Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy has responsibility for Ferguson Marine and the vessels under construction there. I am aware that the Cabinet Secretary currently meets with the yards management on a fortnightly basis to discuss progress, as well as receiving detailed monthly reports.

I currently have no plans to meet with the senior management team at Ferguson Marine in the near future, however I maintain an active interest in the progress at the yard and receive regular reports as a matter of course.

Each Health Board requires staff to undertake mandatory training to help them understand the Board’s policy on equality, diversity and human rights, and what it means for them in terms of both their rights and any associated responsibilities.

The Scottish Government is exploring how to best deliver a more robust and up-to-date learning on equality, diversity and inclusion based on engagement with those with relevant experience and expertise.

The Scottish Government also fully supports all staff diversity networks and is developing an online platform to help networks across Scotland to share information and resources. We have established a staff led National NHS Ethnic Minority Forum that aims to amplify the voices of ethnic minority staff across the health service and tackle issues of systemic racism.

We know that meaningful, fair work can provide important benefits for people’s mental health and wellbeing. We also know that creating workplaces which support and promote good mental health benefit individuals and employers.

Our ‘Mental Health – Transition and Recovery Plan outlines our response to the mental health impacts of COVID-19 and sets out our commitments to supporting mental health and wellbeing as we recover from the pandemic. The plan includes key employment actions to promote and support mental health and wellbeing at work.

A Short Life Working Group, consisting of employer groups, trade unions and mental health organisations, has been established to help take forward our key employment actions. The group is working collaboratively to identify the issues and challenges that employers are facing in supporting mental health at work. The outcomes of this phase of work will inform the next steps that will be undertaken to ensure employers have the support they need to create mentally healthy workplaces, free of stigma and discrimination.

The Scottish Government has issued national guidance to inform local authority deployment of this funding, which has been sent to the relevant local authority officers and is available online: Financial insecurity: guidance to local authorities over winter 2021-2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The guidance provides a strong steer in favour of cash-first responses, and the integration of money advice and holistic support services to prevent future hardship. Local authorities will have flexibility to decide how to provide assistance for those most likely to experience hardship – including people who may have been impacted by the recent UK Government cut to Universal Credit and those who may not be eligible for mainstream support.

Local authorities will be informed of their allocations once COSLA Leaders have considered and agreed the methodology for distribution on 26 November. It is proposed that funding is allocated through a redetermination to General Revenue Grant with payments in the final two weeks of the current financial year which is standard practice for additional in-year funding for local authorities. All General Revenue Grant funding requires the approval of the Scottish Parliament.

To date 251 businesses have been successful and 49 unsuccessful in receiving funding contributing to peatland restoration through the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme.

On the 5 October, the Health Secretary announced our £300 million NHS and care winter package.

We announced funding of:

• £40m for ‘step-down’ care, so that hospital patients can temporarily go into care homes, or can receive additional care at home support;
• £62m to maximise the capacity of care at home services;
• Up to £48m to increase the hourly rate of frontline adult social care staff to at least £10.02;
• £20m to enhance Multi-Disciplinary Teams, so that more social work assessments can be carried out, and to support joint working between health and social care.

This new funding will support increases in social care capacity in the community and in primary care.

As set out in the announcement, £62 million for 2021-22 has been allocated for building capacity in care at home community-based services. This is recurring funding intended help to fulfil unmet need, and deal with the current surge in demand and complexity of individual needs, also helping to ease pressures on unpaid carers.

On the 8 November we launched a further national marketing campaign to attract more people to the sector. We are doing things differently to previous campaigns, focusing on social media, a younger target audience, and we are working with schools and colleges, and linking to the medium term work we’re doing with the SSSC and NES on career pathways and learning and development.

We have approved funding to extend the MyJobScotland recruitment website to all third and independent sector organisations until March 2022, which will mean that all social care vacancies can be advertised on one platform at no additional cost to providers.

We are also working at pace with SSSC and NES to develop a national induction programme to support new entrants into Adult Social Care.

On the 5 October, the Health Secretary announced our £300 million NHS and care winter package.

We announced funding of:

• £40m for ‘step-down’ care, so that hospital patients can temporarily go into care homes, or can receive additional care at home support;
• £62m to maximise the capacity of care at home services;
• Up to £48m to increase the hourly rate of frontline adult social care staff to at least £10.02;
• £20m to enhance Multi-Disciplinary Teams, so that more social work assessments can be carried out, and to support joint working between health and social care.

This new funding will support increases in social care capacity in the community and in primary care.

As set out in the announcement, £62 million for 2021-22 has been allocated for building capacity in care at home community-based services. This is recurring funding intended help to fulfil unmet need, and deal with the current surge in demand and complexity of individual needs, also helping to ease pressures on unpaid carers.

Health Boards have already commenced recruitment activity to meet the commitment to recruit an additional 1,000 Health and Care Support staff at AfC Bands 2, 3 & 4 to provide additional capacity across a variety of services both in the community and in hospital settings. Funding of up to £15 million is being provided in-year to fully fund all costs associate with recruitment to these posts. We are directly supporting boards to fill these posts as quickly as possible within that time frame, through securing an accelerated pre-employment process and supporting the delivery of employability initiatives such as the ‘Skills Boost for Health Care’ training for staff new to health and care.

On the 8 November we launched a further national marketing campaign to attract more people to the sector. We are doing things differently to previous campaigns, focusing on social media, a younger target audience, and we are working with schools and colleges, and linking to the medium term work we’re doing with the SSSC and NES on career pathways and learning and development.

We have approved funding to extend the MyJobScotland recruitment website to all third and independent sector organisations until March 2022, which will mean that all social care vacancies can be advertised on one platform at no additional cost to providers.

The Scottish Government published the British Sign Language (BSL) Progress Report on 27th October 2021, which outlines progress being made towards implementing the BSL National Plan. It outlines progress on a range of fronts, including education, BSL/English interpreting, and public life. The report outlines how Scottish Government has funded BSL Partnership organisations to engage and support public bodies with their BSL plans, and notes important developments such as the decision that Scotland’s next census, in 2022, will ask 'can you use BSL?' for the first time.

Significant progress has been made towards making our country more inclusive and supportive of BSL users. The language enjoys a higher profile than ever before in public life, and is ever more visible in media and communications. For example, during the COVID-19 crisis, BSL/English interpreters were present at the daily Scottish Government Coronavirus briefings. This work was recognised by the British Deaf Association and the European Union of the Deaf.

The Scottish Government will publish the second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan by the end of March 2022, setting out a range of actions which will put us on a critical path to the 2030 child poverty targets.

We have declared a national mission to end child poverty, recognising the need for urgent and targeted action which is underpinned by work across the Scottish Government to shape the next delivery plan.

Consultation for the plan is ongoing, in compliance with the requirements of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017. Inputs have been received from national and community based third sector organisations, local authorities and health boards. Working in partnership with third sector organisations, the experiences and priorities of people with lived experience of poverty are informing the development of the plan.

Further consultation activity with third sector organisations and people with lived experience of poverty will take place in advance of publication of the plan. This will focus on the priority family types identified in the first Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan and the experience of those most affected by child poverty.

The Scottish Government is working with COSLA to facilitate the full engagement of local authorities.