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One Parent Families Scotland is a national organisation which works with and on behalf of one parent families, with the aim and purpose to improve the lives of single parents and their families, enabling them to benefit from life’s opportunities and fulfil their potential.

In 2022-23 One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS) received £371,700 in core funding via the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning & Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) third sector fund. The agreed outcomes from this funding were:

• Build Single Parents’ Capacity & Resilience so they will be stronger and more confident in knowing their rights and controlling their lives and supporting their children.
• Single parent families will have improved their standard of living, so reducing child poverty
• OPFS will be a resilient and responsive organisation, ensuring government has an increased understanding of issues affecting single parents, resulting in the development of more effective policies and services for children, young people and their families.
• Single parent families will participate and take an active role in making positive change.

In addition, the Scottish Government allocated £393,096 in 2022-23 to OPFS for welfare and debt advice. This funding included £320,233 for OPFS’s National Advice and Information Service and £72,863 debt levy funding for debt advice. The funding objectives were;

• to provide holistic advice and information on welfare benefits and other issues that affect single parents and their families’ financial inclusion and wellbeing
• to enable single parents to maximise their income
• to increase OPFS capacity to provide debt advice to single parents.

Kindred Advocacy provide independent advocacy, advice, one-to-one support and support groups for families raising children with complex needs. Kindred Advocacy currently supports 800 – 900 families a year. Most of these families are from Edinburgh, the Lothians and Fife, however Kindred Advocacy supports families from across Scotland.

In 2022, Kindred Advocacy received funding through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention Fund and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund (CYPFEI and ALEC).

Kindred Advocacy’s objectives for this funding were:

• Parents will feel less isolated and better able to cope.
• Parents will feel better informed about their child’s diagnosis or medical condition.
• Parents will feel more confident about caring for their child.
• Parents will report that there is less impact on family life of caring for a child with disabilities.

There are a number of overhead microphones in place in the Chamber. These microphones allow the inclusion of ambient noise in broadcast outputs so that coverage can provide a sense of the atmosphere of the Chamber during proceedings. The overhead microphones do not form part of the audio system that has been designed to ensure that Members contributions can be heard with sufficient clarity by those in the Chamber but is used for broadcast and webcast output and for the purposes of producing the Official Report. The design of the audio system in the Chamber also reflects that contributions are made through the Chair and that Members should primarily be facing the Chair while speaking. At this point there are no plans to add additional microphones.

In line with normal processes, transfers of budget are communicated to Parliament through the Autumn and Spring Budget Revisions. The Autumn Budget Revision supporting document was published on 28 September 2023. The Spring Budget Revision will provide further details when it is completed in early 2024.

Autumn Budget Revision 2023-24: Supporting document - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government has not provided direct funding to Clydebank Women’s Aid. However, in 2021 the Scottish Government awarded £2,250,000 of funding, over a three year period, to Scottish Women’s Aid through the 100 Days (Covid emergency) funding. The funding was provided to frontline services for women and girls affected by gender-based violence, to deal with additional pressures that occurred during the pandemic. Scottish Women’s Aid divided the funding amongst local Women’s Aid organisations including Clydebank Women’s Aid.

The main objectives of the 100 days (Covid emergency) funding are to fund additional staff to respond to an increase in demand from victims of abuse for support services; improvements to organisations’ IT and digital resources; and additional training to allow services to be augmented so that more people can quickly and easily access help.

Launched in April 2023, the first public procurement strategy for Scotland articulates a high-level vision and roadmap for Scottish public procurement. A copy of that strategy can be accessed on the Scottish Government’s website at Public procurement strategy: 2023 to 2028 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

There is a multifaceted approach to monitor the effectiveness and impact of procurement policy and practice in Scotland, informing continuous improvement. This approach includes:

• publishing the Scottish Ministers annual report on procurement, evidencing the impact of procurement activity across Scotland
• researching and evaluating evidence to measure and benchmark our impact, to inform opportunities for improvement and to address emerging challenges
• engaging with businesses of all shapes and sizes to underpin our policy development and implementation
• benchmarking our policies and practices domestically and internationally
• regularly reviewing, testing and refreshing our tools and guidance
• taking cognisance of external scrutiny.

It is by focusing on what the evidence is telling us, responding to that evidence, and by working together with public, private and third sector organisations, that we will maximise the impact of public procurement for communities across Scotland.

In line with normal processes, transfers of budget, including those to the Scottish Police Authority, will be communicated to Parliament through the Autumn and Spring Budget Revisions.

Scottish Government guidance is reviewed and updated regularly to ensure that information for the public and organisations/businesses aligns to current policy.

The Scottish Government Marketing Resource Centre is the central repository for stakeholder resources which reflect that no Covid restrictions are now in place. Material for the Stay Well campaign is available via the resource centre from stakeholder toolkits. Any out-of-date resources are removed from circulation. If a stakeholder was to visit the resource centre for relevant materials, they would only have access to valid guidance.

Strategic Environmental Assessments, carried out by NatureScot for beaver translocations in new catchments, have identified where potential beaver habitat overlaps with important infrastructure including railway lines.

Network Rail, who are responsible for rail infrastructure in Scotland, are aware of the reintroduction and translocation of beaver species within Scotland. They have established a working group made up of engineers from different parts of their business which seeks to raise awareness internally of potential issues posed and highlight where beaver activity is already present as well as proposals for where they are going to be introduced. Network Rail are also active in the national Scottish Beaver Advisory Group (SBAG) which has been set up to oversee delivery of Scotland’s Beaver Strategy with NatureScot.

Network Rail’s existing rail infrastructure inspection and maintenance regimes are sufficient to detect any impact on the railway and they can and do respond with detailed assessment on a case specific basis as required. Network Rail have carried out mitigation of beaver activity under licence from NatureScot at a number of locations in Tayside in response to the risk to public safety.

Scotland' Beaver Strategy , published in September 2022, aims to assess the biological, environmental, economic and social implications of beavers. This includes the benefits that beavers can bring alongside mitigating any impacts on other species, habitats, physical processes, land use and wider ecosystem services. We aim to use this knowledge to inform decision making.

NatureScot also operates the Scottish Beaver Mitigation Scheme and keep records of where they have been asked for advice or support with mitigating beaver activity.