Chamber and committees

We are continuing to work with sportscotland to continually review and establish the needs of the sector. For leisure centres which are owned by the public sector, the Scottish Government and COSLA have now finalised a lost income scheme, including support for ALEOS worth £200 million. Taken together with the £49 million previously announced the total support for lost income is now potentially £249 million. The Scottish Government are also committed to passing on any additional UK Government consequentials for lost income, in full to local government. However, it is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.

Since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak the Scottish Government has worked closely with the UK Government and private and public sector partners to develop a range of support mechanisms for businesses. Information on all available support for businesses can be found on Find Business Support . The website is regularly updated with information on any new support packages or changes to existing ones.

The original specification for this report was for Patients fully registered of all ages with a coded diagnosis of asthma (and no more recent code of asthma resolved) who:

Have had one or more hospital admissions or A&E attendances with asthma in the previous year

OR

Have ordered 6 or more ‘short acting beta agonist’ inhalers in the previous year

OR

Have ordered 6 or less steroid containing inhalers in the previous year

OR

Have had 2 or more asthma exacerbations in the previous year (prescription for oral steroids)

AND

Have not had an asthma review within the previous year

This is a local report which sites within local GP IT systems, and it is for practices to manage this information themselves.

We recognise that high quality data is important to the NHS because it can lead to improvements in both care and safety. Our Respiratory Care Action Plan will aim to build on existing data from the Atlas of Variation from ISD Scotland and work towards a core respiratory data set. This will inform the implementation of the Plan and allow us to track improvements over time. We will work closely with key stakeholders, including those working on SPIRE, to ensure any data collection is consistent and appropriate for Scotland.

The SPIRE ‘Respiratory search’ report is currently on hold, however it should be noted that this is a local report which sits within local GP IT systems and would allow GPs/Practice Managers only to see the data for their patients.

The monitoring of the impact of gambling across the UK during the pandemic, is carried out by the Gambling Commission, which published and updated the following report . The Commission also alerts stakeholders to other academic assessments carried out across both the UK and internationally.

Gambling has the potential to negatively affect physical, psychological health, and the social functioning of the people who gamble and others around them. In April 2019 the Gambling Commission, with the support of GambleAware, published its “National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms”. That new industry-led strategy for England, Wales and Scotland aims to respond to growing concerns about the harm caused by gambling through improving prevention and educative approaches, and through developing and increasing access to evidenced-informed effective treatment and support.

The Scottish Government are currently working with the Commission and other stakeholders in Scotland, to assess existing evidence on which pathways to treatment are likely to be most successful in Scotland, this includes the evaluation of pathways being trialled in other nations. In addition, we are keen to understand why some people with problematic gambling are not accessing treatment and support services, to ensure our pathway options take these reasons into account to provide the correct approach for the people of Scotland.

The Alcohol Framework 2018 commitment to further understand online and telephone sales remains important and it is crucial that these market routes are also viewed through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Scottish Government commissioned Public Health Scotland (PHS) to investigate and report on alcohol consumption during the initial COVID-19 lockdown period in 2020. In February 2021, PHS published two reports and a briefing paper that explore how COVID-19 and related restrictions have impacted on alcohol sales and consumption in Scotland in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic:

Monitoring and Evaluating Scotland's Alcohol Strategy (MESAS) -
Alcohol - Health topics - Public Health Scotland .

In this work, PHS notes that its estimate of a reduction 6% in sales of pure alcohol per adult may be a slight overestimate, as online (and on-trade takeaway) sales were not captured. The Scottish Government has therefore asked PHS to consider further how it can understand this growing part of the alcohol sales market, and scoping work is currently underway to explore potential data sources and progress with analysis work.

Green port operators and businesses directly benefitting from new tax incentives will be required to adopt Fair Work First. In doing so, they will be encouraged to use the Scottish Government’s Fair Work First guidance to inform their approach and to advance Fair Work as they develop. We recommend that employers within the green port zone engage constructively with relevant trade unions and where a union is not present, with appropriate worker representatives to ensure effective decisions are made about workplace matters.

All Fair Work First criteria will be incorporated into the design and operation of green ports in Scotland. Fair Work First asks employers to commit to:

• appropriate channels for effective voice, such as trade union recognition.
• investment in workforce development
• no inappropriate use of zero hours contracts.
• action to tackle the gender pay gap and create a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
• payment of the real Living Wage.

We recognise the financial challenges being experienced by businesses in the construction sector, particularly smaller firms and tradespeople whose business relies on doing work in domestic premises. The limited funding made available to us to support businesses means that we are simply unable to support all sectors experiencing disruption as a result of restrictions. We therefore have no plans at present to provide direct financial support to small building and construction firms.

I would, however, encourage businesses in this sector and whose trade has been impacted by the pandemic to access the UK Government's Self Employment Income Support Scheme and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme which will support them in meeting staffing costs and addressing salary shortfalls. We continue to do all we can to support the sector through these difficult times through the Construction Leadership Forum and our Construction Recovery Plan.

The Scottish Government will require green port operators and businesses directly benefitting from new tax incentives to adopt the Scottish Government’s Fair Work First approach, as a condition of their designation or eligibility respectively.

We expect to see detailed plans on the actions the operator and businesses will take to ensure the Fair Work First approach and criteria are embedded within and across the green port environment and individual organisations.

The Scottish Government is clear that green port operators and businesses benefitting from linked tax incentives or any other government funding must continue to adhere to the conditions of their designation or eligibility. This is a key matter that we have been very clear with the UK Government on, as we have developed the Applicant Prospectus for green ports in Scotland.

We expect Health Boards to ensure their staff are appropriately trained and developed for their roles, as per the Staff Governance Standard. The standard complements the training expectations set out in individual professional and regulatory requirements.

Introduced in February 2018, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) developed a clinical guideline, about the use of medication to manage migraines. The clinical guidance is based on what we know from current medical research. It also gives advice based on the opinion of healthcare professionals who are trained on how best to manage people's care.

All boards have been encouraged by the Scottish Government to establish care interface groups, which will cover work in improving the management of headaches. the Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland have also been supported by the Scottish Government to develop tools and resources to support boards establish these groups.

The Scottish Government remains committed to improving neurological care and support in Scotland, including for people with migraine. The Neurological Care and Support Framework includes a commitment to promote and support the implementation of Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) General Standards for Neurological Care and Support 2019. General standards for neurological care and support (healthcareimprovementscotland.org)

These standards articulate what people with neurological conditions should expect to receive in terms of high quality care from the health and social care organisations that support them, and it is intended that organisations use these standards to demonstrate that they are delivering this. Standard 3 states that organisations should ensure that staff have the education, training and information to deliver care and support to people living with neurological conditions, appropriate to roles and workplace setting. The accompanying criteria states that this should be aligned to appropriate guidance, standards and best practice, where available. Discussions to explore the introduction of quality assurance arrangements for the standards are being taken forward with HIS. The Scottish Government expect Health Boards to ensure their staff are appropriately trained and developed for their roles, as per the Staff Governance Standard. The standard complements the training expectations set out in individual professional and regulatory requirements.