Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has carried out extensive work in collaboration with key organisations in the health and social care sector to scope the role and remit of a Coming Home National Support Panel that will provide genuine oversight and support to local areas in relation to the Coming Home agenda.

We are considering how the Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill may provide opportunity to strengthen this work on the Coming Home programme, in particular the recommendation to establish a National Support Panel. A public consultation will launch by the end of 2023.

In the recently published Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan, we committed to build on the work currently being undertaken as part of the Health and Social Care (HSC) Workforce Strategy to improve mental health and wellbeing workforce data, including on equalities.

Through our engagement on the Action Plan, we identified the need for improved comprehensive workforce data at national, regional, and service levels on the mental health and wellbeing workforce in order to enable planning of support and services. This includes addressing issues raised around access to workforce data, inconsistency, and accuracy of current workforce, as well as the need to better understand all roles within workforce.

We are continuing to support the timely reporting of workforce and trainee data for existing systems through our ongoing and constructive engagement with NHS Education for Scotland (NES), Health Improvement Scotland (HIS), Public Health Scotland (PHS), Health Boards and also with service leads directly on data improvement for existing systems.

This supports the future development and publication of Scotland’s first Mental Health and Wellbeing workforce technical document. As part of a phased approach, this will initially focus on the core workforce. We are now working with key partners to take this forward, with publication committed as a medium term timescale for delivery within the Workforce Action Plan.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Education and Training Strategic Advisory Group brings together senior leaders from key sectors and organisations to support a whole system approach to meet the ambitions of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

The group has held two meetings since it was established, which focused on initially on the development of the recently published Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan. The next meeting is due to take place on 11 January 2024 at which the group will consider the programme of work for implementing the education and training aspects of the Strategy’s Delivery Plan and Workforce Action Plan.

The Scottish Government welcomes Food Standards Scotland’s Our Food 2022 report and the wide ranging recommendations.

We are aware of workforce shortages, such as veterinarians and environmental health officers, and the fundamental role these have to safeguard animal health and welfare and the safety of food in Scotland. The Scottish Government continues to promote the role of veterinarians in public health. This includes through initiatives, such as the Scottish Veterinary Delivery Landscape Project which brings together public and private sector veterinary employers, academia and veterinary industry bodies. We have also set up the Environmental Health Policy Co-ordination Group to consider solutions to the EHO vacancies across Scotland and work with key stakeholders to gain further insight on this issue.

Furthermore, we are committed to protecting Scotland’s consumers and businesses through robust biosecurity controls. Since EU Exit, Scottish Government officials and Ministers have been engaged in discussions with the UK Government around the introduction of import controls, resulting in the recent publication of the Border Target Operating Model.

We will continue to work with Food Standards Scotland and other partners on the issues raised within the report.

The Scottish Government is working with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to develop the Coming Home Practitioner Peer Support Network and this will be launched in early 2024.

HIS will bring their sector expertise in strategic improvement to bring together professionals from a range of disciplines and agencies, as well as people with lived experience, to form a Practitioner Peer Support Network to learn and share best practice. The network will provide a space for local teams to learn from others who have implemented successful services and processes, for collaborative problem-solving and to pool resources such as staff or buildings.

This is a key step in our Coming Home programme of work, which aims to reduce delayed discharge and inappropriate out-of-area placements for people with learning disabilities and complex care needs.

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board, chaired by COSLA and Scottish Government produced a number of learning resources for the workforce to support children and young people’s mental health. All resources are hosted on the Digital Learning Map and will continue to be supported by NHS Education for Scotland (NES). These resources have been disseminated through key networks.

Further details on the work of the Board and links to the resources can be found in the report Children and Young People's Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board: final report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The authors of this letter recognise the very real progress being made on child poverty because of Scottish Government policies, including our ‘game-changing’ Scottish Child Payment.

More than 323,000 children were benefitting Scottish Child Payment at the end of September 2023, providing support to families which is unparalleled across the UK.

We have committed to uprating Scottish Child Payment by inflation next year and will continue to do everything within the scope of our powers and limited budget to tackle child poverty, in line with our challenging targets.

The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance will set out the Government’s spending plans in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget, which will be presented to Parliament on 19 December.

The Scottish Government opposes the inappropriate use of fire and rehire practices and we are clear that the practice does not represent Fair Work. In cases where contractual changes are necessary, there should always be appropriate and meaningful consultation

While employment law remains reserved, we encourage employers in Scotland to follow good practice in decisions regarding their workforce.

Through the Circular Economy Bill, the Scottish Government is committed to a co-design process to develop a new Household Recycling Code of Practice with local authorities and other stakeholders to provide a clear strategic direction for recycling in Scotland.

This includes enabling progress against future local recycling and reuse targets, informing how the monitoring and reporting framework for local authority waste services can be strengthened, and consideration of further measures to incentivise waste reduction at a household level.

Engagement with Cosla and local authority representatives is ongoing, and Scottish Government officials are currently developing plans for a local authority workshop to be held in early 2024 to continue this process.

The Scottish Government remains committed to a public consultation on the separate kerbside collection of textiles by 2025. Evidence from the consultation will inform the development of the new Household Recycling Code of Practice.

The consultation on the Report on the Effectiveness of Environmental Governance was open for responses for 19 weeks, closing on‎ 13 October. The Scottish Government will publish the responses to the consultation on Citizen Space, at the same time as providing an update to Parliament in early 2024, which will include recommendations in response to the views raised.