Chamber and committees

This information is not available. The app does not store personal data anywhere and is not made visible by the app to anyone, including the Scottish Government, not even NHS Scotland. Only completely anonymous data is stored in the app users mobile phone, and is only stored in a public registry if the app User decides to share his or her anonymous data. For more information, see https://protect.scot/how-we-use-your-data

Since the response set out to question S5W-32315, the Scottish Government has made available additional funding of £112 million to support social care winter preparedness. This takes the level of additional financial support to £262 million for social care to address the financial implications of Covid-19, including provision of support for care homes and additional care home places. Further work is ongoing to review in more detail the ongoing financial implications across the sector and to ensure that the necessary support continues to be provided.

In terms of funding in the longer term, the Scottish Government is working to bring forward the Scottish Budget for 2021-22 at the earliest opportunity. This will include detail of our ongoing support across health and social care services.

Whilst recent news from Pfizer is very welcome, we do not yet have a date for the availability of a Covid-19 vaccine for use in Scotland.

The UK Vaccines Taskforce is procuring COVID-19 vaccines on a 4 nations basis and we expect that any doses that become available to the UK will be deployed on an equitable basis. We will prioritise to protect those considered to be most at risk, in line with the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) advice available. ‎

In Scotland we already deliver nearly two million doses of vaccine routinely every year so we have a comprehensive delivery infrastructure in place. We have been developing a national plan to vaccinate the over 18 population in phases that align with the JCVI advice. That national plan will be delivered with local NHS Boards.

While there is currently no established preventative treatment for COVID-19, Scotland is participating in UK-wide research to establish both preventative and supportive treatments. To date three supportive treatments, remdesivir, dexamethasone and hydrocortisone, have been identified. The Scottish Government will continue to work with NHS Lothian and other territorial health boards to plan for and deliver preventative and supportive treatments as these emerge.

I refer the member to question S5O-04709 answered in Parliament on 4 November 2020. The answer to this oral Parliamentary Questions can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=12916&i=116731

The following table provides the weekly figure for those people who have been advised to self-isolate by the Protect Scotland App. Please note that this does not include those advised by T&P staff to self-isolate as close contacts of index cases

In addition the table also provides a total number of downloads of the App since it was launched on 9 September 2020.

We have invested around £895 million in services to tackle alcohol and drug use since 2008. The total financial resource is higher than Scottish Government funding and includes contributions from NHS and other statutory partners.

Details of funding to NHS Boards can be found https://www.gov.scot/publications/alcohol-and-drug-partnerships-funding-allocations/

In Scotland the responsibility for the planning, designing and commissioning of alcohol and drug services is delegated to Integration Authorities. Integration Authorities issue directions to NHS Boards and Local Authorities as providers and purchasers of alcohol and drug services setting out the intention and required delivery of the function, financial resource attached and the intended outcome. Directions should specify in some detail what the Health Board, the Local Authority or both are to do in relation to carrying out a particular function to deliver services. The Integration Authority is required to review the delivery of directions as a part of its approach to performance management, scrutiny and audit. Further information is available here https://www.gov.scot/publications/statutory-guidance-directions-integration-authorities-health-boards-local-authorities/#:~:text=Directions%20should%20include%20detail%20on%20the%20required%20delivery,in%20the%20same%20report%2C%20using%20a%20standard%20format.

NHS Boards and Local Authorities can also act as purchasers of services and hold legally binding contracts with third sector providers of alcohol and services. These contracts enable these public sector organisations to hold third sector services to account and include expectations over governance as well as measures or targets relating to performance and outcome delivery.

2020-21 funding from the Drug Deaths Taskforce was allocated through 3 methods:

• £3 million was allocated to Scotland’s Alcohol and Drug Partnerships;
• £5 million was allocated to the DDTF and its sub-groups for an Innovation and National Developments funding programme; and
• £1 million was allocated to a specific research programme.

Of the organisations represented on the Drug Deaths Taskforce, those who have received support in terms of funding allocated to the Taskforce are as follows:

• Borders Alcohol and Drugs Partnership
• Police Scotland
• Scottish Ambulance Service
• Turning Point Scotland
• University of Stirling

Annual information on unplanned discharges from drug treatment is published by Public Health Scotland. The most recent publication is available here https://beta.isdscotland.org/media/3879/2020-03-03-sdmd-tables.xlsx .

Equivalent information on unplanned discharges from alcohol treatment is not available. This will be collected on the DAISy system which will start to go live from 1 December 2020, and so this information will be available for future years.