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I met with representatives from Young Lives vs Cancer on 25 September 2024 to discuss their campaign.

Under the existing patient travel expenses schemes, financial support for travel to hospital is available for patients and authorised escorts, according to eligibility criteria and medical requirements. The families of patients with cancer aged under 18 who are receiving inpatient care can also already access financial support through the Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF).

Scottish Government has provided funding to Young Lives vs Cancer of £213,600 over two years (2023-2025) through the Children, Young People Families and Adult Learning (CYPFAL) fund. This funding supports the provision of advice on potential welfare benefits as well as direct grants to improve the emotional and mental wellbeing and reduce financial worries of young patients with cancer and their families.

There are no plans to expand the eligibility criteria for the YPFF at this time.

The Scottish Government works closely with local authorities, third sector partners and all other agencies involved in supporting children and young people involved with the criminal justice system. This includes support for parents and carers. This collaborative approach ensures that a broad range of expertise and resources are brought together to address the needs of young people holistically. By partnering with organisations that provide specialised services such as mental health support, family counselling, and education, the Scottish Government ensures that young people receive the targeted interventions they need to prevent reoffending and to successfully reintegrate into society.

This includes organisations such as Cyrenians and Aberlour, which receive funding through the Cashback for Communities programme. Cyrenians’ Keeping Families Together project works across Scotland in partnership with Scotland’s four secure centres, offering mediation, whole family support and conflict resolution workshops. The approach enables young people and families to improve communication, address underlying issues and build stronger, more positive relationship.

Aberlour’s project, Alternative Routes #CashBack, supports young people aged 10-25 and their families most at risk of being involved in antisocial behaviour, offending or reoffending. They use a whole system approach involving the whole family and community, which improves confidence in young people and provides them with opportunities to connect, flourish and achieve at home, school, and in the community.

Includem’s ADAPT project – funded through the Scottish Government’s Whole Family Wellbeing Fund – also focuses on young people who are in conflict or at risk of being in conflict with the law. The project works with young people and their families to help them navigate a way out of a variety of difficult circumstances by diverting them from the criminal behaviour and a resultant trajectory into the criminal justice system.

The Scottish Government also funds the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ), who work closely with a number of organisations providing a range of support services to both children and their parents and carers. This includes local authority practitioners, Police Scotland and third sector organisations such as Action for Children, Includem and Barnardos.

As part of their Promise implementation work, CYCJ is leading a project to engage directly with parents of children in conflict with the law. The aim of this is to develop a network of parents who can participate in the development of policy and practice. In order to reach these parents CYCJ is actively engaging with existing parenting networks such as Parenting Across Scotland and Families Outside.

The Scottish Government also ensure that child victims and their families are offered trauma-informed and person-centred support and advocacy through the Victim-Centred Approach Fund and the development of a Bairns’ Hoose model in Scotland.

The Intensive Support Monitoring and Supervision (ISMS) programme is a key component of Scotland’s youth justice system, aimed at providing an alternative to secure care or custody for young people (typically between the ages of 12 and 18) who are at high risk of reoffending or presenting significant risks to themselves or others. ISMS combines electronic monitoring (such as tagging) with intensive support services, including:

• Structured supervision with regular check-ins and monitoring by social workers or case managers.
• Individualised interventions including tailored programmes focusing on addressing offending behaviour, mental health, substance abuse, or other personal challenges.
• Support with education and employment including assistance in engaging with school, vocational training, or employment to foster personal development and reduce reoffending risks.
• Family support with efforts to involve and support the family in the rehabilitation process.

This programme allows young people involved in offending behaviour to remain in their communities under strict conditions, while receiving the support needed to change their behaviour, rather than being placed in a secure unit or prison. ISMS is considered a more rehabilitative and community-based approach to managing serious offending.

Where a child is placed in secure accommodation, centres will utilise a range of interventions, supports and strategies to meet their needs, ensure their safety is maintained and risk is managed. Throughout a child’s stay in secure care they will be supported to participate in education; interventions identified as part of their Child’s Plan; with required health supports and recreational, leisure and social activities.

In terms of direct financial support, the Scottish Government’s policy towards local authority spending is to allow each local authority the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of local authority funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then for individual local authorities to manage their own budgets. They allocate the total financial resources available to them, including support for youth work, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The National Care Framework for Huntington’s Disease sets out information on the services and support available to people with Huntington’s Disease by health board area. This includes services provided through NHS Scotland and other aspects such as social care, employability, financial help, carer respite and housing adaptation.

The Scottish Huntington’s Association also maintains a list of HD Clinical Leads by health board on its website: HD Clinical Leads • Scottish Huntington's Association (hdscotland.org).

The Scottish Government has today published the Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland: Annual Progress Report 2023-2024. This can be accessed on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836017684.

The report highlights work undertaken by our partners in the first year, over 2023-24 to implement the actions set out in the Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland to prevent violence and reduce its harm when it does occur.

Further Progress Reports will be published on an annual basis.

A needs based distribution methodology based on factors, including population, is used to distribute the funding available for Local Government at a council level and is agreed with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities each year.

As independent corporate bodies, it is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

As part of the Population Balance pillar of the Scottish Government's Population Strategy, we are working with COSLA and a range of local authorities facing population growth to understand approaches to addressing this distinct challenge. It is intended that this will be considered at a future meeting of the Ministerial Population Taskforce.

Since 2011 the Scottish Government has supported individuals and businesses across Scotland transition to electric vehicles by providing £223 million of interest free loans through the Low Carbon Transport loan, this scheme delivered on behalf of Scottish Ministers by Energy Saving Trust (EST) has funded over 8,300 loans and has saved an estimated 230,000 tCO2e.

Transport Scotland officials are currently finalising details of the fund prior to the loan relaunching. Energy Saving Trust, who administer the loan on behalf of Scottish Ministers, will provide up to date information regarding the loan and interested parties can register their interest on their website here - Used Electric Vehicle Loan - Energy Saving Trust .

The Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill, which is currently being considered by the Scottish Parliament, will introduce a number of reforms which are intended to improve access to justice, one of the three pillars outlined in the Aarhus Convention. 

The Bill will introduce a modern set of regulatory objectives which promote greater access to affordable legal services for consumers. It will also introduce direct regulation of legal businesses, remove restrictions on charities to allow them to directly employ solicitors, simplify the complaints process and introduce a register of regulated legal service providers. These reforms are designed to improve access to justice in Scotland.