In May 2018, we reached a joint agreement with local authorities to set the school clothing grant at a national minimum level of £100 per eligible child or young person.

The following table provides information about the value of school clothing grants provided by local authorities in 2017-18, the year before the national minimum school clothing grant was introduced, in comparison to the amounts paid for the 2020-21 school year.

In June 2021 we reached an agreement with local authorities to increase the national minimum school clothing grant level further. The new national minimum level has been set at £120 for each eligible child in primary school and £150 for each eligible young person in secondary school for the 2021-22 school year. Information about the value of school clothing grants set by local authorities for 2021-22 is not held centrally.

There is no statutory obligation for youth workers or for youth work activity to be recorded or monitored by local authorities, third sector organisations or voluntary organisations.

However, the CLD Standards Council for Scotland, reports that over two and a half thousand CLD staff and volunteers have signed up to the CLD code of ethics which includes practice for youth work and community based adult learning. The CLD Standards Council also reports in 2018 that there is an estimated paid workforce of twenty one thousand practitioners within the CLD sector.

Table 1 shows the median waiting time (in days) for individuals with first treatment type recorded as either (1) Community based support and/or rehabilitation or (2) Residential Detoxification/Inpatient Treatment. Figures are presented for each of the last 5 financial years and include Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) breakdowns as well as Scotland level data. Treatments can be for drug or alcohol clients, or clients with a combination of the two. Waiting times are calculated from date of Referral to date of First Treatment.

Table 1 Median Waiting Time (in days) from Referral to First1 Treatment for treatment types (1) Community based support and/or rehabilitation2 or (2) Residential Detoxification/Inpatient Treatment3 , drug and alcohol clients or clients with a combination of the two, by ADP and Scotland.

Youth work is a professional practice delivered in many environments. Delivery is carried out in a range of multi-purpose community facilities, schools, colleges and hospitals. Service provision for young people includes community based youth work, outdoor learning, direct intervention, youth awards, participation in uniformed organisations and local youth clubs.

There is no statutory obligation on youth work providers to register details of their operations with Scottish Government, and as such the Scottish Government does not hold information on the numbers of operational youth work centres in Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of ensuring that high quality, person centred bereavement care and support is available for those who need it. It is important to reflect that each individual and family’s experience of bereavement is unique as are their support requirements. That is why we undertake a broad range of work to improve the bereavement care and support available for those who need it, particularly at this difficult time.

Since 2016 the Scottish Government has funded Cruse Scotland and Child Bereavement UK through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund to provide support to individuals and families who have been bereaved. This Fund has been extended to end March 2022 to provide greater stability to organisations and we will announce in due course plans for funding the third sector from April 2022.

In 2020 we awarded a contract to Includem to establish a Scottish childhood bereavement co-ordinator who will ensure effective provision of bereavement support and care for children and young people.

Our Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan, published in October 2020, sets out a number of commitments to support the mental health of people following bereavement and we will continue to engage with providers of bereavement support, and people with lived experience, to design improvements. Through the work of our National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group we are supporting the piloting of suicide bereavement support services and pilots will launch in Highland and Ayrshire & Arran in the coming months.

We will continue to work closely with NHS Boards, Integration Authorities and third sector organisations to continually revisit our work in this area and respond to the additional needs of people and families arising from the pandemic and provide additional support where needed.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. However, you may wish to contact Scottish Local Authorities individually for information they may hold. The Scottish local government page of the Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) has contact information for each authority: https://www.cosla.gov.uk/councils .

Consideration of potential improvements to all strategic transport infrastructure across the whole of Scotland continues to be undertaken through the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2). Through the STPR2 Regional Transport Working Group covering the Edinburgh area, Transport Scotland have ensured there are synergies between this and the ongoing improvements at Sheriffhall, being progressed as part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

STPR2 will create the evidence basis for future transport investment decisions by the Scottish Government for the next 20 years. It will set out how the recommended investments will contribute Net Zero, Inclusive Growth and our vision is for a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors.

At the core of STPR2 is the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy. We will aim first to reduce the need to travel unsustainably, make better use of and enhance existing infrastructure, before investing in new capacity. This hierarchy is also central to Infrastructure Investment Plan. It is through this Review, that potential improvements on the A720, in addition to the work at Sheriffhall, will be considered within the appraisal process.

STPR2 will conclude later this year, with publication of recommendations for investment and an appropriate statutory consultation period.

We continue to analyse a number of options around signalisation and prohibition of movements in order to understand the wider impacts of this on the surrounding local and trunk road network. This is a complex task, which aims to balance the need to reduce conflict at this location along with minimising any reduction in operational performance of the A702 corridor.

We have commissioned specialist traffic modelling consultants to carry out a detailed modelling exercise to assess the effectiveness of different junction option scenarios including road closures/banned turning movements in conjunction with new traffic signal arrangements. This detailed modelling exercise is currently ongoing and is expected that this work will be concluded in summer 2021.

Spending data on additional support for learning (ASL) is provided below. This data is collected from local authorities via the Local Financial Returns (LFR). In addition to 2019-20 expenditure data, figures for 2018-19 have also been provided due to revisions in LFR statistics since the response to
‎ S5W-27605. These revisions reflect an upward revision in ASL spending reported by North Lanarkshire, and a downwards revision in ASL spending reported by Stirling local authority.

Local authorities are asked to provide this data in line with guidance to ensure returns are completed on a consistent basis to allow for a reasonable degree of comparability. However, these figures may be affected by variations in local accounting practices and education strategies. It is important to bear this in mind when making comparisons between local authorities and years.

Local authorities are asked to record all centrally funded ASL expenditure under Special Education, irrespective of where it is delivered. Decisions about prioritisation and budgets, including those for the provision of services for pupils with additional support needs, are a matter for individual councils. We recognise the challenges facing authorities in balancing their need to meet a wide range of statutory duties, local priorities and local circumstances.

Tables 1 and 2 shows gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning (ASL) education from 2019-20 and 2018-19 respectively, split by Pre-Primary, Primary, Secondary and Special Education.

Table 1 – 2019-20 ASL expenditure by Local Authority (£000)