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The Scottish Government has always worked in partnership with Local Government to enable local authorities to provide services which deliver positive outcomes for the people and communities we jointly serve.

There have been a range of laws passed since 1999 which have provided more powers and responsibilities for local authorities and have impacted on the services they deliver. For example, the Islands Act 2018 handed more powers to our island communities and introduced measures to support and help meet the unique needs of our islands. We will also shortly be devolving Empty Property Relief to local authorities from 1 April 2023 with a concurrent transfer of £105m to local government, which is significantly more than the estimated cost of maintaining the national relief in light of the decision to freeze the poundage. However, it is not possible to provide a comprehensive list of all those policy and legislative changes within the timeframe being asked.

It is important to note that any new legislative change that results in additional expenditure by local authorities is expected to be fully funded by the relevant policy area.

The Scottish Government committed up to £20M in funding to the Social Security Independent Advocacy Service over four years from September 2021.

After extensive engagement with advocacy stakeholders, it was concluded that this service should be delivered under contract by a single national provider or consortium of providers. The Invitation to Tender was open to all third sector bodies that deliver advocacy services – and a Contract Notice was published on 12 May 2021 in the usual way via Public Contracts Scotland. Following the conclusion of the regulated procurement exercise VoiceAbility were appointed the first national provider of the service in September 2021. This initial contract runs until August 2023 with the opportunity to extend by a further two one-year periods.

The number of employers supported was especially high in 2020-21 as this was when employers submitted HR1 notifications as they thought they would have to make large numbers of employees redundant as a result of the pandemic.

Full details are as follows.

Responsibility for public libraries sits with the relevant local authorities, and as such, this information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. However, Scottish Government officials work closely with the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) to ensure that Ministers are kept aware of relevant local issues as they arise. Information provided by the Scottish Libraries and Information Council showed that no Scottish Libraries have permanently closed in the last three reporting years.

Skills Development Scotland published quarterly statistics on the Employability Fund. The information you have requested can be found at the following website. Employability Fund | Skills Development Scotland

Employability hubs are generally a local arrangement between The Department for Work and Pensions and local authorities. The Scottish Government does not hold the data you have requested however, local authorities and the Department for Work and Pensions may be able to provide you with this information.

Since the devolution of employability services to the Scottish Government, support is being delivered through a combination of locally designed services, No One Left Behind, and our national employment support service, Fair Start Scotland.

No One Left Behind, which commenced in 2019, is the Scottish Governments approach to transforming employment support in Scotland. It aims to deliver a system that is more tailored and responsive to the needs of people of all ages who want help and support on their journey towards and into work, particularly people with health conditions, disabled people and others who are disadvantaged in the labour market.

The No One Left Behind approach moves away from funding and delivering several separate and distinct employability programmes, to a more flexible approach. Scottish and Local Government are working with third and private sector to deliver support which aims to be more joined-up and responsive to the needs of individuals of all ages and tailored to local labour market conditions.

Fair Start Scotland, our devolved employability support service, launched in April 2018 and offers 12 to 18 months of tailored, flexible and person-centred pre-employment support to people who want help to find and remain in work. Up to 12 months in-work support is also available for the participant as well as the employer, helping to ensure fair and sustainable employment.

Fair Start Scotland is delivered by a mixed economy of public, private and third sector providers across nine geographical areas throughout Scotland. A breakdown of the providers in each local authority area can be found at the following website.

https://www.employabilityinscotland.com/employability-services/fair-start-scotland/individual/

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring everyone has access to person centred employability support that meets the needs of individuals, helping them towards, and into sustainable employment.

Information on local authority spend on their professional learning is not held nationally by the Scottish Government. Local authorities are best placed to advise on their spend in this area.

In 2022, we ran a public consultation on the draft of the new physical intervention in schools guidance Physical intervention in schools: draft guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The draft human rights-based guidance is clear that restraint and seclusion should only ever be used as a last resort and to prevent a child or young person coming to harm. This position is also clear in existing guidance on the use of physical intervention and seclusion.

The draft guidance includes links to free professional learning resources that are focussed on promoting positive relationships and behaviour to minimise the use of restraint and seclusion. The draft guidance also recommends that the any training in the use of restraint is certified as complying with Restraint Reduction Network (RRN) training standards.

We are carefully considering all consultation responses received and recognise that there are calls for further legislation in this area. A consultation analysis report is currently being prepared. Alongside the publication of the guidance, and in line with our original commitments, we are exploring options to strengthen the legal framework in this area, including placing the guidance on a statutory basis.

Ensuring the development and availability of sector-specific skills is central to a just transition towards reaching our net-zero targets.

We will be taking forward work on sector-specific skills needs for the renewable energy sector as we finalise the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan and the refresh of the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan.

In addition, through our work on oil and gas analysis, which will be published in due course, we are developing our understanding of the opportunities in sectors across the energy economy, and we will use that to inform future skills work.

Thrombectomy services are run on a regional basis with North, East and West of Scotland hubs. Prior to making funding allocations to regions for the 2023-24 financial year, the Scottish Government has asked that each region provides detailed workforce resourcing plans and can demonstrate how these plans will increase the provision of thrombectomy procedures. This is in line with our aim of further expanding the national thrombectomy service and maximising the number of patients able to benefit from this treatment.