Chamber and committees

The expansion of Hospital at Home is already supporting Boards maximise capacity to meet demand and helping more people receive care at home or as close to home as possible, where clinically appropriate – which is relieving pressure on the front door of our A&Es. Early feedback from NHS Boards indicates good progress is being made in terms of increasing Hospital at Home capacity in key areas.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23954 on 9 January 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

While delivery of investments in new vessels and port infrastructure is being progressed, this Government has authorised a six month extension to the current charter of MV Alfred. The primary focus of the vessel MV Alfred is for resilience purposes. However, this will help mitigate the impact of disruption or where certain islands are reduced to single vessel service.

Delivering six new major vessels to serve Scotland’s ferry network by end 2026, is a priority for this government of which four are for Islay and the Little Minch routes and two are for the Ardrossan-Brodick/Campbeltown route.

Transport Scotland is also working with CMAL and CalMac on further vessel projects and programmes including the Small Vessel Replacement Programme.

Additional funding has been committed for enhanced maintenance of vessels and CMAL and the operators continue to work to identify potential additional second hand tonnage to support the fleet.

As is the case at present and within the remit of the current contract, there are measures to which we hold the operator accountable for and apply performance measures where applicable.

Scotland’s long term strategy for ending homelessness is delivered in partnership with local government, third sector organisations and the wider homelessness sector in Scotland. It requires commitment and investment by all partners on the actions each takes with the aim of ending homelessness.

Our £ 100 million Ending Homelessness Together Fund was established to transform the homelessness system between 2018 and the end of this parliamentary term. On top of funding provided through the local government settlement, we are investing £35 million in 2024-25 in specific action to end homelessness and reduce the number of households living in temporary accommodation. As local authorities are our key partner for delivering our homelessness strategy, the majority of this funding will be allocated to councils.

In addition to this, the Ending Homelessness Together Fund resources a range of other activity, including the opening of Rapid Rehousing Welcome Centres each winter, which provides people at risk of rough sleeping with a warm, safe space and access to trauma-informed services to help them move onto more settled accommodation. It also provides third sector organisations with resource for administration by frontline and street outreach workers to support the immediate needs of people experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, homelessness and/or rough sleeping.

The Scottish Government did not request that any Covid-19-related funding be returned by Health Boards to Scottish Government in the financial year 2022-23. All funding available across the Health and Social Care Sector was used to support the Covid-19 efforts and move Covid-19 funding to business as usual to support the recovery from the pandemic.

As set out in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Workforce Action Plan, we recognise that counsellors and psychotherapists are part of the core mental health and wellbeing workforce and play a critical role in delivering the Strategy.

Throughout the development of the Strategy, associated Delivery Plan and Workforce Action Plan, we engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including directly with representatives of the workforce.

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland (COSCA) and the British Psychological Society participated in the consultation processes.

We will continue to engage with them and other representatives of the mental health and wellbeing workforce on the implementation of the Strategy’s Delivery and Workforce Action Plans.

We recognise in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the Workforce Action Plan that counsellors and psychotherapists are part of the core mental health and wellbeing workforce and that they have a critical role in delivering the Strategy.

The Strategy, Delivery Plan and Workforce Action Plan were developed in consultation with a large number of stakeholders including representatives of counselling and psychotherapy such as British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland (COSCA) and the British Psychological Society.

Throughout the implementation of the Strategy’s Delivery and Workforce Action Plans, officials will continue to liaise with key stakeholders and consider relevant frameworks to ensure best practices are shared.

Recruitment and training of registered mental health professionals is a matter for employers such as NHS boards and Local Authorities. These bodies make informed decisions about recruiting counsellors and psychotherapists or training new mental health practitioners, according to the needs of local service providers and working with relevant professional bodies. The Scottish Government expects employers to apply standards and frameworks which are appropriate to the specialism being recruited for.

The Scottish Government are grateful for the efforts made by Health and Social Care Partnerships to develop plans to implement Mental Health and Wellbeing in Primary Care services. This planning activity was supported by £1.5 million of funding in December 2021.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-23303 on 11 December 2023 and S6W-16651 on 21 April 2023 outlining the reasons for the decision to pause the recruitment to Mental Health and Wellbeing in Primary Care services. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-23303 on 11 December 2023 and S6W-16651 on 21 April 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

We continue to work towards delivery of the commitment that at least 10% of frontline health spending will be dedicated to mental health by the end of this parliamentary session.

The NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026 Annual Progress Update published in December 2023 confirmed that NHS expenditure on mental health rose from £1.25bn in 2020-21 to £1.3bn in 2021-22, an increase of £51.5m or 4.1% - representing 8.8% of total NHS expenditure.