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The Teachers’ Pension arrangement in Scotland comprises of two schemes. The Scottish Teachers’ Superannuation Scheme (STSS) which is the legacy scheme and which closed to all members on 31 March 2022, and the reformed Scottish Teachers’ Pension Scheme 2015 (STPS).

The STSS is a final salary scheme and has a normal pension age (NPA) of 60 for members who joined prior to 1 April 2007 and a NPA of 65 for members who joined on or after 1 April 2007. For members with a NPA of 60, the accrual rate is 1/80 th of the members final salary for every year of pensionable service, there is also an automatic tax-free lump sum payable of 3/80ths. For those with a NPA of 65, the accrual rate is 1/60 th and there is no automatic lump sum. However, members have the option to give up pension for a tax-free lump sum at retirement.

In the STPS, benefits accrue on a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) basis and NPA is linked to State Pension Age. The accrual rate is 1/57 th of the member’s pensionable earnings each year. There is no automatic lump sum but members have the option to give up pension for a tax-free lump sum at retirement.

The pension benefits structure in the STPS is broadly comparable with the main UK public service pension schemes which are all based on Career Average Revalued Earnings. Apart from the uniformed public services, all schemes have a normal pension age linked to State Pension age. `

The Scottish Teachers’ Pension Scheme (STPS) provides teachers in Scotland with a Defined Benefit pension scheme which offers the security of a guaranteed inflation proofed income in every year of retirement which is paid in addition to the State Pension. Teachers are automatically enrolled into the scheme and begin accruing pension immediately upon taking up teaching employment which supports pension saving throughout their careers.

The latest Scottish Teachers’ Pension Scheme Annual Report and Accounts show that the average annual pension in payment from the Scheme as at 31 March 2023 was £13,842. In addition, the accounts show that lump sums totalling £133.5 million were paid to 2,723 new retirees in 2022-23, an average lump sum of £49,063.

Grants to organisations for people with care experience by age

The death of any child or young person is a tragedy. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that the death of any looked after child or young person is accurately reported on and reviewed to improve services and ensure that children and young people are receiving the best care possible.

In February of this year, the Scottish Government published revised guidance on Regulation 6 of The Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 (legislation.gov.uk) . The revised guidance clarifies that it is the responsibility of local authorities to notify Scottish Ministers when there has been a death of a looked after child or young person. This includes the provision of information such as the cause of death, DOB and the legal status of a child or young person that has died. This information is not published by the Scottish Government but is shared with Scottish Ministers who have powers to request further information if it is required.

Additionally, a National Hub was established in October 2021 to review and learn from the deaths of all live born children and young people in Scotland up to the date of their 18th birthday, or 26th birthday for care leavers who are in receipt of aftercare or continuing care at the time of their death. The National Hub review each death is reviewed and an overall annual report is produced.

The National Hub is managed by Health Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate and published its first annual data overview report, covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, on 19 March 2024.

The Scottish Government remains committed to meeting this ambition by 2030 and continues to explore how we can enable a transformational change in the delivery of preventative whole family support and how we can take a cross portfolio approach to supporting work on prevention. In addition, we are currently preparing a Whole Family Wellbeing investment approach on supporting the provision of preventative, holistic family support.

The scope and purpose of the data collections associated with the children’s social work and homelessness statistics are very different. Additionally, this means that the sources cover different periods of the lives of care experienced children and young people.

The looked after children data collection (which is used for the Children’s Social Work statistics) relates to all children and young people who are in the care of their local authority. It includes information on placement type and care plans of children who are looked after.

The HL1 homelessness data collection (which is used for both the Homelessness in Scotland and youth homelessness statistics) relates to all households making an application to a local authority for homelessness support. This includes information on whether any adult member, aged under 25, of a household making a homelessness application was looked after as a child by their local authority.

Looked after status captured within HL1 will largely be self-reported by applicant households. Applicants can choose whether to answer the question. It should also be noted that it is not necessarily the case that the looked after status of all adults aged under 25 in the household will be known.

The Homelessness in Scotland series publishes data on former looked after status of households assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness. The youth homelessness workbook presents the former looked after status for households specifically with a main applicant aged under 25.

The HL1 data collection also captures information on the outcome of the application, and circumstances related to the application (such as reason for homelessness, property homeless from etc.). It can also be linked to the HL3 (temporary accommodation placement) dataset. Due to the small number of homeless households with a former looked after status (less than 1,100 in a year), further breakdowns are not published routinely.

The Scottish Government recognises that childcare costs continue to be a challenge for many parents and carers. That is why the Programme for Government set out ambitious commitments to expand access to childcare as part of our mission to tackle child poverty.

However, I would note that Scotland already has the most generous offer in the UK. We are the only part of the UK to offer 1,140 hours a year of funded early learning and childcare to all 3- and 4-year-olds, and eligible 2-year-olds, regardless of their parents’ working status, putting children first. If families paid for this themselves, it would cost them more than £5,500 per eligible child per year.

The Scottish Government Homelessness in Scotland statistics are based on data collected from all local authorities, on households that have made a homelessness application to a local authority.

This data collection includes information on whether any adult member, aged under 25, of a household making a homelessness application to a local authority was looked after as a child by their local authority.

The data provided on looked after status will largely be self-reported by applicant households. Applicants can choose whether to answer the question, or they may not know if any other adults aged under 25 in the household have previously been looked after.

Restraint and seclusion should only ever be used as a last resort to prevent the risk of injury. Under existing guidance , all local authorities are asked to have policies in place governing the use of these practices and are asked to monitor their use.

As part of their scrutiny and improvement roles in schools, Education Scotland inspectors consider the impact of practice in relation to the use of physical intervention for children and young people. Where they have concerns about the safety and wellbeing of children and young people, inspectors would follow local child protection procedures and consider onward referrals to social work or the police.

The Scottish Government is developing new human-rights based guidance on the use of physical intervention in schools, including the practices of restraint and seclusion. We are due to publish the consultation analysis report on our draft physical intervention in schools guidance very shortly. We will then reconvene the physical intervention working group to make final revisions to the guidance.

Progress with this work can be followed via the working group’s webpage .