Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-27407

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures the smooth transition for teachers moving between the Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme (STSS) and the Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme 2015 (STPS 2015), in order to avoid any loss of pension benefits.

Question reference: S6W-27415

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how the Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme (STPS) compares with pension schemes offered to other public sector workers, and whether there are any plans to harmonise these schemes.

Question reference: S6W-27416

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what support mechanisms are in place to ensure that retired teachers with long careers have a secure and comfortable standard of living.

Question reference: S6W-27412

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure fairness and equality within the Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme (STPS) for teachers who joined at different points in time, in light of any changes in pension age and contribution rates.

Question reference: S6W-27413

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the current cost of living crisis, what specific actions are being taken to ensure that teacher pensions remain competitive and attractive to both new and existing teachers.

Question reference: S6W-27419

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 May 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 28 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the projected impact is of the recent teacher pay settlements on the long-term sustainability of the Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme (STPS).

Question reference: S6W-26323

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 23 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of community-based health and social care spend is currently spent on preventative whole family support, broken down by local authority area, and when it expects the total figure to reach its 5% target.

The Scottish Government remains committed to meeting this ambition by 2030 and continues to explore how we can enable a transformational change in the delivery of preventative whole family support and how we can take a cross portfolio approach to supporting work on prevention. In addition, we are currently preparing a Whole Family Wellbeing investment approach on supporting the provision of preventative, holistic family support.

Question reference: S6W-26328

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 23 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what data it collects regarding the circumstances of death when a young person dies in the care of a local authority; how any such data is published, and when any such data will next be reviewed.

The death of any child or young person is a tragedy. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that the death of any looked after child or young person is accurately reported on and reviewed to improve services and ensure that children and young people are receiving the best care possible.

In February of this year, the Scottish Government published revised guidance on Regulation 6 of The Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 (legislation.gov.uk) . The revised guidance clarifies that it is the responsibility of local authorities to notify Scottish Ministers when there has been a death of a looked after child or young person. This includes the provision of information such as the cause of death, DOB and the legal status of a child or young person that has died. This information is not published by the Scottish Government but is shared with Scottish Ministers who have powers to request further information if it is required.

Additionally, a National Hub was established in October 2021 to review and learn from the deaths of all live born children and young people in Scotland up to the date of their 18th birthday, or 26th birthday for care leavers who are in receipt of aftercare or continuing care at the time of their death. The National Hub review each death is reviewed and an overall annual report is produced.

The National Hub is managed by Health Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate and published its first annual data overview report, covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, on 19 March 2024.

Question reference: S6W-26329

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 23 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many grants for care experienced people it has awarded in each year since 2016, broken down by (a) age and (b) local authority area.

Grants to organisations for people with care experience by age

Age range	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
0-5	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
4 to 8	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
0-18	0	0	1	9	16	14	13	9
12 to 18	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2
0-26	0	0	0	0	8	8	0	0
All age ranges	16	16	16	16	16	17	18	16

Grants for People with Care Experience by Local Authority Area

Scottish Government has awarded one grant directly to all 32 local authorities for people with care experience, the Scottish Attainment Challenge Care Experienced Children and Young People Funding, since 2018.

During 2020-21, we made payments to all local authorities to support them with the recovery of children’s hearings. Social Protection Funding for Vulnerable Children Young People was also awarded to: Clackmannanshire, Fife, Aberdeenshire, Glasgow City, Falkirk and Stirling Councils.

Since 2019, we have awarded grants annually to local organisations that support the provision of independent advocacy for children and young people up to the age of 18 as part of the children’s hearing system in the following areas: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire Angus, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Edinburgh, Eilean Siar and Midlothian.

Our other grants for people with care experience are awarded directly to public and voluntary sector organisations. We do not hold comprehensive data on how that money is then distributed across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-26321

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2024
Current Status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 22 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of how its (a) children’s social work, (b) Homelessness in Scotland and (c) youth homelessness statistics differ with regards to capturing the experiences of care experienced young people.

The scope and purpose of the data collections associated with the children’s social work and homelessness statistics are very different. Additionally, this means that the sources cover different periods of the lives of care experienced children and young people.

The looked after children data collection (which is used for the Children’s Social Work statistics) relates to all children and young people who are in the care of their local authority. It includes information on placement type and care plans of children who are looked after.

The HL1 homelessness data collection (which is used for both the Homelessness in Scotland and youth homelessness statistics) relates to all households making an application to a local authority for homelessness support. This includes information on whether any adult member, aged under 25, of a household making a homelessness application was looked after as a child by their local authority.

Looked after status captured within HL1 will largely be self-reported by applicant households. Applicants can choose whether to answer the question. It should also be noted that it is not necessarily the case that the looked after status of all adults aged under 25 in the household will be known.

The Homelessness in Scotland series publishes data on former looked after status of households assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness. The youth homelessness workbook presents the former looked after status for households specifically with a main applicant aged under 25.

The HL1 data collection also captures information on the outcome of the application, and circumstances related to the application (such as reason for homelessness, property homeless from etc.). It can also be linked to the HL3 (temporary accommodation placement) dataset. Due to the small number of homeless households with a former looked after status (less than 1,100 in a year), further breakdowns are not published routinely.

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