Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government supports Health and Social Care Partnerships with funding provided to Health Boards and local authorities to implement guidance, such as that published by the Mental Welfare Commission on alcohol-related brain damage.

That will be supplemented soon by the UK’s first comprehensive guidance for clinical treatment for alcohol conditions. The guidance will include requirements for the treatment of ARBD and we will support the adoption of the clinical guidance.

We recognise that the management and support required for people with ARBD is not limited to healthcare. Whether it is social care, mental health support, primary care or alcohol treatment and support - including rehabilitation - in communities or in residential settings, the person affected must be at the centre of the support pathway.

The Scottish Government is keen to see equal access to support for all alcohol conditions, including ARBD, and will continue to encourage local areas to base service provision on local needs.

We have committed to publishing a National Specification for alcohol and drug treatment and support services. The Specification will set out what services are required to implement the Charter of Rights for people affected by substance use, which includes those impacted by ARBD.

The Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) audit was commissioned by Scottish Government in July 2024. Whilst there was an initial delay regarding recruitment, this has now been completed, and progress now continues at pace.

Public Health Scotland are responsible for the delivery of the FLS audit and Scottish Government officials remain close to its development.

In line with all newly commissioned audits, we expect the audit to take several years to create high-quality, standardised data and consistency across NHS Boards in order to drive improvements and support clinical decision making.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-35534 and S6W-35567 on 21 March 2025. 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

Since 2019, the Scottish Government has been supporting the sport sector to offer free period products; reducing stigma and addressing overarching gender equality.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30734 on 11 November 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

In addition to the information provided in answer S6W-30734, sportscotland’s Working with Female Athletes learning platform on Brightspace has recently been updated to include additional e-learning resources. This includes Sport Wales’ e-learning module on the menstrual cycle in sport. Resources are available for all and are free of charge.

The Scottish Government has commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to develop a set of maternity standards, designed to drive improvements in care at a local level and support consistency of service design and delivery across Scotland. This process has started, and we expect the standards to be completed in late 2025.

In addition, we welcomed the announcement from Healthcare Improvement Scotland in 2024 that they would initiate inspections of maternity services as part of the Safe Care Inspection process. These inspections started in late January 2025.

Our Best Start programme described a range of measures to improve care, the vast majority of which are now in place. We continue to work closely with NHS Boards, clinical leaders, the third sector and national partners to share learning, respond to emerging evidence and identify opportunities for continuous improvement at the national level.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) appraises newly licensed medicines for clinical and cost-effectiveness to help Health Boards determine whether a medicine should be accepted for routine use within the NHS in Scotland. Following the appraisal process, the SMC publishes advice for Health Boards in Scotland to consider. The SMC does not issue tailored guidance for specific medicines.

The Scottish Government understand the importance of sport and physical activity for women and girls in Scotland and the positive impact that has on their physical, mental, and social health. Football plays a key role in this because it has a reach into communities like no other sport, and participation levels in women and girls football are at record levels.

The Scottish Government supports the Scottish FA in making football accessible for all and believes in the power of football in bringing communities together. We are also keen to support the SWPL in promoting and improving the elite women’s game to help encourage more women and girls into the sport.

Produced in partnership with UEFA, the Scottish FA’s Accelerate Our Game strategy has been designed to a provide focus to the Scottish FA’s commitment to progress the girls’ and women’s game in Scotland. The strategy aims to harness the power of women’s football by changing perceptions and empowering people to inspire the nation, whilst developing and promoting women’s football for all, enabling current and future generations to enjoy our national game equally.

In addition, the Scottish FA leads three key programmes targeting girl’s football:

• UEFA Disney Playmakers
• KDM Soccer Centres
• SPAR Future Stars Cup Square

Furthermore, sportscotland works in partnership with all 32 local authorities to invest in and support the Active Schools Network. Active Schools aims to provide more and higher quality opportunities to take part in sport and physical activity before school, during lunchtime and after school, and to develop effective pathways between schools and sports clubs in the local community. In the 2022-23 academic year, football was the second most popular activity for girls within the Active Schools programme, with girls and young women making 379,944 visits to Active Schools football sessions.

The Women’s Health Plan sets out that healthcare for women should be holistic, inclusive, respectful, centred around the individual and responsive to their needs and choices.

In 2023, we carried out research on ‘Women's experiences of discrimination and the impact on health ’ so that we can better understand the lived experience of women and girls in Scotland and the discrimination they have experienced when seeking healthcare.

Through the Women’s Health Platform on NHS Inform we have created resources that can be used by women and girls and healthcare professionals to support shared decision making and a patient centred approach. This includes symptom questionnaires on menopause and menstrual health and clinical tools such as the Endometriosis Care Pathway and the Heavy Menstrual Bleeding Pathway to support informed discussions and provide better understanding of the next steps on a healthcare journey.

We have also funded the development of educational resources to support health professionals to learn more about menstrual health, endometriosis and menopause, the symptoms and treatment options.

While the Scottish Government sets the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, it is NHS Boards and healthcare professionals locally who have responsibility for both service delivery and ensuring people receive the right care for them, taking into account relevant guidance, local service needs and priorities for investment.

It is therefore for NHS Boards to determine what clinical interventions they offer, while giving regard to the considerations above.

The majority of Scottish health boards participated in the 2022 UK Parkinson’s Audit which measures the quality of Parkinson’s services against international best practice. This includes Patient Reported Experience Measure (PREM) data from people who use Parkinson’s services.

The 2022 Audit showed Scotland outperforming the UK in terms of future care planning, and access to essential professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists.

In 2024-25, we allocated over £450,000 to gynaecology from our £30 million targeted investment in planned care, delivering around 3,500 additional new outpatient appointments.

The 2025-26 Budget will provide a record £21.7 billion for Health & Social Care, including a commitment to provide £200 million to help reduce waiting times and improve capacity, and gynaecology is being targeted as a key priority area for additional funding.

Our Women’s Health Champion, Professor Anna Glasier, and I have been meeting with clinicians to better understand the challenges that currently exist within gynaecology services, to discuss innovative solutions, and to reiterate our commitment that timely access to gynaecology services is a key priority area for the Scottish Government and for the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government commissioned Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) has developed a strong clinically-led Specialty Delivery Groups (SDG) for Gynaecology, which promotes multidisciplinary team working and supports local adoption of service improvement programmes. This group has supported several new and innovative pathway developments, many of which are now being successfully scaled up across Scotland, including Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT) and Patient Initiated Review (PIR).