Chamber and committees

Scottish Ministers continue to have a positive relationship with the defence industries, and regularly engage with both individual companies and the wider trade associations.

Ministers last engaged with defence industry representatives on 6 March 2024, when I attended Space-Comm Expo at the invitation of ADS Group.

The Chair of the Aerospace and Defence Industry Leadership Group is also a standing member of the Industry Leadership Group (ILG) Chairs’ Roundtable discussions that take place quarterly and was last chaired by the former Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy.

The next ILG Chairs Roundtable discussion is scheduled to take place in early May and will be co-chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy.

The recruitment and promotion of Senior Civil Servants must include a robust selection process. Standards for hiring Senior Civil Servants (SCS) are set by UK Cabinet Office. These include the use of additional forms of assessment including psychological assessment, which have supplemented interviews for SCS for over 10 years. Academic research suggests that interviews alone are a poor predictor of future job performance, and supplementing interviews with other forms of assessments, including psychological, strengthens hiring decisions.

A Prior Information Notice was published on 13 February 2024 to inform the market of our intention to issue an Invitation to Tender for a new assessment contract for Senior Civil Service recruitment and promotion. The Tender is yet to be published and a new contract will be awarded, after all bids are assessed for quality of service and value for money, later in 2024. In the last 12 months, the current provider of psychometric assessments to the Scottish Government assessed 125 candidates for 30 SCS recruitment and promotion campaigns, at a cost of £165,401. This is in line with equivalent Cabinet Office contracts per SCS Campaign.

The Scottish Government budget 2024/25 , published on 19 December 2023 set out that it would make funds available for stroke and thrombectomy services in 2024/25, up to £17.5m. This budget line will be utilised to further develop the national thrombectomy service and support delivery of the Stroke Improvement Plan and wider development of stroke policy.

The Scottish Government remain fully committed to the Verity House Agreement. Since the signing of the Verity House Agreement in June last year good progress has been made, and there are a number of positive examples of collaborative working between central and local government.

The Scottish Government is committed to an open and regular dialogue with Local government and are willing to meet at any time when any matters of concern arise. The level of engagement between our two spheres of government has never been so high.

The Scottish Government and COSLA meet regularly through a number of different forums under the Verity House Agreement to discuss progress towards our three shared priorities.

The information requested is not held centrally .

The Scottish Government does not provide direct funding to Inclusion Glasgow.

Government does not fund North East Edinburgh Counselling Service directly from its mental health programme budget, therefore no objectives have been set.

The Scottish Government has provided funding to Angus Independent Advocacy since 2020, as one of the providers of the statutory children's advocacy scheme for children's hearings. The objectives of the funding are to develop, deliver and promote children's advocacy services to ensure those services are accessible to all children and young people who may have a Children’s Hearing. These objectives have been adjusted over the years since 2020.

The key objectives, as set out in the current grant letter 2023-24 are:

• Children's advocacy will be offered and, where accepted, provided at the earliest possible point.
• The rights and views of children and young people who come into contact with the Children’s Hearings System, or who are placed in residential children's care from another part of the UK under a Court authorised Deprivation of Liberty Order (DOL) in Scotland, will be taken into account in decision making by supporting children and young people to participate in decisions that affect their lives.
• High quality independent advocacy services will be promoted and provided to children and young people, to support them to exercise their rights to be heard and participate within their Hearings. Children and young people affected by DOL placements will be supported to understand their rights and engage in discussions to provide their views to the residential provider.
• Children and young people will be supported by children's advocacy workers who will be appropriately skilled and qualified, and supported through training and Continuous Professional Development.
• Continually informed developments and improvements of the provision to meet children and young people's advocacy needs and empowering children who need a stronger voice by enabling them to express their own needs and make their own decisions.
• Take steps to promote, respect, protect and fulfil the rights of children and young people and increase awareness of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) amongst staff and stakeholders.
• Will be expected to give regard to the Fair Work Framework.

Objectives in 2019-20 and 2020-21:

• To complete preparation work and activities to allow the organisation to deliver Children’s Advocacy services as part of the Scottish Government’s implementation of section 122 of the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011, in a manner which gives cognisance to the: Scottish Government’s Advocacy Guidance; and National Practice Model for Advocacy in the Children’s Hearings System.

Objectives in 2021-22:

• The organisation will support the Scottish Government with the development, delivery and promotion of the national children’s advocacy in children’s hearings scheme as part of the implementation of section 122 of the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 and The Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Children’s Advocacy Services) Regulations 2020, in a manner which gives cognisance to the: Scottish Government’s Children’s Advocacy Guidance (published in 2014), and National Practice Model for Advocacy in the Children’s Hearings System (published in March 2020).
• The organisation will promote high quality independent advocacy services to children and young people, to support them to exercise their rights to be heard within their Hearings and contributing to the recovery of children’s hearings from Covid-19 impacts towards stable service.
• The organisation will promote high quality independent advocacy services to brothers and sisters, to support them to exercise their rights to participate in the Hearings of their siblings on staying together/contact arrangements as introduced by section 25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 and related changes in Regulations made under section 177 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2011.
• The organisation will take steps to promote, respect, protect and fulfil the rights of children and young people and increase awareness of the UNCRC amongst staff and stakeholders. You will promote the UNCRC throughout the creation and development of the project, and related policies and procedures in relation to this funding.
• The organisation will support planning and future implementation of The Promise by improving experiences and outcomes for care experienced children and young people.

In 2022-23, the objectives repeated those applicable in 2021-22, with this addition:

• The organisation will promote high quality independent advocacy services to children and young people in cross-border DOL order placements. The advocacy offer, as detailed in the National Practice Model for Advocacy in the Children’s Hearings System, will be intended to support affected children to understand their rights (within Scotland’s laws) and provide their views to the residential provider - as to how their in-placement experience aligns with their child’s plan and how their welfare is being protected. This will be done in liaison with the child’s appointed guardian/advocacy organisation in the placing/implementing authority, in line with the welfare analysis submitted to the High Court when the placing authority first applied for the DOL order.
• In 2020-21, Angus Independent Advocacy also received expedited grant funding allocated under the Winter Plan for Social Protection Children's Hearings Recovery Project. This was to support greater safety in participation, and digital capacity for advocacy - to manage the impact of coronavirus on children referred to the Children's Hearings System. This was to support system recovery and meet the changing needs for children and young people to be able to participate in their children's hearings. It extended to, for example, personal digital devices that would both allow them to engage with advocacy but also assist with home schooling as required.