Chamber and committees

The Alcohol and Drug Partnerships in Aberdeenshire and other rural areas were asked to submit structured assessments of how they are trying to overcome the challenges of rurality to the PHS MAT Implementation Support (MIST) team.

The assessment demonstrated the ways in which teams had maximised access and choice through technology, travel and different models of care, such as:

• Offering a choice of venues to be seen at; such as GP practice, home and community hubs,
• High use of self-referral and telephone, ‘tele-health’ technology such as NEAR ME;
• Wide use of bus passes, taxis and third sector volunteers to take people to appointments.

In 2024-25 NHS Grampian was allocated £10,469,033 for the ADPs in the region. Distribution of these funds is a matter for the local ADPs.

The Scottish Government works closely with the framework supplier to ensure the best possible network coverage.

For Scottish Government (SG) employees in remote and rural areas using an SG-issued mobile device, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi calling are permitted when mobile connectivity is insufficient.

The Scottish Government maintains membership in the Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN).

SWAN, a partnership between the Scottish public sector and BT, is committed to accelerating the digital transformation of Scotland’s public sector, including in some of the most rural areas of the country.

The contract will enhance communication, data sharing, and collaboration across more than 94 public sector organisations and thousands of sites.

BT has pledged to provide significantly faster and more resilient fibre broadband and mobile connections to its network members.

The mobile data used in terabytes (Tb) on the Scottish Government’s account as part of our mobile voice and data contracts is shown below. This data is only available from August 2020, it is not possible to separate the associated mobile data costs by department from the overall spend.

January 2024 to December 2024 - 82.59Tb

January 2023 to December 2023 - 94.87Tb

January 2022 to December 2022 - 97.77Tb

January 2021 to December 2021 - 125.07Tb

July 2020 to December 2020 - 39.99Tb

The Scottish Government holds data provided by our mobile voice and data supplier, Vodafone in relation to our mobile contract, this includes call, SMS and data usage statistics and along with any associated charges.

Scottish Government has entered into a contract with Vodafone Ltd for the supply of Mobile Voice and Data Services. This contract was arranged under Scottish Government’s national framework for Mobile Voice and Data services which was awarded to Vodafone Ltd following a robust competitive tendering process. The framework was tendered in accordance with the full requirements of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 and evaluated based on the published award criteria of 60% price and 40% quality. Vodafone Ltd was assessed as having submitted the most economically advantageous tender and their tariffs continue to be amongst the lowest available to the public sector. An annual benchmark exercise is undertaken to ensure that Scottish Government tariffs remain cost-effective and provide value for money.

The Scottish Government ensures that corporately managed mobile phones are replaced when they no longer receive operating system or security updates.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken analysis of time savings for staff in relation to improvements of medical records systems. We encourage NHS Boards to ensure they maximise the transformative opportunities offered by digital and understand the impact and the effect on staff and their roles.

Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan (2023) set out actions to support employers in ensuring that the needs of rural communities are met through national work to develop a Health and Social Care Rural Workforce Recruitment Strategy which will also take into account the mental health and wellbeing workforce.

As part of this national work and in collaboration with NHS Education for Scotland’s (NES) Centre for Workforce Supply and the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care, we will develop a sustained model of direct support that will provide employers with the help they need to improve recruitment success.

The Scottish Government regularly publishes a register of compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) submitted to the Scottish Ministers for confirmation since 2012: https://www.gov.scot/publications/compulsory-purchase-order-register/. The current register, published in December, includes CPOs received up to the end of October 2024.

Whilst the register of CPOs does not include information on whether orders submitted for confirmation were opposed, it does indicate where orders were confirmed with modifications.

The number of cancelled operations under ‘non-clinical/capacity reasons’ is the most granular level of detail that’s provided from PHS’s website, breakdown as follows: