Chamber and committees

Scottish Government is supportive of NHSScotland sharing learning, and also learning from experience and practice of NHS England in relation to operational delivery of government policy, including neonatal policy.

Matters of parliamentary reform, including changes in relation to the position on parliamentary privilege, are primarily for Parliament to develop and consider.

The Scottish Government would consider proposals put before Parliament.

Neonatal clinical outcomes data is gathered from neonatal units in Scotland and routinely published by Public Health Scotland on their Scottish Pregnancy, Births and Neonatal Data Dashboard. The National Neonatal Audit Programme run by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health also provides a further level of detailed comparable neonatal clinical outcomes data for units in England, Scotland and Wales on their Data Dashboard, and in their annual reports.

The Scottish Government commissioned independent modelling report was published on 29 May, and, following consideration of that report, we have asked the Regional Chief Executives to progress with the development of implementation plans.

We have asked that implementation plans are developed with the input of multidisciplinary clinical teams and describe service requirements for the new model and how they will be achieved.

Evidence shows that the very smallest and sickest babies, including those born extremely premature (less than 27 weeks gestation), do best when they are cared for in larger specialist neonatal units which look after a lot of these babies, and have the right staff and services available on site to give them the very best care.

The Best Start report recommended that we move to three of these units in Scotland, to meet the needs of our population, and neonatal experts then went through a rigorous process to decide on the three NICUs.

It is important that we ensure that all babies born in Scotland receive the best and most up to date care, provided by appropriately trained staff. Outcomes in all units will be monitored following the changes, and we are developing plans for long term evaluation of outcomes of the package of changes outlined in The Best Start.

The expectation is that the mothers in threatened extreme preterm labour, or those whose babies will require surgery, will be identified antenatally and will birth in the maternity unit alongside the NICU. The Scottish Perinatal Network has published guidance on in-utero obstetric transfer in these circumstances.

Local Neonatal Units (LNU’s) will continue to deliver intensive care and care for babies from 27+0 weeks that need stabilisation and treatment, and both nursing staff and medical staff will continue to have experience in delivering these aspects of intensive care. We have asked Regional Chief Executives to consider arrangements for ongoing professional development of staff where required within their Regional Implementation Plans.

No consulting firm has been hired or paid to oversee the implementation of the Best Start programme for maternity and neonatal care. The Best Start Implementation Programme Board (IPB), Chaired by Jane Grant, Chief Executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was established in June 2017 to guide the implementation of The Best Start: A Five-Year Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland.

Members of the IPB are drawn from NHSScotland, third sector organisations, Partnership and Royal Colleges. Members are not paid; however, third sector representative have been reimbursed for travel expenses.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government.

The terms of Special Adviser contracts of employment are reserved to the UK Government. Those contracts include a requirement that severance payments are made to special advisers where their employment is terminated in the circumstances where a First Minister demits office, or on the dissolution of Parliament prior to a Scottish Parliamentary election. The value of severance payment due is dependent on an individual’s length of service and range from the equivalent of 3 months’ pay up to a maximum of 6 months’ pay.However, payment of severance is subject to agreement that should an individual be reappointed as a special adviser, they will repay any severance pay less the amount of salary they would have been paid had they been employed during the period between the termination of the previous contract and re-appointment on a fresh contract. Therefore the amount of severance to be repaid upon reappointment varies depending on the length of time between termination of employment and later reappointment. The following table sets out for each of the last 5 years to July 2024, the net cost of severance payments once the approximate level of repayments received are taken into account for those who were reappointed:

Special Advisers in the Scottish Government are paid using the following Pay Bands and Pay Ranges which are effective from 1 April 2024: