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Financial Inclusion is part of the Executive’s wider Closing the Opportunity Gap approach to overcoming povertyand decisions on how this will be evaluated will be made in due course. Individualinitiatives currently being measured include the number of front line money advisersin post in each local authority area, the growth in credit union membership andnumbers receiving financial literacy training.

The Executive met with the banksand other stakeholders on the 17 January this year. Items discussed included:

The First Year ImplementationPlan for the Strategy for the Financial Services Industry in Scotland.

The Scottish Executive’s FinancialInclusion Action Plan.

HM Treasury’s intention to workwith the banking industry regarding reducing the number of people who are “unbanked”– which is a GB-wide initiative.

The Scottish Household Surveyhas found that, in the first three quarters of 2005, a bank or building societyaccount was held by the respondent or partner in 91.1% of households, compared to85.7% in 1999. In the most deprived 15% of areas the increase was from 67.5% in1999 to 81.6% in the first three quarters of 2005.

These figures do not includepost office or credit union accounts. If they are included then 94.9% of householdsin the first three quarters of 2005 had an account with either a bank, buildingsociety, post office, or credit union. A comparable figure for 1999 is not availablefrom the Scottish Household Survey.

In the Cultural Statement on19 January 2006 I announced that future funding for non-national museums, includingScotland’s industrial museums, would focus on supporting significant “national standard”collections. In addition to funding of £440,000 set aside for industrial museums,the Executive will make available further funding of £500,000 per annum over thenext two years to continue to support our  non-national museums and to enable thelaunch of the museums’ recognition scheme on which the Scottish Museums Councilhas consulted on our behalf. Future funding for the Scottish Maritime Museum will beconsidered in this context.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-25490 on 9 May 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Executive is providing £160,000 per year core fundingfor the Scottish Maritime Museum. We have also agreed to continue funding of £30,000 in2006-07 for its curator post. I am pleased to say that the Executive will also provideadditional funding for maintenance of the collection in 2006-07 and we shall writeto the Scottish Maritime Museum with a formal grant offer as soon as possible.

The requested information isin the following table:

1999-2000 (£)	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
0	90,000	370,000	190,000	240,000	160,000	300,000	305,000

 

A number of existing initiativestakes account of the significance of play in children’s lives. There are currentlytwo initiatives where policy in this area is being further developed.

The existing three to five curriculumrecognises the powerful contribution that play makes to children’s learning. Thecurriculum review will extend the approaches used in pre-school to the initial stagesof primary emphasising the importance of opportunities to learn through purposeful,well-planned play.

Draft Scottish Planning Policy11, due to issue for consultation shortly, will ask local authorities to preparean audit of open space to inform their strategy for local provision. The draft policywill also include national minimum standards for open space provision within certaintypes of new development.

A number of Scottish Executivepolicies and strategies already require local authorities and individual providersto support play opportunities for children.

In particular, the Executive’sChildcare Strategy stresses the importance of ample opportunities for sporting activitiesand play. This is reinforced by the National Care standards for early educationand child care up to the age of 16, which require that activities provided by staffwill allow children and young people to enjoy both organised and free play.

Teachers are contractually obligedto undertake 35 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) each year. Eachteacher, in discussion with his/her line manager, produces an annual plan of CPDactivity based on personal need taking account of school, local and national priorities.The Executive is providing  £13.5 million in 2006-07 to allow local authoritiesto co-ordinate and provide CPD for teachers. This could include the developmentof training resources for teachers and other school staff relating to the valueof play.