Scottish Parliament e-Brief
Issue 208, 28^th June 2004

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

IN COMMITTEE
This week’s highlights in the Committee rooms include:

SECTION 2 – NEWS

Partnership to address assaults on SHOPWORKERS
Physical or verbal abuse of public service workers is totally unacceptable and the Executive is working to stamp it out, Andy Kerr said today. The Minister for Finance and Public Services was speaking after he met trades unions and the Scottish Retail Consortium to support their efforts to tackle the problem. He also backed the Usdaw National Respect for Shopworkers Week, which runs from 5^th July to the 11^th.

The Executive is addressing antisocial behaviour in communities across Scotland through a range of measures, including the recently passed Antisocial Behaviour Bill. It is also taking specific steps to address the abuse of and violence directed towards public service workers, including raising public awareness, providing incentives for employers to deal with the problem and developing training.

Full story

Scotland to host major sporting events
A recently upgraded rowing course has been re-opened in Motherwell's Strathclyde Park, the only course in Britain which meets full technical Olympic standard.

First Minister Jack McConnell said that having world class sports facilities will open up more opportunities for Scotland to host major sporting events.  The Motherwell venue, for example, will play host to the World Masters Regatta in September 2005.  This is one of the most important occasions in world rowing and will attract over 3500 competitors from across the globe.

The Masters Regatta is being supported by EventScotland as part of the Scottish Executive's major events strategy.

Full story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY’s Chamber Business is largely taken up with an Executive debate on the Celebration of Volunteering in Scotland.

Scotland has a reasonably robust culture of volunteering amongst people of all ages as well as a relatively well developed volunteering infrastructure.  There is a national network of over 50 volunteer centres core funded by the Scottish Executive, with at least one in every local authority area.  There is a national body – Volunteer Development Scotland – also core funded by the Executive which promotes, supports and develops volunteering at a national level. There is also growing evidence that the private sector appreciates the role volunteering plays in contributing to corporate social responsibility.

However, Scotland has a declining and an ageing population.  An improved supply of volunteers will be required to sustain present numbers of volunteers and to meet new demands.  Additionally, while the benefits of volunteering are plain, research has shown that there are various barriers holding people back.

The Partnership Agreement makes the following commitments on volunteering:

• To “support those people who make a valuable contribution to the people and communities of Scotland through their work in the voluntary sector and volunteering”; and

• To “encourage the more active involvement of young people in the lives of their communities and wider society through the introduction of a scheme, alongside the Millennium Volunteers scheme, which recognises youth volunteering.”

In June 2003 the First Minister set up a Working Group to develop proposals which would encourage young Scots to participate in volunteering during ‘gap’ or ‘transition’ years in their life. The Working Group looked at a large amount of evidence about the nature of volunteering in Scotland, the UK as a whole and abroad.

The objective of the Working Group was to help unlock the enormous potential that young people from all backgrounds have for both contributing to society and for personal self development. It set out to develop an initiative which would help transform volunteering in Scotland and create a culture of volunteering among young Scots that is both life-enhancing and life-transforming. The aim is to give young people an equal opportunity to benefit from taking up to a year out to develop their personal skills, engage in new social networks and to become more active citizens.

The outcome of this group’s work was Project Scotland, which is one strand of the volunteering strategy, launched in May.

This strategy has four strands.  These are:

• A focus on Project Scotland and young people;

• Dismantling the barriers to volunteering;

• Improving the volunteering experience; and

• Monitoring, evaluation and ongoing policy development.

The day concludes with a Member’s Business debate on the Urgent Need to Tackle Hepatitis C, Public Health Crisis from Keith Raffan (LIB DEM).

THURSDAY begins with an Executive debate on 21^st Century Social Work.

It was announced in February that an extra 450 social workers are to be fast-tracked into the profession, with graduates being trained in less than half the time it usually takes to complete a social work degree. £14 million is being invested in the scheme until 2009, taking the total number of fast-track social workers to 550.

The fast track framework enables graduates with any degree or experience to retrain as social workers within 16 to 23 months, instead of the usual four years it takes to complete a social work degree. The scheme is a partnership between the Scottish Executive, CoSLA and the Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education.

When the pilot was announced last year, 1077 people applied for an initial 50 places.  This was later expanded to 100 places.

An additional £6.25 million until 2009 to improve on-the-job training for students was also announced earlier this year, as was £3 million to help voluntary organisations which offer care services to train their staff. The former is on top of the current funding of almost £2 million each year for practice learning. The latter is a National Workforce Group (NWG) initiative which focuses on helping small and medium sized voluntary organisations train their staff to meet the Scottish Social Services Council’s standards for registration.

This is followed by First Minister’s Question Time.

In the afternoon, after Question Time (for the departments featured in the themed section this week, see Section 1 above), members debate the Final stage of the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine Railway and Linked Improvements Bill.

In the afternoon, after Question Time, there the Preliminary Stage (the equivalent of Stage 1 for Private Bills) debate of Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine Railway and Linked Improvements Bill.

The Bill is being promoted by Clackmannanshire Council, which is seeking statutory authority to construct a railway along the former rail route between Stirling and Kincardine via Alloa.  It also wishes to construct a link road following the closure of Hilton Road, Alloa.

Click here to read the Bill as amended at Consideration Stage
Click here to read the Explanatory Note
Click here to read the Promoter’s Memorandum

The day concludes with a Member’s Business debate on Argyll and Clyde Clinical Review from Frances Curran (SSP).

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