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The Scottish Government does not hold official data on the unregistered workforce. However we do know that there were at least 4,869 Personal Assistants (PA’s) providing social care support to adults who were in receipt of either Self-directed support option 1 or from Independent Living Fund Scotland in 2021.

This data was captured from those Personal Assistants who applied for the Scottish Government Covid-19 thankyou payment which can be found here PA Programme Board Resources - Self Directed Support Scotland | Self Directed Support Scotland (sdsscotland.org.uk) .

A PA Programme Board was established in 2021 with a membership from the public, third sector and organisation’s representing disabilities. A co-produced Work Plan was developed which includes objectives to understand, grow and support the PA workforce including developing better research of this little known workforce.

The Personal Assistant workforce are employed by the person with social care needs or their family. The employer may also use funding from a variety of public sources as well as self-funding, as such there is no locus for SG to mandate the collection of this data. However, there will be an option to count all those non family member PAs from 2024 onwards as this workforce must be PVG checked from that date.

There has been a successful application for a PHD funded by the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science. This position will start in October and will research PA assistance for disabled people, changing labour markets and social care reform. The PA Programme Board will be a collaborative partner with Glasgow University.

Veterans’ specific welfare support is a matter centrally supported by UK Government policy and delivered by Veterans UK and the Veterans Welfare Service (VWS) , part of Ministry of Defence (MOD). The UK-wide service works with local authorities, voluntary organisations, service charities and the Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committees .

The Scottish Government’s Benefit Take-up Stakeholder Reference Group works with a range of specific seldom-heard groups, including veterans’ groups, to better understand and address non-take-up among particular populations and to maximise incomes. In the current year (2022-23) we have allocated over £12.5 million to support the provision of free income maximisation, welfare and debt advice.

The Scottish Government has designed the application guidance for Scottish Government benefits to provide comprehensive information on entitlement. Similarly, signposting is included to refer clients to the relevant agencies for reserved benefits where appropriate. Adult Disability Payment launched in August last year. The application form asks clients about their possible entitlement to Armed Forces Independence Payment, War Pensioners’ Mobility Supplement and War Pension Constant Attendance Allowance. Where appropriate, clients are then directed to Veterans UK for further advice. We have also worked with Veterans UK to develop an information sharing process between the organisation and Social Security Scotland. This is intended to ensure that veterans can efficiently access the support to which they are entitled.

Scotland has some of the strongest homelessness legislation in the world and all local authorities have a legal duty to provide support to anyone at risk of homelessness, including veterans.

Preventing homelessness from happening in the first place is the best and most effective way to end homelessness. That is why, we commissioned the Veterans Scotland Housing Group to develop specific strategies to prevent homelessness for veterans. Their report was published in January 2022. We have accepted the 24 recommendations in principle and are engaging with partners on next steps.

Additionally, we continue to support the charity Housing Options Scotland to provide its Military Matters project, helping veterans and serving members of the Armed Forces to find the right home in the right place. The Scottish Government website also hosts a guide containing housing in Scotland information and contacts of organisations who may be able to help veterans obtain housing suitable for their needs.

The Workforce Development Group is newly established and had its first meeting on 29 November 2022. The group will meet bi-monthly with the next meeting scheduled for 30 January 2023.

The National Induction Framework was created as a resource for providers and staff as a good practice example. It was developed in conjunction with the sector, to enhance and support an employer’s own induction processes. It should complement existing induction processes but it is not mandatory. The framework has been widely promoted to the sector by stakeholders to encourage its use.

Scottish Water does not maintain information by parliamentary region or by local authority, however was able to extract leakage data for the equivalent area which is a close match to the South Scotland parliamentary region. A copy of the table which provides total leakage volumes in Mega litres per day for each of the months since April 2016 is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib Number 63968).

The Fair Work in Social Care Group organised itself into four workstreams on Pay; Terms and Conditions; Effective Voice; and Sectoral Bargaining. The workstreams meet 1-2 times per month, most recently on 17 January 2023.

The Fair Work in Social Care Group is now overseen by a Joint Ministerial Group, co-chaired by myself and COSLA Health and Social Care Spokesperson. The Joint Ministerial Group met on 3 November 2022 and is scheduled to meet again in February 2023.

No One Left behind and Fair Start Scotland are integral parts of the employability support landscape in Scotland and aim to support individuals, including veterans and their partners, to overcome barriers through person-centred tailored support, enabling them to access and sustain fair employment.

No One Left Behind supports those transitioning out of military service, to deliver local place based approach to facilitate easier alignment of employability support with existing local level support services including housing, health, justice and advice services to ensure that individuals can access the holistic packages of support that they need to move towards, into and to sustain employment.

Fair Start Scotland, our national employment support service, offers 12 to 18 months of tailored, person-centred pre-employment support, along with up to 12 months of in-work support available for individuals and their employers. Support includes access to workshops and guidance utilising the transferrable skills that people leave military services with.

In addition, The Veterans Employability Strategic Group brings together members from the UK and Scottish Government, agencies, Local Authority employability representatives, third sector organisations supporting veterans and employers with a specific aim to work together to enable smoother transition for those leaving military service and settling in Scotland. The need to ensure smoother transitions has been a focus of successive Scottish Veterans Commissioners and thus a priority for the Scottish Government and its agencies.

Greater partnership working between UK , Scottish and regional local partners has led to greater collaboration. For example, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) works closely with colleagues in the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) who are the Ministry of Defence’s official resettlement provider and are responsible for delivering the career and employment support as part of the transition from military service.

They have a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Defence, and CTP colleagues are aware of SDS as a referral route for clients requiring impartial career guidance. SDS Veterans leads have also delivered sessions to SDS colleagues and armed forces champions that inform colleagues of the CTP offer and the support available to service leavers from CTP for up to 2 years post discharge.

Early intervention in psychosis (EIP) and improving services and support for people experiencing a first instance of psychosis in Scotland, are key priority areas for the Scottish Government, as set out in the Early Intervention In Psychosis Action Plan 2019, Mental Health Strategy 2017 to 2027 and the Coronavirus (COVID-19): Mental Health - Transition and Recovery Plan 2020.

To deliver this improvement we commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to undertake a national needs assessment for EIP services across all 14 health boards which was published in March 2021. This assessment outlines the specific needs of communities across Scotland when considering the delivery of improved EIP services. The assessment report and recommendations from this work can be accessed here: https://ihub.scot/media/8111/20210316-eip-report-v21.pdf

In April 2021 we began work with Healthcare Improvement Scotland to deliver a second phase of EIP improvement, which is ongoing. This work builds on the national needs assessment and is focused on piloting models of service delivery which take account of the needs of different communities across Scotland.

Scottish Water does not maintain this information by parliamentary region and is only able to provide information for the closest equivalent operational area (South Region Water Operational Area). The following figures include both leaks reported by customers as well as those identified separately by Scottish Water as part of their active leakage management. This data is only readily available from 2016-17 financial year.