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To ensure the delivery of the intended environmental outcomes and value for public money, applicants are required to provide a level of evidence when applying to the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS).

As I stated in my previous answer to S6W-29868 on 24 September 2024, I wrote to the new Secretary of State for Scotland, Ian Murray MP, on 12 August 2024 seeking his in-principle agreement to proceed with this section 104 Order. I have still not received a reply.

My officials have asked officials in the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland when I can expect to receive a reply.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government are currently funding a dedicated resource in NHS Education for Scotland to scope the current skills landscape and identify where earn as you learn programmes could be expanded and where further development work is required with aim of widening the pathways into health and care careers.

Information on the proportion of eligible children accessing funded ELC, both nationally and by local authority, is published each year in the ELC census. This includes uptake rates for all 3-4 year olds, and deferred registrations. The census does not record the proportion of their 1140 hours entitlement that each child is utilising.

The most recent publication includes the most recent uptake data by local authority area within Figure 26 at the following page:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-for-schools-in-scotland-2023/pages/early-learning-and-childcare-elc/

A breakdown for previous years can be accessed within the appropriate years publication, which are listed at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/early-learning-and-childcare-statistics/#earlylearningandchildcarecensus.

The Improvement Service also provide information on the number of eligible children accessing their full 1140 entitlement nationally. The most recent service delivery report is available at:

https://www.improvementservice.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/52618/ELC-Delivery-Progress-Report-Apr-24.pdf

The Scottish Government are currently funding a dedicated resource in NHS Education for Scotland to scope the current skills landscape and identify where earn as you learn programmes could be expanded and where further development work is required with aim of widening the pathways into health and care careers, including in rural and island areas.

We already work collaboratively with professional bodies and higher education institutions (HEI) on the delivery of education programs that can meet the needs of the NHS workforce. Work is underway through the AHP Education and Workforce Policy Review to support the development of alternative delivery models of education such as part time and distance learning.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information, however the data can be found by contacting the Care Inspectorate directly or searching the Care Inspectorate datastore.

Scottish Government is committed to supporting and growing our childminding sector, which is why we launched the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future in June 2024, in partnership with the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA). The programme is supporting the recruitment of new professional childminders across Scotland, offering a package of funded support and training in addition to a £750 start-up grant, providing everything needed to establish a new childminding business from home.

The programme also includes a range of pilot measures to address the retention of the childminding workforce, delivering more practical support to ensure our existing professionals are supported with their workloads and professional development.

The recruitment support is available across 19 local authorities during 2024-25, and 12 local authorities are participating in the retention pilots. SCMA are currently in discussions with local authorities regarding participation for year 2 (2025-26), and we welcome their commitment to supporting the childminding workforce.

The Scottish Government will announce its spending plans for 2025-26 in its budget, on 4 December, with more detailed consideration of portfolio spend priorities, including the Monitor Farm Programme, being taken shortly thereafter.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with partners including Higher Education Institutions, Health Boards, Skills Development Scotland, and the Scottish Funding Council on skills development, employability and widening access to NHS Scotland careers. As part of this work part time, distance learning and earn as you learn models of education, which may benefit rural and island areas, are currently being explored by the Allied Health Professions (AHP) advisory group that oversees the implementation of the AHP Education and Workforce Policy Review recommendations.

The Scottish Government, in collaboration with the Centre for Workforce Supply and the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care is developing a model of sustained ongoing direct support for employers across health, social care, social work and children’s services in rural and island areas to overcome barriers to recruitment and retention The direct support model will consist of three key elements including a Rural and Island Recruitment Forum, a Living Library and a Recruitment Toolkit.

The 2018 GP contract included a programme of service redesign to ensure that arrangements for GP services better met the needs of the whole system and the needs of communities; it makes no new requirements of remote and rural GP practices. The 2018 GP contract is intended to reduce current risks to practice stability and sustainability by addressing some of the key risk factors relating to rising workload, premises and employment of staff. This in turn intended to make the partnership model more attractive to newer generations of GPs.

The Scottish Government established the Remote & Rural Working Group chaired by Professor Sir Lewis Ritchie in response to the concerns of rural GPs about the 2018 contract. The group produced the Shaping the Future Together report in January 2020 and various actions were undertaken as a result.

The Scottish Government is aware of the unique needs of our rural and islands communities, and that these needs vary significantly from place to place. We recognise that there is no “one size fits all” approach which will work for every community, and that harnessing the local knowledge of staff working within these areas can play an important role in improving healthcare outcomes.

That is why the work of the NHS Scotland remote, rural and islands task and finish group that we have convened is being led by representatives from across our rural and island Health Boards.

The group is working to develop a framework for sustainable delivery of healthcare services in rural and island communities. We aim to develop a model with services provided as local as possible and specialised as necessary in order to ensure equity of outcomes. The leadership, collaboration and innovation that our rural and island Board representatives are bringing to this group will ensure this work meets the needs of the communities they serve.