Chamber and committees

As set out in the Emergency Budget Review (EBR), published on 2 November, the Scottish Government’s mental health programme budget has been revised to £252 million. This has resulted in revisions to this year’s Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund budget line, which now stands at £104,754,000.

Actual expenditure will not be available until after the end of the financial year.

Following the EBR publication, we are engaging with those organisations which have been incurring spend in order to formally confirm the remainder of the 2022-23 funding allocations.

We are making good progress on our commitment to increase the headcount of GPs by 800, with Scotland’s GP headcount increasing by 277 from 4,918 to 5,195 from 2017 to 2021.

The most recent estimate for whole time equivalent of GPs can be found in the General Practice Workforce Survey 2019 , published by Public Health Scotland in October 2021. This estimated that there were 3,613 GP whole time equivalents (WTE) in Scotland in 2019. This is an increase of 93 WTE from an estimated 3,520 WTE in 2017, with 8 sessions per week equating to one WTE.

The latest data on GP WTE is scheduled to be published shortly by Public Health Scotland (PHS), and they have pre-announced publication of this analysis report for Tuesday 29 November 2022. PHS has also pre-announced publication of its latest annual data on GP headcount for Monday 12 December 2022.

Funding of £18 billion is provided for the health portfolio in 2022-23. This builds on frontline health spending in Scotland that, per head, is 2.2% (£74) higher than in Wales and 10.6% (£323) higher than in England - equivalent to around 10, 000 nurses and 44, 000 nurses, respectively - and takes investment in our frontline NHS Boards to £12.4 billion. This investment supports both existing staff costs and ongoing recruitment, in line with local workforce and service planning.

In addition to this, in October this year funding of £7.98 million was announced to recruit up to 750 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals to offset the up-front recruitment costs of international recruitment by the end of March 2023. Last winter we announced funding to build infrastructure within boards and support international recruitment to recruit at least 200 registered nurses. By the end of August 2022 c.230 nurses have been recruited. Boards may also independently pursue overseas recruitment for specific roles or indeed as part of a campaign and routinely do so.

In line with the UK Wide DDRB recommendations, Junior Doctors in Scotland have been awarded a 4.5% pay uplift this year, the same position in Wales. Junior Doctors in England did not receive a 4.5% uplift due to agreeing a previous multi-year deal.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with health boards to ensure, as far as possible, that support for energy costs is available to those who require it.

Some patients already receive support for costs associated with home haemodialysis and the use of oxygen equipment. We have now written to all NHS territorial Boards to understand what support with fuel costs is available to patients using life-saving equipment.

We have already pledged almost £3 billion in this financial year towards helping families and households face the increased cost of living. This includes the provision of services and financial support not available elsewhere in the UK to help reduce every day costs and increase incomes.

All of the £830.6 million allocated to Additional Support for Social Care in the 2022-23 budget has been included in the block grant allocation provided to local authorities. The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently and the information requested on spend would therefore require to be requested from local authorities.

The Scottish Government continues to prioritise funding for health, providing increases year on year and funding of £18 billion in 2022-23, as set out in the Scottish Budget.

However, the scale of the financial challenge across the Scottish Government and health and social care is unprecedented, as a result of rising inflation and energy costs and the ongoing impacts of Covid and Brexit.

The UK Government’s Autumn statement provided no additional funding this year to support health and social care in addressing these challenges or to support fair pay deals, with the funding outlined over the coming two years falling massively short of the combined impact of Covid pressures, energy costs and inflation.

It is vital that further funding is provided by the UK Government to address the backlog in care caused by Covid and to help our NHS and social care staff deal with the cost of living crisis

We have revisited the NCS financial memorandum assumptions and, based on a revised recruitment profile and revised investment in data and digital work, £15 million of funding in 2022-23 has been reprioritised. We are taking time to get this right, ensuring engagement through events such as the Forum and launch of the Lived Experience Expert Panel. As a result some costs that would have been expected in this financial year will not occur.

Funding of £18 billion is provided for health and social care in 2022-23.

As set out in the Emergency Budget Review (2 November), in common with the overall Scottish Budget, the Health and Social Care budget is facing unpreceded challenges as a result of inflation and the ongoing impacts of Covid and Brexit.

It has therefore been essential to review health and social care spending, with £400 million reprioritised and fully retained within the Portfolio, to ensure that it is directed where it is needed most, including supporting enhanced pay offers.

Junior Doctors are a valuable part of the NHS Scotland workforce. The Scottish Government has implemented a 4.5% pay uplift this year which is in line with the independent DDRB recommendations.

The Scottish Government has been working with BMA and NHS Employers to take forward the Expert Working Group recommendation and key priorities within the BMA Wellbeing report. A Joint Statement on Junior Doctor Health and Wellbeing was agreed between all parties on 1 June 2022 and work is now underway to implement this important work.