Chamber and committees

The Government does not propose to publish the names of Women's Health Leads in each Health Board. These roles are not public appointments and the role will be an operational and / or clinical one, depending on local priorities and circumstances. Leads are of course accountable to their employing Health Board.

Dental registration statistics, including the percentage of children who are registered with a NHS dentist in the Dumfries and Galloway area, are published by Public Health Scotland and can be viewed online at Dental statistics - NHS registration and participation 24 January 2023 - Dental statistics - registration and participation - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

NHS Dumfries and Galloway have appointed a Task Force to improve access to dental services in the area. Their work includes promoting Scottish Government funding, including the Scottish Dental Access Initiative grant and the Recruitment and Retention allowance, of which both incentives are available throughout the whole Board area.

On 27 July I wrote to the dental sector with a new suite of fees incentivising a full range of NHS care and treatment. The new model reduces bureaucracy, provides greater clinical freedom to NHS dental teams and reflects modern dentistry. The intention behind these payment reform measures is to better incentivise dentists to provide NHS dental care, thereby sustaining and increasing NHS dental access as we move forward.

The Scottish Government’s universal Baby Box programme, the only one in the UK, opened for registration on 15 June 2017. Nationwide delivery of Baby Boxes began on 15 August 2017 for all babies born and resident in Scotland.

We are unable to give the number of Baby Boxes delivered by local authority or other local area breakdown area as we only record numbers of Baby Boxes distributed by Health Board area.

The following table shows the number of Baby Boxes distributed by NHS Board area since the Scheme began up to 25 th August 2023.

The Scottish Government COVID-19 guidance for schools remains in place and we know that schools continue to find the health protection principles in that guidance to be helpful in protecting the health of staff and pupils.

We have however been working with Public Health Scotland, local authorities and other stakeholders to develop updated guidance that better reflects current circumstances and will help schools continue to prevent the spread of COVID, other respiratory infections and infectious diseases in general.

We identified that women need more information about menstrual health symptoms and associated conditions which is why our Women’s Health Platform on NHS Inform helps women to access the information they need on a range of issues relating to their health, including conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome.

There is comprehensive information on the condition itself as well as help and advice on diagnosis, treatment and self-management options. In addition, there is signposting to organisations such as Verity and PCOS Relief for additional help and support.

As part of their work supporting the delivery of the Women’s Health Plan, the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) has continued to support the provision of comprehensive information and resources to dispel myths and stigma around menstrual health. This has included several webinars exploring periods and menstrual health related conditions. On 27 July 2023 The ALLIANCE hosted a webinar specifically focussing on polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) . These webinars are available to view on line and are supported by additional written resources which include signposting to other sources of information and advice.

The ALLIANCE has also produced a toolkit for delivering Conversation Cafes on women’s health . The toolkit brings together resources and guidance to set up supportive conversation spaces, facilitate informed discussion with women and build peer support networks. Alongside the toolkit is a resource hub , which provides additional resources to support discussion: ensuring that Café participants are provided with accurate information and can be signposted appropriately.

Scotland’s first Women’s Health Champion, Professor Anna Glasier, has identified PCOS as one of her priorities and publishes a quarterly blog highlighting her progress.

The Menopause Specialist Network, chaired by Dr Heather Currie, has been meeting on a quarterly basis since 2021. A peer support group, the Network includes representatives from all the mainland Health Boards, providing consistent advice and peer support to healthcare professionals. The Network supports primary care teams by providing access to a menopause specialist for consistent advice, support, onward referral, leadership and training.

We have also recently established a Menopause Clinical Reference Group. Issues raised by the Network are fed into the Group which then considers potential Scotland wide approaches.

Information on the activity of the Network can be found in the Women's health plan: progress report published in January 2023 and the Womens-health-plan-interim-progress-update published in August 2023.

The Scottish Government is committed to listening to the voices of children and young people across the education landscape. Learner engagement and participation are vital elements within Scotland’s curriculum, and these are further enhanced with the incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots Law.

Education Scotland has recently updated the Successful Young Leaders of Learning programme, which supports learners from P4 upwards to engage in school improvement activity, working in collaboration with other schools. Schools also have access to the ‘Learner Participation in Education Settings’ and the ‘How Good is OUR school?’ online resources, which support the engagement of learners in school improvement and decision making within the classroom, school and community. Education Scotland also provides professional learning to take schools through the materials, providing an opportunity for further dialogue and support.

Public Health Scotland produces a range of reports on sexual health data, which include breakdowns by demographic characteristics where this is appropriate and feasible. There are no imminent plans to change any of the demographics reported on in these publications.

A short update paper has recently been provided to the Women’s Health Plan Implementation Programme Board. The ‘Women’s Health Plan: Interim Progress Update’ describes further progress made since the Report on Progress, which was published in January 2023.

The report can be accessed here: Women's Health Plan: Interim Progress Update 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Additionally, Women’s Health Champion Professor Anna Glasier publishes a quarterly blog on her progress which can be found here:

Health and Social Care Women's Health Champion Archives - Health and Social Care (blogs.gov.scot)

A Women’s Health Leads Network, to which each health board lead is invited, is chaired by Professor Glasier. The network meets quarterly and further such meetings are scheduled into 2024.