Chamber and committees

A&E performance remains below the levels we all wish to see, however, we continue to work closely with Boards to support delivery of sustained improvements across a range of areas.

Emergency Departments across NHS Scotland and the rest of the UK, continue to face sustained pressures. The combined impact of pandemic backlogs, Brexit-exacerbated staff shortages, and delayed discharges are all contributing to the challenges the NHS is facing, with significant pressure being placed on our urgent care services in particular.

Through our Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative Programme, we are supporting Health Boards to take action to improve patient flow and reduce A&E delays through a range of actions such as: increasing community capacity such as hospital at home, optimising the use of early and effective triage, rapid decision-making and streaming to assessment areas.

Addressing obesity is a priority for the Scottish Government, this financial year we have provided core funding of £8.25 million to health boards to deliver adult, children and young people’s weight management services.

The Scottish Government remains committed to taking forward the wide range of actions set out in our 2018 Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan to deliver our vision for a Scotland where everyone eats well and has a healthy weight.

The quantitative impact of all policies is being tracked through our nationally representative survey on health. The latest results, for the year 2022, were published on 5 December 2023 on the Scottish Government website . Obesity rates were 29% for adults and 18% of children were at risk of obesity. Obesity rates have been measured annually in the Scottish Health Survey since 2008.

The Scottish Government recognises that Social Isolation and Loneliness is a public health issue, which has been exacerbated because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will continue to be affected by the ongoing cost crisis.

The Social Isolation and Loneliness Strategy, and associated delivery plan, highlights a number of actions we are taking to tackle this public health issue, including funding support to 53 organisations across Scotland delivering community-led activity that responds to local needs. Priority groups targeted by the Fund are young people (aged 16-24), disabled people, people with a mental health condition, older people (aged 75+) and people living in areas of deprivation or on a low income.

Since 2021, we have invested £51m in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults, with 3,300 grants being made to local organisations across Scotland to tackle issues including social isolation. This complements action underway funding 53 community organisations who are delivering befriending services and providing opportunities for people to connect.

This Government continues to respond to these public health issues.

The Brush Up campaign has been developed to raise awareness of changes to NHS dentistry from 1 November, and to assure patients that they will still be able to access a full range of treatment on the NHS.

In particular the campaign directs patients to updated NHS Inform webpages which set out key information in relation to NHS dental treatment in Scotland. This includes a plain English explanation of the changes to examination frequency, noting these are now determined with respect to individual risk factors; entitlements to exemptions; and information on accessing a dentist.

The effectiveness of the Brush Up campaign will be assessed using an on-line questionnaire of patients. Questions will focus on patients’ awareness of both the campaign itself and the accompanying dental reform.

The budget for the ‘Brush Up’ campaign to increase awareness of NHS dentistry reforms was £250,000.

The total budget for the Take Hold marketing campaign is £200,000.

To measure the effectiveness of the Take Hold Marketing campaign, the paid-for-media marketing campaign will be evaluated.

Pre and post campaign qualitative evaluation is conducted by an independent research company, with a representative sample of the target audience of parents, to measure changes in attitudes and behaviours on seeing and engaging with the campaign. In addition a short survey will be shared with schools to evaluate the use and effectiveness of materials provided to them.

Digital metrics will also be used to gauge the impact of the campaign, including but not limited to, numbers of visits to the NHS Inform vaping pages, visits to Parent Club vaping pages, numbers of click throughs from social media and digital advertising and numbers watching campaign digital videos through to completion.

The campaign aims to achieve the following objectives among the target audience by the end of the campaign period:

• To deliver 40% prompted campaign recognition.
• To achieve 30% of campaign recognisers claiming to have taken any action as a result of seeing the campaign (including liking/sharing campaign content, talking about the campaign with friend, communicate with a child/teenager about health impact of vaping).
• To deliver an increase in the number of parents / carers who have spoken to their child about the risks of vaping in the last two months.

The campaign is not targeting children and young people through radio and outdoor advertising. These channels, along with online news sites, digital and social media are being used to reach and engage the parental audience across Scotland.

To reach children and young people, we have engaged with schools, parents and third sector organisations who work directly with children and young people, equipping them with resources, information and tips (via NHS Inform and Parent Club) to prompt awareness of, and have informed discussions with their children and young people, on the dangers and consequences of vaping.

To reach the parental audience in Scotland, we worked with a procured Scottish Government roster media agency to identify the most effective media channels. In this instance, within the parameters of the identified budget, outdoor advertising, radio, online news sites and social media were recommended. These channels have allowed for creation of engaging content that encourages parents to click through to NHS Inform and Parent Club for information, advice and tips on having open, honest, informed conversations with their children and young people.