strategy 2021 Strategy - Digital Healthcare Scotland % (digihealthcare.scot) to make the right information available to all appropriate staff, when and where it is needed.

The Scottish Government has provided funding to Connect for this financial year to establish and host the Scottish Assembly of Parents and Carers. This new model will enhance the diversity of parental voices to help inform policy and provide advice and challenge as we drive forward reform of our education system.

Additionally, our Anti-Racism in Education Programme (AREP) brings together education bodies and organisations and individuals with anti-racist expertise and lived experience. The AREP contains a number of ambitions which seek to support teachers, school staff and leaders at all levels in the education sector to embed antiracist approaches.

In 2022, the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) was published. recommendation-36-strategy-for-improving-rest-and-welfare-facilities-for-hauliers.pdf (transport.gov.scot) includes a detailed national audit and review of support for lorry parks. This would include consultation with the freight industry, representative bodies, local authorities, and other stakeholders to collect views on the provision of lorry parks including where and what type of facilities are required. The audit will indicate which routes have gaps in provision and support Transport Scotland in making future decisions on the need (or otherwise) to address market failure.

Development of the STPR2 Delivery Plan is currently underway. This is a complex piece of work, with consultation ongoing across the Scottish Government, including with Statutory Bodies and Exchequer officials. Once this exercise is complete we will be able to advise with more certainty on the potential implementation of and the associated timelines of the proposed audit.

To address inactivity, it is essential to support those who are currently inactive – not in paid work and not actively looking for work – through employability and other interventions that seek to support a return to the labour market, and also provide preventative in-work support, for instance through occupational health services and retraining/upskilling, which reduces the likelihood of people becoming economically inactive.

No One Left Behind is our shared approach to delivering an all-age, place-based, person-centred model of employability support in Scotland. Our Employability Strategic Plan, published in September, sets out our vision to deliver an employability system that tackles inequalities in Scotland’s labour market, creating a responsive and aligned approach that helps people of all ages who face the greatest barriers to progress towards, into and to sustain work.

Drivers of inactivity are diverse, with evidence indicating a rise in physical and mental health conditions in all inactive people in recent years. Our Programme for Government commits to support those already in work, help more people back into work by improving access to health and work services by April 2025 and introducing enhanced specialist support for disabled people across all 32 local authorities by Summer 2025. The Programme for Government also ensures access to funded early learning and childcare, demand-led employability support to parents and carers, and improves careers support for carers.

We are also considering what additional actions can be taken across employability, health and local service delivery through the development of a health and work action plan, in partnership with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and employers.

The last meeting of the DESG was held on 31 October 2024. Although officials from the Scottish Government are invited to attend meetings of the group, the Digital Economy Skills Group is organised by Skills Development Scotland. A request for the number of meetings held since the start of 2023 should be directed to Skills Development Scotland.