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This government recognises the complexities of caring for looked after children and young people, and the level of skill and dedication required. We aim to ensure that the workforce is capable and fully equipped to undertake what is often a demanding role.

All Social Workers and Social Care Workers must register annually with the Scottish Social Services Council, which is the professional regulator for the social services workforce in Scotland. Regulation and registration of the workforce is a key strand of Scottish Government policy to improve the quality of social services by up-skilling the workforce and to protect service users, and is a condition of employment.

A requirement of registration is that workers must have, or attain, the relevant accredited qualification set by the SSSC for the role they undertake. In accordance with the SSSC Codes of Practice, employers are responsible for ensuring that their staff have the skills and knowledge to carry out their role in order to maintain the high quality of social services and to protect service users, and that they continuously update their skills to reflect changes in practice and policy.

In addition to this, the Scottish Government funds the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS), which delivers a range of learning, development and consultancy work on trauma and attachment. All of the learning, support and development provided by CELCIS to corporate parents is underpinned by evidence around attachment, trauma and loss, and a wide range of material and briefing can be found on their website: https://www.celcis.org/.

We are clear that professionals working with children should have the skills, confidence and knowledge required to best meet the needs of the child and support and promote their emotional, as well as physical, wellbeing. We are committed to ensuring that every professional working with children is trained on equality, to enable them to address prejudice-based bullying, attachment, child development and child protection.

The Scottish Government’s Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 identifies that it is important to respond appropriately to the emotional distress linked to both the circumstances that led to a child becoming looked after and the experience of being looked after in any setting. Professionals working with looked after children and young people should have the necessary knowledge and skills around issues such as trauma and attachment. The strategy recognises the importance of including mental and emotional health and wellbeing in developing care pathways for children who are, or at risk of being, looked after.

In 2016-17 through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and ALEC Fund the Scottish Government will provide almost £1.6 million in core funding to third sector organisations directly supporting looked after children, and a further £1.7 million approximately to organisations whose work contributes to preventing children becoming looked after. In addition to this, eight bespoke projects are being funded directly in the area of looked after children, or which contribute to preventing children becoming looked after, equating to additional spend of £299,412 in 2017-18. One of these projects (delivered by the Kibble Education and Care Centre) is specifically about the creation of a strategic plan for work with trauma-experienced young people, with a focus on the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT). NMT is a trauma-informed approach to youth care developed in the USA.

And, through the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ) and the Interventions for Vulnerable Youth Project (IVY), which are funded by the Scottish Government, support is provided to professionals through research, practice development and professional learning opportunities. This includes a strong focus on the need to take a developmental approach when working with young people who display high risk behaviours and specific work on trauma and attachment issues. The IVY project is a specialist psychological and social work service which reflects a multi-disciplinary tiered approach to risk assessment, formulation and management for high risk young people aged 12 to 18 years who present with complex psychological needs and high risk behaviour in terms of their violent conduct.

The Fairer Scotland Action Plan, published in October 2016, set out 50 concrete actions the Scottish Government will take over this parliamentary term to reduce poverty and tackle inequality.

Many of these are expected to have a positive impact for those who are in work but on low incomes. These include, for example, tackling the poverty premium, reducing child poverty, introducing a Job Grant for young people returning to the workplace after six months unemployed, supporting people to work more flexibly when they want to, working with a range of partners to help people to claim the benefits they are entitled to, and improving employment services for disabled people.

The Scottish Government has committed to reporting annually on progress against the 50 actions and to produce new actions in the second half of this parliamentary term.

The Scottish Government’s digital participation campaign “Let’s Get Online” encourages older people to take those first steps to getting online by offering support and promoting the benefits of using digital devices. Since 2014 the campaign has carried out 133 days of activity in 149 locations across Scotland including Shetland, Orkney and Western Isles.

Supported by local TV and radio, we provided a roadshow of free, face to face internet taster sessions signposting people to training in their local area. Around 37,000 people have been given practical help and advice which has contributed to a 10% increase in the number of older people who access the internet.

The Scottish Government is working with a wide range of stakeholders to take forward a £3.5million programme of work to achieve the ten commitments set out in the Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care (SFA).

The National Implementation Advisory Group (NIAG), which includes representatives from health, social care, independent and third sectors, supports and advises on the implementation of the SFA and improvement actions at both local and national levels.

The Scottish Government's review of personal and social education will consult with a wide range of key stakeholders, including children and young people and teachers. Initial scoping work has commenced and we will announce further details in due course.

The trunk road operating companies are contractually required to examine all domestic animals found dead on the trunk road and motorway network for any identifying features, including scanning for microchips. The Police are then notified of any identifying features, together with a brief description of the animal. Where possible, the operating company will attempt to contact the owner of the animal, and will keep the carcass of any domestic animal for a period of two weeks, in case the owner wishes to claim their pet.

Tracing owners of deceased cats can be problematic as very few domestic cats are micro-chipped or have collars with the owner’s details, making it virtually impossible to trace an owner. There is currently no legislation requiring domestic cats to have such identification, and this would be difficult to enforce. Dealing with deceased cats found on local roads is a matter for local authorities.

Work is being undertaken at the Scottish Government’s Scottish Advice for Science and Agriculture (SASA) on international projects to develop resources for DNA-based species identification in illegally traded species such as rhinos and pangolin. SASA are also co-organising the Society for Wildlife Forensic Sciences international conference in Edinburgh in June. This event will bring together wildlife forensic scientists, law enforcement officers and policy-makers from around the world.

The Scottish Government also provides funding to the National Wildlife Crime Unit, based in Stirling, which provides investigative support across all UK police forces to tackle wildlife crime.

The Scottish Government does not directly provide support to wildlife attractions to help them maintain security against break-ins. Police Scotland, Local Authorities, Community Safety Partnerships and their local partners work to raise awareness, for all business sectors, of the measures that can be adopted by individual businesses to improve security, safety and resilience.

Advice and guidance to businesses in dealing with various crimes can be found on the Police Scotland website: http://www.scotland.police.uk/keep-safe/246633/

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. CITES is reserved to the UK Government. CITES applies to the import of ivory, rhino horns and other materials from endangered species.

Police Scotland, working in partnership with the UK Border Force, are responsible for enforcing the law on CITES in Scotland.

The total number of legal abortions performed in Scotland on women who are normally resident in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland during the period 2013 to 2015 was 5.

As the numbers of legal abortions performed in Scotland on women who are normally resident in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in each of the last three years are very small, we are unable to provide a further breakdown of this figure to the risk of disclosing personally identifiable information.