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The Scottish Government expects the outstanding responses by the end of the year.

The Scottish Government has provided a total of £4,367,590.00 of grant funding to the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland between 1 April 2013-30 September 2023 to support a number of areas of their work. This is broken down per financial year as follows:

The reduction in the number of bursaries awarded in 2022-23 compared with 2018 is the result of a decrease in the number of applications received and as a result, less were approved. Information on the number of applications received and bursaries awarded is available in the Skills Development Scotland 2022-23 evaluation report. https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/50367/stem-bursary-evaluation-report-2022-23.pdf .

The Scottish Government has regular meetings with both College Employers Scotland and the representative campus trade unions, where a number of broad workforce issues are discussed.

Given there is no timeframe set out in your question, I have provided a note of all meetings for the 2023 calendar year where pay and industrial relations within the sector was discussed since I have taken up office as Minister for Higher Education and Further Education.

The following working groups sit under the remit of the Education and Skills portfolio:

National Response to Improving Mathematics in Scotland Short Life Working Group

National Response to Improving Literacy in Scotland Short Life Working Group

NIF Statutory Guidance Working group

National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy External Strategic Working Group

Scottish Government Cross-policy Working Group on Transitions

Improvement and Regulation Working Group

Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Working Group

Short Life Working Group on Data Sharing in Relation to Student Sexual Misconduct

Access Data Short-Life Working Group

Short Life Working Group on the Scope of the Accreditation and Regulation Function for the New Qualifications Body

Short Life Working Group on Economic and Social Opportunities for Gaelic

As outlined in my letter of 6 September secure transport is a complex and long-standing issue. Initial discussions have taken place with key partners to consider the registration, regulation and inspection of secure transport provision, most recently on 2 October. Those discussions are on-going and I hope to be able to update Parliament further during the forthcoming stages of consideration of the Children (Care and Justice) Bill.

The Review of Purpose Built Student Accommodation has now concluded. The recommendations formulated by the Review Steering Group have been submitted to Ministers for consideration. A Ministerial response to the recommendations will follow in due course.

Although cyber security matters are reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is determined to do whatever it can within its powers to build Scotland’s cyber resilience and to reduce the impact of cyber incidents.

The Scottish Government works with a range of national partners including Police Scotland, the National Cyber Security Centre, Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland (formerly known as ‘Scottish Business Resilience Centre’), the Digital Office, ScotlandIS, SCVO, Education Scotland and Skills Development Scotland – as part of the CyberScotland Partnership. This partnership aims to manage cyber risks through improving critical security controls across our public, third and private sectors, raising awareness and developing cyber security skills across schools, colleges, universities and the workplace.

The Scottish Government works in partnership with Local Government and Local Employability Partners to offer key worker led, person-centred holistic support. At a local level they work in communities and with partners to deliver employability services to those who are experiencing or are at risk of becoming long term unemployed and this includes people with disabilities or long-term health conditions.

Supported employment including Individual Placement and Support can offer assistance to those requiring intensive and specific help especially those with severe and enduring mental ill health.

These evidence-based models of delivery help people find or re-enter sustainable employment that fits their needs and interests. It offers intensive, individual support, rapid job search followed by placement in paid employment in the open labour market, and time-unlimited in-work support for both the employee and the employer.

We are working with a range of partners, to inform options on development of the Supported Employment offer which is currently delivered through Fair Start Scotland. From 2024 this type of support will be made available through our No One Left Behind approach with the Local Employability Partnerships.

The most recent data from the Scottish Health Survey on sports participation by children aged between 11 and 15 in each of the last five years is detailed in the following table.