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The Scottish Government is today publishing information outlining progress on the first six months of the transitional twelve month service that was launched in April 2017 and is designed to help up to 4,800 people with health conditions and disabilities into work. The publication can be found at www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781788514880

This service is one of the first uses of powers from the Scotland Act 2016. The Scottish Government has made clear that it wants to deliver employability services in a different way which embeds principles of dignity and respect in our approach and puts the individual at the heart of how services are delivered. These principles are embedded in the contracts awarded for the delivery of our longer term approach to employment services through the Fair Start Scotland programme, which begins in April 2018.

The Scottish Government does not provide any direct support to the Aberdeen International Youth Festival (AIYF). However, EventScotland has previously supported AIYF twice through the National Events Programme with a total of £33,303 (£18,303 in 2005 and £15,000 in 2008) and Creative Scotland has provided support to AIYF totalling £322,289 through 6 awards since 2011.

Whilst the funding of AIYF is a matter for Aberdeen City Council and their deliberations regarding future funding are on-going, the reputation of AIYF both locally and internationally is significant.

More than 45,000 people from across Scotland, the UK and from overseas, attended or participated in this year’s AIYF which is one component of the wider Aberdeen Festivals group. The economic impact of the Aberdeen Festivals is estimated to be over £2 million annually to the local Aberdeen City economy.

As autonomous institutions, the salary levels of Principals and Vice-Chancellors are a matter for each university's governing body and remuneration committee. However, the Scottish Government is clear that we expect universities to exercise restraint in setting senior pay. The Scottish Government's position is that senior pay packages should be in step with the salary, terms and conditions offered to other university staff. Institutions must ensure the highest standards of transparency in setting pay awards. We welcome further work that the higher education sector is progressing to increase transparency and accountability in remuneration committee decision-making.

All higher education institutions in Scotland publish the details of senior remuneration on an annual basis. Every institution reports on the number of staff paid in the higher salary brackets.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of early intervention to help people with disabilities and health conditions to stay in or move into work.

A range of health and employment support currently exists for people with disabilities and health conditions who are in work, including Healthy Working Lives and Working Health Services Scotland. These services should be as easy as possible to access for individuals, employers and healthcare professionals.

Today, I am delighted to announce that, in partnership with the UK Government, we will pilot a Single Health and Work Gateway (‘the Single Gateway’) in Fife and Dundee from Summer 2018 until 2020. With a UK Government financial contribution of £2,878,000 and a Scottish Government contribution of £632,000, the pilot will drive forward improvements in the way we deliver early support to people in Scotland who have health conditions or disabilities, to help them sustain or return quickly to work.

The Single Gateway will trial new solutions to provide quicker, more effective access to a range of existing, funded, health and work support services. It will align and enhance a range of core health and work services; act as a single point of contact for employers, healthcare professionals and Jobcentre Plus; and introduce a new, health and work support service for people who are recently unemployed.

Alongside the Single Gateway pilot, we will take forward a research project to improve the way in which we identify and “triage” people who are at risk of falling out of work and into long term unemployment due to ill health or disability.

The Single Gateway is one of a range of actions that we are taking forward to better integrate employability support with other services. We will set out these actions in a plan to be published in early 2018.

The development and support of video consulting is being delivered via a collaboration funded by the Technology Enabled Care (TEC) Programme within Scottish Government. The collaboration includes NHS National Services Scotland, the Scottish Centre for Telehealth and Telecare within NHS 24 and the National Video Conferencing Service hosted by NHS Grampian. The Programme has been expanding the use of VC by enabling partner organisations across all health and social care sectors to participate and benefit from NHS VC systems as well as growing the use of VC for patient consultations.

To enhance our ability to provide services directly into peoples homes, I launched the nationally-procured "Attend Anywhere" system in December 2016 - funded by the TEC Programme. This provides a secure video environment that can be accessed anywhere by a member of the public using a web browser or app on their laptop, tablet or smart phone. The system is purpose built with the ability to deliver VC services at scale and has so far seen uptake from 13 of 14 territorial boards as well as a number of other organisations. A wide range of services have been established across Scotland, including in remote and rural areas where a number of GP practices are starting to offer video access for patient consultations. This is reducing travel for both citizens and clinicians.

Further information on how we are supporting the expansion of video access to services, including user guides and clinical best practice advice, can be found here:

The Scottish Government received capital Barnett consequentials of £17.6 million for 2019-20 and £20.5 million for 2020-21 arising from the Transforming Cities Fund. Scottish Ministers will consider allocation of the Budget consequentials as part of their on-going budget process.

The Scottish Government is today announcing the full list of members of the Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board.

This follows the appointment of Nora Senior as Chair of the Strategic Board in August. Ms Senior is chair of UK regions for global communications firm Weber Shandwick, and recently served as president of the British Chambers of Commerce and chair of Scottish Chambers of Commerce.

The board features members with a wealth of business experience encompassing a broad range of sectors, sizes and locations, with further representation covering further and higher education, research, trade unions, local authorities and the new South of Scotland Economic Partnership.

The Strategic Board will meet for the first time on 13 December and will seek to maximise the impact of the collective investment that’s made in enterprise and skills development in Scotland, helping create the conditions needed to deliver inclusive growth.

The members of the Strategic Board are as follows:

Wendy Alexander – University of Dundee

Karen Betts – Scottish Whisky Association

Liz Cameron – Scottish Chambers of Commerce

Mike Cantlay – Scottish Funding Council

Sara Carter – University of Strathclyde

Lorne Crerar – Highlands and Islands Enterprise

Audrey Cumberford – West College Scotland

Jeanette Forbes – PCL Group

Russel Griggs – South of Scotland Economic Partnership

Poonam Gupta – PG Paper Company

Steven Heddle – COSLA

Bob Keiller – Scottish Enterprise

John McClelland – Skills Development Scotland

Gerry McCusker – Dog Digital, Chair of BIMA Scotland

Scott McLarty – Spirit Aerospace

Grahame Smith – STUC