The Scottish Government is committed to improving the services, support and care available to people with hearing loss through its long term strategy ‘See Hear’. Awareness raising and training were identified as one of the recommendations in the strategy. The strategy was jointly endorsed by COSLA and is being implemented through local partnerships. Local leads have been identified to drive progress across priority areas.

Through the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus networks, the Scottish Government has regular discussions with Health Protection Scotland, NHS boards and Hepatitis Scotland to help promote best practice and information sharing in relation to identifying people who remain undiagnosed.

Health Protection Scotland collects data on Hepatitis C tests from the West of Scotland Specialist Virology Centre, East of Scotland Specialist Virology Centre, Department of Medical Microbiology at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Ninewells Hospital and Medical School. These specialist laboratories receive positive samples from the 14 Hepatitis C testing laboratories in Scotland in order to carry out PCR testing for confirmation. Negative tests are generally not sent to these specialist laboratories. Therefore, for accuracy, the testing database only includes tests from Boards where there is complete data (negative and positive samples). This means that Hepatitis C test data is only available for prisons within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Grampian, Lothian and Tayside board areas. Between 2013-2015, 3,964 people were tested for hepatitis C antibody in the prison setting in these four board areas.

No assessment has been made on the impact of local housing allowance changes to investment. The Scottish Government made clear it was concerned about the potential impact, and welcomed the announcement that funding for supported accommodation would be maintained at current levels.

The Scottish Government intends to use devolved funding to ensure that the supported accommodation sector is put onto a secure and sustainable footing. We will work with a broad range of stakeholders to achieve this.

Rents in supported accommodation generally exceed rents in other accommodation types, due to high management and other associated costs.

No assessment has been made on the extent to which rents in supported accommodation may be higher compared to rents for other accommodation. The Scottish Government does not currently collect data on people in supported accommodation, however Scottish Government are currently in the process of implementing a data collection which will provide some data on this.

The UK Government has undertaken a substantial body of research on the provision of supported accommodation across Great Britain which we understand will shortly be published along with a consultation paper. When it is published we will consider this research carefully, and consider whether the Scottish Government needs to undertake further research or analysis.

The Scottish Government meets with housing providers and other stakeholders with an interest in supported accommodation through the temporary accommodation and supported accommodation sub group, which has met since 2013. This group has discussed the plans to extend local housing allowance (LHA) to the social sector, and its members, including Scottish Women’s Aid have been among those groups calling on the UK Government to take a different approach for supported accommodation.

This group last met on 19 September, and discussed the Secretary of State for Work and Pension’s written statement on applying LHA to the social rented sector, and the funding for supported accommodation. The group agreed to meet again shortly after the DWP research and consultation had been published.

This group also consulted with the Scottish Housing Best Value Network (Now known as the Scottish Housing Network) on guidance to support landlords and local authority housing benefit teams in defining supported exempt accommodation for the purpose of ensuring unintended consequences of UK Government welfare reform were avoided and to prepare for any measures to localise support for this sector.

No assessment has been made on the impact of local housing allowance changes to groups of recipients in supported accommodation. The UK Government has undertaken a substantial body of research on the provision of supported accommodation across Great Britain which we understand will shortly be published along with a consultation paper. When it is published we will consider this research carefully, and consider whether the Scottish Government needs to undertake further research or analysis.

The Scottish Government does not currently collect data on people in supported accommodation, however Scottish Government are currently in the process of implementing a data collection which will provide some data on this.

No assessment has been made on the impact of local housing allowance changes to groups of recipients in supported accommodation. The Scottish Government made clear it was concerned about the potential impact, and welcomed the announcement that funding for supported accommodation would be maintained at current levels. The Scottish Government does not currently collect data on people in supported accommodation, however Scottish Government are currently in the process of implementing a data collection which will provide some data on this.

The Scottish Government intends to protect the wide variety of tenants in supported accommodation and to use devolved funding to ensure that the supported accommodation sector is put onto a secure and sustainable footing. We will work with a broad range of stakeholders to achieve this.

The Equalities Action Plan (EAP) for Modern Apprenticeships in Scotland, published in December 2015, outlines the challenges to be addressed and the actions Skills Development Skills (SDS) will undertake with partners to improve the participation of under-represented groups within the MA programme. The plan can be found at: https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/40691/2869_sds_equalities_action_plan_digital_v7.pdf

SDS will publish the first annual report on the EAP progress shortly. The report will identify the activity that SDS has been undertaking to attract disabled people to MAs; to support them in applying for MA vacancies; and to support Training Providers in optimising success for young disabled MAs. Specifically in relation to young people with hearing impairments, SDS has:-

• delivered deaf awareness training to Training Providers in partnership with the Academy of British Sign Language (BSL);

• created a number of support resources, including the Equalities Toolkit, which identify how an employer / Training Provider can take positive action in recruiting young deaf people;

• raised awareness of the additional funding that is available to young people taking up an MA opportunity through Access to Work Funds and the MA Access Fund. These can be used, for example, to pay for a BSL interpreter for an apprentice.

Additionally, SDS has developed Regional Resource Guides which signpost where training providers, employers and partners can access support for young deaf people locally (deaf organisations such as NDCS, Action on Hearing Loss and Deaf Action are listed).

The UK Government has not begun discussions with the Scottish Government on the calculation of funding which will be devolved. We expect the UK Government to provide overall funding sufficient to fund supported accommodation at current levels, and we will work with the sector to ensure that the devolved funding reflects this.

Such discussions will be informed by the DWPs own research. When it is published we will consider this research carefully, and consider whether the Scottish Government needs to undertake further research or analysis to support our discussions with the UK Government.