Tag: COSLA

£25 million for play park renewal

First Minister John Swinney is set to announce £25 million of funding to local authorities to invest in the renewal of play parks across Scotland. 

All councils will receive a share of the funding to improve the standard of existing play parks – helping to ensure children have access to safe environments to play and socialise in. 

The funding is supported by the Play Vision Statement and Action Plan for 2025 – 2030, which has been published today.  

Speaking ahead of a visit to Woodhead Park in Kirkintilloch, as part of the East Dunbartonshire Travelling Cabinet event, the First Minister said: “Playing is key to a child’s healthy development, and by enabling councils to invest in outdoor play parks, we will ensure families can access a safe, high-quality place to play within their communities.

“This is all part of my driving mission to eradicate child poverty. Other steps we are taking include investing £3 million to develop mitigations for the UK Government’s two-child benefits cap, £37 million to deliver the expansion of the free school meals programme, and putting more money in families’ pockets through the Scottish Child Payment.”   

COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, Councillor Tony Buchanan said: “COSLA welcomes today’s launch of the Play Vision Statement and Action Plan, play is very important not just for the enjoyment it brings, but also for the part it plays in developing children and young people’s social skills, interests, and curiosity.

“It also assists in developing relationships between parents, carers and other children and young people. The Play Vision Statement and Action Plan provides a good roadmap for how play can be encouraged and supported.”

Marguerite Hunter Blair, CEO Play Scotland and Chair of external Play Strategy refresh group said: “We are delighted to be celebrating this clear commitment from the Scottish Government to play opportunities and experiences for all our children and young people.

“It is fantastic that children’s rights and voices are at the heart of this new vision for play alongside an enthusiastic cross-sectoral collaboration.

“The clear message coming from the versions of the plan that children have co- produced is simple – more play and better play is good for everyone.” 

The 54th Travelling Cabinet will meet at Kirkintilloch Town Hall today – Monday 24 March – and hear from the local community at a public discussion at 2pm.

Fundamental review needed of planning and resourcing of additional support for learning

The Scottish Government and councils must fundamentally rethink how they plan, fund and staff additional support for learning as part of core school education in Scotland.

Since legislation in 2004 to make additional support for learning (ASL) more inclusive, there has been an eight-fold increase in pupils recorded as receiving ASL; currently 40 per cent of Scottish pupils – or 285,000 children – receive ASL. Almost all support is now delivered in mainstream classrooms, and it has become an increasingly central part of what teachers do.

The Scottish Government failed to plan for the impacts of this inclusive approach, and poor data means it is not possible to determine the scale, complexity and nature of needs across Scotland. The Scottish Government and councils urgently need better information to understand pupils’ needs and appropriate level of resource to support them.

Existing measures show a wide gap in outcomes for pupils receiving additional support compared with other pupils, including being more likely to be absent or excluded from school. More appropriate ways of measuring the achievements of pupils who receive ASL are still to be developed.

Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland, said: “The Scottish Government has failed to plan effectively for its inclusive approach to additional support for learning. Current gaps in data mean it is unclear whether all children’s right to have an education that fully develops their personality, talents and abilities is being met.

“The Scottish Government and councils urgently need better quality data to understand pupils’ additional support needs and the resources required to provide support to enable all pupils to reach their full potential.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1895030093891731696

Ruth MacLeod, Member of the Accounts Commission, said: “Councils and the Scottish Government must fundamentally rethink how additional support for learning is planned and provided as a core part of Scotland’s school education.

“This includes reviewing how mainstream and special education is provided to meet current and future additional support needs and demands.

“It is critical they work with pupils, parents and carers and staff throughout this process.”

COSLA’s Children and Young People Spokesperson, Councillor Tony Buchanan @antbuc1), has commented following report published today about Additional Support For Learning from the Auditor General and Accounts Commission.

The Auditor General and Accounts Commission published a briefing paper on additional support for learning (ASL) on 27th February 2025. It makes a series of recommendations to Scottish Government and Councils, touching on data, measuring the outcomes of children and young people with additional support needs, funding, workforce planning and school buildings.

The COSLA Children and Young People Board will discuss the briefing at their meeting on 7th March.

Councillor Tony Buchanan, said: “Local Government is fully committed to supporting all children and young people to learn and to providing opportunities so that they can realise their full potential. The briefing paper published by the Auditor General and Accounts Commission on additional support for learning is welcomed.

The COSLA Children and Young People Board will be updated next week, with an initial consideration of the recommendations. COSLA, alongside the Scottish Government, co-chair the Additional Support for Learning Project Board.

“There will be an opportunity for the project board to consider the recommendations fully when they meet next month and consider how these can inform their priorities.”

briefing_250227_additional_support_for_learningDownload

Social Care Roundtable on Employer National Insurance Contributions

Yesterday COSLA and the Scottish Government convened a roundtable discussion to consider immediate challenges facing the delivery of social care services:

COSLA Health and Social Care Spokesperson Councillor Paul Kelly, reflected on the meeting: “I was very grateful for the representation from across the care sector, including our partners in the third and independent sectors, involved in this critical discussion.

“We all have a shared responsibility to improve outcomes for people using health and social care services in Scotland, and I am acutely aware of how much more challenging this becomes when confronted with significant budget gaps for Local Government and Integrated Joint Boards.

“Of course, I know that it’s a similarly challenging financial context for our partner providers who deliver vital care and support for people.

“The reality is that the current financial challenges will have a very real impact on services and it’s for this reason I thought it was crucial to bring together key partners to highlight the impact this has been having – and will continue to have – on the system.

“The changes to employer National Insurance contributions, coupled with continued financial constraints and uncertainties, are a significant risk felt by Local Government which will impact upon the delivery, commissioning and procurement of services.

“There are no easy solutions to the challenges that were aired but I was encouraged by the frank and open contributions from attendees, and the consensus that it’s more important than ever that we work collaboratively to ensure continued delivery of social care for all those who need it.

“As COSLA’s Health and Social Care Spokesperson, I want to reiterate that we are doing everything we can to address the challenges the sector collectively faces, and that COSLA remains absolutely committed to engaging with the Scottish and UK Governments on these matters.”

Making the Council Tax fairer

PUBLIC TO HAVE SAY ON LOCAL TAXATION REFORM

The public will be invited to submit their views on how to make the Council Tax system fairer, as part of wider efforts to explore options and build a consensus for potential reform.

As part of a joint programme of engagement by the Scottish Government and COSLA, independent analysis will also be commissioned to examine the Council Tax system accounting for market changes, reforms, and improvements.

This will inform public engagement later this year, followed by a Scottish Parliament debate on the findings and proposed policy reforms.

Finance Secretary Shona Robison said: “Partnering with COSLA, we want to examine ways to make Council Tax fairer, which will help to continue to deliver better public services across Scotland.

“By working closely with local authorities and listening to the public, we will be seeking a consensus on a local taxation system that is fairer, financially sustainable and fits a modern Scotland.”

COSLA Resources Spokesperson Cllr Katie Hagmann said: “Local Authorities wish to see a fair and proportionate Council Tax, which benefits people and communities. 

“COSLA is looking forward to working with the Scottish Government on a programme of engagement with the public, with the shared goal of achieving a better, fairer system of local taxation.”

Anti-poverty campaigners say yet another consultation about local government finance must lead to an end to the ‘unjust and regressive’ council tax.

Poverty Alliance chief executive Peter Kelly said: “People across Scotland want local services that support a just and compassionate society. We need a fair system of local taxation to support those local services. The unjust and regressive council tax is simply not up to that job.

“We have been waiting for years for political leaders to take responsibility to bring in a progressive system of local taxes that will ease the burden on low income households and raise the investment needed for public services.

“There have been manifesto promises, consultation after consultation, and an independent commission. Now we have yet another deliberation process between the Scottish Government and Cosla.

“Scotland can no longer wait. The Poverty Alliance has been giving evidence for years on how council cuts are hitting people on low incomes the hardest.

“This consultation must lead to real and substantial change – not only to fairly fund the local services we all need, but to rebuild trust in our political process.

After years of broken promises on changing local tax, the time for action is now.”

Programme of engagement:

Expert and independent analysis will be commissioned, including to provide high level analysis and modelling on alternative scenarios and reforms of the system.

Following that, a range of activities to seek the views from a wide range of people from across Scotland will be undertaken, consisting of three key elements:

  • A formal public consultation process.
  • A number of public events or ‘town hall’ meetings held over the autumn months, ensuring a reasonable geographical spread and diversity.
  • A set of focused discussions with key stakeholders and experts.  

The public engagement will aim to capture a wide spectrum of opinions and considered responses, ensuring a diverse range of perspectives, including representation from those paying Council Tax across different bands.

COSLA: National Insurance Funding Won’t Cover Costs For Councils

£96 MILLION SHORTFALL, warns COSLA

COSLA is clear that the proposed funding from Scottish Government won’t cover additional Employers National Insurance costs, and councils still face an extremely challenging financial position as they set their budgets.

COSLA Resources Spokesperson, Councillor Katie Hagmann, commented: “We note that the Scottish Government has announced it will fund £144m of the additional direct staffing costs that will result from the UK Government’s policy decision rise to Employers National Insurance. However, this leaves  a gap of £96 million Councils will still need to fill within their budgets.

“While we acknowledge that the UK government is still to announce additional resources, it is important to note that there has been no additional funding for commissioned services, the biggest of these being adult social care, which are also vital services and will see significant impacts.

“Given the mounting challenges for local government, this additional funding will not solve the crises councils and communities are facing, which are exacerbated by the Employers National Insurance increase.

“Difficult decisions will still need to be made as councils look to protect essential frontline services.”

Fraser of Allander: What next for social care in Scotland?

HOW STRONG IS THE SCOTTISH LABOUR MARKET?

LAST WEEK the Scottish government confirmed that plans for a National Care Service (NCS) in Scotland have been scrapped in favour of an advisory board and smaller, more targeted reforms (write FRASER of ALLANDER INSTITUTE’s MAIRI SPOWAGE and EMMA CONGREVE).

The decision came after months of declining support from key organizations and stakeholders including COSLA, key trade unions and representative bodies for social care providers in Scotland.

Beyond the wavering support for the NCS plans, there is clear support for social care reform, particularly in enhancing access to and the quality of services.

Our interest in the National Care Service, and wider social care reform stems back to 2022, in which we conducted analysis of the NCS bill published in June of that year. Following this work, published in August 2022, we engaged with a number of stakeholders across the private, public and third sector.

Among concerns around governance and funding of the NCS, one of the key concerns from stakeholders we engaged with was the lack of good quality and timely data that is crucial to ensuring that any reforms to social care are well informed. In particular, the need to better understand what future levels of social care demand might be, the workforce requirements to accommodate this, and the associated expenditure on social care.

Our concerns about the lack of investment in social care research were highlighted in our response to the Wave 2 consultation. The Scottish Government has not commissioned any work in this area, and we have not been able to find independent funders willing to fund work of this nature in Scotland.

It is our view that projections of demand and cost of the current service, and any future reforms, is urgently required.

New labour market data published

The latest data on the labour market in the UK was published last week. There are many documented issues with the data at the moment due to the challenges faced by the Labour Force Survey, which means the headline figure are no longer considered accredited Official Statistics.

If you can set that aside for a moment, the headline results show on the surface a strong Labour market in Scotland, with high employment (74.1%) and low unemployment (3.8%). Inactivity rates remain slightly higher than the UK at 22.9%.

There are a number of other data sources published alongside the LFS data which is used to supplement our understanding of what is going on in the Scottish economy. One of these is the payrolled employment data, known as the PAYE Real-Term Information, which is published every month by the ONS. This draws on administrative records, and so is likely to be more reliable in terms of employment (although, of course, tells us nothing about unemployment or inactivity).

This data shows that payrolled employment is almost 3% higher in Scotland than pre-pandemic levels. However, we had a look at replicating the sectoral breakdowns in this interesting piece by think.ing, which looks at government-dominated sectors vs the rest.

Chart: Payrolled employment in all sectors, government dominated sectors (public administration, health and education, and total excluding government, Scotland, January 2020=100

Source: ONS

This shows that once the government dominated sectors are excluded, payroll employment has been falling since March 2024, and is now almost back at the levels seen in January 2020. In contrast, government dominated sectors are 8% about pre-COVID levels.

Given some of the challenges facing the private sector in the first half of 2025, including large increases in employer National insurance contributions which will come in in April, the trend in private sector employment is concerning, and points to a weakness masked if we just look at employment in total.

However, it is worth emphasising again that this is just payrolled employment, and does not cover self-employment.

Social Care reform scaled back

NATONAL CARE SERVICE PLANS ‘REVISED‘

A dedicated advisory board, support for unpaid carers and enshrining care home residents’ rights to see loved ones are at the heart of revised plans for the National Care Service.

Social Care Minister Maree Todd outlined the next steps for reform to Parliament yesterday after plans to progress the National Care Service Bill were paused for further consideration in November 2024.

A new non-statutory advisory board – comprising of people with lived experience of accessing care, social care workers, care providers, trade unions, the NHS and local government – will be established to provide guidance and drive improvement within the sector. It is expected to meet for the first time in the spring.

The introduction of Anne’s Law, which upholds the rights of residents in care homes to be visited by families or friends, will remain in the legislation to reform social care, alongside a right to breaks for unpaid carers.

The Scottish Government Bill will also improve information-sharing across health settings and the ability for individuals to access and manage information about their care, while progressing plans for a national social work partnership.

Ms Todd said: “We want to deliver a National Care Service that improves the experience of everyone who relies on social care, social work and community health in Scotland.

“Change is urgently needed to reform the social care sector in Scotland but it has to be meaningful and sustainable change. That’s why we paused the Bill for further consideration, to fully capture the views expressed by all stakeholders, members of the public and the Parliament.

“The advisory board will include people with lived experience of social care, ensuring it has those who access services at its heart. It will allow us to drive forward vital reform more quickly than our original proposals.

“The Bill gives adult care home residents a legal right to see their loved ones with the implementation of Anne’s Law and recognises the significant contribution of unpaid carers to Scotland’s communities by introducing a right to breaks.

“There will be enhanced information-sharing to improve the coordination of individuals’ care, and we will work in partnership with the sector to bring forward reform that future-proofs the social work service in Scotland.

“People need sustainable change to social care and these actions will allow that to happen as quickly as possible.”

COSLA Leaders will meet at the end of January to take a position on the National Care Service Bill.

Democracy Matters: Community Councils update

Still time to sign up for our Community Councils webinar at 6pm on Wed 29 January, when we will get an update on the Democracy Matters consultation from the Scottish Government.

https://ow.ly/2tCt50UiYkI

The Democracy Matters engagement process asked communities to consider what the future of community decision making should look like where they live. 

On 19 September 2024, COSLA and the Scottish Government published the Democracy Matters National Conversation report alongside a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to this work.

In this session Scottish Government officials will be presenting the process findings and outlining next steps for this important work.

COSLA: What does the Scottish Budget mean for councils?

COSLA has shared two new documents setting out high-level analysis of the Scottish 2025-26 Budget and what it means for Councils and essential local social care services.

What does the Scottish Budget mean for councils?

Following the Scottish Budget announcement earlier this month, we shared a short briefing setting out high-level analysis on what the Budget means for Scottish Local Government.

Commenting, COSLA’s Resources Spokesperson, Councillor Katie Hagmann, commented: “This Budget is a welcomed step in the right direction for Local Government and provides a small amount of additional uncommitted revenue and capital funding for 2025/26.

“However, due to the unprecedented financial challenges being faced by our councils, this additional funding may not be enough to reverse planned cuts to vital services across our communities.”

Read the ‘What does the 2025-26 Budget Mean for Councils? document here.

What does the Scottish budget mean for social care?

Our councils have increased real terms spend on social care by 29% since 2010/11 at the expense of other preventative, non-statutory services. However, rising operational costs, escalating demand for services, and high inflation mean that the need for greater funding is more urgent than ever.

The level of funding provided in the 2025/26 Budget will not resolve the unprecedented challenges being faced in local social care services.

COSLA’s Health and Social Care Spokesperson, Councillor Paul Kelly, added:
“Without additional funding to increase capacity across all of our social care services, there is a very real risk that key services will not be able to transform to the scale that our communities require and deserve.

“COSLA and Local Authorities are ready and willing to work constructively to support improvement and reform in social care that is aligned to local needs and priorities, but this should be backed by the much-needed investment.”

Read COSLA’s Social Care Budget Analysis document here.

£15 billion for Scotland’s councils

Local authorities receive ‘real terms increase’ in funding

Councils will share a record funding settlement of more than £15 billion subject to passing of the 2025-26 Budget, provisional allocations show.

The 2025-26 Local Government Settlement includes a £289 million increase in funding to be used by councils to meet local needs and £120.5 million additional funding for pay deals.

The Budget also includes a one-off payment of £40 million to help councils respond to the climate emergency, and additional funding to support free personal care, teacher numbers and island communities.

Finance Secretary Shona Robison said: “Our Budget is laying the foundations for Scotland’s future success, with investment to help improve the public services that people rely on.

“Local authorities provide some of the most important services to our communities – from schools to social care – which is why we’ve increased their funding by more than £1 billion compared with last year’s Budget.

“The settlement is the result of meaningful budget engagement with COSLA and Councils. While council tax decisions are a matter for individual local authorities, with record funding of over £15 billion there is no reason for big increases in Council Tax next year.

“This is a Budget that will deliver increased funding for schools, social care and other vital council services. But this funding will only reach communities if the Budget passes, so I am asking Parliament to unite behind it.”

Local government finance circular 10/2024: settlement for 2025 to 2026 – gov.scot

Scottish Budget 2025 to 2026 – gov.scot