Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan sets out a number of actions to support children and young people’s mental health, including a specific action to improve our understanding of the prevalence of self-harm which will guide our policy approach moving forwards.

We have been working with key stakeholders to gather evidence to inform next steps around self-harm policy development, with particular focus on the needs of children and young people. I chaired a meeting with opposition party spokespeople in November 2020 to seek views on improving support for those who self-harm. I agreed to engage again with this Cross-party group once policy options have been developed further.

As part of this, we are supporting the Samaritans’ upcoming Self-harm Digital Policy Gathering event which aims to explore key themes relating to self-harm support and policy, with representatives from research, health, social care, emergency services, third sector, and persons with lived experience. Information from this event will inform the policy approach going forward.

Throughout the pandemic young people and families have told us that they need more community based support for mental and emotional distress and support for their wellbeing and resilience. As a result, last November we announced an additional £15 million to local authorities for the financial year 2020 to 2021 to both provide services in response to the pandemic and to fund new and enhanced Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Support and Services for 5-24 year olds. A further £15 million is available in the next financial year for these new and enhanced services, which focus on prevention, early intervention, and the treatment of distress.

Amongst other measures, we also fund Young Scot to provide enhanced digital resources on mental health and wellbeing via their Aye Feel platform, which includes advice and support on self-harm.

We are hugely grateful to the efforts over recent months of the many key workers in different sectors across Scotland as they have risen to the challenge of responding to the pandemic. The payment is for NHS staff, adult social care and residential childcare staff who provided services and support at the frontline of the COVID-19 trauma response and in caring for people who are at greatest risk of being severely ill or regrettably dying from COVID-19. This payment is not being extended to private agency staff in the NHS or social care sector. For people working for private employers, it would be for their employer to determine their remuneration and any additions to existing pay which may be appropriate for these staff.

Staff who are employed to work as a registered social worker, social work assistant or paraprofessional, including those working with children and families, are eligible for the £500 payment. Full guidance and the online form for third, voluntary, charitable and private sector employers are available here .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-34950 on 25 February 2021. 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

We are disappointed that NHS staff and Social Care workers receiving our £500 ‘thank you’ payment may see their benefits impacted as a result of the UK Government’s response and we have written to the UK Government, in conjunction with the other devolved administrations, to ask that they exempt these thank you payments from benefit calculations. Where we have the power, such as with Council Tax Reduction, we have legislated to exempt the payment. In consultation with relevant trade unions we have put measures in place to allow staff to take the payment over 3 months, or 13 weeks for weekly paid staff, where this would help reduce any impact on benefits and we have allowed staff to delay the payment where they feel they need more time to consult with their Work Coach before confirming how they wish to proceed.

The Scottish Government has provided information on Power of Attorney for Adults with Incapacity that can be used to ensure access to vaccines here : Section 47 certificate of incapacity - gov.scot ( www.gov.scot).

The NHS Scotland provides an information on the consent form in relation to the Covid-19 here: Your rights and the coronavirus vaccination | The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot).

In addition, Public Health Scotland provides accurate and accessible materials for older adults in order to support informed consent: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/downloads
/care-home-covid-19-resources/ .

As we are well into the Covid-19 roll out programme and based on today's data on 23 February, 31,035 care home residents have been vaccinated, exceeding the initial target, and 97% of residents in all care homes.

The Scottish Government has provided information on Power of Attorney for Adults with Incapacity that can be used to ensure access to COVID-19 vaccination here: Section 47 certificate of incapacity - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

To save lives it is essential that vaccination be given to the first priority groups as set by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), these being residents in a care home for older adults and their carers, people over the age of 80, and frontline health and social care workers.

Prioritisation by sector in not being considered for the following reasons;

• Criticality of service is not an indication for priority vaccination because clinical risk is the overriding concern. This is influenced most greatly by age, not occupation.
• Currently there is no sectoral prioritisation of any workers other than frontline health and social care workers. This is because we don’t know if the vaccine prevents spread, but it does reduce the harm to those most at risk should they catch the virus.
• Individual members of the teaching profession will be called forward for vaccination according to their position on the priority list, if they are eligible within the JCVI Cohorts regarding their age and/or underlying medical conditions (e.g. All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality).

The JCVI list now includes staff directly involved in the direct care of children and young people with the most complex additional healthcare needs who are clinically vulnerable to severe effects of COVID. They may be at higher risk of exposure due to their close contact with those providing health and social care support, particularly those with severe neuro-disabilities. They will be eligible under category 2 of the JCVI list. This includes staff working in special schools and units, and in some cases in mainstream schools. Staff supporting these children will undertake roles which will align to the multi-agency educational and care plans for these children who are the most clinically vulnerable.

Some key workers, such as frontline health and care workers, are included in the top vaccine priority groups, and already eligible for a vaccine.

The decision is to not prioritise all key workers for the following reasons:

• Criticality of service is not an indication for priority vaccination because clinical risk is the overriding concern. This is influenced most greatly by age, not occupation.
• Currently there is no sectoral prioritisation of any workers other than frontline health and social care workers. This is because we don’t know if the vaccine prevents spread, but it does reduce the harm to those most at risk should they catch the virus.
• Individual key workers will be called forward for vaccination according to their position on the priority list, if they are eligible within the JCVI Cohorts regarding their age and/or underlying medical conditions (e.g. All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality).

Decisions to prioritise one population group over another are not taken lightly, nor are they straightforward. That is why our prioritisation decisions have been, and will continue to be, guided by the independent expert advice from the JCVI.