Chamber and committees

Ministers will always endeavour to answer Parliamentary Questions as quickly as possible.

In this instance, the Scottish Government awaited information from HM Treasury to be able to answer the question as fully as possible. When it was clear that updated figures would likely not be available in the near future, I responded to question S5W-29031 with the information available on 26 August 2020.

The financial settlement in the 2020-21 budget was very tight and tough decisions were made across all parts of the health and social care portfolio. The majority of projects in the self-directed support and social care portfolio experienced reduced levels of funding.

Despite this, the total amount of funding from Scottish Government to SPAEN in 2020-21, is in line with previous years, it is made up of social care funding and specific support related to COVID-19.

It is good practice to regularly review grant funding arrangements to ensure alignment with policy aims and sustainability. As an organisation SPAEN has received Scottish Government funding for over a decade and some of its work is self-sustaining. Funding arrangements for 2020-21 followed the completion of a business review and receipt of SPAEN’s own funding application for 2020-21.

We are fully committed to the provision of independent advice and advocacy including advice on employment of personal assistants and as well as funding SPAEN we fund other organisations through the Support in the Right Direction programme (SiRD).

We did not complete an EQIA for this specific funding decision, however we did work with Self-directed Support Scotland (SDSS), a membership body representing disabled people’s organisations, in order to understand the impact of our funding to independent support organisations as part of the consultation and fund development of SiRD. A planned EQIA on reform of adult social care has been delayed due to COVID.

The funding provided to organisations supporting the employers of social care personal assistants in each of the last five years is as follows:

2015 – 2016

The supply of PPE is primarily the responsibility of social care providers themselves, and in the case of social care personal assistants, the responsibility of the person/people who employ them. However, given the immense pressure on normal supply chains due to COVID-19, the Scottish Government (via National Services Scotland (NSS)) has been providing top-up and emergency provision from the national stock to ensure that staff, unpaid carers, and social care personal assistants have the PPE they need.

PPE from the national stock is currently being supplied through two routes:

• Local PPE Hub(s) in every Health and Social Care Partnership area where providers, personal assistants and unpaid carers can access PPE if they cannot get it through their normal supply routes; and
• A central PPE support centre through NSS dedicated to urgent need, that can be accessed in emergency situations and when Hubs are unable to meet need.

As at August 31 2020, over 2.6 million items have been provided through these routes to social care personal assistants. This is over and above PPE that personal assistants or their employers have accessed through their normal supply routes.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with stakeholders such as Scottish Care and CCPS on a range of issues, including the financial sustainability of social care services.

The Scottish Government has agreed additional funding of up to £100 million to support immediate sustainability pressures across social care. We continue to work with Integration Authorities and COSLA to ensure that claims are received and payments are made in good time to social care providers. We are currently working closely with Integration Authorities and COSLA to undertake a detailed Quarter 1 review of the financial implications of Covid, and following this review we will make a further funding allocation to recognise costs incurred across health and social care.

The Scottish Government recognised that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the third sector and that is why we launched the £25 million Third Sector Resilience Fund (TSRF). This fund was part of a wider £350 million emergency coronavirus funding. Health and social care organisations have received just over £6 million in funding through the TSRF.

The Scottish Government values its relationship with the third sector health and social care organisations. This relationship will continue to support our response to Covid-19 as we consider our ‘Remobilise, Recover, Re-design’ work. We are committed to working with our third sector partners to ensure that there is a person centred approach to re-mobilisation across our health and social care services in Scotland.

Prior to the formal launch of the Test and Protect system, we asked all NHS Scotland boards to make available up to 2,000 staff to participate in contact tracing activity. As acknowledged at the time, the resource was provided substantially from existing workforce was an estimate of need and it was recognised that not all would be required at any one time. We keep contact tracing capacity under active review, in line with modelling undertaken by Public Health Scotland, with all boards required to maintain a total national capacity commensurate with demand. In commencing 03 August for instance, approximately 836 staff were available within boards to undertake contact tracing activity. The recruitment position within boards is subject to change in line with the national modelling picture, and where local service composition changes as a result of the mobilisation of other NHS services. In line with their service provision responsibilities, the recruitment of staff is devolved to NHS Scotland boards.

Recruitment to the National Contact Tracing Centre (NCTC) is on-going, as week commencing 03 August 2020, the centre had recruited 63 staff, and has a further pool of 66 staff it can readily deploy. Additionally, we continue to make use of the pipeline of candidates identified through national recruitment, with 300 shortlisted applicants currently concluding the interview process. The NCTC is in the process of finalising bank arrangements with NHS Forth Valley to be able to flex the resource into the NCTC; some 200-400 staff will be available through the bank arrangement; this will grow and be kept under review, in line with the modelling, to provide additional resilience.

Unlike the 111 service, NHS 24's 0800 Helpline doesn’t capture caller demographics and therefore the breakdown of information by Health Board/Local Authority area isn’t available. Please see detailed information below on the total number of calls to the Helpline per week as well as the total number to date.

On the 29 June, I wrote to Scottish Hospices to confirm that their funding requests (totalling £10.1m) related to loss of income during the pandemic during the first financial quarter of 2020 would be met in full. Integration Authorities and NHS Boards were also notified of this on the same date, and the funding was processed for onward allocation to hospices at the end of June 2020.

It is important to reflect that this funding was provided on a one off basis for the full first quarter of the year to account for loss of income during the pandemic, and that we expect the existing commissioning arrangements between hospices and Integration Authorities to be maintained going forward.

It is also important to reflect that in April 2020, I indicated that Scotland was likely to receive an estimated £19 million in consequentials in respect of the £200 million for hospices included in the UK Government’s announcement of £750 million for charities. HM Treasury have not yet provided an updated final consequential funding figure associated with the original announcement, although it is expected to be significantly lower than the £19m originally expected.

When we have clarification on the total consequential funding we will receive this will be allocated in full to Scottish Hospices.