Talking-up Scotland

(c) eveningexpress.co.uk

Reported in Scottish Housing News, the councillors will vote tomorrow (Thursday) on a five -year plan based on £600 million from the council and a similar amount from private investors. The report states that the scheme:

‘Will contribute to the continuing regeneration of Glasgow’s neighbourhoods. It will facilitate significant investment in the construction industry with additional associated benefits in the form of jobs and training opportunities and benefits to small and medium enterprises.’

http://www.scottishhousingnews.com/18154/glasgow-councillors-consider-1bn-project-for-1000-new-homes/

The council contribution will of course come from the Scottish Government’s £3 billion budget to build 50 000 new affordable homes in this session. Regular readers will already know that Scotland is building affordable homes at twice (perhaps more) the rate of the English government. See:

Scottish Government increases supply of affordable housing and builds at more, perhaps much more, than twice the rate as in England

So, £3 billion for 50 000 houses or £1 billion for 1 000 houses. Somebody’s got their sums wrong and it’s no me this time! I’m putting my name down for one of those in Glasgow. Seriously though, I’m guessing it’s a headline writer’s error and it might be 10 000 houses.

(c) westcollegescotland.ac.uk

According to the Scottish Business News Network:

‘An air of confidence in Scotland’s electrical sector has led to the fifth year-on-year increase in the number of apprentices attracted to the industry, according to SELECT, the industry’s campaigning trade body. A combination of greater employment opportunities, and increased optimism regarding future employability has meant a 6% increase in electrical apprenticeship numbers, with 750 people signed up to begin apprenticeships or adult training schemes run by the Scottish Electrical Charitable Training Trust (SECTT) this year.’ 

More widely, there has been a steady upwards trend in apprenticeships since the SNP administration began after the 2007/2008 recession.

https://sbnn.co.uk/2017/10/31/scottish-electrical-apprenticeship-numbers-rise-nearly-pre-recession-heights/

Youth unemployment in Scotland is now 9.4%, a decrease of 48.3% since 2014. The government target was 40%. Scotland’s figure is amongst the best in Europe and significantly better than for the UK as a whole. Scotland would come in 5th best out of 29, on youth unemployment. The UK is at 9^th place at 21.1%.

This achievement is impressive and is testimony to the Scottish government’s initiatives including the Developing the Young Workforce programme based on education, improved careers advice, work experience and modern apprenticeship opportunities.

This news correlates, of course, with other recent reports of business growth and confidence. See:

40% increase in number of new Scottish businesses mainly under SNP government

Scottish businesses report much greater optimism about their futures for the third quarter in a row but the Fraser of Allander ‘Institute’ can’t help scratching their ‘buts’.

 

                    (c) PH                                                                       AFP/Getty Images

[Thanks to my French correspondent, L Thierry, for alerting me to this link]

In a Daily Telegraph article on 3^rd January 2016, Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson, gave her support to MP Steve Crabb if he were to stand against David Cameron in the leadership race that year. In the piece, she described him as her ‘political soulmate’ and said of him ‘I think there’s a few really, really competent and impressive people who demonstrate warmth as well as intelligence and I think that’s quite important in politics’ and that she would ‘find it very hard to vote for anyone else.’

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/12078577/Ruth-Davidson-Next-Conservative-leader-will-be-an-outsider-with-warmth-and-intelligence.html

Now, Crabb, who resigned a ministerial post in 2016 after sending sexually explicit texts to a ‘young woman’ during the EU referendum has been exposed, in the Times and in the Mail on Sunday, as having sent ‘explicit’ messages to a 19-year-old woman, in 2013, after a job interview at Westminster. The earlier case is even worse in that he was in a position of power over the future career of this teenager.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/06/stephen-crabb-mp-says-sexting-scandal-excruciating-embarrassment/

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/welsh-mp-accused-sending-sexual-13826881

Jeremy Corbyn has already warned that MPs who engage in the abuse and sexual harassment of women must be held accountable for their actions. Ruth Davidson has just announced ‘Sexual harassment in the workplace is wrong and must not be tolerated. Those in positions of power, like MPs and MSPs, have an even greater responsibility to lead by example and show respect for all members of staff. The Scottish Conservatives take these issues extremely seriously.’

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/snp-investigating-two-cases-of-sexual-harassment-1-4600315

So, will Ruth call for her former ‘soulmate’ to be sacked?

Also, I wonder did she know that ‘he voted against the Equality Act of Sexual Regulation Orientation 2007, which outlaws discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation?’

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/loyal-stephen-crabbs-voting-record-shows-support-for-welfare-benefits-cuts-a6941221.html

I’ve written many times about how nasty and hypocritical the Tories cannot help but be, before. See this for a few more examples:

The Scottish Tories so bad Ruth wants to kick some of them out and replace them with what, we wonder?

Following on smoothly from the news of a 40% increase in the number of businesses in the last ten years and considering the role the Scottish Government has played in nurturing this comes the news that almost 104 000 small businesses were given rate relief to the tune of £226 million this year, up from £180 million in the year before. I guess, judging by that number some of these were very small businesses indeed. The Small Business Bonus Scheme has saved businesses around £1.5 billion since it began and in many cases, has saved those businesses from closure and the loss of jobs.

Schemes like this are surely part of the explanation for Swedish payments firm iZettle’s July survey ranking Scotland as: ‘the best place in the UK to start a business, thanks to five key factors.’

The five factors are:

confidence,

support,

resilience,

money,

balance.

 According to the survey, reported in the Scotsman, respondents said parents and partners are their biggest champions, believed that having a “warrior spirit” is a key trait to thrive as a small business and if they had the choice they would do it all over again. They must have forgotten about the rates relief, I guess.

https://news.gov.scot/news/record-number-of-small-businesses-accessing-relief

 

‘The details of what we have found are set out in this paper, but some of the headlines make for grim reading. Prisoners cannot benefit from education or training if they are confined in their cells for long periods, and they inevitably become frustrated, angry or turn to drugs to ease the tedium. We have found that in local prisons 31% of prisoners report being locked in their cells for at least 22 hours a day, rising to 37% at young adult prisons (holding prisoners aged 18–21). We found large numbers of prisoners at some jails who were locked up for more than 22 hours a day, or throughout the working day.’

 https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/10/Findings-paper-Living-conditions-FINAL-.pdf

 The above is just a small extract from a damning report by England’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for 2016/2017. The report paints a picture of a service underfunded, understaffed and subject to regular riots mainly triggered by the conditions. Scotland’s prisons have known similar times in the past but according to the Chief Executive of Scotland’s Prisons, the situation here is much improved due to ‘consistent government’ and a fall in the prison population from 8 130 to 7 494 which is of course, still high by European standards. . Here’s an extract of what he said to Holyrood Magazine to explain the differences:

‘Compare that [England] fairly, and I think evidentially, with what’s happening in Scotland, and I think what we’ve benefitted from here…has been a consistent form of government. Some may disagree with that view, but I’ve been running the SPS for approaching six years now and no doubt, I have benefitted from a consistent requirement presentation from the Scottish Government in terms of what prisons should be doing, and that relationship, therefore, builds up over time.…I think we’ve had consistency and clarity of expectation. I think related to that has been, therefore, a consistent approach to the funding.’

He also praises the Scottish Government for its ‘political guts’ in reducing the prison population and in moving the system away from short-term sentences toward community justice and rehabilitation. He describes the former as ‘a complete waste of time, a complete waste of money, and in fact, they cause more damage than good’ and says he is ‘absolutely four square’ behind the Scottish Government.

https://www.holyrood.com/articles/inside-politics/what-are-we-doing-right-scottish-prisons-isnt-working-england

This, of course echoes what the Nuffield Trust said of the relationship between government and NHS Scotland.

A survey by Aldermore Bank puts new Scottish business creation up from 275 000 in 2005 to 383 000 in 2015. They also state that between 2007 and 2017, entirely under SNP leadership, more businesses were created than in the 1990s. Bear in mind that this was despite the dramatic slump in the economy in 2008 and for a few years after due to the banking crisis.

This is another indicator from the many reported here of the good health of the Scottish economy. See, for example:

Scottish businesses report much greater optimism about their futures for the third quarter in a row but the Fraser of Allander ‘Institute’ can’t help scratching their ‘buts’.

Scottish businesses continue to show signs of health with insolvencies down 23% as the Scottish economy holds strong

Ruth and Kezia sob as they hear Scotland is ranked as the best place in the UK to start a business. Will this good news never end?

Clearly government cannot claim all the credit for such growth but the Scottish Government did commit £500 million in support for business investment in 2016. Had the number shrunk, we can be sure Anas Sarwar would find a way to blame the SNP.

https://news.gov.scot/news/500m-new-support-for-businesses

http://www.scottishfinancialnews.com/14976/scotland-sees-spike-in-number-of-new-companies-being-created/

Against the background of 10 000 baby boxes already delivered, Scotland’s stillbirth and early infant death figures falling well below rUK levels and approaching the lowest in the world, the Scandinavian ‘gold standard’, and showing itself to be unique in its ability to self-improve, NHS Scotland pushes on with another initiative to increase the number of one-to-one visits to first-time mothers at a critical time for babies surviving and thriving.

https://blogs.gov.scot/child-maternal-health/2017/10/20/10000-baby-boxes-delivered/

Scottish stillbirth and early infant death rates lowest in the UK and approaching lowest in the world

Celebrating 1 000 mothers having gone through the Family Nurse Partnership scheme in Dundee alone, The First Minister said:

‘We want to make Scotland the best country in the world to grow up in. A key part of that is ensuring all children, regardless of background, have the best possible start in life. The Family Nurse Partnership has helped thousands of children and first-time mums across Scotland.’

With annual costs of around £16 million, more than 4,500 young mothers have had the training since 2010. This is another example of the kind of quickly implemented pioneering initiatives the Nuffield Trust has praised NHS Scotland for and the results are there in falling stillbirth rates.

‘Scotland has a unique system of improving the quality of health care’ says the Nuffield Trust: Looking at the full report and not the Labour/BBC Scotland extracts in July

https://news.gov.scot/news/support-for-first-time-mums

 

Those are some of the opening words of a report from the highly respected Nuffield Trust in a research report published by them in July of this year. For some reason I missed the full report at the time but it’s well worth a look. The BBC Scotland website gave it a reasonable airing but now that I’ve seen the whole thing, they were faint in their praise and then let Labour’s Anas Sarwar have the last words in their report with this appalling set of unrepresentative and nakedly political comments:

‘It includes suggestions that the SNP is avoiding taking the decisive action our NHS needs because of its obsession with independence – and it is not doing nearly enough to shift the balance of care from hospitals to the community. Given the SNP has cut £1.5bn from local budgets since 2011, that is just not going to happen.  The last thing Scotland’s NHS needs is another divisive referendum, and Nicola Sturgeon must now get back to the day job of delivering for our nurses, doctors, care staff and patients.’

I don’t know what Reporting Scotland did with it. Here are the opening four key points from page 3 of the report:

 

Scotland has a unique system of improving the quality of health care. It

focuses on engaging the altruistic professional motivations of frontline staff

to do better, and building their skills to improve. Success is defined based

on specific measurements of safety and effectiveness that make sense

to clinicians.

 

Scotland’s smaller size as a country supports a more personalised, less

formal approach than in England. The Scottish NHS has also benefited

from a continuous focus on quality improvement over many years. It uses

a consistent, coherent method where better ways of working are tested on

a small scale, quickly changed, and then rolled out. Unlike in the rest of the

UK, this is overseen by a single organisation that both monitors the quality

of care and also helps staff to improve it.

 

Scotland faces particular issues of unequal health outcomes, and very

remote areas. There are pioneering initiatives to address these, like the

Links worker programme and Early Years Collaborative to support

people in very deprived areas, and use of video links for outpatient care on

remote islands. These should be considered in other parts of the UK facing

similar issues.

 

There is much for the other countries of the UK to learn from this. While

comparing performance is very difficult, Scotland has had particular

success in some priority areas like reducing the numbers of stillbirths.

Scotland’s system provides possible alternatives for an English system

with a tendency towards too many short-term, top-down initiatives that

often fail to reach the front line. It also provides one possible model for

a Northern Irish NHS yet to have a pervasive commitment to quality

improvement, and a Welsh system described as needing better ways to

hold health boards to account while supporting them in improving care.

Scotland has a longer history of drives towards making different parts of

the health and social care system work together. It has used legislation

to get these efforts underway while recognising that ultimately local

relationships are the deciding factor. There is much for England and Wales

to learn from this.

 

The above statements positively glow with praise for NHS Scotland. It’s an A plus plus! Sarwar comes across, frankly as a dim-witted F grade dunce.

 

Research Report, July 2017, Learning from Scotland’s NHS at: https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/files/2017-07/learning-from-scotland-s-nhs-final.pdf

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has written a damning report attacking the UK government’s plans to introduce its Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and called on them to repeal it and to ensure protection and security for disabled people and their families.

Now a report for the Scottish Government estimates that around 30 000 people in Scotland could lose their entitlement to disability payments as PIP is rolled out. Already, the Scottish Government has had to step in with extra funds for local authorities to help them compensate 40 000 people in Scotland affected by the bedroom tax.

Minister for Social Security Jeane Freeman has written to Penny Mordaunt, the Minister for Disabled People, calling on Westminster to take action and saying:

‘The UK Government must listen to the cacophony of voices and growing evidence telling them about the damage their policies are causing and stop their assault on disabled people.’

https://news.gov.scot/news/uk-government-welfare-cuts

We’ve already seen steps taken by the Scottish Government to improve the lives of disabled people and others in poverty, in the face of this heartless Tory government.

Across 2013-16, the Scottish Government invested £296 million to mitigate the worst aspects of UK welfare policy, via the Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF), Discretionary Housing Payments, Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS) and other activity, such as advice and advocacy support services. The Scottish Government is providing a further £100 million in 2016-17. This investment continues to support people affected by the UK Government’s welfare cuts in a range of different ways:

• fully mitigating the bedroom tax – spending £35 million in 2016-17 and £47 million in 2017-18 – to help over 70,000 households in Scotland, an estimated 80% of which contain at least one disabled person, to sustain their tenancies; the Scottish Government is committed to using newly devolved social security powers to effectively abolish the bedroom tax
• a further £10.9 million will be available to local authorities to mitigate the impact of other UK Government welfare reforms and help claimants of Housing benefit or Universal Credit maintain tenancies
• providing another £38 million this year for the SWF. Between 1 April 2013 and 30 September 2016, the Fund has supported over 230,000 households in Scotland, including around 77,000 families with children. 77,000 awards were made to households containing at least one disabled person
• since April 2013 the Scottish Government has committed £92 million for the CTRS over and above the funding transferred from the UK Government upon abolition of Council Tax Benefit. In 2017-18, this funding will increase to an additional £31 million, resulting in a total of £351 million being included in the local government finance settlement paid to local authorities in relation to the scheme
• In addition, the Scottish Government is making significant investment in advice and advocacy support services to enable people to access expert support in applying for benefits and appealing adverse decisions.

SNP to bring in free personal care for disabled under-65s by April 2019

In the wake of the UN praise for Scotland’s approach to disability rights, NHS Scotland announces traineeships for disabled graduates

On October 4^th, I reported on the First Minister’s visit to Dublin to meet with the Taoiseach and deliver the keynote speech at the Dublin Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner.

Scotland to strengthen links with Ireland as well as Scandinavia and the Baltic as SNP Government prepares for Brexit

Now a formal arrangement to increase trade between the two countries is being developed under the title ‘Causeway.’ Here’s how the Scottish Business News Network describe it:

‘Causeway will help Scottish and Irish firms access networking opportunities and information in both markets. It has received funding from the Scottish and Irish governments to encourage trade.’

There are currently more than 100 Irish companies with around 6 000 employees, operating in Scotland and Ireland is the seventh largest importer of Scottish products and services.

https://sbnn.co.uk/2017/10/30/boost-irish-scottish-trade-causeway-launches-ireland/

As in earlier reports, I’m reminded of the fact that the Scottish Government is getting on with its day job as Westminster dithers over Brexit.