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As the independent review of Additional Support for Learning (ASL) made clear, all teachers have a central role in assessing and supporting all children with additional support needs, including those from armed forces and veterans’ families.

Although the Scottish Government cannot mandate content for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses, as part of our jointly agreed ASL Action Plan, we have taken a number of actions to support the training and professional development of teachers:

• In 2021, the GTCS refreshed both the professional standards and the standards for ITE providers to make explicit reference to Additional Support Needs throughout.
• In June this year, the Scottish Universities Inclusion Group published an updated edition of the National Framework for Inclusion . This reflective tool supports both student and qualified teachers to continue developing their inclusive practice.
• Education Scotland, working collaboratively with the ADES National Transitions Officer and Forces Children Scotland, developed a professional learning resource – Supporting Armed Forces Families . This resource provides information about deployment, mobility, transitions and the impacts these can have on children from Armed Forces families.

As part of our ongoing work to implement the ASL Action Plan, we will continue to support the training and professional development of teachers in developing inclusive practice which supports all learners.

Further, the statutory Code of Practice on Additional Support for Learning which provides guidance to education authorities on their duties under the Act, makes clear that children of parents in the Armed Forces may have additional support needs.

The Scottish Government has committed to extend the Connecting Scotland programme over the course of this Parliament to reach a total of 300,000 people. Work is underway to scope the future service, including how best to reach priority groups who we know are most likely to be digitally excluded, including ethnic minority and migrant communities. Connecting Scotland supported migrant communities in its initial phases and has recently supported Ukrainian displaced persons on arrival in Scotland.

Connecting Scotland is delivered in collaboration with key partners, including local authorities, COSLA, SCVO and third sector organisations to support access to, and the provision of, digital skills and literacy opportunities.

Additionally, as part of the New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project, six projects have been awarded funding to support digital inclusion for refugees. This project is part funded by the EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-09748 on 27 July 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

As our joint ASL action plan shows, the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Association of Directors of Education (ADES) are committed to including and involving children and young people in policy development, including those from armed forces and veteran’s families.

This includes publication last year of the vision statement for success for children and young people with additional support needs which was created by young people from the Young Ambassadors for Inclusion network with the support of ASLIG.

Work is also progressing to develop a measurement framework, seeking to value and increase visibility of the diverse achievements that young people achieve and develop a mechanism to ensure that these are fully recognised and celebrated.

We are working closely with the ADES National Transitions Officer, Forces Families Federations and other third sector partners to ensure that the children and young people from armed forces and veterans’ families are included in this on-going work.

We have also provided funding to Forces Children Scotland through this year’s Scottish Veterans Fund. This will support their Mindful Connections work exploring the lived experiences of veterans’ families, including children and young people, with the aim of enhancing their transition into civilian life and integration into communities.

The Social Care Staff Support Fund was set up in June 2020 using emergency powers provided by the Coronavirus (No.2) (Scotland) Act. This provision is intended for a group of workers who, due to the nature of their work or work environment, may be expected to self-isolate on more than one occasion as part of infection prevention and control. The aforementioned emergency powers are due to expire on 30 September 2022, and my officials are currently scoping what support may be required beyond this date.

The Scottish Government has supported additional staffing costs, including the Social Care Staff Support Fund, through sustainability payment funding to Integration Authorities.

£561 million in 2020-21 and over £700 million in 2021-22 was allocated to Integration Authorities for social care Covid-19 support, including sustainability payments. While no further Barnett consequentials have been provided, the Scottish Government has continued funding a number of additional Covid-19 costs in 2022-23, providing funding for all costs associated with vaccinations and testing in care homes to 31 March 2023. The emergency legislation underpinning the Social Care Staff Support Fund is due to expire on 30 September 2022 and officials are currently reviewing options for support beyond this date.

The Scottish Government does not receive separate reporting relating to the cost of the Social Care Staff Support Fund for delegated services, and such information would require to be requested from Integration Authorities.

The National Strategy for Economic Transformation contains bold and ambitious actions - within the powers currently available to us - to deliver economic prosperity for all Scotland’s people and places. The strategy sets out our ambition that, by 2032, Scotland will be an international benchmark, showcasing how an economy can transform itself, de-carbonise and rebuild natural capital whilst creating more, well-paid and secure jobs and developing new markets based on renewable sources of energy and low carbon technology.

One of the strategy’s transformational programmes of action is developing a more skilled workforce. Actions contained within the strategy include implementing the next phase of the Green Jobs Workforce Academy and launching a new skills guarantee for workers in carbon intensive industries. Looking forward, we are committed to delivering a lifetime upskilling and retraining offer that is straightforward, accessible, and ambitious. We are also supporting a Just Transition. The Just Transition Fund is a ten year, £500m investment to support a fair transition to net zero and to diversify the regional economies of the North East and Moray.

The strategy introduces a streamlined delivery model and a robust governance structure, co-led by business and with immediate access to Ministers, which will hold the public sector and industry to account for delivery. We will work together with the public, private and third sectors – as well as with individuals and communities – in a genuine “Team Scotland” approach to develop and implement delivery plans for each programme.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act 2004 (as amended) requires education authorities to identify, provide for and to review the additional support needs of their pupils, including those from armed forces and veterans’ families. Local authorities are supported to carry out their duties under the Act by the statutory Supporting Learners’ Code of Practice, which provides guidance to education authorities and schools on their duties under the Act.

The Scottish Government and COSLA published our joint national response to the independently chaired review of implementation of additional support for learning in October 2020. The joint action plan sets out the measures we will take to implement her recommendations.

We published an updated action and progress report on 1 st November 2021. The action plan and governance arrangements for this work are available from: Additional support for learning action plan: progress report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Local authorities should consider these recommendations as part of implementation of additional support for learning policy locally.

In addition, the Scottish Government chairs the Scottish Armed Forces Education Support Group (SAFESG). This group takes a strategic approach to supporting the issues affecting children armed forces children and young people, working closely with Education Scotland, the Ministry of Defence, Tri-Service reps and third sector partners.

We also recently provided £50,000 of funding to continue the ADES National Transitions Officer (NTO). The NTO plays a key a role in supporting schools and school leaders, particularly through the Service Pupil Champions and head teacher’s networks. These networks enable the sharing of information and best practice among all local authorities, to improve the support offered to children and young people from armed forces and veterans’ families.

As we discussed in our meeting of 24 March and in my letter to you of 19 May, skills recognition is central to Scottish Government’s just transition ambitions, and is also set out in the North Sea Transition Deal. You will be aware that on 24 May OPITO published the People and Skills Strategy and the first of five Action Plans, which is focused on Aligning Offshore Standards. This work is supported by the Skills Passport Industry Steering Group which meets monthly, providing insight and sharing information to support the development of a Skills Passport. A range of energy industry organisations are represented on the Steering Group, ensuring different needs and perspectives across the industry are represented.

This must be an initiative led by industryand taken forward in partnership with the workforce. OPITO continue to engage with stakeholders, including the offshore unions. The Aligning Offshore Standards Action Plan, which includes key activities and timescales, was supported by unions at a recent meeting of the North Sea Transition Deal Delivery Group, attended by UNITE. The North Sea Transition Deal Delivery Group will continue to oversee delivery of the Deal commitments, including oversight of the Strategy and Action Plans.

In May 2022 the Scottish Government established a short-life working group to provide analytical expertise and insight into the impacts of the cost of living crisis. Part of the purpose of the group is to assess the impact on priority groups in particular, including unpaid carers, who were identified as a sub-group of low income households likely to be disproportionately impacted. Input from partners forms part of the evidence, informing policy responses to cost-of-living increases. The outputs from this working group have been used for internal briefing purposes, including preparing a paper to inform discussions at Cabinet. The material has also informed discussions with the UK Government on cost of living.

The Scottish Government’s 2022-23 budget has allocated almost £3 billion to a range of support that will help mitigate the impact of the increased cost of living on households, including those of unpaid carers. This consists of work to tackle child poverty, reduce inequalities and support financial wellbeing, alongside social security payments not available anywhere else in UK.

To keep pace with rising costs, the Scottish Government has increased eight Scottish benefits by 6%, including Young Carer Grant and Carer's Allowance Supplement, through an investment of £4.6 million in 2022-23, and continues to urge Westminster to match efforts and increase the level of support for unpaid carers, including ensuring that unpaid carers not on Universal Credit also benefit from the UK Government’s cost of living payments.

Carers in Scotland continuously in receipt of Carer’s Allowance have received over £2,520 more than carers in England since 2018, through an investment of £188 million following the introduction of the Carer’s Allowance Supplement. Each carer received a further £245.70 on 10 June 2022.

The Scottish Government engages regularly with unpaid carers and carer representative organisations to better understand carers’ lived experience. This ongoing engagement informs decision making with the aim of improving the support available for carers. The Scottish Government funds Carers Scotland, which has produced a number of reports on the various impacts of caring, including financial.

We will publish a Carers Strategy which will set out a cross-government approach to carers’ financial inclusion including through social security policies, the Scottish Welfare Fund, action on fuel poverty and supporting carers in employment and education.