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The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring all young people in Scotland are equipped with the skills they need for life and work in an increasingly globalised world.

We have been pursuing an ambitious ‘1+2 languages’ policy to improve language learning in schools, which aims to provide all pupils with the entitlement to learn two additional languages during the broad general education from P1 to the end of S3.

Since 2013, we have supported implementation of this policy with £33.2 million in additional funding to local authorities, and £10.8 million to key delivery partners. This has been used to support teachers’ professional learning, and to promote language learning to young people and their parents.

Our evidence shows the full entitlement to learning a first additional language from P1 to S3 as part of the 1+2 policy is now being provided by 88% of primary schools and 70% of secondary schools, meaning more young people are learning languages than ever before.

The provision of interpreter support is a matter for local health boards. In addition, at a Scotland level, NHS Scotland provides a Scottish Mental Health Service for Deaf People ( https://services.nhslothian.scot/mhdeafservice/Pages/default.aspx) which is staffed by people who sign and are able to communicate directly with BSL signers and deaf people.

The Scottish Government expects mental health services to be accessible to all citizens in Scotland, regardless of circumstances of individual service users, including any disability they may have.

The respiratory group is the one with the greatest number of people placed on the COVID-19 shielding list. A full breakdown of the shielding cohort by shielding group is as follows.

The following table provides the number of individuals on the shielding list by group (as at 10 June 2020)

The Transitional Support Fund for day care of children providers was open for applications between 3 September and 9 October 2020.

2,027 applications were made to the Transitional Support Fund over this period. Local authorities are continuing to process grant application forms.

The Transitional Support Fund is delivered under the UK COVID-19 Temporary Framework Umbrella Scheme rules. As part of this process, each month each individual award given under the Funding Programme must be reported on the EU Commission’s Transparency Awards Module. The first monthly report, covering the period to 2 October 2020, showed that 984 grants had been awarded. Local authorities will provide their next monthly update on grant awards issued through the Fund by 30 October.

The Seasonal Flu Programme has worked this year with the following third sector organisations to help amplify the Scottish Government message to ensure optimal vaccination uptake this year.

This is a time of unprecedented challenge, and there are significant demands and pressures on the government to support businesses and people all across Scotland who are being impacted by the pandemic and the necessary public health response.

A range of financial support has been open to childminders including the UK Government’s Self Employed Income Support Scheme and the Scottish Government’s Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund.

The UK Government announced on 24 September that the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme is being extended further. The extension will provide two grants and will last for six months from November 2020 to April 2021.

However, the Scottish Government is aware that not all childminders have been able to access support through these routes.

That is why in September the Scottish Government announced an additional £390,000 to extend the Childminding Workforce Support Fund, increasing the government’s support for this to £420,000. The Fund will reopen for applications on 15 October and childminders can apply for a grant through the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA) web site.

The Scottish Government is working in collaboration with the SCMA and others, to develop and frame our commitment to supporting childminders with targeted activity in the short, medium and long term.

The current landscape remains highly changeable and the Scottish Government continues to work with the whole childcare sector to help us be responsive, when we can, to the continued pressures faced while progressing the recovery. However, this must also be balanced against the finite resources available and the competing pressures across many sectors.

We welcome the information that the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA) has shared from their recent survey of childminders, and I discussed the findings during my call with the SCMA on 1 October.

The development of support for the childcare sector announced in recent months, including the Transitional Support Fund for day care of children providers and the extension of the Childminding Workforce Support Fund, was informed by the evidence available at the time. In particular from a survey conducted by the Scottish Government in June 2020 which highlighted the significant financial implications from the guidance for day care of children settings. The key findings from this survey are available on the Scottish Government web site at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/survey-of-childcare-providers-on-impact-of-reopening-guidance-summary/ .

In contrast, childminders are subject to separate guidance under which the vast majority of childminders should not have to considerably change their operating models and can operate close to business as usual in terms of delivery.

For example, the majority of childminders responding to the survey (65%) indicated that they expected no change, or a decrease, in their costs of delivery as a result of the public health guidance. In contrast 79% of day care of children respondents reported that they expected an increase in their costs compared to business as usual.

As acknowledged by the SCMA in their COVID-19: Financial Support for Childminding Briefing Paper, published on 25 September, the findings for childminders were “broadly comparable” to a separate survey of childminders that they ran in late June.

However, in light of evidence regarding the numbers of childminders who may have struggled to access support through other routes the Scottish Government made the decision to provide a substantial increase in funding to extend the Childminding Workforce Support Fund. We have provided an additional £390,000 for the Childminding Workforce Support Fund, increasing our support to £420,000. The Fund will reopen for applications on 15 October and childminders can apply for a grant through the Scottish Childminding Association web site.

The Scottish Government remains committed to working with the whole childcare sector to respond to the continued need to follow public health guidance while progressing the recovery. However, this is a time of unprecedented challenge, and there are significant demands and pressures on the government to support businesses and people all across Scotland who are being impacted by the pandemic and the necessary public health response.

Our work with education authorities is still underway to assess the resource implications of increasing funded early learning and childcare (ELC) eligibility for children in a deferred year.

The Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to the delivery of 1140 hours of funded ELC for all eligible children, and will work with Local Authorities to ensure that the arrangements agreed for deferral will not negatively affect the delivery of 1140.

We are working with local authorities to agree an appropriate date for the implementation of this commitment. I will update Parliament on that agreement when it has been reached.

Once the amended duty is in force, it will provide that deferred children who turn five years old between the August and December after the school commencement date, are eligible for funded early learning and childcare in the deferred year.

This will entitle these children to the mandatory amount of early learning and childcare that education authorities must provide to eligible children in their area, as set out in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (“the 2014 Act”). Section 48 of the 2014 Act currently provides that the mandatory amount of funded early learning and childcare is 600 hours in each year and a pro-rata amount for each part of a year of which a child is eligible.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the reinstatement of the statutory duty to provide 1140 hours as early as reasonably possible. The Joint Delivery Board, co-chaired by myself and Councillor Stephen McCabe, COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, agreed in June that a decision would be taken by the end of 2020 on the appropriate time to reinstate that duty. We are working with colleagues in Local Government to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on expansion plans, to inform that decision.

As I set out to the Scottish Parliament on 2 October 2019, we are taking forward this change to early learning and childcare provision in partnership with education authorities, who hold the statutory duty to ensure provision of funded early learning and childcare.

Our work with education authorities is still underway to assess the resource implications and agree the implementation approach. I will update Parliament on that agreement when it has been reached.