- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 June 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on offering blood tests to anyone considered to be at risk of having contracted Lyme disease.
Answer
Current guidelines state that Lyme disease should be diagnosed and treated based on clinical presentation or suspicion of the disease, supported where necessary by laboratory testing. It is not current practice to treat people for Lyme disease who do not have clinical symptoms. Anyone exhibiting symptoms of Lyme disease should consult their GP.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 June 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 5 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on setting up a regional or national blood testing centre in the NHS Grampian area, and what support it can offer toward this.
Answer
NHS National Services Scotland’s National Services Division (NSD) commission and manage nationally designated specialist services in Scotland. Proposals may be submitted to the National Specialist Services Committee throughout the year.
NSD already commissions the Scottish Lyme Disease and Tick-borne Infections Reference Laboratory. The service, hosted by NHS Highland, provides specialist diagnostic testing for Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections and provides a reference service function for the whole of Scotland.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 26 June 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made since August 2018 on increasing the number of foundation, modern and graduate apprenticeships that are offered and taken up.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 26 June 2019
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 11 June 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what measures are in place to address the reported increase in staff moving from private, voluntary and independent sector childcare providers to local authority-run services.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s Delivery Support Plan for Providers, published on 19 December 2018, set out how we will ensure providers, including childminders, are supported through the transition to 2020. This includes the following measures which aim to support private and third sector providers with recruitment and retention:
- Funding COSLA to open up the myjobscotland public sector recruitment site for private and third sector ELC providers to post jobs on in the period up to 2020
- Confirmation that the funding agreement with COSLA will enable all childcare workers delivering the funded entitlement to be paid at least the real Living Wage from 2020
- The provision of targeted advice and support to providers to help them to implement Fair Work practices and to deliver the real Living Wage commitment
We are also implementing a number of measures to support the recruitment and training of the additional staff required to deliver the 1140 hours expansion overall, including:
- Continuing our national recruitment campaign targeting school leavers and older career changers
- Working with the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland to create additional capacity in the college and work-based learning sectors to train the additional staff required for 2020
- Funding CEMVO to disseminate our national campaign messaging to ethnic minority communities, to broaden out the talent pool and diversify the sector.
In relation to retention issues in the partner provider sector: we would expect local authorities to consider the impact of recruitment exercises on their funded partners and recruit appropriately, and we know local authorities are considering the potential disruption to funded private and third sector providers when recruiting additional staff for the expansion of ELC. Indeed, many are recruiting from other areas, such as other Council services, to minimise their impact on private/third sector providers.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 11 June 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how the cost of the day-to-day running of childcare services for private, voluntary and independent sector providers in Aberdeenshire will compare with that for North Lanarkshire by August 2020, and how any variance will impact on future provision.
Answer
From August 2020 all providers in the private and third sector, including childminders, who are delivering the funded early learning and childcare entitlement will receive a sustainable funding rate that reflects the cost of delivery. The funding to enable providers to receive a sustainable rate for delivering the funded entitlement was included as part of the multi-year funding agreement between the Scottish Government and COSLA to fully fund the expansion to 1140 hours. Local authority settlements were informed by detailed local financial planning.
The costs of delivering early learning and childcare will vary across the country, and will reflect local circumstances. In order to ensure that these local circumstances are captured it is for individual local authorities to set hourly rates for providers operating in their areas. Guidance was published on 29 April 2019 to support local authorities to set sustainable rates for providers from August 2020 and is available from: https://www.gov.scot/publications/funding-follows-child-national-standard-early-learning-childcare-providers-guidance-setting-sustainable-rates-august-2020/ .
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 11 June 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage local authority transparency in the setting of the hourly rate for providing childcare services.
Answer
Guidance was published on 29 April 2019 - Funding Follows the Child and the National Standard for Early Learning and Childcare Providers: Guidance for Setting Sustainable Rates from August 2020 – to support local authorities to set sustainable rates for providers in the private and third sector, including childminders, delivering the funded early learning and childcare entitlement.
The guidance, which was developed by Scotland Excel on behalf of the Scottish Government and COSLA, sets out the overarching principles and points that should be taken into account by all local authorities when establishing sustainable rates. One of the principles, as set out in Section 2 of the guidance document, is that Local authorities and funded providers should work together to be as transparent and open as commercially reasonable when discussing rates and costs .
The guidance is available from: https://www.gov.scot/publications/funding-follows-child-national-standard-early-learning-childcare-providers-guidance-setting-sustainable-rates-august-2020/ .
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 11 June 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the partnership between Aberdeenshire Council and private, voluntary and independent sector childcare providers will be able to deliver the expansion to 1,140 hours of funded childcare by August 2020, and whether it will publish the details of any analysis it has carried out of the effectiveness of this work.
Answer
All local authorities recognise that funded providers across the private and third sectors are vital to the delivery of the 1140 offer. This is reflected in local authority expansion plans which indicate that around a quarter of funded hours will be delivered by funded providers in the private or third sector or childminders by 2021-22.
The Scottish Government and COSLA have robust joint governance arrangements in place to ensure that all local authorities have the required capacity and capability in place and are well supported as they prepare for August 2020.
The Joint Delivery Board, which I co-chair with the COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, is responsible for reviewing progress towards implementation of the 1140 hours offer across all 32 local authorities and for agreeing actions to mitigate risk, respond to emerging issues or put support in place where that may be required. The Board will publish further delivery progress reports at https://www.gov.scot/publications/early-learning-and-childcare-delivery-progress-report/
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 11 June 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what measures are in place for private, voluntary and independent sector providers in Aberdeenshire that wish to comment on the decision-making process for the expansion for the delivery of 1,140 hours of funded childcare by August 2020.
Answer
Meaningful and genuine partnership working between local authorities and funded providers is key to the expansion of funded early learning and childcare.
The Scottish Government and COSLA established the ELC Partnership Forum to bring together local authorities and funded providers across Scotland to share and promote good practice in partnership working. The Forum met in Aberdeen on 12 December 2018, including a number of providers from Aberdeenshire. Any provider who wishes to participate in the national ELC Partnership Forum can get further information by emailing ELCPartnershipForum@gov.scot
Local authorities are responsible for developing local partnership working arrangements. Aberdeenshire Council has advised that funding provider meetings take place termly, and that senior council officers are contactable via earlyyears@aberdeenshire.gov.uk.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Derek Mackay on 4 June 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of Brexit on consumer confidence in relation to VAT receipts in Scotland; whether it will clarify comments by its official at the Finance and Constitution Committee meeting on 8 May 2019 that VAT receipts in Scotland had been lower than in the rest of the UK due to household confidence being lower in Scotland than in the rest of the UK as a result of a higher rate of scepticism towards EU withdrawal in Scotland; what analysis it has undertaken to support that assessment; whether it can provide any evidence that this is the case when compared with London, which had a similarly high remain vote; whether it considers that VAT receipts are affected by consumer confidence in relation to constitutional issues, and what analysis it has undertaken of consumer and business confidence in relation to its policy of pursuing another referendum on independence.
Answer
The uncertainty relating to Brexit is impacting key economic indicators for Scotland with business and consumer sentiment surveys reporting notable falls in confidence.
The Scottish Government assesses consumer confidence through its Consumer Sentiment Indicator. The indicator is at its lowest reading since the series began in 2013 and has been negative since quarter 3 2016. In their latest forecasts, the SFC highlight that Brexit is likely to be a significant driver of this declining consumer confidence.
The Scottish Government does not hold comparable statistics on consumer confidence in Scotland and London. However, the latest OECD leading indicators data shows that consumer confidence has also fallen in the UK.
Forecasting VAT receipts is the responsibility of the Scottish Fiscal Commission.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 May 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 28 May 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what support it will offer people in Scotland who lost money due to the collapse of London Capital & Finance to seek compensation.
Answer
This is a stressful time for all who are affected by the collapse of London Capital and Finance (LC&F). The regulation of financial services, including the services your constituent has highlighted, is a reserved matter to the UK Government. Consequently, Scottish Ministers are unable to intervene in the practices employed by financial services companies or in individual complaints.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has agreed with HM Treasury that there should be an investigation by an independent person into the issues raised by the failure of LC&F and whether the existing regulatory system adequately protects retail purchasers of mini-bonds from unacceptable levels of harm.
The FSCS is working closely with the administrators and the FCA to try to establish whether LC&F might have carried out any other regulated activity for which they could compensate customers. The FSCS investigation is focusing on whether there was any regulated advising, arranging or other activities that may trigger compensation.
