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To ensure that Social Security Scotland benefits are accessible to everyone, they have all been designed so that they can be accessed online, by paper or telephone to suit individual preference. Where clients want further support, an appointment can be booked with our Local Delivery service. This service has a locally based team in each of the 32 Local Authority areas across Scotland, including the more remote and rural communities, providing a local, accessible service to the citizens of that area.

Local Delivery teams can provide clients with support to claim Social Security Scotland benefits, with gathering and providing supporting information, reporting change of circumstances or by providing general benefit advice. We can arrange appointments for clients in their home, in local outreach venues or by video or telephone, ensuring that the service is as accessible as possible and meets the needs of the clients that want to use it.

To raise awareness and encourage take-up of Social Security Scotland benefits, we have an ongoing plan of targeted communication activities that not only raises awareness of our new benefits but keeps information on our existing benefits in the public eye. This is done through a variety of channels such as national TV, radio and social media to ensure the messages are as visible and accessible as possible. This is supplemented by a monthly National Stakeholder newsletter that provides the latest information to stakeholders.

Within local communities, our Local Delivery teams are members of local Community Planning Partnership and Financial Inclusion groups ensuring that our benefits and service are part of local plans and initiatives to maximise families' incomes.Through these local networks we can signpost clients to the appropriate help to ensure that clients receive all of the support available to them.

To further maximise our reach, we hold ‘drop in’ sessions and attend local community groups and events, speaking face to face to citizens so they can hear first-hand about our benefits and get the opportunity to ask any questions directly to our specially trained Advisers.

Part of the package of the 2022-23 pay deal, agreed by the SJC Local Government workers, and requested by the SJC unions in their pay claim, Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) fees will no longer be paid by SJC local government employees who require them for work.

The Scottish Government is currently working closely with Public Health Scotland (PHS) to improve the data landscape across the NHS Health Boards in Scotland. Comprehensive data is vital to enable Boards to plan services and create appropriate care pathways. Many individuals accessing services do not initially have a diagnosis, but instead have general presentations.

In April 2019, to better understand the prevalence of specific conditions, referral outcomes, and patient demographics, the Scottish Government commissioned national patient-level data for people seeking and receiving treatment in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Psychological Therapies (PT) services. This is known as the CAMHS and PT National Dataset (CAPTND). IT systems in some Boards will require significant overhaul to enable the recording and extraction of the full dataset. Directors of eHealth are liaising with system suppliers and embedded PHS analysts to prioritise this work as part of the £0.5m digital infrastructure, applications and data package announced in September 2021.

The Scottish Government Ministerial team has met with National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) on several occasions since May 2021. The meetings were as follows:

31 Aug 2021 Jenny Gilruth, in her role as Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, had an introductory visit to NGS and met with the NGS Chair and Director General.

3 Feb 2022 Neil Gray, in his role as Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development and Minister with special responsibility for refugees from Ukraine had a meeting with the NGS Chair and Director General to discuss the NGS budget.

29 March 2022 Neil Gray visited the Scottish National Gallery site to view progress of the capital project.

24 Aug 2022 Angus Robertson in his role as Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture met with the NGS Chair and Director General.

30 November 2022 Angus Robertson met the NGS Chair to discuss philanthropy.

8 June 2023 I, as newly appointed Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, had an introductory meeting with NGS Chair and Director General.

As a public body in receipt of grant-in-aid officials have met regularly with the National Galleries of Scotland since May 2021.

It is not possible to definitively identify the reasons for this estimated 19% increase in referrals as a number of factors may affect this. However, the increase does not necessarily mean that more people are at risk of harm because individuals can be referred multiple times by different agencies. A number of other factors may also impact on this increase, including, for example, increased awareness of how to make an ASP referral (including self-referral) following National ASP awareness day campaigns and local ASP training and awareness raising.

As highlighted in the Adult Support and Protection Scotland publication , there is limited consistency between local authorities on their definition of referrals. For example, between the dates in question, some local authorities were known to apply a strict filtering process before recording a referral, while others included a far greater percentage of notifications received in their referral figures.

The existing ASP annual data is currently under review and the development of an ASP minimum dataset is being taken forward by The Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS). The aim is to have a shared understanding of information to generate more robust, meaningful and comparable data.

Scottish Government works closely with COSLA to ensure children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs, including those with autism, receive support which meets the standards set out in the National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People.

The Specification makes clear that support should be put in place to meet the child or young person’s requirements when they need it, rather than be dependent on a formal diagnosis.

As part of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board, which was co-chaired by COSLA and Scottish Government, a Task and Finish Group was established to support the implementation of the Neurodevelopmental Specification. The Group, which COSLA was part of, recommended undertaking Tests of Change to test and implement aspects of the standards and principles of care outlined within the Neurodevelopmental Service Specification.

The tests of change have involved close partnership working between NHS Boards and local authorities. These are ongoing and learning will be shared nationally to help achieve successful implementation of the Specification across all local areas. The work of the Board has now finished and the Minister for Social Care, Mental Health and Sport has accepted its recommendations. The Board’s final report will be published in the coming months.

In addition we are providing local authorities with £15 million per year to deliver community-based mental health services for children and young people. A number of councils have used their funding to put in place supports for autism.

For example, in Inverclyde, the Cygnets Programme provides group and peer support for parents and carers with children and young people who are experiencing difficulties due to autism spectrum condition. West Dunbartonshire offers pre-diagnostic and post-diagnostic support and training for families whose child has a new diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.

In March 2021, in partnership with COSLA, we published our Towards Transformation Plan as a follow-on to the Scottish Strategy for Autism and the Keys to Life Learning Disability Strategy. The Plan seeks to shape supports, services and attitudes to ensure that the human rights of autistic people and people with learning/intellectual disabilities are respected and protected and that they are empowered to live their lives, the same as everyone else.

We continue to work on delivering the action in our Towards Transformation Plan and also, are currently consulting on proposals for a Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill which will inform future strategies for neurodivergent communities, including autistic people.

There are currently no plans to ban the consumption of alcohol on Caledonian Sleeper services.

Official statistics on poverty rates in Scotland come from the Family Resources Survey. This is a sample survey which does not allow breakdowns at a sub-Scotland level.

However, the Department for Work and Pensions publish children in low income families local area statistics which are available at local authority level. These statistics are based on linked DWP/HMRC data on benefits and tax credits and are before housing costs. There are also estimates published by the End Child Poverty Coalition which model the impacts of housing costs on the child poverty rates produced by DWP. On both these measures for 2021-22, Aberdeen City is among the 10 local authorities with the lowest proportion of children in low income families.

There are a range of assessments made using various data sources to inform local and regional economic development and funding, as well as action to alleviate poverty. For instance, the Scottish Government established an independent Advisory Group on Economic Recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The group’s report covered a wide range of indicators at local authority level including the business base, existing deprivation and income levels, digital connectivity and productivity.

Subsequently, the Scottish Government published the Wellbeing Economy Monitor which brings together a range of indicators to provide a baseline for assessing progress towards the development of a wellbeing economy in Scotland. A wellbeing economy toolkit has been developed to support decision making and prioritisation of economic interventions and facilitate the transition to local and regional wellbeing economies, including a local authority level wellbeing economy monitor. This includes child poverty estimates, along with other social, environmental and economic indicators.

On 28 June 2023, the Scottish Government published its response to the Scottish Mental Health Law Review and set out initial views on the proposals. We have taken time to carefully consider Lord Scott’s recommendations and will now establish a new Mental Health and Capacity Reform Programme. Over the summer we will be designing the Programme, working with people who have experienced the mental health system, to reach decisions about the changes that are needed in the short, medium and long-term and how to put them into practice.

One of the high-level priorities for this Reform Programme is to consider whether there are changes that can be made over the shorter term to improve the current operation of the Mental Health Act and to strengthen safeguards when it is considered necessary to provide non-consensual care or treatment. This could include the consideration of improvements to provisions around named persons.

The Scottish Government has committed to consulting on a Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill by the end of this year. The Bill will aim to ensure that the rights of people with Down’s Syndrome, among others, are respected and protected.

An informal consultation took place last year as part of the scoping work for the Bill. The scoping report is available here: Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill: Scoping Analysis 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The Easy Read version is here: Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill: scoping work analysis 2022 - easy read - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The formal public consultation will provide an opportunity for people across Scotland, including those with Down’s Syndrome and their families and supporters, to express their views on what the draft Bill should include.

The exact timing of the public consultation will be announced in due course.