Chamber and committees

In June 2020 the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport and the CoSLA Spokesperson for Health and Social Care established a short life working group (SLWG) to address the issue of long term delayed discharge for people with complex care needs as a result of their learning disability or complex and enduring mental health condition. Due to the need for rapid advice, the role, remit and membership of the SLWG was jointly agreed between Scottish Government and CoSLA.

The group is split into two work streams one exploring options for future funding for this group of clients with very complex needs. Membership of this group is limited to finance and procurement experts.

The second work stream was asked to identify and describe the processes required to avoid inappropriate admission to hospital, and to support the discharge from hospital of people with learning disabilities or enduring mental health difficulties, who are currently ready for discharge, but whose discharge is delayed. Membership of this work stream is much wider and has evolved to include experts on the issues discussed. Membership currently includes; social care providers, hospital and community based clinicians, specialist nurses, the Scottish Commission for Learning Disabilities, Social Work Scotland, Housing Specialists, a carer, Health and Social Care Partnership commissioners.

For further information on the progress of the recommendations of the Coming Home report, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-30746 on 4 August 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

On 17 May, new arrangements to significantly strengthen oversight of Scotland’s care homes were published ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-care-home-oversight/ ), with clinical and care professionals at NHS boards and local authorities having a lead role in the oversight for care homes in their area. This highlighted the important role that Health and Social Care Partnerships within Local Authorities play in this response. This is alongside the introduction of new powers that ensure swift intervention if care home residents are being put at risk due to service failings. This work provides support to every single care home across the country and takes a responsive, as well as preventative approach. It builds on work already in place, including the formal direction for NHS Directors of Public Health to take enhanced and urgent clinical leadership for care homes.

The R number is calculated for Scotland as a whole, and it is not possible to calculate this number for specific settings such as care homes. The SPI-M best estimate for the R number in Scotland is released in their consensus statements, which are available here when published:

https://www.gov.uk/search/all?organisations%5B%5D=
scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies&order=updated-
newest&parent=scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies .

In the consensus statement published on 24 July, SPI-M indicated that the R number for Scotland was between 0.6 and 1.0 on 8 July:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system
/uploads/attachment_data/file/903071/S0597_SAGE46_200708_SPI-M-O_Consensus_Statement_sent_to_SAGE_reissued.pdf .

The Scottish Government has written to all GPs in Scotland to advise them that they are not required to issue people who are exempt from the requirement to wear face coverings in shops, public transport and spaces where physical distancing is impossible with proof of their exemption. Proof of exemption does not need to be provided when in these settings.

The Scottish Government already has a long-standing and comprehensive programme of support for the heat and energy efficiency of buildings.

Since 2009, the Scottish Government has provided over £1bn in funding for a comprehensive programme to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and to tackle fuel poverty.

Our energy efficiency programmes provide a range of interest free loan schemes, including the offer of renewable measures. These provide a package of financial support, free and impartial energy efficiency advice and information and quality assurance to ensure high standards of installation. They cover all tenures and sectors - domestic owner occupiers, social housing, private rented and non-domestic buildings including the public sector.

The UK Government's recently announced Green Homes Grant is not new funding and therefore there will be no consequential funding for Scotland.

The Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on the number of nurses working in the NHS who are employed by agencies.

I announced on 23 June that health care workers will now be routinely tested where the evidence tells us that it is appropriate to do so. All health care workers connected to a nosocomial outbreak (ie, outbreaks originating in a hospital) will be tested regardless of whether or not they have symptoms. We will also test, on a weekly basis, all staff working in specialist cancer units, in long-term care of the elderly, and in long-stay mental health wards. Boards were asked to start this additional testing by 8 July.

On 23 June, the Health Secretary announced that we are broadening testing of health care workers and now, all staff connected to a nosocomial outbreak will be tested regardless of if they have symptoms.

In addition, from 08 July, we will also test, on a weekly basis, staff working in specialist cancer units, in long term care of the elderly and in long stay mental health wards who are patient facing.

As announced by the Cabinet Secretary on 18th May, from 25th May all care home staff, including non-nursing staff, have been offered weekly testing regardless of whether the care home in which they work has a COVID-19 case.

The Scottish Government understands that many carers are under additional pressure at present. Together with COSLA, I wrote to local authorities and Integration Joint Boards in April encouraging them to prioritise additional carer support in their local plans for responding to the pandemic. This is on top of the extra £11.6 million for carer support in the 2020-21 budget.

We are working alongside key organisations to ensure carers have the advice they need to help protect themselves and their loved ones during the COVID-19 outbreak.

We established a £500,000 fund to help local carer services adapt to providing advice and emotional support remotely.

We made changes to our £3 million Short Breaks Fund eligibility criteria so that more carers can access breaks that are suitable at this time. We have provided an extra £178,750 to Family Fund’s Take a Break Scotland fund to support parent carers of disabled children and young people. This will allow grants to be provided to an additional 650 families this year to take a break.

We recently announced additional funding to support young carers. This includes £200,000 to Young Scot’s young carer package to provide vouchers for retailers and subscription packages and £100,000 for the Time to Live fund, for local carer services to provide small grants to young carers.

We were pleased to work with the national carer organisations to develop the National Wellbeing Hub (www.promis.scot) which was launched in May. The Hub provides information and support on health and wellbeing for all those who work in health and social care, and unpaid carers.

We have provided an additional £3.8 million to begin to increase the capacity of NHS 24’s telephone and online services, including making the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub available 24/7 and expanding the Breathing Space helpline and web support service.

A webpage has been published on the Scottish Government website which provides specific information for unpaid carers during the COVID-19 outbreak: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-for-unpaid-carers/ .

Workforce education for Contact Tracers is developed and delivered by Public Health Scotland, NHS National Services Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland.

For Tier 1 contact tracers, working within the newly established National Contact Tracing Centre (NCTC), the workforce education programme is a mixture of self-directed and virtually hosted facilitated training days. The duration of the learning pathway varies depending on roles and experience, with ongoing support provided as required. Tier 2 of the service is being delivered by specialist staff across NHS boards who will already have had the appropriate health protection training and also have access to the educational materials developed for the NCTC if required.