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The consequentials associated with 75% non-domestic rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure premises in England in 2023-24 were confirmed in the Autumn Statement on 17 November 2022.

All Barnett consequentials received as a result of the Autumn Statement are considered as a whole ahead of the Scottish Budget each year and are a vital part of Scottish Government’s funding position. Discussion of the funding position featured at all regular meetings between the Autumn Statement and the Scottish Budget 2023-24 which was announced on 15 December 2022. Similarly, discussions regarding the funding position for 2024-25 as a result of the Autumn Statement on 22 November 2023 continue ahead of the Scottish Budget which will be announced on 19 December 2023

Decisions about the provision and commissioning of individual community justice services, including any re-tendering exercises, are a matter for local authorities based on local needs. The Scottish Government has continued to invest around £134 million in community justice services this year, including providing around £123 million to local authorities, and has not asked local authorities to reduce any specific funding within that.

We understand that Glasgow City Council are working closely with Turning Point Scotland to support those currently using the service. The Council has also provided reassurances that other relevant services and approaches are available to support people with similar needs following the anticipated closure of the service.

These include residential placements in addiction services, the trauma-informed Tomorrow’s Women Glasgow service and the use of women-only drug courts and problem-solving courts, and the Lilias Centre Community Custody Unit.

The Scottish Government welcomes Food Standards Scotland’s Our Food 2022 report and the wide ranging recommendations.

We are aware of workforce shortages, such as veterinarians and environmental health officers, and the fundamental role these have to safeguard animal health and welfare and the safety of food in Scotland. The Scottish Government continues to promote the role of veterinarians in public health. This includes through initiatives, such as the Scottish Veterinary Delivery Landscape Project which brings together public and private sector veterinary employers, academia and veterinary industry bodies. We have also set up the Environmental Health Policy Co-ordination Group to consider solutions to the EHO vacancies across Scotland and work with key stakeholders to gain further insight on this issue.

Furthermore, we are committed to protecting Scotland’s consumers and businesses through robust biosecurity controls. Since EU Exit, Scottish Government officials and Ministers have been engaged in discussions with the UK Government around the introduction of import controls, resulting in the recent publication of the Border Target Operating Model.

We will continue to work with Food Standards Scotland and other partners on the issues raised within the report.

Our suicide prevention strategy Creating Hope Together, and our new Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan - both of which are joint publications with COSLA - have a strong and consistent focus on training across our workforce and our communities to enable people to better understand and support people affected by suicide.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Education and Training Strategic Advisory Group brings together senior leaders from key sectors and organisations to support a whole system approach to meet the ambitions of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

The group has held two meetings since it was established, which focused on initially on the development of the recently published Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan. The next meeting is due to take place on 11 January 2024 at which the group will consider the programme of work for implementing the education and training aspects of the Strategy’s Delivery Plan and Workforce Action Plan.

In the recently published Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan, we committed to build on the work currently being undertaken as part of the Health and Social Care (HSC) Workforce Strategy to improve mental health and wellbeing workforce data, including on equalities.

Through our engagement on the Action Plan, we identified the need for improved comprehensive workforce data at national, regional, and service levels on the mental health and wellbeing workforce in order to enable planning of support and services. This includes addressing issues raised around access to workforce data, inconsistency, and accuracy of current workforce, as well as the need to better understand all roles within workforce.

We are continuing to support the timely reporting of workforce and trainee data for existing systems through our ongoing and constructive engagement with NHS Education for Scotland (NES), Health Improvement Scotland (HIS), Public Health Scotland (PHS), Health Boards and also with service leads directly on data improvement for existing systems.

This supports the future development and publication of Scotland’s first Mental Health and Wellbeing workforce technical document. As part of a phased approach, this will initially focus on the core workforce. We are now working with key partners to take this forward, with publication committed as a medium term timescale for delivery within the Workforce Action Plan.

The authors of this letter recognise the very real progress being made on child poverty because of Scottish Government policies, including our ‘game-changing’ Scottish Child Payment.

More than 323,000 children were benefitting Scottish Child Payment at the end of September 2023, providing support to families which is unparalleled across the UK.

We have committed to uprating Scottish Child Payment by inflation next year and will continue to do everything within the scope of our powers and limited budget to tackle child poverty, in line with our challenging targets.

The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance will set out the Government’s spending plans in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget, which will be presented to Parliament on 19 December.

The Scottish Government has carried out extensive work in collaboration with key organisations in the health and social care sector to scope the role and remit of a Coming Home National Support Panel that will provide genuine oversight and support to local areas in relation to the Coming Home agenda.

We are considering how the Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill may provide opportunity to strengthen this work on the Coming Home programme, in particular the recommendation to establish a National Support Panel. A public consultation will launch by the end of 2023.

The Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP), in collaboration with the Scottish Division of Educational Psychologists (SDEP), and partners, are in the process of convening a working group.

This group will focus on the development of a strategy to promote more widely the role that Educational Psychologists play, as part of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce, in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people across Scotland.

The Scottish Government is working with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to develop the Coming Home Practitioner Peer Support Network and this will be launched in early 2024.

HIS will bring their sector expertise in strategic improvement to bring together professionals from a range of disciplines and agencies, as well as people with lived experience, to form a Practitioner Peer Support Network to learn and share best practice. The network will provide a space for local teams to learn from others who have implemented successful services and processes, for collaborative problem-solving and to pool resources such as staff or buildings.

This is a key step in our Coming Home programme of work, which aims to reduce delayed discharge and inappropriate out-of-area placements for people with learning disabilities and complex care needs.