Chamber and committees

Since 2016 this Government has invested over £58 million* on maintaining the A82 trunk road.

The following table shows the Health Boards that received additional funding under Waiting Times Improvement Plan funding, for chronic pain services in 2019-20.

I met with NHS Highland whistleblowing group for the second time on 10 February.

During the meeting, outline revised proposals for a person-centred healing process were presented by NHS Highland and discussed with the Health Secretary and later with the Whistleblowing Group.

We know that the Board have engaged closely with the whistleblowing group and the Area Partnership Forum to develop this process, and external support is currently being commissioned to take this forward. We anticipate that this will commence shortly and that the ‘healing process’ will be live in advance of the first anniversary of the publication of the Sturrock Review (09 May 2020).

The Scottish Government will provide NHS Highland with additional financial support to assist with the delivery of the healing process and discussions are ongoing regarding the level of financial support involved.

The Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland are working closely with the DWP to help people understand the services available to them.

We do this through sharing and sense-checking client facing communications to ensure timings and messages are aligned, signposting from our respective websites and making sure our staff have the training and guidance that they require.

These arrangements are already in place for all elements of Best Start Grant, Funeral Support Payment and Young Carer Grant and detailed discussions around arrangements for Job Start Payment are currently taking place.

However, the DWP currently has no strategic approach to increasing take-up of its benefits, so I reiterate my calls for the UK Government to take a more active role in ensuring reserved benefits go to all those who are eligible.

Universal Credit remains the responsibility of the DWP, and as a result we would not look to run any explicit promotional campaigns around the payment. However, where eligibility for a devolved benefit is conditional on being in receipt of Universal Credit we will ensure people are aware of that.

Our view is that people in Scotland should receive all of the payments to which they are entitled – devolved, or otherwise. I have written to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to seek assurances that there will be no fiscal detriment to the Scottish Government where reserved benefit take-up increases as a result of our promotion of devolved benefits – for example if Universal Credit uptake were to increase as a result of our promotion of Scottish Child Payment.

We have designed benefits in collaboration with stakeholders and with the lived experience of recipients, through the Social Security Experience Panels, at the forefront, to ensure the principles set out in the Social Security Charter are fulfilled.

Where new benefit levels have been introduced, or benefit levels changed, we have had a number of considerations

• Providing new benefits for key transition periods - e.g. Best Start Grant Early Learning and School Payments, Job Start  Payment
• Harmonisation with other benefits - e.g. Carer's Allowance Supplement to ensure Carer's Allowance is comparable to Jobseeker's Allowance
• Increases after a prolonged period of constant levels of payment - e.g. The increase of the “other expenses” allowance in Funeral Support Payment to £1000
• Maximising the impact on poverty from limited resources, e.g. introducing the Scottish Child Payment, a new benefit for low-income families with children

All our benefits will be evaluated, where those who receive benefits will be able to report on the impact they have had on their lives. This approach is in line with our commitments in the Social Security Charter. In addition we will continue to uprate benefits in line with price inflation as we are required to do under the Social Security Act.

The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014, makes clear that it is the responsibility of Integration Joint Boards (IJB) to plan and commission services for their area using the integrated budget under their control, including palliative and end of life care services.

It is the responsibility of NHS Boards to form and agree a suitable Service Level Agreement with service providers within the parameters of the financial envelope set by the IJB. The previous guidance set out in Chief Executive Letters (CELs) do not apply to Integration Authorities.

CEL 12 (2012) was guidance provided to NHS Boards when they had responsibility for planning and commissioning end of life and palliative care, which has now been delegated to Integration Authorities. As such, CEL 12 (2012) should not be viewed as current Scottish Government policy or instruction when taking forward funding discussions.

The curriculum for Pain Medicine is part of the GMC-approved pathway towards achieving a certificate of completion of training (CCT) in Anaesthetics. The recognised route into specialist pain training requires passing the Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists exam and, usually, the Faculty for Pain Medicine exam.

Since 2014 the Scottish Government has added 35 additional Core and higher specialty Anaesthetics training posts. The table below provides data on annual recruitment into Core and Higher level Anaesthesia training in Scotland; excluding 2020 data as recruitment is yet to conclude.

Discussions on additional funding to be available to NHS Boards in 2020-21 will be taken in line with consideration of NHS Boards’ Annual Operational Plans for 2020-21 once these have been received. Final Plans are due to be submitted to the Scottish Government by the end of February 2020.