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The Scottish Government provided an evidence paper to the Education, Children and Young People Committee ahead of its meeting on 25 May 2022. This paper covers many of the issues subsequently raised in the written evidence submitted by the Scottish Private Nursery Association (SPNA) for that session.

The SPNA separately shared their written evidence with Scottish Government officials directly. Officials provided a detailed response to the SPNA on 3 August 2022. I would be happy to share this, and would invite the member to contact my office to request a copy.

Regular engagement with the childcare sector is a vital part of the Scottish Government’s approach to policy development and monitoring delivery of the 1140 expansion, and I am grateful to the SPNA for sharing their members’ concerns.

Since the launch of the Young Person’s Guarantee in November 2020, we have provided additional funding of £10m per year in 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 to the college sector to enable them to deliver a range of short industry focused opportunities for young people, including skills boost and fast track courses, to meet the needs of employers and support economic recovery.

We have worked with the Scottish Funding Council, college sector and key partners to ensure that opportunities are targeted at supporting individuals who experience barriers in participating in the labour market, including disabled young people. Scottish Funding Council data from the first phase of delivery in colleges for 2020-21 shows that a total of 3,299 students enrolled on Young Person’s Guarantee college places and of those 755 (22.9%) declared a disability.

We do not hold data on the number of volunteering, employment or work experience opportunities taken up by young disabled people that can be attributed to the Young Person’s Guarantee. The Guarantee is not a standalone programme, reporting encompasses the investment by the Scottish Government across education, employability and skills.

We are continuing to engage with the further education sector and key partners to advance equality, inclusion and to eliminate discrimination. Provision is supporting tailored college opportunities for young people with protected characteristics across Scotland, including disabled young people. It is important to note that disabilities and health conditions are self-declared by students and applicants.

We are not aware of any current difficulties affecting the immediate development pipeline related to insolvencies. We are unable to quantify the impact that the reported rise in insolvencies among small and medium house builders is having on the affordable housing supply programme development pipeline as for many projects until they are tendered we do not know who the house builder or construction company will be. Some local authorities and RSLs operate development framework agreements but we have not been made aware of any issues of insolvency affecting these frameworks. Scottish Government does not directly procure housing contracts. It is for Registered Social Landlords and Local Authorities to procure construction delivery partners.

It is for Glasgow City Council as the statutory housing and planning authority to set out local housing requirements. The Glasgow Local Housing Strategy 2017 sets a Housing Supply Target of 15,000 new homes over five years, including 7,500 new affordable homes. Scottish Government published new housebuilding statistics, based on private-led completions data provided by Glasgow City Council along with social sector housing association new build completions data from the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, and these show a total of 4,923 all-sector completions over the four year period 2017-18 to 2020-21, with more than half of these being social sector housing association homes.

The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown significantly impacted the construction sector across Scotland with associated delays to delivery of homes.

The application window for the first year of the Just Transition Fund closed on 15 July 2022, with a total of 102 proposals received.

The Fund was advertised through the Scottish Government’s website and social media platforms, as well as through local partners, including: Aberdeenshire Council, Moray Council; Aberdeen City Council; Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce; Moray Chamber of Commerce; and the Just Transition Partnership. The Fund was also advertised through the ‘Find Business Support’ portal.

Applicants were notified about the outcome of their proposals on 6 September 2022, but the full list of projects won’t be published until after the mourning period following the passing of Her Majesty The Queen.

Funding the Scottish Government has allocated to improve energy efficiency of buildings 2020 to 2022

Scottish Government officials assess whether each bidding organisation to the Just Transition Fund is “headquartered, or demonstrate[s] a strong connection to at least one of Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City or Moray". Only proposals that meet this criteria are considered for funding.

Aberdeenshire Council, Moray Council and Aberdeen City Council were all able to bid into the fund. They can count as the partner that is based or has operations in the region, however that is not mandatory and any private organisation can be considered as the local partner organisation.

The Scottish Government provides grant in aid funding to the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), as outlined in the Annual Budget Bills. In 2022-23 this funding totals over £1.3 billion. It is for the SPA and the Chief Constable to allocate this funding to policing priorities at a national and local level, and to also support the delivery of the Joint Strategy on Policing.

The Scottish Government has not provided any additional funding to Police Scotland specifically in support of stalking and harassment offences in the time period 2018-19 to 2022-23.

We have continued to increase our funding to Action Against Stalking since 2019. In 2020-21 we provided almost £115,000 in funding and in 2021-22 we provided £100,000.

In March 2022 we announced funding of £495,000 over the period 2022-25 from the new Victim Centred Approach Fund to enable Action Against Stalking to deliver expert support to victims, and continue their work to improve the understanding of, and response to, stalking behaviours.

We are also providing up to £230,000 a year through the Scottish Legal Aid budget, and £384,000 in 2022-23 from the Justice portfolio, to the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre to offer free legal information and advice to women experiencing gender based violence, including stalking and harassment.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway are undertaking work locally to consider and explore possible options for the service, in response to a request from the Integration Joint Board who have responsibility for planning and delivery of the majority of health care in the region.

I will meet with the Galloway Community Hospital Action Group again on the 31 October to discuss further.