Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-22579

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 20 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve access to post-stroke psychological care.

The new Stroke Improvement Plan , published in June, includes a commitment to assess the current ability of NHS Boards to implement the National Model of Psychological Care in Stroke (Scotland).

This is being assessed via NHS Board reviews, which now include a requirement to demonstrate adequate provision of psychological support for those who have suffered a stroke.

In September, we published the National Specification for Psychological Therapies to help support improvements in the delivery of psychological care.

Question reference: S6W-22580

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 20 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on developing and implementing evidence-based education and training programmes on post-stroke psychological care for all staff working in stroke services.

Priority six in the Stroke Improvement Plan is focused on psychological care and includes commitments to understand the availability of existing resources and develop strategies for raising awareness of the emotional and psychological impact of stroke on mental wellbeing. Work to appraise the range of resources currently available is scheduled to begin in 2024.

Education and training programmes on post-stroke psychological and emotional impacts are available as part of the Stroke Training and Awareness Resources (STARs) Core Competencies and Advancing Modules, hosted by Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland (CHSS). These resources were developed with the input of clinicians from across Scotland.

The criteria for NHS Board reviews sets out the Scottish Government’s expectation that all staff potentially dealing with hyperacute stroke patients should have undertaken the STARS Advancing Modules.

Question reference: S6W-22583

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 20 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what efforts are being made to increase the number of psychologists with protected time for stroke clinical and neuropsychology roles, in light of the findings of the Stroke Association that there are only 7.8 full-time equivalent psychologists for every 128,000 people in Scotland who are living with the effects of stroke.

While the Scottish Government holds information on the number of overall psychology posts and vacancies, we do not hold information on specialty psychology roles. Decisions on such specialty roles are for Health Boards to address.

Psychology staffing has more than doubled (+131.6%, as of 30 June 2023) since 2007 and we are increasing the postgraduate student intake for Psychology Masters and Doctorate programmes by a total of 60 trainees between 2021 and 2023.

We published a new Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Plan on 7 November, which set out the actions we will take to ensure we have a resilient and sustainable workforce, with the right skills who are able to deliver the new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-22584

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 20 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it is reportedly the only administration in the UK that is not delivering a government-funded public health face, arm, speech, time (FAST) stroke media campaign.

Priority two in our new Stroke Improvement Plan , published in June is focused on awareness raising and includes a commitment to establishing the current degree of public understanding of FAST and stroke symptoms.

This work is currently underway and will help inform the most effective way of raising public awareness of stroke symptoms, including FAST campaigns.

In addition to FAST campaigns, we will also consider how awareness of the less common symptoms of stroke can be increased. We will continue to work with third sector organisations to consider how best to deliver future public health campaigns to raise awareness of stroke symptoms.

Question reference: S6W-22581

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 20 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the implementation of the National Model of Psychological Care in Stroke (Scotland), as referenced in the Stroke Improvement Plan.

The Stroke Improvement Plan includes a commitment to assess the current ability of NHS Boards to implement the National Model of Psychological Care in Stroke (Scotland).

This is currently being assessed via NHS Board reviews which now include a requirement to demonstrate adequate provision of psychological support.

Assessment of ongoing implementation of the National Model of Psychological Care in Stroke (Scotland) will be reported on in the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme National Report.

Question reference: S6W-22587

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 20 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to women of menopausal age who have a disability, long-term health condition, or identify as an ethnic minority.

The Women’s Health Plan recognises that many women face multiple and often overlapping disadvantages and barriers to health and healthcare. That is why we aim to take an intersectional approach across all the actions in the Women’s Health Plan, so that all women enjoy the best possible health throughout their lives.

This includes the NHS Inform Women’s Health Platform which has comprehensive information on menopause translated into five languages, easy read and BSL.

We are working closely with The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) who continue to support the work of the Plan through their dedicated lived experience programme. This included a series of webinars on menopause, with live British Sign Language interpretation as well as visual resources. The resources are available online, or via hard copy.

The ALLIANCE have also produced a toolkit for delivering Conversation Cafes to facilitate informed and open conversations among women about women’s health – including menopause - with an accompanying resource hub . This model also supports the sharing of information with women who cannot or prefer not to access information online.

Question reference: S6W-22586

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 20 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the launch of a public health campaign to remove stigma and raise awareness of the symptoms of menopause, as outlined in the Women’s Health Plan.

Question reference: S6O-02795

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 November 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how the Staff Cost Provision uprating for 2024-25 will be calculated.

Question reference: S6W-22494

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will set out the membership of the (a) Best Start Review Group and (b) Sub-Group on Neonatal Models of Care, broken down by the (i) duration and (ii) role of each person's membership of the group.

The membership of the Best Start Review Group and the Best Start Sub-Groups is published in Appendix E and Appendix F of the Best Start Report , published in 2017. This includes the members job titles and organisation, and the remits of the sub groups. The remit of the Neonatal Models of Care sub group was agreed by the Best Start Review Group and is published in Appendix F. The role of each member of the sub group was to deliver the remit.

Members were appointed to the Review Group for the duration of the review (October 2015 to January 2017) and the Neonatal Models of Care Sub Group for the duration of that group (February 2016 – August 2016)

The Perinatal Sub Group of the Best Start Implementation Programme Board was convened in 2017 to take forward the Neonatal Intensive Care recommendation, and other Best Start recommendations. The Group continues to meet and the membership has changed over the lifetime of the group. The members at the time that the Options Appraisal Report was sent to Ministers is listed on page four of that report.

Question reference: S6W-22290

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 October 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 16 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to allocate the recently announced additional £100 million in each of the next three years to reduce NHS waiting lists.