Chamber and committees

Although the legal powers governing flexible working are currently reserved to Westminster, Scottish Government is committed to working with employers directly and through their representative bodies to explore ways of promoting and encouraging flexible, agile and inclusive workplaces that benefit all employees.

Improving access to flexible working is an important means to help people balance work and manage a range of health conditions as well as other commitments such as care without dropping out of the workplace with the loss of income, experience and skills that this entails.

In 2022-23 we are providing a total of £222,000 in funding to flexible working experts Flexibility Works to promote and support employers across Scotland to adopt flexible and family friendly workplaces.

Since 2019 we have also funded Timewise to deliver ‘A Fair, Flexible Work Programme for Scotland’ which focused on training a network of 70 Change Agents, both employment professionals and employability advisers on how to promote flexible working to employers and individuals.

In October 2021 our flagship Fair Work First approach to public sector spend included new criteria that asked employers to offer flexible working from day one of employment.

We continue to encourage employers to engage with all employees to consider flexible and hybrid working models where feasible and appropriate. However we recognise that employers are best placed to understand how their operations work most effectively and their employees’ and requests for flexible working, based on consultation with staff and unions.

Within the financial year 2022-23, we’ve made available an initial £3 million from our £10 million long COVID Support Fund to provide NHS boards and partners with additional resource to deliver the best local models of care for assessment, and support for the treatment or management of symptoms.

Anyone who is at risk of homelessness as a result of long-COVID or any other reason can contact their local authority for advice and support. Additionally home owners with a mortgage are encouraged to engage with their lenders at an early stage to discuss their options and tenants should contact their landlord. Other organisations such as Shelter Scotland and Citizen Advice Scotland are also able to provide advice and support.

Supported by Scottish Government funding, the Money Talk Team service is delivered by the Citizens Advice Network in Scotland and provides an income maximisation service, including advice on welfare reform and debt to help clients save money, access benefits and grants they are entitled to and deal with debt problems.

Scottish Government is a key partner in the Save a Life for Scotland partnership which is delivering the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Strategy 2021 to 2026 .

The strategy includes an aim of increasing the percentage of Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) which have a defibrillator applied before the ambulance service arrive from 8% to 20%. Our focus is to ensure that defibrillators are publicly accessible, registered and to take a data driven approach to supporting their placement in areas where they are most likely to be used.

Scotland’s Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Report 2019-2022 underpins the data driven approach. This shows minor differences in availability or usage of public access defibrillators (PAD) between SIMD quintiles.

However, it remains the case that there are inequalities in OHCA outcomes for people living in more deprived areas. That is why the OHCA strategy includes an aim of targeting work to address known inequalities across the delivery of all actions.

The health and wellbeing of displaced people from Ukraine is our priority.

There has been no outbreak of Strep A on the M/S Ambition, with infections having been restricted to isolated cases.

On the M/S Ambition, should quarantine measures be required, there is a section of the ship that is set aside for quarantine procedures, with specific cabins set aside. Where this has been required, those quarantined were visited daily by ship medical staff, and meals and snacks were delivered to the cabin.

The Scottish Government is working with partners to deliver relevant public health messaging in relation to Strep A, to ensure everyone in Scotland has the most up-to-date advice.

The Scottish Government Mental Health directorate worked closely with our partners such as Heads of Psychology Scotland, NHS Scotland, COSLA, the Scottish Refugee Council, amongst others, to develop and then publish wellbeing packs for displaced people from Ukraine arriving in Scotland. There was a specific pack full of helpful resources and guidance for displaced people from Ukraine on physiological wellbeing – Ukraine psychological wellbeing advice pack: guidance for Ukrainian arrivals - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . This pack is available online and therefore accessible when using the internet on passenger ships. The pack also highlights specific resources for children and families.

We have amended legislation so there will be no charge for NHS Scotland services for people who have fled Ukraine, including mental health services.

Anyone in Scotland, regardless of their nationality, residence status or length of time they will be in the country, is already entitled to receive emergency treatment at an A&E or casualty department, and can register with a GP Practice to receive general medical services, at no charge.

As committed to in Programme for Government 2021-22, work is underway to develop a new earlier cancer diagnosis vision for Scotland which will form part of the new cancer strategy, due to publish Spring 2023. This will outline the future direction of our Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme which we continue to invest in.

The Scottish Cancer Coalition, and its Early Diagnosis & Screening Sub-Group, which is Chaired by Pancreatic Cancer UK, have been consulted on the new vision and DCE awareness campaign that’s under development.

DCE’s website and social media channels continue to raise awareness of possible signs and symptoms and empower people to present early – this includes the development of an interactive symptom-checker tool.

An interim report published by the University of Strathclyde on 21 November 2022 shows that one of the most common types of cancer being diagnosed in our first Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDS) are hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) cancer. We are committed to rolling out RCDS's across NHS Scotland.

A clinical refresh of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer was completed in 2018 with revised clinical guidance published January 2019. The guidelines support primary care clinicians in ensuring those with symptoms suspicious of cancer are put on the right pathway at the right time.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with primary care clinicians across NHS Scotland, including the Scottish Primary Care Cancer Group, to raise awareness of symptoms and best referral practice for all cancer types, including pancreatic.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of higher education and this is why we have protected free tuition for Scottish-domiciled students.

International students and those from other parts of the UK are not eligible to access the funded places which have been protected for eligible Scottish domiciled students.

We remain absolutely committed to the principle that access to education should be based on the ability to learn and not the ability to pay. By 2030, we want 20% of students entering university to be from Scotland's 20% most deprived backgrounds. HESA figures show we have a record high 16.7% of full-time first degree entrants to university coming from the 20% most deprived areas of Scotland in 2020-21, exceeding the interim target of 16% by 2021.

There are also record numbers of young people securing places in the current UCAS cycle. The number of 18-year-old Scots that have secured a university place (as of 15 September 2022) is up 20% since 2019, the last year there were exams. Overall, Scottish domiciled acceptances through UCAS to Scottish providers is up 5% since 2019.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12018 on‎ 21 Novemebr 2022. 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