Data on the number of cases of child abuse reported to social services are not collected centrally by the Scottish Government.

You may wish to note that Children’s Social Work Statistics are published annually, and although these do not give the information you have asked for, they do show the number of children on the child protection register and the number of concerns at the case conferences at which they were registered.

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (“The 2014 Act”) first introduced and defined the term ‘early learning and childcare’ (ELC). Prior to the 2014 Act, there was no statutory duty to provide pre-school education to 2 year olds.

The 2014 Act increased the number of funded ELC hours for all 3 and 4 year olds and introduced the statutory duty to provide access to funded ELC for eligible 2 year olds.

Since 2014, data on the number of registrations of 2 year olds receiving funded ELC has been collected for the annual census of ELC [1] . Prior to 2014, data was collected on registrations for funded pre-school education . Prior to 2012, data was not collected on registrations for children aged 2.

The Housing First Pathfinder programme started in August 2018 across six local authority areas with Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire working in partnership. Up until the 30 June 2021, a total of 531 people have received Housing First support through the pathfinder programme, which has been funded by the Scottish Government, The Merchants House of Glasgow and Social Bite. The following table provides a breakdown of tenancies commenced and the number of tenancies sustained across each local authority area:

The Scottish Housing Regulator collects comprehensive data on sheltered housing provided by Local Authorities and other Social Housing Landlords. The latest published data, as at 31 March 2019, broken down by local authority, is available at:

https://www.housingregulator.gov.scot/media/1407/stock-by-provision-and-la-area-2019.xlsx . Data has been collected since 1999 but is not currently published by the Scottish Housing Regulator. This data has been published by Scottish Government from 2001 to 2013 (details below) and data for other years may be available from the Scottish Housing Regulator.

The latest available figures show that as at March 2019, there were 27,691 sheltered self-contained units (15,237 provided by Local Authorities and 12,454 provided by Housing Associations), 3,051 very sheltered self-contained units (769 provided by Local Authorities and 2,282 provided by Housing Associations) and 15,812 medium dependency self-contained units (6,673 provided by Local Authorities and 12,139 provided by Housing Associations).

The Scottish Government also collects information on the number of sheltered homes provided by local authorities. This data is available from 2001 to 2019, but excludes all local authorities which have transferred their stock to Housing Associations.

Latest available Scottish Government annual statistics on the local authority provision of housing for older people, including the provision of sheltered, very sheltered, and medium dependency housing up to 2019, are published at

https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-scotland-2019-key-trends-summary/ , with detailed local authority level Excel tables available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/housing-statistics-housing-for-older-people-and-people-with-disabilities/ . These tables include Scottish Housing Regulator data from 2001 to 2013 on sheltered housing provided by Housing Associations.

The Scottish Government, through the Home Energy Scotland (HES) Loan and Cashback scheme, provides interest-free loans with up to 75% cashback grant funding for homeowners to replace fossil-fuel heating systems such as gas with low or zero emissions heating systems such as heat pumps.

To further support households to make their homes greener, we provide:

• free, impartial advice through Home Energy Scotland, including specialist home renewables advice;
• HES loans with up to 40% cashback for energy efficiency measures;
• the Green Homes Network which allows households to find out about the experience of others who have already installed measures; and
• the Renewable Installer Finder Tool which helps households find installers and suppliers in their area.

These advice and support schemes can be accessed through Home Energy Scotland, run by the Energy Saving Trust.

Housing to 2040 is Scotland’s first ever long-term national housing strategy and makes clear our ambition to deliver 100,000 affordable homes by
‎ 2031-32, 70% of which will be for social rent.

Local authorities as the statutory housing authority are responsible for assessing housing requirements in their area and setting out their plans to meet these requirements as part of their Local Housing Strategy and Strategic Housing Investment Plan.

Details of the £10 million grant fund scheme - announced by the Deputy First Minister on 22 June to help tenants who have been financially impacted by the pandemic and are facing homelessness - are being developed at pace and we will provide further information in due course.

Rapid rehousing transition plans (RRTPs) are developed and owned by each local authority in Scotland, working with their partners. The Scottish Government asks each local authority to complete an activities and spend template each year, requesting information about the implementation of RRTPs. The areas covered in the template include the development of Housing First, prevention activity, the use of temporary accommodation, the availability of settled accommodation and yearly spend.

The Scottish Government carries out a review of these templates, including any additional information provided from updated RRTPs, and feedback is provided to each local authority. The Scottish Government is currently reviewing local authority submissions for 2020/21 and feedback to the local authorities will be issued during August 2021. A report on the implementation of RRTPs will be submitted to the Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group (HPSG) later this year.

This process provides assurance to the Scottish Government about the development and implementation of RRTPs across Scotland and supports our continued partnership in tackling homelessness. While local authorities and their partners are best placed to develop and implement plans based on local circumstances, the areas covered in the activities and spend template allow the Scottish Government to review how plans support national homelessness policy objectives.

Housing to 2040 is Scotland’s first ever long-term national housing strategy and makes clear our ambition to deliver 100,000 affordable homes by
‎ 2031-32, 70% of which will be for social rent.

Local authorities have a statutory function to assess local housing requirements and to set out in their Local Housing Strategy (LHS) how this will be met.

Priorities and outcomes identified in the LHS inform local authority Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs) which are prepared annually and which set out affordable housing investment priorities over a five year period. These are expected to be publicly available.

We regularly assess workforce requirements across the whole of the Scottish economy, including in construction.

The construction industry is a core sector of the Scottish economy, providing infrastructure to businesses across all sectors of the economy. We are aware that the pandemic and Brexit may impact on the supply of labour in this sector.

For a successful recovery and to ensure no one is left behind we have a heavy focus on employability and skills. We continue to support our apprentices during these challenging times, including those in the construction sector, and have introduced additional interventions, such as an enhanced Adopt an Apprentice programme, to encourage employers to recruit and retain apprentices supporting the long-term future of work-based learning and the economy. In addition, we supported a range of skills-related activity, including supporting 5,033 people into modern apprenticeships in the construction sector during 2020-21. In 2021-22 we will invest more than £1bn to drive forward our national ambition for jobs and to equip our workforce with the future skills it needs.

The Construction Recovery Plan launched in 2020 sets out a range of short, medium and longer term actions to support employment, fairness of work, encourage new entrants into the sector, and address upskilling and reskilling needs to enable the sector adapt to technological change and net zero carbon in the built environment.