Chamber and committees

Getting it right for every child is our starting position for all policies. Due to the current restrictions on households meeting up indoors or outdoors, the organised activities for children guidance has been put in place as recognition of the needs of younger children. This guidance will be reviewed to ensure that as many activities as possible can be undertaken safely at this time.

A requirement has been placed upon staff to wear face coverings in workplace canteens (when not seated, eating or drinking) and indoor workplace communal areas from 16 October 19 October respectively. Communal areas in workplaces are places where people mingle or gather, for example, passageways, stairs, lifts, staff rooms, training rooms, changing rooms, and entrances.

Employers are not required to provide face coverings to their employees for these purposes.

It is the responsibility of individuals to provide their own face coverings for wearing in communal areas in workplaces and in work canteens. This is consistent with the requirement to wear face coverings in other public places indoors, including restaurants, bars and cafes, especially where 2 metre distancing is difficult to maintain.

A number of exemptions apply, and these are well documented in the guidance. They include where there are already measures in place to keep persons separated. Some people may feel more comfortable showing a card or badge that says they do not have to wear a face covering. A Scottish Government exemption card is being developed and will be accessible to the public by the end of October.

Communities, including those affected by the COVID-19 restrictions in Lanarkshire and Forth Valley health board areas, continue to be supported by investment through the Scottish Government’s Communities funding package. Details of funding allocated by local authority area can be found using the Scottish Government’s Communities Fund Mapping Tool .

The tool highlights that since the start of the pandemic over £20 million has been allocated to support communities in the Lanarkshire Health Board area and that over £9 million has been allocated to support communities in Forth Valley. These areas also benefit from wider investments, including those set out in recent correspondence to the Communities Committee . On 20 October 2020 the Social Security Secretary announced a further £30 million of funding to tackle financial insecurity across the winter period and continue the provision of Free School Meals during school holidays, allocations for this funding will be made available once formally agreed with COSLA Leaders.

To support businesses affected by the temporary restrictions the Economy Secretary announced the COVID-19 Restrictions Fund on 13 October, making an initial £40 million available. Ministers announced an increase to the value of grants through the scheme on 21 October with increased funding available to support businesses affected by the extension of restrictions.

These measures are part of the wider £2.3 billion package of support for business, including an estimated £972 million worth of COVID reliefs to reduce business costs during the pandemic, over £1 billion worth of business support fund grants and almost £160 million of additional grant support for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) and newly self-employed people.

Statistics on grants awarded by Local Authorities through the Small Business Grant Scheme and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant scheme are published on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-business-support-fund-grant-statistics/ .

Statistics on the grants for the Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund, Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund (PERF) and Creative, Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund (CTHEHF), and Bed and Breakfasts Hardship Fund (B&BHF) are published at https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-hardship-and-resilience-funds-statistics

Statistics on relief awards by Local Authority will be available in the Non-domestic rates relief statistics publication scheduled for release on 30 November 2020.

Grant awards through the COVID-19 Restrictions Fund will be reported in due course.

Urgent treatment, including for cancer has continued through the pandemic. Our priority remains to ensure that vital services are delivered to patients based on their clinical priority and clinical risk.

We have invested £10 million to support cancer services during and beyond the pandemic. This will support increased access to cancer diagnostics and staffing. We have also utilised private sector capacity and extended working days and weekend working to tackle waiting times.

On 4 June, we published the Framework for Recovery of Cancer Surgery to assist NHS Scotland prioritise those most in need of cancer treatment. We have committed to developing a Cancer Clinical Trials Subgroup as part of our recovery of cancer services. We are currently establishing the group and anticipate it will convene shortly.

The COVID-19 Restart Operational Group established by the Chief Scientist office is also looking at cancer clinical trials as part of its work on the resumption of non-COVID research activity.

We are in the process of developing a new Cancer Recovery plan. The plan will ensure patients have access to the best possible treatment and care and will be published shortly.

It is the case that we had to pause some public health campaigns, including cancer, planned for 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The NHS is Open campaign launched on 24 April and urged those with urgent cancer symptoms to still present. Planning is now underway for further public-facing activity, including cancer, but timings are critical to avoid public confusion during winter or detract from urgent health advice relating to the pandemic.

The remobilisation of dental services has been effected as part of the wider Route Map devised by the Scottish Government to respond to the coronavirus pandemic which was the subject of an Equality and Fairer Scotland Impact Assessment (EQFSIA) as a whole. The EQFSIA recognised that ‘continued restrictions’ in dentistry must be taken in the context of the entirety of the emergency measures associated with the pandemic such as footfall, infection control measures, aerosol risks etc. This is the appropriate approach during a public health crisis where overarching considerations require the demand for care to be balanced with the risks posed by continuing to deliver that care.

As we continue to balance the harms associated with the pandemic, we are pushing forward with the reopening of practices and the restoration of routine care. On 12 October the Scottish Government announced that NHS dental services will be able to return to high street dental settings from 01 November. This will provide patients with access to the full range of treatments for all NHS patients in principle but the Scottish Government is clear that this is not business as usual: while the full range of treatments will be restored, dentists and dental teams will be required to continue to exercise clinical judgement in line with wider public health protection measures to offer appropriate volumes of appointments.

The pandemic has been an extremely challenging time for dentistry and the Scottish Government recognises NHS contractor efforts, patience and resilience throughout the period. We are committed to ensuring that the needs of patients to be seen for NHS dental treatment can be met, in a way that supports the good efforts of the dental community to maintain the high standards of health and safety needed to minimise the threat from COVID-19.

We remain committed to our target of recruiting 250 Community Link Workers across Scotland by the end of the Parliament. As of September 2019 there were 112 Community Link Workers in post, all of whom have played a crucial role in supporting patients during the pandemic and helping those who are shielding.

The reporting process to track progress of the Community Link Work programme was temporarily suspended in March 2020 to allow Health and Social Care Partnerships to focus on their response to Covid 19. Correspondence established with Health and Social Care Partnerships during this period fed back no significant impact on recruitment. We are currently in the process of restarting the reporting process on GP contract implementation commitments.

Community Link Worker programmes are being rolled out at different rates across Scotland and it is for local Health and Social Care Partnerships to plan how these staff members are utilised and in which GP practices they work, based on their local needs and priorities. Data on where Community Link Workers are placed is held by Health and Social Care Partnerships.

The Scottish Government is working with Health Boards to redesign urgent care pathways by reviewing and building upon some of the important work carried out during the pandemic to ensure people receive the right care, at the right place, at the right time, every time. This work will help minimise delays in A&E departments and ensure safe and efficient access to healthcare.

Additionally we are working with Health and Social Care Partnerships to deliver more care in the community, and where possible at home, avoiding the need to go to hospital unnecessarily. As part of the work to redesign urgent care we will continue to support health boards to deliver improved processes that will reduce the number of patients requiring admission to hospital and to ensure where admission is necessary that patients are discharged as soon as it is clinically appropriate to do so, avoiding unnecessary delays in hospital and reducing occupancy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-32144 on 23 October 2020. 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

The data on the number of hospital beds there have been in each NHS board in each of the last five years can be found on the Public Health Scotland website:

https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/health-services/hospital-care/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual/