Mentions:
1: Kerr, Liam (Con - North East Scotland) Dr Conlon of London Economics told the Education, Children and Young People Committee last week:“Higher - Speech Link
2: Gilruth, Jenny (SNP - Mid Fife and Glenrothes) in cash terms—which, I note, was welcomed by Universities Scotland in its briefing to the Education, Children - Speech Link

Mentions:
1: Johnstone, Alison (NPA - Lothian) the Best Start, Bright Futures: Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-2026, with spend benefiting children - Speech Link

Mentions:
1: Adam, George (SNP - Paisley) Like everyone else, I want the best for my children and all the children in Scotland. - Speech Link
2: Roddick, Emma (SNP - Highlands and Islands) That includes children. - Speech Link
3: Chapman, Maggie (Green - North East Scotland) with children of their own, perhaps flourishing or perhaps not. - Speech Link

S6W-27923

Asked by: Regan, Ash (Alba Party - Edinburgh Eastern)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has met with (a) Kidzcare, (b) the City of Edinburgh Council and (c) Education Scotland regarding the reported closure of Haystax Nursery in Niddrie, and what support it can offer to ensure that the nursery remains open for parents, families and staff.

Answered by Don, Natalie - Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise

All three and four year olds, as well as eligible two year olds, have a statutory entitlement of up to 1140 hours per year of funded ELC. Local authorities have a duty to make this available to all eligible children within their area, which is delivered across over 2500 centres in Scotland (excluding childminders). Ministers and senior Scottish Government officials regularly engage with CoSLA around issues relating to the implementation of 1140 policy. I would encourage parents to raise any concerns they have about the closure of Haystax Nursery directly with the relevant local authority, in this case City of Edinburgh Council.

S6W-27901

Asked by: Greene, Jamie (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - West Scotland)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it will support the protection of children against online abuse, in light of the finding of a recent study by Childlight that 7% of men in the UK were likely to have engaged in online behaviour that could be classed as online child sexual abuse.

Answered by Don, Natalie - Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise

Keeping children and young people safe from online sexual abuse and exploitation is of the utmost importance to the Scottish Government.

We welcome the work of Childlight to harness worldwide data to help inform tangible action to protect children. We recognise that these problems are global and require global solutions.

In Scotland, we are working closely with partners to deliver a co-ordinated multi-agency response to preventing child sexual abuse and exploitation in all its forms.

We are establishing a new strategic group to provide national leadership and further improve our shared response in Scotland to child sexual abuse and exploitation, including online abuse. This group will first meet in the summer.

Through the Scottish Government’s membership of Police Scotland’s Multi-Agency Group on Preventing Online Child Sexual Abuse, we monitor emerging online threats and agree a shared approach to using technological advancements to tackle abuse, improve data-gathering, improve support for victims and survivors and promote key activities delivered by our partners.

We recognise that prevention is key to protecting children online and we are taking a range of actions to increase awareness of online child sexual abuse and exploitation and improve support to victims.

In 2023-24 we provided around £570,000 to third sector organisations involved in child safeguarding and prevention of child sexual abuse and exploitation, including online abuse. We have also updated our National Child Protection Guidance to support practitioners to develop effective, evidence-based responses to child sexual abuse and exploitation. In 2022 and 2023, we ran a national public awareness campaign to support parents are carers to keep their children safer online.

While regulation of the internet remains a reserved matter, we have successfully engaged with the UK Government on its Online Safety Act, to strengthen protections for children. We will continue to engage with both the UK Government and Ofcom to ensure that the Act does all that it can to protect children online. With the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, I will be meeting Ofcom to discuss implementation of this important legislation and to ensure that children in Scotland are kept safe online.

S6W-27912

Asked by: Regan, Ash (Alba Party - Edinburgh Eastern)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27466 by Natalie Don on 21 May 2024, whether it will provide further information on the discussion that the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise had at the recent meeting concerning volunteer retention; whether the concerns of the group, Children's Hearings Scotland Scandal, were discussed, and what steps are being taken to retain volunteers in light of the group's concerns.

Answered by Don, Natalie - Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise

As reflected in the answer to S6W-27466, a range of matters related to volunteer retention were discussed. Those included the development of the Tribunal Support Model (TSM) within Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS), introduced to better support volunteers in local areas across Scotland. The National Convener also discussed the future additional demand for children’s panel members associated with the commencement of the Care and Justice (Scotland) Bill.

The National Convener had identified a general downward trend in broader volunteering and retention since the covid pandemic, and outlined his plans for future panel recruitment campaigns and retention efforts.

There is a long unbroken record dating back 6 decades of sufficient local volunteers coming forward to serve on the children’s panel, and the Scottish Government , through officials and portfolio Ministers, are in regular dialogue with CHS about recruitment and retention.

The issue of recruitment and retention of volunteers are independent statutory functions for the National Convener. His independence in discharging those functions is enshrined in the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011. The member may wish to write to the National Convener for further information about the recruitment and retention of volunteers.

The group Children’s Hearings Scotland Scandal were not discussed in the meeting. The Scottish Government is not aware of any concerns from that group which have not already been addressed, or that would have any material bearing on volunteer retention issues at the national level.

Mentions:
1: Gallacher, Meghan (Con - Central Scotland) An Inclusion Scotland member stated:“We are very aware of the Children and Young People’s Commissioner - Speech Link
2: None After many decades of never reviewing the deaths of children with a profound learning disability, we - Speech Link
3: None I do not believe that autism or autistic children and young people are mentioned at all in the Children - Speech Link

Mentions:
1: Mackay, Rona (SNP - Strathkelvin and Bearsden) Our Scottish child payment is transformational, lifting 100,000 children out of poverty. - Speech Link
2: O'Kane, Paul (Lab - West Scotland) are a fiercely passionate, dedicated and inspiring group of people, who are making the case for their children - Speech Link

Mentions:
1: None have spent a significant amount of time developing that framework, primarily focusing on adults and children - Speech Link
2: None It extricated children and family services and criminal justice services from the shared service, and - Speech Link
3: Gulhane, Sandesh (Con - Glasgow) A lot of bills that are coming up will require social workers; for example, implementation of the Children - Speech Link

Correspondence Jun. 11 2024

Found: voice of Scotland’s young people – overall, we want to make Scotland the best place in the world for children