Chamber and committees

Scottish Government continues to give consideration to the mental health and wellbeing of everyone in care homes and supported accommodation and recognises that restrictions during the pandemic have impacted on those who have been affected. Assessment of peoples’ health and wellbeing should take place on an individual basis with appropriate support being provided.

In order to support the physical and mental wellbeing of people with learning disabilities, the Scottish Commission for Learning Disabilities (SCLD) have been working with Scottish Government to produce easy to read information on the Covid-19 and how people can protect themselves. This includes easy read guidance on Coronavirus, physical distancing and the phases in the route map out of crises. They have also worked with Glasgow University to develop a series of booklets for services supporting vulnerable people on staying physically and mentally healthy at this time.

We appreciate how difficult it has been for people who have had procedures or treatments postponed due to the pandemic, and in particular, for those living with chronic pain, whose quality of life may have been affected.

Health Boards are continuing to remobilise services in line with the ‘Remobilise, Recover and Re-design Framework’ which we published on 31 May. We remain committed to ensuring that the full range of pain services will be available as quickly as it safe to do so. To support this, tomorrow we will publish a COVID-19 Recovery Framework for NHS Pain Management Services which was developed in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders across the clinical community, third sector and patient groups.

Prior to the formal launch of the Test and Protect system, we asked all NHS Scotland boards to collectively make available up to 2,000 staff to participate in contact tracing activity. As acknowledged at the time, the resource was provided substantially from existing workforce and it was recognised that not all would be required at any one time. We keep contact tracing capacity under active review, in line with modelling undertaken by Public Health Scotland, with all boards required to maintain a total national capacity commensurate with demand.

In management information collated on the 10 September 2020, approximately 874 staff capable of undertaking contact tracing activity, were available for deployment across NHS Scotland territorial boards and the National Contact Tracing Centre, a summary of this information, broken down by board, is set out in the following table. The Scottish Government does not hold data centrally on the proportion of these staff who are newly recruited or redeployed; the recruitment and deployment of staff is a matter for the board. The recruitment position within boards is subject to on-going change, in line with the national modelling picture, and where local service composition changes as a result of the mobilisation of other NHS services.

Recruitment to the National Contact Tracing Centre (NCTC) is on-going, in addition to existing staffing, further recruitment to the centre for 85 WTE started in week commencing 07 September 2020. We continue to make use of the pipeline of candidates identified through national recruitment, with 300 shortlisted applicants currently concluding the interview process. Additionally, a further 25 staff are being recruited by early October to focus on work to follow-up with people who are quarantining after arriving into Scotland from abroad from non-exempt countries.

The Scottish Government is supporting a range of services and charities to provide assistance for those with Mental Health needs during the pandemic. This includes £3.8 million of additional funding to expand NHS 24’s Mental Health Hub and Breathing Space telephone services as well as online mental health CBT services. The Scottish Government has also invested £1.24 million to support territorial health boards to scale up the use of ‘Near Me’ video consultation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding has provided infrastructure, national guidance, training and local equipment, underpinning the rapid expansion of the Near Me Service across NHS Scotland, and enabling the delivery of thousands of virtual consultations every week. Mental Health services have seen some of the biggest uptake of the Near Me Service.

The Scottish Government has provided funding support to the Third Sector in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-28037 on 14 April 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

In engagement with stakeholders we are producing a Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan which will set out how we and our partners intend to respond to the mental health challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic will create for Scotland. As outlined in the 2020 Programme for Government the plan will be published this Autumn.

Alongside the Transition and Recovery Plan, we are working with communities and stakeholders across Scotland to ensure we learn from the lessons so far. Mental health has been made a clinical priority for NHS Boards within the Mobilisation process and we are working with Boards to support safe delivery of services. And we have produced a population wide mental health campaign ‘Clear Your Head’ to help individuals look after their own mental health and wellbeing.

We have also provided an additional £3.8 million to increase the capacity of NHS 24’s telephone and online services and to extend digital therapies. And we are providing over £1million to the DBI service on a national basis.

We recognise that there will be specific groups who are more vulnerable, and will feel the impact more greatly, of the Covid-19 pandemic which we have increased the support to. For example:

• £768,000 for a relationships helpline to be delivered by The Spark counselling service;
• £105,000 to support Young Scot to develop enhanced digital content and resources on mental health to create ‘Aye Feel’.
• £205,000 to support 47,000 autistic people across Scotland. This consists of funding to increase capacity at the Scottish Autism Helpline, and help for the National Autistic Society to keep people in touch online during lockdown.

The Mental Health Research Advisory Group has been established to follow research developments to understand the medium and long term impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health and will help us to put evidence-based services and support in place to help meet the mental health needs of the population.

Under 18s can present to the MTU for self testing if able or younger children can be tested by their parent or guardian.

The teams on site have instruction leaflets for parents testing their children if required.

The data on the number of inpatients beds available for mental health patients for the period 1 January to date is not yet available. Public Health Scotland will publish data from the 1st January 2020 to 31st March 2020 on the 29th September. I will write to the member when this information is available.

Previous publications detailing numbers of inpatients beds by NHS board for previous years can be found on the Public Health Scotland website: https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/health-services/hospital-care/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-quarterly/ .