Chamber and committees

Scottish Government has provided free multi-vitamins to all pregnant women, for the duration of their pregnancy, since April 2017. Annual costs are set out in the following table.

Scottish Government launched the Neonatal Expenses Fund (NEF) in April 2018 to help support parents to be able to spend as much time with their babies as possible, while they were receiving care within a neonatal unit.

Scottish Government increased funding in July 2021 to form the Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF), which subsumed the NEF to create a single unified fund. This new commitment extended support to families of children and young people receiving inpatient care up to age 18.

The fund is demand-led and the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring sufficient funding to NHS Boards to support all valid YPFF claims. Budgets for both funds are as set out in the following table.

The Scottish Government has made a 14.5% pay offer to Junior Doctors covering the period of 2022-24. This represents a £61.3 million investment in junior doctor pay - the largest in the last 20 years and the best offer in the UK. This will be funded from within the Health and Social Care budget.

The deposit return scheme is a major undertaking for businesses, bringing very significant environmental and economic benefits. Accordingly, we have regularly consulted with a wide range of businesses, trade associations, the scheme administrator, and other organisations as part of the decision making process.

The suite of impact assessments has been updated to reflect the draft regulations laid in May 2023, and as part of this, the Scottish Government has produced a supplementary analysis to the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment. This document includes the economic impacts of the amendments to the scheme announced in April. We will publish updated impact assessments in due course.

Extending digital connectivity is vital to communities, businesses and public services. That is why the Scottish Government strategy, A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world , sets out a series of measures to ensure that Scotland will fulfil its potential in a constantly evolving digital world.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/a-changing-nation-how-scotland-will-thrive-in-a-digital-world/pages/foreword/

As part of this there is work to improve and extend Scotland's broadband and mobile networks as enabling citizens, including care home residents, to access and use digital services is a national priority with established principles.

Health and Social Care Standards

The Health and Social Care Standards, which set out what people should expect when using health, social care or social work services in Scotland, includes a range of standards about ensuring that people remain connected. This includes standard 5.10:

“If I experience 24 hour care, I am connected, including access to a telephone, radio, TV and the internet.”

The Standards are taken into account by the Care Inspectorate in relation to inspections, and registration, of social care services.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/health-social-care-standards-support-life

To support good practice, the Care Inspectorate have published quality illustrations statements in this area for adult care homes:

“People have easy access to the internet and a telephone and are routinely and actively supported to make best use of these. This includes space to have private conversations.”

“People are unable to stay connected as providers have not taken steps to minimise the impact of poor access to technology or areas where there is limited Wi-Fi or phone signal.”

“While there may be access to telephone and the internet, people are not routinely or actively supported to use these or cannot do so in private.”

“People benefit from options to keep connected using technology such as radio, phone, TV and the internet.”

Care Home design guide

The Care Inspectorate have published “Care Homes for Adults – The Design Guide” which provides advice on the design, planning and construction considerations for new or converted care homes for adults. This sets out expectations around internet access in care homes:

“Internet access must be sufficient to enable residents to retain contact with friends and relatives, as well as for recreational use such as music and video streaming or watching live events. It is also a necessary area for contact with professionals such as GPs through Near Me consultations, and for staff to maintain digital records”.

https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/publications-statistics/30-professionals-registration/professionals-guidance/6583-care-homes-for-adults-the-design-guide

Technology good practice guide

From a technology enabled care perspective, the Care Inspectorate’s recent publication “Using technology and digital devices to make a positive impact on health and wellbeing for people experiencing care” highlights how access to digital connection is becoming essential for everyone’s health and wellbeing. This publication supports improvement through quality illustrations, case studies and a toolkit of resources. The guide can be accessed at:

https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/publications-statistics/76-professionals-registration/resources

During the pandemic

As part of the Digital Approaches in Care Homes programme launched during the pandemic, in November 2020, Scottish Government offered all care homes in Scotland digital devices for use by and with residents, as well as MiFi devices (internet connectivity dongles) with free data for up to two years for those homes with no, or partial, Wi-Fi coverage. 1034 (75%) of care homes accepted the offer of devices, and 45% the offer of MiFi devices (9% had no Wi-Fi, 36% partial only). All care homes were contacted by email and telephone to ensure the offer was received. Of the 25% of care homes that rejected the offer, the majority stated that they had both the devices and connectivity required at the time.

A recent survey by SCVO (March 2023) has established that 76 MiFi connections are still in use by 54 care homes, and remains their primary internet connection for residents. The Digital Social Care Portfolio Board has endorsed the extension of the initial offer of free data to December 2023 to allow the care homes the time to migrate to more sustainable internet connection solutions. The MiFi devices offer the fastest possible connection available via mobile telephony (3G/4G/5G) depending on the reception available in the area.

Reaching 100% (R100) programme

Through the Reaching 100% (R100) programme the Scottish Government is ensuring that all homes and businesses can access superfast broadband. This is delivered through three strands of activity – the £600 million R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) and continued commercial coverage. Property owners and residents can see what the R100 programme will mean for them by visiting www.scotlandsuperfast.com .

The R100 contracts are proceeding at pace and have connected over 22,400 premises with a further 5,700 connected as a consequence of contractual overspill and at no extra cost to the Scottish Government. Over 3,100 premises have also been connected through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.

We know the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing structural inequalities within our society, putting some communities and groups within the population disproportionately at risk for more adverse impacts on their mental health. That is why we have committed to making the mental health of these groups a priority.

We have established an Equality and Human Rights Forum to help influence and deliver measurably improved outcomes for minority ethnic groups. The forum will set out actions to address racialised mental health inequalities in the upcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Delivery Plan and will build on our existing work.

We are also considering the report from the Scottish Mental Health Law Review which included recommendations to improve monitoring and address ethnicity in rates of detention and compulsory treatment. We intend to set out our initial response to the report, including priority actions, by summer 2023.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17864 on 23 May 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

A detailed update against each of the BAA recommendations was included in a recent NHS Lothian Board meeting, these can be accessed at NHS Lothian Board Papers 05 April 2023.pdf

NHS Lothian have confirmed that at the time of the BAA audit, the PCHI register had 643 patients recorded. 107 of those were aged greater than 18 years of age. As of 16 May 2023 there are 725 children on the PCHI register. This is a dynamic register adding children when hearing loss is diagnosed, and transitioning young people to adult care when exiting education.

Whilst it is possible for NHS Lothian to identify which local authority children on this register reside, this information is not routinely recorded and NHS Lothian have committed to provide this information which will be shared with the member when it is available.

NHS Lothian advise that behavioural testing is undertaken where part of the agreed clinical pathway. To date 89 children have attended for behavioural testing.

With regards to progress made on reviewing auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing undertaken in the previous five years, and when any report on this will be published. This work has been completed by the BAA with a review of all ABRs of all births back to 2017. The second report from the BAA will be made publicly available in July 2023 when all the reviews are completed.

NHS Lothian have confirmed that 147 children were identified by the BAA for clinical review.

As of 16 May 2023, there are 26 who have had a missed diagnosis, delayed management, or a change to their management since the recall process started. In some cases, the change to management was not as a direct result of the audit in isolation.

31 children have since been recalled by the service following the review of the permanent congenital hearing impairment (PCHI) record.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17864 on 23 May 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