- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the UK Government's press release of 3 February 2026, Government to cover travel costs of children with cancer, which accepted the proposal by Young Lives vs Cancer for a £10 million travel fund to support the cost of the young people travelling for treatment, what (a) steps it will take to ensure parity for children and under-25s in Scotland who have cancer with those in England, (b) discussions it has held with the UK Government regarding the implementation of the fund, and whether these will inform any decisions about expanding the Young Patients Family Fund eligibility criteria to include all such young people, including those receiving treatment as day-patients, and (c) assessment it has carried out of any impact on reducing health inequalities of expanding the Young Patients Family Fund's eligibility criteria to include these young people.
Answer
The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) is designed to support the families of all babies, children and young people from birth to age 18 who require inpatient care in Scotland regardless of diagnosis.
Financial support for travel to hospital appointments is available through the patient travel expenses reimbursement schemes. Under these schemes, patients and authorised escorts may reclaim reasonable travel costs associated with attending hospital appointments, subject to eligibility criteria and clinical requirements. These arrangements apply across Scotland and provide support to eligible young people and their families irrespective of condition.
Scottish Government officials met with counterparts in the UK Department of Health and Social Care in March 2025 as part of wider engagement on the development of their National Cancer Plan for England. During this meeting, officials shared learning on the implementation and administration of the Young Patients Family Fund.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 24 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, further to its publication, Our Health and Social Care App: MyCare.scot - National Rollout High-Level Summary, what the total annual estimated cost is of building and operating the MyCare.scot app in each financial year from 2025-26 to 2029-30.
Answer
The Full Business Case for the Digital Front Door (DFD) programme has been approved and includes a range of financial projections over the five-year period, and delivery options. The wider DFD programme includes the delivery of the MyCare.scot app and all associated non-digital support that is required.
The DFD programme represents a significant, long-term investment in Scotland’s digital health and care infrastructure, spanning build and operation phases over a ten-year horizon. DFD’s purpose is to transform how people across Scotland access and interact with health and social care services, through development and delivery of digital channels including MyCare.scot
DFD encompasses more than the MyCare.scot app alone. It includes the design, build and operation of the underlying common and reusable platform infrastructure, organisational readiness across all implementing organisations, digital inclusion, equality and accessibility work, staff costs and ongoing service development in response to user needs.
The business case brings together capital and revenue needs for the whole programme and has been developed in line with best practice guidance for major IT and digital programmes.
Funding has been allocated to a number of delivery partners to support implementation of the wider programme. A total of £17.650 million has been allocated to NHS Education for Scotland (NES), including £12 million confirmed for financial year 2025-26. Funding beyond 2025-2026 remains subject to future budget approval through the normal Scottish Budget process. A detailed breakdown of expenditure to date is set out in the answer to question S6W-39294 on 29 July 2025.
The costs of MyCare.scot cannot be isolated from the wider DFD programme costs without misrepresenting the programmes overall scope. These figures therefore reflect the full DFD programme, of which MyCare.scot is the central delivery:
2026-27 - Capital £10.4m, Revenue £28.3m
2027-28 - Capital £9.7m, Revenue £31.2m
2028-29 - Capital £3.2m, Revenue £28.5m
2029-30 - Capital £3.2m, Revenue £21.1m
These estimated figures exclude optimism bias, which has been considered as part of the Business Case process, in line with best practice guidance.
The Digital Front Door programme is aligned with the Scottish Government Service Reform agenda and supports delivery of the Operational Improvement Plan, the Population Health Framework, and the Health and Social Care Service Reform Framework. It contributes to improving access to services, strengthening workforce capability and supporting sustainable reform across health and social care.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 23 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of World Health Organization Resolution 76.6, adopted in May 2023, which recognises rehabilitation as essential to universal health coverage and calls for its integration across all levels of care, particularly primary care, alongside strengthened workforce, financing and emergency preparedness, what steps it has taken to strengthen rehabilitation services.
Answer
The Scottish Government published its Once for Scotland approach to rehabilitation on 21 June 2022: Rehabilitation and Recovery: A Person-centred Approach. This sets out the Six Principles of Good Rehabilitation, which set out our expectations for rehabilitation services in Scotland.
NHS Boards are encouraged to use these Six Principles as a benchmarking tool and to test and scale up improvements at a local level. We continue to work with Allied Health Profession leads in NHS Boards to refine the tool to best support local self-assessment of rehabilitation services in NHS Boards.
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 and the needs of patients. The National Rehabilitation Network, established by the Scottish Government, brings together professionals working in rehabilitation services across NHS Boards to share good practice, to support learning and improvement.
The Scottish Government is delighted to be a member of the World Rehabilitation Alliance (WRA), which formally launched in July 2023. We are supportive of the principles underpinning the WRA’s work, which aligns with our existing policy, and are committed to improving and supporting rehabilitation services in Scotland and sharing our approach and learning internationally.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 February 2026
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 6 March 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, following the pause to the publication of The Long Term Conditions Framework in December 2025, what progress has been made in establishing an advisory board for grouped long-term conditions, including myalgic enchephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and long COVID, and when the initial recommendations will be provided to the Scottish Government.
Answer
Answer expected on 6 March 2026
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 20 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its draft Budget 2026-27, what its response is to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities' (COSLA) assessment that there is a £15 million funding gap in meeting the estimated £175 million cost of delivering the real Living Wage to adult social care workers.
Answer
The draft Budget 2026-27 set out a further £160 million investment to enable the payment of the Real Living Wage to adult social care workers in commissioned services in the next financial year.
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government has subsequently announced that a further £20 million will be allocated to the Local Government Settlement for Social Care, which can be used towards funding the Real Living Wage for adult and childcare sectors. This ensures that there is budget available to fully meet the £175 million required to enable the payment of the Real Living Wage for adult social care workers in the next financial year.
This will take the total Scottish Government investment in adult social care pay to over £1.1 billion annually, reaffirming our commitment to fair work and recognising the essential contribution of social care workers.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 20 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its draft Budget 2026-27 budget and level 4 tables that were published in conjunction with its draft Budget, whether the baseline used to calculate the total funds to implement the 2026-27 pay uplift in commissioned social care services was the current real Living Wage amount of £12.60ph.
Answer
The draft Budget 2026-27 set out a further £160 million investment to enable the payment of the Real Living Wage to adult social care workers in commissioned services in the next financial year. The baseline used to calculate the additional £160 million was the National Living Wage rate of £12.71 per hour.
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government has subsequently announced that a further £20 million will be allocated to the Local Government Settlement for Social Care, which can be used towards funding the Real Living Wage for adult and childcare sectors.
This will take the total Scottish Government investment in adult social care pay to over £1.1 billion annually.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 19 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government how many appointments per week on average were delivered using the NHS service, Near Me, in each financial year from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
Answer
The appointments per week on average delivered using the Near Me service in each financial year are detailed in the following table. There are no data for group calls prior to January 2022, and data for period 2025-2026 have been collected until the end of January 2026.
Period | One-to-one calls per week (average) | Group calls per week (average) |
2021-2022 | 12810.8 | 67.3 |
2022-2023 | 8402.3 | 515.2 |
2023-2024 | 6787.3 | 857.8 |
2024-2025 | 6095.5 | 1054.6 |
2025-2026 | 5812.5 | 1058.9 |
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 19 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government how many radiology speciality training places have been made available in each of the last five years.
Answer
A total of 164 Clinical Radiology specialty training places were advertised for recruitment in Scotland over the last five years. The breakdown per year is: 34 in 2021, 37 in 2022, 36 in 2023, 23 in 2024, and 34 in 2025. All of these posts were filled successfully.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 19 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what the current average cost per appointment is for the NHS service, Near Me, and what the estimated total annual operating cost of the service is in each financial year from 2025-26 to 2029-30.
Answer
While part funded by the Scottish Government, Near Me is also funded by and delivered through partner organisations. As a result, the Scottish Government does not centrally hold the information required to provide a ‘cost per appointment’. However, I can confirm that in 2025-26 the Scottish Government contributed £1,640,000 to the service.
The current contract ends in March 2027 and we will be considering service delivery and expenditure based on future requirement.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2026
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 19 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the draft Scottish Budget 2026-27 and the level 4 tables that were published in conjunction with it, whether it will provide a breakdown of the £1,275.1 million in funding set aside for NHS Delivery.
Answer
Neil Gray: Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSDS), formerly known as NHS Delivery, will be established on 1 April 2026. It will bring together the functions - and existing budgets - of NSS and NES under the Common Services Agency, building on the strengths of both existing organisations. The Scottish Budget provides a real-terms increase to the combined legacy NES and NSS budgets, in line with the approach applied across Health Boards. This reflects non-recurring funding moving into baseline, new recurring allocations, a 2% baseline uplift, and additional pay cover. Together, these elements take PSD Scotland’s baseline funding to £1,275.1 million in 2026-27. While the organisation’s priorities and strategic direction will continue to be shaped by Ministerial expectations and national policy objectives, it will be for PSDS to set out its detailed financial plan within this overall funding envelope.
