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The Scottish Government is facing significant pressures on its capital budget, with an expected real terms reduction from the UK Government to capital funding in Scotland of nearly 9% over five years. This equates to a cumulative loss of over £1.3 billion between 2023-24 and 2027-28 which will significantly affect the Scottish Government’s ability to maintain investment in transport infrastructure across Scotland.

However, the Scottish Government remains committed to the delivery of the proposed A90/A937 Laurencekirk Junction Improvement scheme as part of a package of additional investment alongside the Aberdeen City Region Deal.

The current estimated cost for the scheme is approximately £24.7m at 2019 prices (excluding non-recoverable VAT). This estimate will continue to be refined and updated as the scheme design becomes more developed.

The necessary on-going design preparatory work in 2024-25 is being funded through the Scottish Government’s Roads Improvement budget line.

Delivery of the scheme itself can only commence when the scheme is approved under the statutory procedures and thereafter a timetable for construction can be determined in line with available budgets.

Within an extremely challenging financial context, the Scottish Government has made difficult funding decisions. Local authorities have received all the funding they have requested for flood protection in 2024-25 and, as such, £26 million from the Flood Risk Management Programme is being repurposed this financial year to support local government pay and avoid impactful industrial action. We have sought assurances from local authorities through COSLA that redirection of this portion of the funding will not impact on councils progressing with their flood protection schemes as planned.

The Scottish Government recognises the serious erosion issues to the sand dunes in Montrose and the impact this could have on flood risk for residents.

Through our Dynamic Coast project, we have worked closely with local authorities to help them plan for coastal adaptation and in our Programme for Government 2020 we announced a new £11.7 million capital budget over four years for coastal change adaptation, starting in 2022-23.

In 2024-25, funding of £2.7m will be distributed to local authorities in two ways. £1.65m in direct allocation to coastal local authorities and £1.05m will be made available for local authorities to bit for to undertake case studies. Angus Council, where Montrose sits in, will receive £56,375 for coastal change adaptation in 2024-25.

In addition, Angus Council submitted a proposal to fund a case study and an additional £440k will be distributed for this, which is the largest allocation for any local authority to undertake a case study.

Local authorities can choose to additionally fund coastal protection work from their general capital grant allocation.

Police Scotland have confirmed that the increase in claims received by NFU Mutual from Scotland for the 2022/23 period can largely be attributed to a particular 'spike' during that period including the theft of farm machinery, GPS units and an increase in quad bike thefts. A significant proportion of the machinery that was taken with investigations ongoing.

The Scottish Government continues to work with partners across the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC) and through the continued expansion of the local partnerships against Crime (LPARCS) across Scotland.

These partnerships share intelligence on organised crime groups operating across borders, providing specific ‘target hardening’ information to the rural and farming community on how to best secure and prevent theft of equipment. They also demonstrate crime prevention measures in relation to the marking, tracking and securing of farm machinery and tools, including in the highest impacted areas.

The Scottish Government is investing £60 million to renew play parks in Scotland, so children have access to free, high-quality outdoor play in their own communities. Since funding began in 2021, a total of 887 play parks have been renewed or are in the process of being renewed by local authority partners. To support the delivery of the programme we agreed with CoSLA and our local authority partners a suite of national principles to guide and inform the renewal programme. The national principles set out how local authorities should review their existing estate, prioritise renewal work and design play parks that offer improved play opportunities for children and families. At the heart of the national principles is the recommendation for local authorities to engage with children and families within the local communities to inform delivery of a renewal that meets the needs of local people.

Funding to support the Play Parks renewal programme has been allocated as follows:

2021-22 - £5 million

2022-23 - £5 million

2023-24 - £10 million

2024-25 - £15 million

Childminders are an essential part of the childcare sector, offering a high-quality, nurturing experience to children of all ages, and the Scottish Government is committed to supporting and growing the sector.

We have seen declines in the childminding workforce over recent years – a trend that is mirrored elsewhere in the UK – and we have worked with the Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA) and other partners to understand the reasons behind the decline, and to identify priorities and further steps we can take to better support, recruit and retain childminders.

Backed by over £1m of Scottish Government funding, together with the SCMA we launched the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future in June 2024. The Programme will support the recruitment of new professional childminders across Scotland, offering a package of funded support and training in addition to a £750 start-up grant, providing everything needed to establish a new childminding business from home. Aberdeenshire Council are actively involved in the childminder recruitment strand this year, and we are seeing positive engagement and progression from candidates across the local authority area.

The programme also includes a range of measures to address the retention of the childminding workforce, delivering more practical support to ensure our existing professionals are supported with their workloads and professional development.

Local recruitment is the responsibility of the Health Board with the Scottish Government providing support for workforce planning. Since December 2023, Scottish Government officials have met nursing leadership in all territorial Boards and all universities offering the post graduate health visiting course. These discussions included exploring recruitment and retention challenges and successes. Innovative recruitment and retention practices, identified as part of those discussions, will be shared across all Health Board partners.

Attraction and retention of people into nursing and midwifery more generally is a key part of the remit of the Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce. The Taskforce, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, will recommend a workplan of actions to support workforce sustainability, workplace culture, practice, flexibility, recruitment and retention, alongside the diversification of training pathways.

While the Accounts Commission’s recommendations are aimed at Integration Joint Boards, the Scottish Government is committed to working with the health and social care sector to support improvement. We have invested a record £19.5 billion in health and social care in 2024-25, including over £2 billion for social care and integration.

The National Care Service (NCS) Bill is currently at Stage 2 and it is our intention for the NCS to be established before the end of this parliamentary term. In June we shared our package of government stage 2 amendments for the Bill with Parliament. Scottish Government officials have been in discussion with Integration Joint Board representatives, including through the tripartite NCS discussions and the ongoing NCS Key Stakeholder Reference Group.

The voices of people who are service users are key in these changes and, as we have been clear from the outset, we will be working closely with them as the plans develop.

The Scottish Government acknowledges the importance of transparent and comprehensive reporting on integration performance indicators as highlighted in the Accounts Commission’s report, Integration Joint Boards' Finance and performance 2024. The four national performance indicators that have not been finalised for reporting are:

• Indicator 10: Percentage of staff who say they would recommend their workplace as a good place to work.
• Indicator 21: Percentage of people admitted to hospital from home during the year, who are discharged to a care home.
• Indicator 22: Percentage of people who are discharged from hospital within 72 hours of being ready.
• Indicator 23: Expenditure on end of life care.

These indicators are not currently reported on because there is not yet a nationally agreed definition or the necessary national data is either unavailable or not sufficiently robust.

Robust data and digital infrastructure will be a key enabler of both our Data Strategy and the National Care Service. The Scottish Government continues to identify and invest in innovative digital and data solutions to support improvements in social care, and integrated care, such as the integrated social care and health record.

Work is ongoing to develop the integrated social care and health record, including extensive co-design as part of the wider NCS programme, with those who will use the record – such as individuals in receipt of care and frontline staff – at the centre of that design.