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The Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) are committed to modernising and improving the prison estate, to ensure it is fit for purpose for those who live and work in prisons, and supports the rehabilitation of people living there.

The decisions made by the UK Government to reduce capital funding in real terms year on year, alongside construction supply chain issues, labour shortages and recent high inflation mean that we are having to prioritise capital investment on areas of highest need. Replacing HMP Inverness and HMP Barlinnie remain the current prison infrastructure priorities.

In addition, SPS are undertaking a series of improvements to HMP Greenock until at least 2030, including roofing upgrades and replacements and refurbishment of the kitchen.

The Scottish Government values the important work that childminders undertake in communities and is committed to supporting and growing the sector. We commissioned research on the reasons for the reduction in childminder numbers (a trend that is mirrored elsewhere in the UK) which was published in April 2022 and can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/childminding-workforce-trends-qualitative-research-report/

Informed by that research, we are working with the Scottish Childminding Association to address the decline in the childminding workforce via a programme of recruitment and retention work. This work has been informed by recent pilot activity and will ensure that more families have access to the unique and flexible experience of childcare that childminders can offer. This programme is expected to launch in the Spring.

We will implement a range of measures to address retention issues, ensuring that our childminders are supported with their workloads and professional development, including trialling a mentoring scheme and models of funded time off the floor to allow childminders to undertake activity such as planning and continuous professional learning.

The Scottish Government is working with local government and other stakeholders to support justice social workers and to enhance the delivery of services. This includes increasing funding and providing updated operational guidance.

In 2024-25, a total of £148 million will be invested in community justice. This includes an additional £14 million to encourage wider use of robust community-based interventions where appropriate. This additional investment reflects the evidence that such interventions can be more effective than short-term imprisonment at reducing reoffending, assisting with rehabilitation and ultimately ensuring there are fewer victims of crime.

The Scottish Government recognises the pressures social workers are under and are taking action to support the workforce.

We have invested in wellbeing resources. From 2021 onwards, we provided the Scottish Association of Social Work (SASW) with £296,000 to invest in a Social Work Professional Support Service. This service covers a number of professional issues, including wellbeing and resilience, and is backed by the National Wellbeing Hub.

We have also provided funding to support the social work workforce. In 2022-2023 and also in 2023-2024, we gave £22 million to councils to address the shortages of social work staff in adult services.

Currently, we are working with partners to identify ways to better support social workers, including developing a Joint Workforce Improvement Plan in conjunction with COSLA to address recruitment and retention challenges. We have also formed a Joint Social Care and Social Work/Services Workforce Taskforce to explore ways we can deliver improvements for workforces in adult and children’s social care and social work.

We will create a National Social Work Agency to provide a single national body with oversight of the social work profession. The Agency will promote workforce wellbeing and create a listening leadership culture.

As of 1 November 2023, we have introduced significant dental payment reform with the aim of encouraging dentists to provide more NHS dentistry. Official statistics from Public Health Scotland published in February 2024 and reflecting system activity following reform show that nearly 400,000 patients were seen by an NHS primary care dentist in November. This is an early indication that the system changes have been received favourably by many NHS dentists. In addition to improving conditions for existing workforce through reform, we are also continuing to work with our counterparts across the UK and devolved governments to expedite process and bolster the number of dental practitioners working in Scotland now and into the future with a view to supporting greater availability of appointments.

The official measure of participation is the number of patients that have been seen in the last 2 years, and official statistics show that before the pandemic, participation was around 70%. Participation provides an indication of patient contacts within the system at a point in time but is not, in itself, an indicator of access noting that there may be many reasons why registered patients do not attend the dentist. We therefore use a range of data to understand the position in NHS dentistry, including regular qualitative discussion with NHS Boards to support local and national interventions to improve patient access.

I replied to the UK Secretary of State on 27 March 2024 to reiterate the Scottish Government position that Scottish Ministers consider that the responsibility for regulation of the Scottish Parliament’s membership should rest primarily with its Members.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of Sign Language Week in promoting British Sign Language (BSL) given its positive impact on both culture and community in Scotland. During this week the First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills reiterated support of BSL and the Scottish Government’s commitments within the BSL National Plan 2023 – 2029.

In response to (a), the Scottish Government published the BSL National Plan 2023 – 2029 in November 2023. This plan sets out our approach to making Scotland the best place in the world for BSL users to live, visit, work, and learn; it sets out 45 commitments across ten priority areas including health, education, and justice. The BSL (Scotland) Act 2015 also requires listed authorities to publish their own Authority Plans; they are our key partners in promoting the use of BSL in public spaces.

In response to (b), the Additional Support for Learning Act places education authorities under duties to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils, including those affected by deafness. The level of support required, and input from a specialist teacher of deaf children and young people, will vary depending on a child’s individual needs. To support deaf children and young people the Scottish Government provides funding of £150,000 to The Scottish Sensory Centre to support staff training enabling effective support to deaf pupils. In addition, Education Scotland has developed a professional learning resource which seeks to support practitioners to engage more effectively with British Sign Language users. This can be found on their website at the following link: https://education.gov.scot/resources/good-practice-in-working-with-deaf-learners-their-parents-and-families-bsl-plan/

Education Scotland has published a BSL toolkit setting out the key national legislation and General Teaching Council for Scotland standards which practitioners should be aware of when working with BSL users. Information to help practitioners understand BSL, Deaf culture and identity is provided throughout the Toolkit alongside some of the key definitions and terms used when working with parents and families. You can view the Toolkit here: British Sign Language (BSL) - Toolkit for Practitioners | Resources | Education Scotland . Education Scotland also published resources to help families support their children’s learning, which can be found at: BSL | Parentzone Scotland | Education Scotland

The information in the following table has been supplied by CalMac. This information is not held by calendar year but has been supplied by Contract Year (CY) which begins in October.