Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has no plans to introduce a Service Pupil Premium. In Scotland, the Additional Support for Learning Act places education authorities under duties to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. This applies no matter the reason for those needs. Service Children in, or moving into, Scottish schools who need additional support for learning will have their needs met through this framework.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. It is a matter for individual Health Boards.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-10752 on 30 August 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The multi-agency Incident Management Team that was set up to deal with the incident published its report on 29 March 2017. The Incident Management Team concluded that “ the source of the outbreak was consumption of an unpasteurised cows’ milk cheese, Dunsyre Blue ” http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/resourcedocument.aspx?id=5844 .

EU funding for vessel procurement has become increasingly scarce. Despite this, in 2011 Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) were able to secure £450,000 from the European Regional Development Fund for the first hybrid ferry, MV Hallaig, which itself was the outcome of a collaborative programme between Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland supported by EU INTERREG funding.

The Scottish Government has also supported the successive phases of the “HySeas” hydrogen ferry project. The consortium led by Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd has recently secured 9.3 million for the design and testing of a hydrogen drivetrain for future use in Scottish ferries.

We do not foresee any implications for the Ferry Services Procurement Policy Review.

The benefits of insulin pump therapy and Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) is well evidenced and established.

We are currently funding a part-time diabetes specialist nurse to help promote the adoption of CGM technology. This specialist support is helping ensure that clinical teams have the appropriate infrastructure, skills and training in place to safely and effectively deliver this important technology, including sharing good practice and information events.

We encourage all Boards to make full and best use of this national resource.

It is for clinicians in consultation with patients to determine which treatment is appropriate based on clinical guidance and individual circumstances, and to raise awareness and provide information.

Appropriate education is delivered prior to initiation of insulin pump therapy and CGMs.

Our part-time National Diabetes Specialist Nurse makes regular visits to NHS Boards as part of her role to share and encourage good practice in providing insulin pumps and other diabetes technologies.

The National Diabetes Managed Clinical Networks meet regularly to learn from each other in adopting new diabetes technologies such as insulin pump therapy and share their experiences to enable a more consistent service for patients across Scotland.

Management data shows that NHS Boards are on track to deliver the expected levels of provision of Continuous Glucose Monitors and insulin pumps for adults as set in 2017.

In December 2016, the First Minister announced £10m of additional funding over the course of this Parliament, to further increase the number of adults accessing insulin pump therapy and to substantially increase availability of Continuous Glucose Monitor devices (CGMs) for people in all age groups for those with the greatest clinical need.

The additional funding includes the provision for a part time senior Diabetes Specialist Nurse (DSN) to support NHS Boards to increase awareness and pace of adoption of CGM technology to ensure that clinical teams have the appropriate infrastructure, skills and training in place to safely and effectively deliver this important technology.

Continuous Glucose Monitors

A Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) has three parts: Sensor – this senses how much glucose there is in the interstitial fluid and is inserted into the skin. This is connected to the Transmitter which is worn on the skin and communicates with the Receiver (usually wirelessly) recording results and displays them on a pager size device often worn on a belt or carried in a handbag. Systems that display immediate results are often called ‘real-time’. This allows patients to see their blood glucose levels 24 hours a day and will alert patients through an alarm/vibration if the sensor detects blood glucose values that exceed or will exceed the target zone set for their glucose levels, helping them to optimise glycaemic control.

The Scottish Government has worked with the Scottish Diabetes Group (SDG) to develop a national approach to the introduction of CGM into the patient pathways based on the National Institute for Health and care Excellence (NICE) (Guideline NG17), the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) (Guideline 116), and the clinical evidence available. These guidelines advise that CGM devices may be useful for a small number of people with diabetes as an aid to improve glycaemic control, but do not recommend the use of CGM devices for routine use.

Technology Enabled Care Programme

The £9m per year Scottish Government funded Technology Enabled Care Programme continues to see progress in the uptake of digital solutions for self-management. This includes on the use of Home and Mobile Health Monitoring of conditions. The SMS text messaging service FLORENCE (simple telehealth) is available to use for all health boards in Scotland and has already been proven to aid those with diabetes to better manage their condition. Staff have been involved in this programme from the very start and continue to be supported via the TEC workforce development support team.

My Diabetes My Way / SCI-Diabetes

We have been working closely with the Digital Health and Care Institute (DHI) on the development of diabetes care and the interactive self-management platform “My Diabetes My Way” was recently awarded a grant of £1million from Innovate UK to continue research into the use of artificial intelligence. This award winning service for people with diabetes and carers contains validated multimedia resources to improve self-management and also offers access to clinical data using information captured via SCI-Diabetes. By the end of 2017, there had been 15,574 people accessing their record and reading from the MDMW portal (48% increase from 2016) with this expected to continue to increase.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of workforce development, continuing to share learning and expertise across our health and care services and this is recognised in Scotland's Digital Health and Care Strategy.

On 20 December 2017, the Minister for Transport and the Islands made a statement to Parliament that a decision on the procurement of the Northern Isles Ferry Services would be taken in the Spring of 2018. It is appropriate that Parliament was informed first about the Minister’s decision and the reasons for that decision, including the letter from the European Commission, as set out in the Minister's subsequent statement of 24 May 2018.

The Scottish Government will continue to seek the views of the RMT union and other key stakeholders as we undertake further engagement with the European Commission on the possibility of making a Teckal compliant direct award to an in-house operator in future that would satisfy the State aid rules and the four Altmark criteria.