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The Scottish Government supports local authorities to develop new walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure through the Places for Everyone programme (PfE) with over £52 million in funding committed in 2022-23. Local authorities can apply for funding and support for projects that aim to develop path networks on disused railway lines.

The Scottish Government also invests in developing active travel networks on disused railway lines as part of the National Cycle Network, with £1.6 million committed in 2022-23 to projects on disused railway lines. This includes £280,000 allocated to constructing a section of route along an old railway alignment from St.Fillans to Lochearnhead, and £45,000 for design work on a route from Comrie to Crieff.

Local groups with proposals to promote active travel by utilising disused railway assets should in the first instance raise with their local Regional transport Partnership and with Network Rail, who own most disused railway across Scotland. The Network Rail Property team in Scotland will assist where possible in the development of any initiatives that will support the Scottish Government’s aims to increase active travel, as is demonstrated at Levenmouth.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13137 on‎ 9 January 2023. 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

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) commits to providing all children, young people and their families with the right support at the right time, and where extra help is needed this can include a personalised child’s plan, which might contain therapeutic support, depending on the circumstances.

This year, we have also initiated a Whole Family Wellbeing programme of activity to help transform the delivery of holistic family support. This includes investing £32 million through Children’s Services Planning Partnerships and supporting them in driving this work at the local level. This is to ensure that all families, including adoptive and foster care families, can access support based on their needs, where and when they need it.

All local authorities have a legal duty to provide support to meet the needs of people who have been adopted and their families. We provided £128,000 this year for specific therapeutic support, namely to Adoption UK Scotland for the TESSA programme which provides therapeutic input for adoptive families, and to Health in Mind to run a Trauma Support Service for people affected by historical adoption practices, as well as implementing peer support for both groups and individuals.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with COSLA to find a way forward on the introduction of a Scottish Recommended Allowance for foster and kinship carers.

Details of the grant allocations and outturns for each council as part of our Area Based Schemes programme since 2013 are published on the Scottish Government website:

Area-based schemes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Information about the previous Home Insulation Scheme (HIS) and the Universal Home Insulation Scheme (UHIS) from 2008 to 2013 is available from the Energy Saving Trust website.

Home+Energy+Programmes+Summary+Report+20092013.pdf (energysavingtrust.org.uk)

In 2022-23, we distributed £32m across all Children’s Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs). The purpose of this funding was to build local service capacity for transformation and to support the local scaling of existing transformational practice of holistic whole family support. This is being provided on a recurring, multi-year basis to 2025-26.

A package of activity aimed at supporting local transformation has commenced, including establishing collaborative partnerships between 3 CSPPs and a dedicated, multi-disciplinary national support team for transformation. A Learning into Action network is also being established. The aim is to ensure that all CSPPs are supported to come together to share learning and approaches, facilitate peer support, collaborate, and have solution focused discussions around the barriers and opportunities around whole system change in holistic family support.

Whole Family Wellbeing Funding (WFWF) is being used to support the resource and staffing requirements of this work; as well as the commissioning of external evaluation. This will evaluate the implementation and initial impacts of the programme to help shape and develop activity across WFWF going forward. Additionally, research has been commissioned to support continuous improvement of the transformation support provided to the CSPPs as well as to generate learning about how transformational capability is built. The final costs associated for this work in 2022-23 will be confirmed following the end of the financial year.

Multi-year funding allocations are also being finalised which will support wider transformational activity across Scottish Government portfolios which will support the preventative, person-centred ambitions and outcomes of the WFWF.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13151 on 6 January 2023. 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

n September 2021, the Scottish Government published the National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People which sets out seven standards for service providers to ensure that children and young people, who have neurodevelopmental profiles with support needs, receive the support that they require. The Neurodevelopmental Specification is purposefully inclusive and includes support for those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as such there is no separate guidance for ASD and ADHD.

A neurodevelopmental diagnosis is not required in order for a child or young person to receive support that meets their needs. For many children and young people, such support is likely to be community or school based, and should be quickly and easily accessible.

To support implementation of the Neurodevelopmental Specification, we have provided funding to NHS Boards to build capacity to provide access to specialist neurodevelopmental professionals.

In March 2022, funding was also provided to allow five local areas to take forward Tests of Change on the implementation of the Neurodevelopmental Service Specification, specifically to test and implement aspects of the Standards and Principles of Care outlined in the Specification. Learning and evidence will be shared from these Tests once concluded to support other local partners to implement the Specification successfully.

The standards outlined within the National Neurodevelopmental Specification will continue to be reviewed on a regular basis in light of any new research and recommendations made to Scottish Government, particularly in relation to learning emerging from the Neurodevelopmental Tests of Change.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

The Mental Welfare Commission (MWC) for Scotland has safeguarding duties in relation to people who are subject to the protection of the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000. This duty includes monitoring the use of welfare guardianship orders to determine how and for whom the AWI Act is being used. Hearings take place within 28 days of the application being submitted to the court. The Commission is notified of the date of an Adults with Incapacity hearing in court and also the date the order is granted. The most recent AWI monitoring report (covering 2021-22) was published by the MWC in October 2022. A link to the report can be found on the MWC website.

I provided figures in my previous response to S6W-12191 on the number of delayed discharges from hospital under the requirements of the Adults with Incapacity Act, which related to the guardianship process. All patients whose discharge from hospital is delayed by the application process for a guardianship are recorded under Code 9.

The Scottish Government is progressing a range of actions with partners to expedite AWI discharges from hospital to ensure that, once medically fit, patients can be cared for in a setting that is most appropriate for their needs. This includes:

• reviewing the guardianship process to identify opportunities to reduce timescales for the processing of applications;
• working with partners at a national level to disseminate good practice to local areas;
• providing targeted advice and assistance to Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs), working with them to identify improvements to the process.