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Planet Youth is a long term, upstream preventative approach and as such we would not yet expect to see a reduction in the substance use. The purpose of the pilot, which only started last year, is to build capacity in local communities to allow them to better use and understand data directly from their young people. There is significant evidence from Iceland that the approach works to reduce the number of young people engaging in health harming behaviours, and in increasing the age of first use. The pilot should allow us to ascertain the challenges and opportunities in transferring this model to Scotland, thanks to the 6 local areas who are pioneering the approach. There is an ongoing learning evaluation which will be published after the pilot ends in March 2025. Preliminary findings indicate there has been progress so far both in terms of taking a whole systems approach and at a community level. We are also seeing increasing interest in investing in prevention at a national and local level. It is clear from the numbers that pre-existing campaigns on substance use among teenagers are not as effective as we would like, hence the investment in a longer term, more systemic approach. There may be a misunderstanding about what Planet Youth is and colleagues from national charity Winning Scotland, who are facilitating Planet Youth in Scotland, would be happy to provide more information to interested members.

The information requested is not held centrally. Highland is one of 6 local authority areas implementing Planet Youth in Scotland. Data on the Highlands and Islands schools participating in the Planet Youth pilot is held by the Highland Alcohol and Drug Partnership and the charity Winning Scotland.

Winning Scotland has been carrying out research on the progress of the pilot in participating local authorities in Scotland, including Highland. Five communities are involved in the pilot in Highland and the data has, and continues to be, shared with the local coalitions which have formed around those communities. This includes community planning partners, schools, third sector, businesses and others.

Over 13,100 families have benefited from the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) programme since it began in 2010 with, on average, over 81% of mothers offered the programme taking it up.

The Family Nurse Partnership has been carefully scaled up with quality since its introduction in 2010 and Scotland became the first country in the world to deliver FNP at scale in 2018.

The programme is delivered in 11 mainland health boards as follows:

• NHS Ayrshire and Arran
• NHS Borders
• NHS Dumfries and Galloway
• NHS Fife
• NHS Forth Valley
• NHS Grampian
• NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• NHS Highland
• NHS Lanarkshire
• NHS Lothian
• NHS Tayside

The Scottish Government published the Funeral Support Payment evaluation in July 2022, which found that the payment reduced the need for people to borrow money to arrange a funeral.

Social Security Scotland’s annual client survey monitors the impact of benefit payments. Respondents to the most recent survey in 2022-23 rated Funeral Support Payment an average of 8.7 out of 10 when asked to rate how much benefit payments had helped make a difference to their lives.

We are committed to continually improving Scottish benefits. As a result of evaluation findings and learnings since Funeral Support Payment was launched in 2019, we have recently introduced regulations into Parliament to make improvements to the payment, further supporting bereaved people.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Funeral Support Payment including applications received, application outcomes and payments.

The latest statistics show that 6,100 payments were made in 2021-22 financial year, 5,020 payments were made in 2022-23 financial year and 6,735 payments were made in 2023-24 financial year. The latest published statistics cover to 30 June 2024 and show that 1,510 payments had been issued in the first three months of the 2024-25 financial year.

The latest statistics publication for this benefit can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Funeral Support Payment Statistics.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Funeral Support Payment including applications received, application outcomes and payments.

The following table shows total applications processed and the application outcomes by financial year since 2021-22.

Scottish Ministers are under an annual statutory duty to consider and report on the impact of inflation on the rate of Funeral Support Payment, and to bring forward legislation to increase the payment in line with that report. In 2024-25 the flat rate was increased by 6.7%, in line with September CPI. The higher flat rate payment is £1,257.75 and the lower flat rate is £153.50.

The UK Government equivalent, Funeral Expenses Payment, does not increase annually in line with inflation.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing financial support for bereaved people on a low-income.

Funeral Support Payment has provided £51.1 million of support to over 26,000 people since launching in September 2019. The average award for 2024-25, up to 30 June 2024, is £2,065. There is a statutory duty to uprate the payment and in 2024/25 we increased the flat rate payment by 6.7%.

We are committed to continually reviewing and improving Funeral Support Payment; we substantially widened eligibility compared to the UK Government’s Funeral Expenses Payment at launch and have recently introduced legislation to make further improvements.

A Bill will be introduced to parliament this parliamentary year, with final decisions on timing to be taken as part of the overall legislative programme.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing legislative proposals and other actions to support Community Wealth Building across Scotland. We have undertaken detailed analysis of respondents’ feedback to our public consultation, which can be found on the Scottish Government Website at this link: CWB Consultation Analysis.