Chamber and committees

See Me is Scotland’s national campaign to end mental health stigma and discrimination. Scottish Government provides £1 million per year in addition to £0.5 million from Comic Relief to support the See Me programme. See Me Workplace is part of the See Me anti stigma work to support the reduction of stigma and raise awareness in the workplace for people entering and retaining work in Scotland. See Me have recently launched a work programme which takes organisations through four specific steps from commitment and awareness through to practice transformation and becoming a See Me Work Partner. https://www.seemescotland.org/workplace/see-me-in-work/.

Fit for Work Scotland (FfWS) is a service recently established on a phased basis from December 2014, funded through the Department for Work and Pensions and delivered in Scotland by the Scottish Government. The service provides support for people in work to remain at work, or return to work following periods of long term sickness absence. It provides assessment and advice for employers and employees around interventions and actions which could facilitate a return to work. This service is not specifically for mental health and wellbeing, but incorporates it (http://www.FitforWorkScotland.scot).

Scottish Government provides funding to NHS Health Scotland to deliver the Healthy Working Lives Scotland service. This is a comprehensive service offering advice and support to employers and their employees around health, safety and wellbeing. This is facilitated through advice lines and award schemes. The award schemes are from bronze to gold and the silver award specifically states the need to “Provide managers and supervisors with training to increase their knowledge and understanding of mental health, wellbeing and stress in the workplace. Ensure managers are aware of their responsibilities in relation to employee support.” (http://www.healthyworkinglives.com/).

The Scottish Government sets national direction of policy on mental health and provides funding to agencies – including NHS boards and local authorities – to support implementation of policy.

The management of local actions in implementing national policy, and decisions on local spending priorities, are the responsibility of relevant local agencies. It is therefore the responsibility of NHS boards and local authorities to work with their partners and regularly review spending decisions to ensure they deliver fit for purpose services which respond to the needs of their local population, including students attending university.

Funding on mental health services for students attending university will continue to be drawn from the overall funds allocated to NHS Scotland and local authorities by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone with mental health problems can access high quality mental health services. Further and higher education students can continue to access these services through their local NHS board.

We are working on the development of the next mental health strategy and expect to produce it after the May 2016 election, subject to the next administration's priorities.

General dental practitioners are independent contractors. Independent general dental practitioners are individually responsible for dental services which they carry out.

An account of engagement between previous administrations and other party groups around successive budget Bills is available through the Scottish Parliament's Official Report, which documents the discussions that took place during the annual budget Bill process in each year since 1999. The search facility for the Official Report can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/13595.aspx?mode=a.

I have in every year since 2008 met representatives from each political party represented in the Scottish Parliament to discuss their alternative budget proposals. It would be a matter for members of previous administrations to account for their conduct in engagement with other political party groups prior to that.

This government has committed to dual all remaining single carriageway on the A9 between Perth and Inverness. Currently, between Perth and Inverness, the A9 has 30 miles of dual carriageway, 80 miles of single carriageway and 4.7 miles of dual carriageway under construction. This leaves a further 75.3 miles of A9 we plan to upgrade to dual carriageway.

It is anticipated that the construction of the new dualling between Perth and Inverness will be completed by 2025 in line with commitments made in the Infrastructure Investment Plan on 6 December 2011.

No care home resident should ever be subject to any form of harm or abuse, and it should be remembered that the vast majority of residential care homes provide high-quality care. The Care Inspectorate investigates complaints against registered care homes and carries out a rigorous inspection programme. Complaints about registered social service workers are investigated by the Scottish Social Services Council.

Through the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Bill, we are legislating to introduce new offences of ill-treatment or wilful neglect. That will improve current powers and complaints procedures, and it will ensure that effective legal action can be taken against a care worker or care provider whenever necessary.

This is a matter for NHS boards and the information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

NHS boards are responsible for the delivery of NHS general dental services in their area, and will take action in response to instances of poor quality dental services.

Actions available to health boards include:

(i) asking dental practice advisers to provide pastoral advice and support.

(ii) referral to the health board reference committee for consideration.

(iii) referral to a NHS Tribunal.

(iv) referral to the General Dental Council.