Chamber and committees

The “ Families Affected by Drug and Alcohol Use in Scotland : A framework for holistic whole family approaches and family inclusive practice ” published in December 2021, sets out principles of how we will improve holistic support for families affected by substance use.

We want to ensure we are providing the right kind of support to enable families to thrive. Investing Whole Family Wellbeing Funding, which aims to deliver transformational change to improve holistic whole family support, with £32m already allocated to local authorities this year.

Since 2021-22, we have provided Alcohol and Drug Partnerships with an additional £3.5 million per year until the end of the National Drugs Mission, to support their implementation of this framework, which includes allocating funding to local family support services.

Our National Drugs Mission, provides £3 million each year, administered by Corra, through the Children and Families element for family support each year to front-line and third-sector organisations. This fund is intended to help these organisations to sustain, stabilise or increase capacity, extend or improve services and/or meet identified gaps in service provision.

We are providing funding of nearly £9 million over the course of the National Mission to Phoenix Futures Family Service, which is a family rehabilitation service offering a unique programme of interventions to benefit each family member and the family unit as a whole. As well as this, more than £5.5 million has been committed over this parliamentary term to support the establishment of two houses at Aberlour, specifically designed to support women and their children through recovery.

We also fund Scottish Families Affected by Drugs (SFAD), £160,000 per year, for family support services. This includes a national bereavement support service andhelpline. We have also allocated a one-off payment of £2,820 to SFAD for information booklets to support families who have lost a loved one to a drug or alcohol related death.

Additionally, we allocate £30,000 per annum for our Family Recovery Initiative Fund (FRIF). This is administered through SFAD and offers one-off grants of up to £5,000 to groups that support families affected by alcohol and drugs in Scotland.

In 2021-22, we funded £550,000 for the Partnership Drugs Initiative (PDI), which is managed and match-funded by the Corra Foundation. The PDI provides funding to locally based projects and charities working with children and young people affected by substance issues, and produces insights for policy and practice .

To end of March 2021 629,335* people have accessed Self-directed Support (SDS) since April 2014, with year by year data listed in table 1.

We do not hold this information centrally. Waiting time statistics on the waits experienced by patients for first appointments with chronic pain services can be found on the Public Health Scotland (PHS) website at the following link: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/chronic-pain-waiting-times/

However, PHS does not hold data that would capture the total number of patients with chronic pain who are being treated by NHS Scotland at a particular point in time, either under the care of specialist chronic pain services or otherwise.

Data is available by Board from the quarter ending 31 December 2015 to the quarter ending 30 June 2022.

A set of data tables for the most recent publication, which was released on 13th September 2022, can be found at the link above underneath the sub-heading of ‘Data files’:

• Table 4 shows the number of patients seen (adjusted) by NHS Board and quarter. A drop-down menu can be used to switch between data for pain clinics and pain psychology services.
• Table 6 shows the number of patients who were waiting for a first appointment (adjusted) by NHS Board and quarter. A drop-down menu can be used to view data for pain clinics and pain psychology services.

Data for the quarter ending 30th September 2022 is due to be published on 13th December 2022.

The statistics published in the data tables are based on aggregate data submissions obtained from the 14 NHS Boards.

One of the key pillars of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation is to strengthen Scotland’s position in new markets and industries to generate well-paid jobs and support a just transition to net-zero. The Strategy sets out a range of actions to deliver on this vision. We are now developing sectoral Just Transition Plans, which will identify relevant green industrial opportunities. Our first Just Transition Plan will be the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which is intended for publication in due course.

Over the next year we will be developing Just Transition Plans to address the transport, buildings and construction, and agricultural sectors, as well as a standalone plan for the Grangemouth industrial cluster. Our Grangemouth Future Industry Board, established in acknowledgement of the significant role of the cluster in our energy system and our economy, has initiated and leads on the design of that Plan.

Our approach to Just Transition Plans builds on our world-first National Just Transition Planning Framework and sets out how we will be working with others on the economic and social impacts of transition. It has co-design at its heart, meaning that we will ensure that those who stand to be most impacted by the transition to net zero are given a voice in determining their future.

Work is currently underway to develop an updated Sexual Health and Blood Borne Viruses Framework.

The Scottish Government has set up a steering group to bring together key stakeholders from across the sector to ensure that the new Framework is fit for purpose and supports ambitions to preserve Scotland's capability to deliver world-leading sexual health services, whilst also identifying key priorities which will require dedicated focus over the coming years.

The steering group, which includes representatives from NHS Boards, Public Health Scotland and third sector organisations, has been consulted on the content and format of the updated Framework, and they will continue to be called upon to comment on the document at all stages of development.

Broader consultation will also be undertaken during the drafting process, to ensure a wide range of stakeholder views can be heard.

Homelessness data which includes information about temporary accommodation placements, is available for all local authorities from 2017-18. Information at individual (person or household) level cannot be provided due to data confidentiality.

Tables showing the distribution of time spent in temporary accommodation for households with homelessness applications that closed in each year from 2017-18 are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 63738). The figures are based on homelessness applications with at least one associated temporary accommodation placement.

Whilst the Scottish Government funds the delivery of homes in rural areas to support local authorities’ Local Housing Strategies , rural investment has only been reported on since 2015-16. Data has therefore been provided for housing investment in rural areas from that year onwards in the following table. Individual project spend can be spread over a number of years and we do not collate information by year to show the size of project that spend is associated with. The average size of rural housing development approved across Scotland during this period was 15 homes.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-11493 and S6T-00915 answered on 26 October 2022 and 25 October 2022 respectively.

The answer to Topical Question S6T-00915 can be found here: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-25-10-2022?meeting=13939&iob=126317#16180

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government's Infrastructure Investment Plan, which was published in February 2021, sets out the government’s infrastructure priorities for the period from 2021 to 2026. The Infrastructure Investment Plan is available online at A National Mission with Local Impact: Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland 2021-22 to 2025-26 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Under the Infrastructure Investment Plan the Scottish Government is:

• Doubling the annual funding for maintenance over 5 years, investing over £1 billion in enhancing or refurbishing existing facilities, and modernising key equipment.
• Investing over £220 million in the Baird and Anchor project in Aberdeen which brings together all Maternity, Neonatal, Reproductive Medicine, Breast and Gynaecology services in the Baird Family Hospital and consolidates Haematology, Oncology and Radiotherapy Day and Outpatient services in the ANCHOR Cancer centre.
• Delivering a programme of investment in National Treatment Centres in Clydebank, Inverness, Livingston, Aberdeen, Tayside, and Kirkcaldy.
• Upgrading the Edinburgh Cancer Centre, building the new national secure adolescent inpatient service in Irvine and replacing the St Brendan’s facility in Barra.
• Investing in the provision of a new health and social care community hub in Parkhead that will replace 10 different buildings across Glasgow northeast area.
• Investing over £50 million to modernise our radiology equipment nationally, and over £100 million to upgrade and replace our ambulance fleet.
• Investing £25 million in the system development required to build on the 50-fold increase in patient use of NearMe digital healthcare services.