Besides Government, the membership of the group also includes the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, Association of Directors of Education in Scotland and Education Scotland.

The number homeless applications where the main applicant is female is published in Table 6A of the annual publication ‘Homelessness in Scotland’.

There are a number of measures in place to ensure that children and young people living in families facing homelessness or living in temporary accommodation get the support they need to make the most of the opportunities that learning provides. For example, the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order 2014, sets a number of standards that need to be met in temporary accommodation for households with children. This includes the proximity to the school that any child is attending.

The Scottish Government has also published guidance on Meeting the Best Interests of Children Facing Homelessness which emphasises adopting the GIRFEC approach of multi-agency working and provides guidance on particular issues face by children living in households facing homelessness. This can be accessed at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/BuiltEnvironment/Housing/homeless/futurework/homelesschildren. This makes it clear that local authorities should assess and identify factors that may impact on a child’s well-being with particular reference to education.

Further, under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2014 (as amended), local authorities are under a duty to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of children and young people for whom they are responsible.

There is support in place for young people facing financial barriers, to get the support they need to stay in education and increase their long term chances of getting a job. For example, Further Education students are able to receive a non-repayable bursary. Scottish domiciled students studying an undergraduate degree in Scotland can access paid tuition fees and a living cost support package of up to £7,625 from the Students Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS). The Education Maintenance Allowance also supports young people aged 16-19 from financially disadvantaged households to remain in post-compulsory education.

The Scottish Government has ensured strong legal rights to housing and support for homeless households with children. This is backed by statutory guidance for local authorities published by the Scottish Government on meeting the Best Interests of Children Facing Homelessness.

The Scottish Government has strengthened the Unsuitable Accommodation Order relating to the use of temporary accommodation for homeless households with children and pregnant women and we plan to strengthen this further.

Strong rights to housing also exist for young people (16-24) assessed as homeless, unlike the rest of the UK. The Scottish Government provides funding to a range of voluntary organisations that work with young people to prevent homelessness, including those supporting mediation services to address family breakdown, the main reason for homelessness amongst young people in Scotland.

We are also continuing to provide funding to local authorities to develop the housing options approach to prevention. This will be further strengthened by the development of a training toolkit for local authorities and their partners later this year, which will include addressing homelessness amongst families with children, looked after children and young people.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government welcomes the recent survey findings showing that 52% of young people volunteer, that participation is inclusive across most and least deprived areas, when volunteering in school time, and higher amongst those with physical and mental health conditions.

However the survey also recognises that there is a more significant variation of participation for young people volunteering outside of school.

We are committed to ensuring everyone who wants to do so is able to volunteer and continue to work with our partners, including Volunteer Scotland, to explore the reasons for variation in participation rates and consider interventions designed to address this. For example, in 2016-17 we provided over £1m to Voluntary Action Fund to deliver the Volunteering Support Grant, which is aimed at supporting volunteers who are facing disadvantage.

We are also taking action through the Fairer Scotland for Disabled People plan and have committed to provide funding during the current parliamentary session to enable more disabled people to take up volunteering opportunities.

Our annual funding of £800,000 enables Volunteer Scotland to encourage, promote and support volunteers and volunteering to individuals, including all young people, across Scotland.

In addition, Young Scot are funded by the Scottish Government to work collaboratively with many organisations, such as Police Scotland, sportScotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Creative Scotland and YouthLink to create and promote volunteering opportunities for young people.

The National Youth Work Strategy for Scotland recognises the role that volunteering plays in enhancing young people’s engagement, leadership and creative skills. The £500,000 National Voluntary Organisations Support Fund supports national youth work organisations to build capacity and support volunteering locally.

The Scottish Government is also actively supporting the #iwill campaign which aims to increase the number of young people aged 10-20, involved in social action. There are now 15 Scottish #iwill young ambassadors appointed, who are visiting schools and communities inspiring others about the impact of volunteering.

The Scottish Government works across policy areas to raise the profile of child health and to ensure proper account of the needs of children and young people is represented in relevant developing policies.

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) is a national approach in Scotland to improving outcomes and supporting the wellbeing of our children and young people by offering the right help at the right time from the right people. Wellbeing is at the heart of the Getting it right for every child approach to improving services for children and young people.

GIRFEC puts the rights and wellbeing of children and young people at the heart of the services that support them – such as early years services, schools and the NHS.

Following the findings in the Royal College of Paediatric Child Health “ State of Child Health” report, I can confirm that the Scottish Government is committed to supporting breastfeeding. Since 2011 we have invested more than £11.2m to enable Health Boards to promote breastfeeding and to support women to breastfeed for as long as they wish to do so. It is for NHS boards to take responsibility for monitoring the local breastfeeding trends for their area.

Funding is also provided to several voluntary organisations and peer support programmes including the Breastfeeding Network which provides a National Breastfeeding Helpline

In addition, we directly fund a Scottish UNICEF post and the first stage UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation. Scotland was the first country in the UK to have 100% of its maternity units meeting the UNICEF Baby Friendly best practice standards. Over 80% of our Health and Social Care Partnerships, 50% of our Universities and three (20%) of the largest Scottish Neonatal units are at stage 2 of the accreditation process.

As part of our 2016 Breastfeeding Awareness week activity we created the Feedgood.scot website to support women to initiate and continue breastfeeding. This was designed following detailed insight gathering with pregnant women and mothers of young children, and has already seen higher usage than the previous site.

To further strengthen our understanding of behaviours around breastfeeding, vitamin supplementation during pregnancy and early toddler diet we have commissioned a National Maternal and Infant Nutrition Survey for Scotland, following the withdrawal of the previous UK Infant Feeding Survey, and are the only UK country to do so.