Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of the conservation work which the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) undertakes both in Scotland and internationally.

The RZSS was closely involved in The Scottish Wildcat Action project which ran from 2015 to 2020. Building on this the RZSS is the lead partner for the EU LIFE-supported ‘Saving Wildcats’ conservation project that runs from 2019-2025. The project involves ‘ex situ’ conservation breeding, which includes purpose-built facilities at the Highland Wildlife Park and the ‘in situ’ release of wildcats from spring 2022 onwards at a prepared site.

The total cost of the conservation project is £5.43 million. The Scottish Government, through Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), has committed £280,000 in cash and £188,000 in ‘in kind’ resources (primarily SNH staff time) towards this work.

SNH has also committed to providing a grant of £0.98 million towards Scotland’s Wildlife Discovery Centre. This project, which is based at the RZSS’s Highland Wildlife Park, will run from February to April 2021 and will showcase the richness and diversity of our native wildlife and its place in the world. The project totals £4.9 million and includes match funding from the National Heritage Lottery Fund, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and The Robertson Trust.

The safety of our essential frontline workforce is an absolute priority, and we are continuously looking to improve the supply and distribution of the protective equipment that is so vital in the fight against COVID-19.

The Scottish Government considers the current supply levels to be adequate whilst recognising there are pressures on particular items which are being managed. The improvements we have made to distribution routes for PPE in health and social care are helping to make sure we continue to deliver supplies needed.

PPE Guidance was released 2 April and available on the COVID-19 pages of the Health Protection Scotland (HPS) website. In addition the Scottish Government has published advice for Personal Assistants and for unpaid carers, who visit or live with a friend or family member or support a client to provide help with personal care such as washing or dressing.

On 23 June the Scottish Government announced recommendations on the use of medical face masks by staff within residential healthcare settings such as acute adult (inc. mental health) and community hospitals and care homes for elderly where staff are unable to physically distance. This included advice on the requirements for visitors to wear face coverings when attending adult hospitals or care homes for the elderly.

In December 2019, we co-published with COSLA the first Integrated National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan in the UK. Developed in partnership with COSLA, the Integrated Plan sets out how health and social care services will meet growing demand to ensure the right numbers of staff, with the right skills, across health and social care services. In January 2020, the Scottish Government launched a national recruitment campaign to support recruitment into adult social care and to promote it as a career destination. Consideration is being given to a further social care recruitment campaign to address the recruitment and retention issues in the sector and build up a resilient workforce.

The Scottish Government calls on the UK Government, in light of the current crisis we face with COVID 19, to urgently rethink its immigration plans. We are clear that Scotland welcomes EU citizens, many of whom work in the social care sector, and this Government will do all it can to ensure they continue to build their life in Scotland. Since April 2019, we have committed more than £1 million to our Stay in Scotland campaign, which aims to inform and support EU citizens. On 17 May 2020, the Minister for Public Finance and Migration wrote to the UK Government urging them to recognise the importance of migrants in delivering front-line services and industries, including in the social care sector. The Minister called for a number of changes to ensure adequate staffing in the sector including dropping the immigration health surcharge, removing the salary threshold and simplifying the immigration rules.

The COVID-19 data and trend charts for Scotland are published daily and provide a range of information, including the number of care home staff tests and other general information on social care staff.

Weekly data on COVID-19 in adult care homes in Scotland is available at:

www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-additional-data-about-adult-care-homes-in-scotland/ .

You can find daily updated figure (including care home data) here: www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/ .

There is a range of support being provided to care home providers to help them prevent transmission of COVID-19 in residential care home settings. This includes guidance on measures to protect residents and staff alongside direct support and advice given to care homes to support them to adopt Infection Prevention Control (IPC) measures contained within guidance. Guidance for care homes includes the Health Protection Scotland (HPS) guidance document, ‘COVID-19: Information and Guidance for Care Home Settings’ which was most recently updated on 15 June. To supplement HPS guidance, the Scottish Government published ‘National Clinical and Practice Guidance for Adult Care Homes in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic’ on 13 March and most recently updated on 15 May. It provides detailed information on practical steps that can be taken to prevent the spread of the virus and protect both residents and staff. It is continually reviewed to take account of emerging information relating to COVID-19.

In practice this means that care homes are implementing a range of IPC measures including:

• Appropriate placement of residents;
• Safe management, including decontamination, of resident care equipment and the wider care environment;
• Appropriate use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and
• Restrictions on all but essential visits.

In addition to guidance documents, a new poster has been produced, ‘COVID-19: Safe Practice in Care Homes’, which is intended as an IPC guidance aide memoire on the prevention of COVID-19 transmission for care home workers and is an abbreviated version of the comprehensive existing IPC guidance to support frontline health and social care staff undertake safe, effective IPC practice. The poster has been developed following requests from staff to make the guidance easily accessible and understandable.

A wide range of support is being provided directly to care home providers to support them to adopt IPC measures. This includes support from local health protection teams, Directors of Public Health working alongside other partners such as the Care Inspectorate and the Health and Social Care Partnership. On 17 May the Scottish Government wrote to Health Boards and Local Authorities enclosing guidance on Enhanced professional clinical and care oversight of care homes which asked that every Health Board and Partnership establish a “Care Home Clinical and Care Professional Oversight Team” to put in place a multi-disciplinary team comprising the following professional roles: the NHS Director of Public Health; Executive Nurse lead; Medical Director; Chief Social Work Officer; and the Partnership Chief Officer alongside colleagues from the Care Inspectorate. They are providing oversight and clinical expertise during the pandemic, in particular on areas of infection prevention and control, support to maintain safe staffing levels, education and training, clinical care and testing.

The Scottish Government is absolutely clear that we expect anyone who would benefit from access to NHS services to receive it. This includes care home residents, when such services are clinically assessed to be in the best interest for their care. The Scottish Government first published guidance for care homes on 13 March which was updated most recently on 15 May. The guidance has continuously stressed the importance of person centred care, including the need for the right healthcare support for care home residents, whether through healthcare support provided within the care home or through hospital admission where necessary. This is based on clinical assessment and any decisions made for each individual resident is done so against a number of factors. Where a care home resident requires urgent care which cannot be provided in the care home, they should be transferred to hospital following a clinical assessment. All residents should have an up to date anticipatory care plan which sets out the choices of the resident should they become unwell, and it is important that this is taken into consideration when planning place of care. The guidance also outlines the importance of healthcare support from community nursing and GPs practice teams within the care home.

Health Boards have been working closely with GPs, community pharmacists and community nursing teams to co-ordinate support for care homes, to ensure good pathways of care and management of any outbreaks. NHS 24 are putting all calls relating Covid from care homes to Covid hubs to ensure appropriate pathways are followed. They have also developed a suite of content specifically for the care home sector to guide their staff to which resource is best for them. GP Practices continue to be critical in supporting care home residents. They remain the first point of contact for care homes and should continue to provide the same high level of care and medical treatment that they have always provided to their patients in care homes. The Chief Medical Officer wrote to GPs of 17 April with guidance to support their work with care homes. In that letter the CMO asked GPs to reach out to these settings to offer reassurance and support during what is a worrying time for this sector. The Scottish Government has been working with the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) on care homes and they fully support this guidance (they are joint signatories). The way that GPs and community health care teams provide patient care has changed during the pandemic, with increased use of telephone and Near Me assessments where possible to minimise potential transmission of infection through face to face contact. However there are still times when a face to face consultation is clinically necessary, and health and care professionals will continue to enter care settings such as care homes to provide ongoing care and support when required, with appropriate safety measures such as PPE in place.

Health Boards and Local Authorities have also established “Care Home Clinical and Care Professional Oversight Teams” to support care homes during the pandemic. As part of this, multi-disciplinary teams comprising the NHS Director of Public Health; Executive Nurse lead; Medical Director; Chief Social Work Officer; and Partnership Chief Officers alongside colleagues from the Care Inspectorate have been put in place to provide oversight and clinical expertise during the pandemic, in particular on areas of infection prevention and control, support to maintain safe staffing levels, education and training, clinical care and testing.

I am working closely with partners across the health and social care sector, including NHS Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships and local employers, to ensure mental health and wellbeing support is in place for the workforce.

A range of support services has been established at local level, including staff wellbeing ‘hubs’, common rooms and rest areas, helplines and listening services, links with Occupational Health and Chaplaincy services, peer support, leadership development and coaching initiatives, mental health guidance and digital offerings. We have encouraged the sharing of services across health and social care to ensure as many people as possible can benefit from these.

On 11 May, we launched the National Wellbeing Hub for health and social care workers (www.promis.scot). The Hub signposts staff, unpaid carers, volunteers and their families to relevant services, and provides a range of self-care and wellbeing resources designed to support the workforce as they respond to the impact of Covid-19. The Hub is part of a programme of activity at the national level which includes the allocation of a further £3.8 million to begin to increase the capacity of NHS 24’s Mental Health Hub and Breathing Space service, alongside increased access to digital therapies.

Based on evidence and experiences here and internationally, we will continue to explore how best to respond to those who need more specialist mental health support and care over the coming months.

The First Minister announced a funding package of £2.6m for the emergency support of Scotland’s zoos and aquariums on 18 June. The criteria for the support fund will be based on need. The aim of the scheme is to provide targeted emergency support to alleviate potential animal welfare concerns and to prevent the need for euthanasia of animals that cannot be looked after due to financial issues arising from loss of income due to the pandemic.

SVQs equip workers with an overview of the knowledge, values and skills required to work with individuals in a range of settings where people may have different needs. They are based on National Occupational Standards and are designed to ensure that staff have the appropriate skills and knowledge to provide safe, quality care and support to people who use care services.

In addition, given the unique circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic, my answer to your questions S5W-29709 and S5W-29713 on 19 June 2020 set out what Scottish Government and key partners have done to provide specific guidance to support and protect care staff, and the individuals they support, during the pandemic.

The workforce's immense contribution, care, courage and dedication in these times should be widely recognised.

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 Scottish Government has been working with representatives of Scottish Care, Care Home Providers, the Care Inspectorate, NES and the Scottish Social Services Council, to produce a number of resources which will support care home staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.

SSSC have produced guidance in partnership with NHS Education for Scotland which provides useful resources and links to support employers with training for existing as well as redeployed workers across the sector. The guidance is a national resource which will support the frontline workforce in health and social care. A number of resources, specific to care homes has also been published on the Scottish Government website which can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-care-home-staffing-and-escalation-resources/

In terms of the workforce capacity, the Scottish Government worked with COSLA, NES and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to deliver a national approach to recruitment, regulation and deployment and to accelerate the expansion of workforce capacity. A new Accelerated Recruitment Portal opened on 29 March to encourage health and social care workers who left their profession in the last three years to return to the workforce during the pandemic. Over 2,000 former social care workers noted interest in the portal and at the start of June, 970 people had been processed, 245 of which have been matched with an employer in the social care sector – the majority of which have been in either Care Homes or Care at Home services. A further 700 people are available on the portal for employers that need them.