Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government recognises that both rurality and disability can create additional barriers to accessing the internet and is, across a number of programmes, addressing these barriers.

The Scottish Government’s Connecting Scotland programme, delivered in partnership with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), supports people in Scotland who are at risk of digital exclusion.

To date, over £389,000 in grant funding has been provided to support digital inclusion projects in Scotland. While being funded by the Scottish Government and supported by SCVO, these initiatives are delivered by local organisations - ensuring they are tailored to the needs of the communities being served.

The most recent data indicate that the majority of funded projects are providing support to disabled people and people affected by ill health.

The Scottish Government’s £600+ million Reaching 100% (R100) programme is providing resilient digital connectivity infrastructure across Scotland, which is required for digital inclusion projects to serve these communities.

To date, over 75,500 faster broadband connections have been delivered by the R100 programme. Over 70% of R100 contractual build is in rural parts of Scotland.

Taking into account the legacy Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme, over one million faster broadband connections have been delivered in Scotland in the last ten years, deploying over £1 billion of publicly driven investment.

The Scottish Government continues to fund Partners in Advocacy with £295,00 per year to deliver the My Rights, My Say, Children’s Service. This service supports children aged 12-15 to access advocacy and legal representation to enable them to be fully involved in decisions about their education and to exercise their rights under the Additional Support for Learning legislation.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all students with a disability, long term medical condition, or additional support need, can access further and higher education and are fully supported throughout their studies. It is for institutions to make decisions on their intake, but they are required under the Equality Act (Scotland) 2010 to provide equal opportunities and prevent discrimination.

No One Left Behind, has a key role to play in meeting our commitment to halving the Disability Employment Gap by 2038. Through a concerted focus on delivering person centred, place-based employability support, there has been significant progress in reaching and supporting disabled people towards and into work since the local delivery model was implemented in 2022. In the most recent quarter July to September 2024 32% of participants accessing the service reported a disability, which is the largest proportion in a single quarter to date, this is an increase of 6 percentage points from April to June 2024. We know there is more to be done to ensure our support remains accessible and meets the needs of disabled people who experience structural barriers to entering and sustaining employment. As set out in the Programme for Government 2024-25, we are introducing Specialist Employability Support for disabled people across Scotland by Summer 2025 underpinned by an uplift in funding of £5 million to Local Employability Partnerships to support delivery. We are building on past investment and engagement with employers across Scotland through an Apt Public Social Partnership to share learning and tools developed to support recruitment and retention of disabled people in employment.

We remain committed to continuously improving our services to ensure disabled people are effectively supported towards and into work, which includes working closely with disabled people and representative organisations to ensure that their voices and experiences help shape and guide policy.

The Scottish Government greatly values Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) across Scotland. We know that many disabled people currently face significant barriers. DPOs support thousands of disabled people across Scotland through programmes which build the confidence, connections and capacity of disabled people.

£5 million of our Equality and Human Rights fund supports Disabled People’s Organisations to tackle inequality and discrimination, furthering equality, and advancing the realisation of human rights in Scotland.

We are also investing an additional £2 million for the Disability Equality Plan and are working closely with DPOs on delivering essential support to Scotland’s disabled people.

The Scottish Government is in the early stages of considering afresh the purpose and potential benefits a unique learner number could bring including the role, if any, of existing reference numbers held on data sources.

It is not yet possible to say if legislation is required.

The most recent Instrumental Music Survey published in January 2025 shows the number of pupils accessing free instrumental music tuition was the highest on record since the survey began in 2012.

Since 2021-22 we have provided dedicated funding to local authorities to support the removal of fees for instrumental music and in 2025-26 we will provide £12m to support this policy.

Local authorities are responsible for delivering education and so it is for individual councils to make choices about levels and means of provision that meet their local circumstances and the needs of pupils. No Council has charged for IMT since 2020-21.

The Scottish Government has been engaging closely with EIS and a range of partners to implement our commitments on instrumental music tuition and will continue to do so.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all students with a disability, long term medical condition or additional support needs are able to access further and higher education and are fully supported throughout their studies.

It is for institutions to make decisions on their intake but they are required under the Equality Act (Scotland) 2010 to provide equal opportunities and prevent discrimination.

It is worth noting that the retention rate for this group of students, which in the last four years has been above the sector average, is currently (in AY 2021-22 into AY 2022-23) 91.8% for FTFD Scottish Domiciled Entrants.

PERSISTENT INEQUALITIES

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are currently working together to enhance the SFC’s leadership and oversight role in tackling persistent inequalities in the tertiary system.

Through this, SFC and EHRC have established a set of National Equality Outcomes (NEOs) for the tertiary education sector through their Persistent Inequalities work. Disability, as a protected characteristic, is included as part of this work, and the following National Equality Outcomes related to disabled students:

• Disabled students report feeling satisfied with the overall support and reasonable adjustments received, including from teaching staff, while on their course.
• Disabled staff and students report feeling safe in the tertiary system.
• Where representation is not proportionate to the relevant population, increase the representation of disabled staff in the workforce and on college Boards and university Courts.

SFC will be reviewing progress made by the sector through the upcoming Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) reports as part of SFC’s Outcome Framework and Assurance Model.

DSA

The Scottish Government (via the Scottish Funding Council and the Student Awards Agency Scotland) provides various funding mechanisms in the form of the Additional Support Needs for Learning Allowance, the Access and Inclusion Fund, and the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA).

This vital support ensures that those with a disability or additional support needs are able to access further and higher education and continue to be well supported throughout their studies.

In 2023-24 the number of full-time students with disabilities or additional support needs who were supported by DSA increased to 5,855. This totals £14.1 million in support, an 18.4% increase.

Data also shows that we now have a record number of students at university with a recorded disability or additional support need (6,765).