Review to examine how best to meet the needs of the future economy
A review of the publicly-funded contribution rates paid to help deliver modern apprenticeships (MAs) will be undertaken soon to ensure they continue to meet the country’s economy priorities and maximise public value.
Contributions are made to training costs for around 39,000 MAs each year from £90 million of Scottish Government funding. The review will look at the levels of contribution.
It will also assess how the current approach, delivered by Skills Development Scotland, operates across key sectors and age groups, while meeting the Scottish Government’s priorities for growing the economy.
Ministers committed to a review when Parliament was considering the Tertiary Education and Training (TET) Act – passed by MSPs earlier this year to simplify the funding system for post-16 education and skills. The first stage of this review will get underway later this month.
Higher and Further Education Minister Ben Macpherson said: “Apprenticeships help create positive futures for people, including many of our school leavers, as well as developing the skills required to meet the changing needs of the 21st century economy.
“The Scottish Government recognises that there are financial pressures surrounding the current apprenticeship model. That is why we are reviewing contribution rates, to look at whether current public funding for the Modern Apprenticeship programme is still appropriate and sustainable, as well as meeting our priorities and Scotland’s labour market needs.
“The Scottish Government will do more to help ensure that smaller employers can recruit more apprentices, for the benefit of their businesses and those in training.”
Scottish Training Federation Chief Executive Stuart McKenna said: “The Scottish Training Federation welcomes the Minister’s commitment to review funding rates for modern apprenticeships.
“To ensure the continued success of the programme, it is essential that we review the current funding model to ensure it remains fit for purpose.”
A team of food researchers who developed an innovative new replacement for palm fat in the bakery industry has received a welcome funding boost from the Scottish Government.
The move will see the team progress commercial opportunities with new industry partners to provide healthy sustainable solutions for the food industry, and a reduced reliance on the use of palm fat in the bakery industry.
The researchers at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh developed Palm-Alt, a new ingredient which replaces palm shortening, margarine and butter in a variety of bakery applications. Palm-Alt is considerably lower in saturated fat and carbon emissions when compared with palm, butter or margarine.
Palm shortening is widely used in a vast amount of baked goods such as biscuits, cakes and pastries, but palm cultivation is linked with tropical rainforest destruction.
The University’s new replacement ingredient could offer significant solutions for the food industry allowing manufacturers to satisfy increasing consumer demand for tasty, lower fat, healthier food products, whilst reducing destruction of the world’s rainforests.
Due to its composition, high yield and low production costs, the global food industry has become dependent on palm shortening, resulting in its over-cultivation. Its high saturated fat content, which allows it to remain solid at room temperature, has proven crucial to the industrial bakery sector.
The new ingredient, which is a clean label blend of rapeseed oil, fibres and proteins, can be produced locally and at a global scale. During its initial trial period, the University’s research team demonstrated that when Palm-Alt was used as a replacement in baked goods, products such as cakes, biscuits and bread maintained their texture, flavour and colour.
When news about its initial success and its health and sustainable credentials went viral in 2023, there was a huge surge of interest from food manufacturers across the globe, all keen to know more about this exciting new replacement product and its potential to positively impact the food industry.
More recently, the QMU team have moved testing out of the University’s labs, with successful trialling of Palm-Alt in industrial manufacturing settings, and with excellent results when tested as an ingredient in partners’ own products. The research team are currently in commercialisation and licensing discussions of PalmAlt with a number of interested UK food manufacturers.
A new funding boost of £239k from the Scottish Government is now allowing the team to progress the development of an extended range of Palm-Alt to enable further applications. This work is set to include new collaborations with food industry partners ranging from ingredient producers to finished food product manufacturers from across the food industry.
The innovative new palm substitute has been developed by Dr Julien Lonchamp, Reader in Food Science, and Catriona Liddle, Head of the Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation at QMU.
Catriona explained: “We set out to develop a new ingredient that would not only be better for the environment but also healthier than palm fat and current alternatives.
“Our trials at the University and now in industry settings have demonstrated that Palm-Alt works successfully as a replacement for palm-based shortening in baked goods.
“With up to 25% less fat and 89% less saturated fat, it is healthier, and as it can be produced locally, it could significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the impact of food miles and deforestation of global rainforests associated with palm production.”
Catriona continued: “After seven years of research and development it is exciting to see the level of interest and enthusiasm from the food industry and our current partners. We are delighted that the Scottish Government is recognising the commercial potential of Palm-Alt as an effective replacement ingredient which offers significant health and sustainability benefits.”
Dr Julien Lonchamp confirmed: “Today, the focus on nutrition and on identifying and developing more sustainable food and food sources has never been higher.
“This Proof of Concept funding from the Scottish Government will allow us to continue our work in commercialising Palm-Alt, seeking out new applications and solutions for the food industry in, for example, the use of Palm-Alt in pastry and confectionery products.
“It will help bridge the gap between groundbreaking research and commercial applications, which is essential in helping bring Palm-Alt to the global marketplace.”
The research team are currently being supported by Edinburgh Innovations, the commercialisation service at the University of Edinburgh, who are managing the patent and commercial development of Palm-Alt, including engaging in license discussions with a number of interested UK food manufacturers.
Queen Margaret University has been carrying out commercial trials at Opportunity North East (ONE) SeedPod, Scotland’s dedicated food and drink innovation hub in Aberdeen.
Gary McDonald, Senior Market Development Manager at ONE, said: “Delighted to see this project come to fruition at ONE SeedPod.
“The team at the Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation have been such a joy to work with on what is such an innovative project for the industry.”
A project that aims to capture, transport and safely store CO2 emissions from across Scotland will be granted £2 million from the Scottish Government.
The new funding will be used to explore how a pipeline could transport Carbon Dioxide from Scotland’s central belt to the North East.
The Acorn Carbon transport and storage project is a joint venture with the Scottish Cluster, benefitting from the collective expertise of Storegga, Shell UK, Harbour Energy and North Sea Midstream Partners, along with National Gas.
The project is working with industrial, power, hydrogen, bioenergy and waste-to-energy businesses, including those in Peterhead, Grangemouth and Mossmorran, who wish to capture CO2 emissions and send to permanent geological storage under the North Sea.
Visiting St Fergus in Aberdeenshire, where the Acorn transport and storage terminal will be located, First Minister John Swinney said: “The Acorn project will be essential in securing the future of key industrial sites like Grangemouth and Mossmorran.
“A National Gas pipeline is a critical component of the project and I am delighted that the Scottish Government is providing funding to accelerate this innovative work.
“We are determined to support projects like this to support the development of Scotland’s carbon capture and storage sector and the fair and just transition of oil and gas sector.
“This announcement today demonstrates our unwavering support for carbon capture and storage, and I am confident that the UK Government will work constructively with us to ensure the Acorn Project is awarded Track 2 status. Enabling this innovative work to progress will help unlock so many opportunities not just for Scotland, but for the UK as a whole.”
Managing Director of Acorn Nic Braley said: “We welcome the Scottish Government’s support for the SCO₂T Connect project, and the recognition of its importance for the decarbonisation of Scotland’s industry.
“Working together, Acorn and National Gas can provide a CO₂ transport and storage solution to the Scottish Cluster, a diverse range of emitters from across Scotland and the rest of the UK, who are all committed to timely and cost-effective decarbonisation.
“The Scottish Cluster, with Acorn at its core, and the UK and Scottish governments can collectively make a major contribution to UK Net Zero commitments, supporting ambitions for clean energy, green prosperity and value for money.
“We look forward to working with both Scottish and UK Governments to make the Scottish Cluster a reality.”
CEO of National Gas Jon Butterworth said: “We are committed to reaching net zero, and excited to explore how our world-class gas network can be at the heart of the drive to decarbonise with carbon capture and storage.
“We welcome today’s announcement from the Scottish Government. It is a brilliant example of how government and industry can work side-by-side to deliver clean energy solutions.”
If you don’t have the time (or the desire!) to read this blog in its entirety – just read this: we are looking for voluntary organisations who are expecting funding from the Scottish Government in the forthcoming financial year to take part in a quick and easy monthly survey for six months. To get involved, contact details can be found at the bottom.
If you do have time to read the whole blog – here’s a bit more on why we’re doing it:
At SCVO, we’ve been working hard over the last couple of years to build our Fair Funding asks in response to what the sector has told us. We’ve also been putting a lot of time and effort into taking those asks to parliament. A result of that has been the Scottish Government’s commitment to Fairer Funding by 2026 and, although that remains largely undefined at present, some additional commitments have filtered out since.
One of those commitments relates to funding notifications. We know that timely decision making, and subsequent issuing of funds, is crucial to ensuring no organisation is disadvantaged by the funding process.
When decisions and notifications are delayed, organisations are plunged into uncertainty which can have hugely negative impacts on their ability to deliver services, retain staff, and plan ahead.
And so, as part of our Fair Funding package, we have been asking the Scottish Government to ensure funding decisions are issued no later than December and funds paid no later than the start of the tax year in April.
We were encouraged, then, when Colin Smyth MSP submitted a written question at parliament at the end of November, asking “what action it is taking to ensure that its funding decisions regarding support for the voluntary sector are issued no later than December, and that any funds are paid no later than the start of the tax year in April”.
The fact that we had not had prior contact with Colin would suggest that our Fair Funding calls, with the support of sector organisations echoing those calls, are very much landing with MSPs.
But even more encouraging was the Scottish Government’s response: “We understand that organisations need timely grant decisions and payments in order to reduce financial uncertainty and effectively resource delivery,” the Cabinet Secretary said.
“In line with the commitment given by the First Minister, we are working, within the context of the Scottish Budget process, to issue notifications of funding arrangements to third sector organisations, as soon as is practicably possible and no later than end of March for funding beginning on 1 April.”
With that in mind, we are keen to track the experiences of voluntary organisations who expect to receive funding from the Scottish Government this coming financial year.
We’re looking to build a group of such organisations to participate in a monthly survey, beginning in a few weeks and running for six months. The survey itself will be quick and easy to complete, the results gathered will be kept entirely anonymous, and your participation will allow us to document the journeys of organisations between February and July this year in terms of the relevant correspondence and notifications they are receiving from the Scottish Government.
In July, we will then hopefully be able to congratulate the Scottish Government on realising this commitment on timely notifications. Alternatively, if that is not the case, we will have the statistics that will allow us to hold the Scottish Government to account and to demand that Fairer Funding genuinely does incorporate this and many other of our Fair Funding asks in future.
If your organisation is awaiting notification from the Scottish Government on funding for the forthcoming financial year and you’d like to participate in this series of surveys, or you would like a little more information, please get in touch with Jason Henderson at: jason.henderson@scvo.scot
Families across Scotland will benefit from a £1 million investment in charities specialising in mental health and wellbeing support in pregnancy and early years.
The support – provided by the Scottish Government’s Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Fund – will go to 34 charities that help new families take their first steps in raising babies and young children.
It has been estimated that up to 20% of mums and up to 10% of dads are affected by poor mental health in the perinatal period. Between 10-22% of babies and young children also experience mental health difficulties.
The Fund enables organisations to provide one-to-one and group based support and care that parents, carers and new babies need. Over 7,000 parents, expectant parents and infants have been supported by the funded organisations.
Mental Wellbeing Minister Kevin Stewart announced extension of the existing Fund for another year from April 2023 to March 2024 at the current level of funding, over £1 million across the 12 months.
Mr Stewart said: “We want all mothers and their families to have access to good mental health care throughout pregnancy and during the postnatal period. The third sector plays a key role in access to perinatal and mental health support, and with the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic and the cost crisis, their work is more important now than ever.
“I am pleased to extend the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Fund. It is reassuring to see that from October 2020-March 2023 over £2.5 million has been distributed to successful charities via the Fund and over seven thousand parents, expectant parents and infants have been supported by the funded organisations.”
Home Start Dundee service user said: “On my bad days, the groups have been a lifeline, having somewhere to go and vent to people who “get it” and understand.
“It’s nice to be able to open up in a safe and non-judgmental environment”
Mind Mosaic service user said: “The group really helped me to feel less alone in my struggles, and the calm friendly way you welcomed us all each Thursday morning set the tone to make it easy and comfortable to share experiences.”
Barnardo’s maternal and infant mental health support service user said: “It was a great way to find and talk to new parents.
“I felt welcomed and loved each session. So did my son.”
Celia Tennant, Chief Executive of Inspiring Scotland said: “We’re delighted the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Fund has been extended for another year. This will enable us to work alongside our charity partners to continue offering their essential perinatal services that support families with babies.
“This support is needed now more than ever, and these organisations are a lifeline to parents and families, offering empathetic support with trusted relationships right at the heart of their services.”
