Chamber and committees

The advice for people on the shielding list at all protection levels is to work from home where possible. If people cannot, there are several options. The occupational health advice is that the majority of workplaces can be made safe even at protection level 4 providing employers make the necessary adjustments to make the workplace safe. Individuals and employers can draw on advice from Occupational Health Services, Health and Safety representatives, trade unions and professional bodies.

At protection level 4, the Chief Medical Officer issues a shielding notification for those most clinically at risk. While this does not say that those who are at highest clinical risk must stop working if they cannot work from home, it means that they can stop working and access Statutory Sick Pay if, following discussions with employers or other advisors, their work place can’t be made safe, for the whole period that the area they live or work in remains at Level 4.

For those who have been on the shielding list and furloughed the Jobs Retention Scheme (furlough) remains the best way of providing financial support. The Job Retention Scheme has been extended until March 2021.

We are working together with Citizen’s Advice Scotland to help people understand what help is available if they find they are in financial hardship (including help with mortgage and council tax payments). To find out more visit: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/health/coronavirus-what-it-means-for-you-s

We want to balance protection with empowering people to make their own decisions about what is right for them. We have introduced extra protection level advice (click here for table of extra advice )to protect people with the highest clinical risk, aligned to the 5 protection levels within the Strategic Framework. As the levels in a local area change, the protection advice for people on the shielding list in that area will change as well. People at highest risk should still follow the advice for the general public as a minimum, but these levels provide additional advice for areas like work, schools, shopping and contact with others.

We are encouraging people to adapt this advice to make it right for them. It is a personal decision how to balance the benefits of protection with quality of life. To support this and to assist those with specific health conditions, we sent (week commencing 7 December), everyone on the shielding list a booklet called Balancing the risks of daily activities during coronavirus ’. This will also be published on-line at mygov.scot.

Our aim is to provide the information, advice and tools to enable and empower those who are on the shielding list to make their own decisions about their day to day activities and interactions. This new advice and guidance will sit alongside a range of information and support including:

• SMS Text Alert Service
• PHS dashboard data on neighbourhood infection levels
• Information on specific conditions
• Individual workplace risk assessment tool
• Information on how to shop safely
• Online priority shopping slots
• National Helpline (0800 111 4000)
• Local Authority and Third Sector support
• Mental and Physical Health and Wellbeing support
• Offer of Vitamin D over the winter months

Throughout drafting our National Cancer Recovery Plan, we have had extensive engagement with our third sector partners, such as the Scottish Cancer Coalition (SCC). The SCC’s membership includes charities such as Blood Cancer UK, Myeloma UK and Anthony Nolan, who are able to convey the issues facing blood cancer patients. Alongside this engagement, Myeloma UK and Anthony Nolan were kind enough to share recent patient survey results with us, for consideration and integration into the recovery plan.

These survey results helped us identify the need for more emotional and practical support, which we aim to address through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme (TCC). Through TCC, we are funding a £18 million joint partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, which aims to provide cancer patients with a specialised nurse contact, who can provide emotional, practical and financial support.

Our actions around a single point of contact for cancer patients will also help with improved patient communication and navigation through diagnostic and treatment pathways- also identified as a key issue for blood cancer patients.

Additionally, Rapid collaboration is key to accessing medicines for blood cancer patients. We have asked that, as part of the recovery of cancer services, Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s (HIS) Medicines and Pharmacy Team, reframe the Off-Label Cancer Medicines (OLCM) programme in order to support the recovery and ongoing delivery of cancer services in Scotland. This is being taken forward through the National Cancer Medicines Advisory Programme (NCMAP), hosted within HIS Medicines and Pharmacy team and supported by a national group of key experts and stakeholders. This work will build on the existing benefits of the OLCM programme, such as improving patient outcomes, reducing unwarranted variation and improve equity of access, improving service efficiency and effectiveness, and improvement in the quality of assessment of treatments.

Alongside this, the NCMAP will reduce duplication of review and assessment beyond OLCM within regional prescribing groups and streamline implementation procedures.

This is a matter for the Office for National Statistics who is conducting the survey on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Figures published on 26 November include response rates showing that, between 21 September and 21 November, 93,522 households have been invited to take part in the COVID-19 Infection Survey. Of the households that have been invited to take part, 12,779 households have registered (agreed to participate), reflecting a household acceptance rate of 14%. Within the 12,779 households that have registered, there are 24,815 individuals who are eligible to participate in the study. From the registered households, 10,516 individuals from 5,802 households have provided at least one swab, and 10,001 individuals have agreed to continue to participate in the survey. This indicates that 14,299 individuals from households that registered have not yet been involved in the survey and 515 individuals, from an unknown number of households, participated on a one-off basis only.

Often households that are invited to participate, register their participation and provide their first swab in separate weeks therefore figures for number of households that have agreed to participate and have not been involved in the survey split by week are not available in a meaningful format.

Acceptance rates cannot be regarded as final, as those who are invited are not given a time limit in which to respond. The total number of households invited will contain households to which the invitation was not successfully delivered, and therefore could not respond. Figures can be found on the ONS website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/
conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/
26november2020/relateddata

Management information provided below shows data on the number of scheduled, completed and missed visits to participant households there have been in each week since the survey began, from 21 September to 27 November. Data relate to non-unique household visits.

Recruitment into the survey commenced in September, with letters inviting households to participate in the survey reaching the first households on Friday 18 th September. Field work started on Monday 21 September, with survey teams starting to visit participant households from that date. The initial target for individuals swabbed per fortnight in Scotland was 15,000 with the aim that this target be reached as quickly as possible, and maintained within ±10% of this figure. The timeframes for achieving this were based on registration data from the survey in England. In practice, these initial predictions on uptake in Scotland were underestimated and participant registration levels were significantly higher than those observed in England. Therefore, in order to not overshoot the target, recruitment was slowed down. As a result, the target date for reaching 15,000 individuals tested per fortnight was moved from the beginning of November to the middle of November.

ONS have advised that recently there have been issues maintaining the number of Study Workers needed to maintain the target, therefore the target has now been moved to the 14 December. At all times, best efforts have been made to achieve this target, but there are many variables at play and it is difficult to predict what will actually happen. Another factor which must be considered, but we cannot predict, is the introduction of lockdowns and how this may affect the behaviour of respondents.

The following table provides the number of unique individuals tested in each fortnightly period, with the target being 15,000. Please be aware that number of unique individuals will contain the same individuals across different time periods and for this reason, it is not appropriate to sum up counts from multiple periods, as this will lead to double counting.