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Children’s Hearings Scotland (‘CHS’) are preparing to extend the benefits of accessing children’s hearings to all Scotland’s 16 and 17 year olds who need it. It is the statutory responsibility of the National Convener at CHS to appoint children’s panel members. There is a consistent record dating back over 5 decades of sufficient prospective volunteers coming forward from Scotland’s communities to serve as children’s panel members. While volunteer positions across all sectors are more difficult to fill post-pandemic, Ministers are confident that the National Convener and CHS have the resources, skills and knowledge to fulfil their statutory duties. Officials remain in close contact with the National Convener and his team to determine if further interventions are required to maintain children’s panel capacity and resilience, both in the short-term and in the months to come. A range of escalating interventions have been prepared by CHS to improve panel intake and reinforce retention rates - those will be implemented as required.

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Each child is considered in respect of their individual needs and risks when they are referred to the Principal Reporter, or where a children’s hearing is to be convened. The Scottish Government is not aware of evidence of inappropriate or unequal treatment between care-experienced children and those who do not have care experience or are coming to the system’s attention for the first time.

The Scottish Government is providing £220,000 of support to the St Andrews Rail Link (StARLink) project through the Local Rail Development Fund (LRDF).

Responsibility for the management and delivery of the project sits with the StARLink Campaign which is required to provide a detailed options appraisal, to the Scottish Government, by the end of March 2024.

To inform the next stages of the project, this appraisal will then be considered against the Scottish Government’s investment priorities for the strategic transport network, a robust business case, affordability and other competing proposals.

We are aware of the pressures in temporary accommodation that many local authorities, including Fife Council, are facing and are working with them on what support is needed to reduce their use of temporary accommodation. The Minister for Housing is due to meet again with Cllr Hamilton, Fife’s Housing Convenor, on 7 November.

We have committed to reducing the use of temporary accommodation by 2026 and are acting on the recommendations of the expert Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group. We will invest at least £60 million for local authorities and social landlords to acquire properties for use as affordable homes, as part of our wider £752 million Affordable Housing Supply Programme investment this year. We are also asking social landlords to increase allocations to homeless households and to bring empty homes and void properties back into use, and are supporting councils to develop targeted plans, supported by an additional £2 million in 2023-24.

The Scottish Government is continuing to meet with the local authorities most under pressure to discuss what is required to help reduce their use of temporary accommodation. The Scottish Government has established a Short Term Housing Supply Group to consider how to address the barriers to increasing housing supply in the short term. We are working with COSLA, ALACHO, the Scottish Housing Regulator, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and the Glasgow West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations to consider what we need to do differently in the next two to three years to reduce the use of temporary accommodation.

The Scottish Government’s latest , published on 13 June 2023, sets out progress toward the meeting the child poverty targets and in implementing the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’.

Modelling published alongside this year’s progress report estimates that 90,000 fewer children will live in relative and absolute poverty in 2023-24 as a result of Scottish Government policies, with poverty levels 9% points lower that they would have otherwise been. This includes lifting an estimated 50,000 children out of relative poverty through our Scottish Child Payment. However, we will not know if the interim child poverty targets have been met until March 2025.

Our approach to tackling child poverty is in stark contrast to that of the UK Government. Scottish Government analysis, published in April 2022, estimated that reversing key UK Government welfare changes that have taken place just since 2015 could lift an estimated 70,000 people out of poverty in Scotland, including 30,000 children, and put £780 million in the pockets of Scottish households this year.

As official statistics on rates of relative poverty in Scotland come from the Family Resources Survey which is run by the Department for Work and Pensions, which is a sample survey. This therefore this does not allow a breakdown to be produced below the national figure for Scotland.

Progress is being made. At a national level the poverty-related attainment gap remains narrower than it was pre-pandemic for National 5s, Highers and Advanced Highers. We’ve seen good progress in primary school literacy and numeracy, with the latest data showing the biggest reduction in the gap on record and a record low gap in positive destinations for school leavers 9 months after leaving school.

The Scottish Government gathers a range of data via the National Improvement Framework, which includes 11 key measures of particular relevance to the attainment gap in both the Broad General Education and Senior Phase – with two new key measures added on School Attendance and Initial Positive Destinations. A detailed breakdown of attainment and the poverty-related attainment gap can be found on the Scottish Government website - and .

At a local level, the publication of the includes a requirement for all local authorities to set locally identified stretch aims for progress in raising attainment and closing the poverty related attainment gap. The national aggregation of all 32 local authority 2022/23 stretch aims for progress closing the gap is available to access here:- . Collectively, the core stretch aims set by local authorities showed a great deal of ambition for both recovery and accelerating progress. Further, we have now received all local authorities’ stretch aims for progress for 2025-26 and are reviewing these ahead of publication later in the year.

Local Authorities and schools in Mid Scotland and Fife are able to access ongoing advice and guidance from Education Scotland's Attainment Advisor team who help to share best practice and provide guidance on effective planning, implementation and evaluation of interventions helping to maximise improved outcomes for children and young people in schools and local authorities.

The response to question S6W-21286, answered on 13 September 2023, notes that as a result of the devolved settlement and the Scottish Government’s powers, along with the interaction with reserved tax and benefits, it is not possible to deliver the Parental Transition Fund as originally envisaged.

As set out in the Medium-Term Financial Strategy, the current financial situation facing the Scottish Government is amongst the most challenging since devolution. Tough and decisive action must be taken to ensure the sustainability of public finance, whilst also strengthening the immediate support available for households impacted by the cost of living crisis. On this basis, the £5 million made available for the Parental Transition Fund in 2023-24 has been reallocated to help meet the previously announced increased investment in the Fuel Insecurity Fund to address the need for immediate help with fuel costs and to support the Scottish Government’s path to balance.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S6W-21286 on 13 September 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

In the Programme for Government we committed to begin work to phase in an expanded national offer for more families with two-year-olds, focusing on those who will benefit most. We already offer 1140 hours of high quality, funded early learning and childcare to around a quarter of families with two year olds who experience the most disadvantage.

We now have the highest number of two year olds ever accessing the existing funded 1140 offer and following years of work with the UK Government we now have new data sharing agreements in place which mean that, for the first time, local authorities are able to access much better information to allow them to identify and contact eligible families.

We will continue to work closely with local authorities and providers to maximise uptake of the existing offer as we develop plans to phase in the expansion.

Over the next year we will also work with local authorities and our partners in the sector to develop plans to expand access to around 40% of families in Scotland over time.

Further detail, including on the additional investment required to deliver the childcare expansion over this Parliament, will be set out at the Scottish Budget for 2024-25 later this year.