Chamber and committees

The Education Recovery Group has worked with key partners to develop guidance to help ensure a safe and welcoming return to school for children, young people and staff. This guidance is available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-preparing-start-new-school-term-august-2020/

The guidance sets out a suite of important mitigations that local authorities and schools have been asked to implement to minimise the risks of COVID-19 transmission and infection. These include risk assessments, enhanced cleaning regimes, good hand and respiratory hygiene, ventilation, use of PPE where appropriate, continuous vigilance for symptoms, surveillance and testing and outbreak management.

Schools and local authorities are best placed to determine how to apply these measures within their settings. They should do so in a way that prioritises the health, safety and wellbeing of children, young people and staff, and ensures that the risk mitigation measures are implemented effectively.

The Scottish Government believes that older and disabled people should be supported to live independently in their own home or a homely setting for as long as possible.

Prior to purchasing a retirement home, any potential buyer should seek appropriate legal and financial advice, regarding the terms of any specific provisions in the title deeds.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic the Scottish Government introduced provisions through the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 and the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020 which were aimed at protecting those members of society with unsustainable debt.

These included:

• extending the existing moratorium on diligence and bankruptcy from six weeks to six months, preventing creditors from taking action against individuals who have financial difficulties;
• increasing the minimum amount someone must owe before creditors can petition for their bankruptcy from £3,000 to £10,000;
• making bankruptcy more accessible to those who have no alternative by lowering the application fees and in cases where they are in receipt of certain benefits to no application fee:
• the criteria for accessing the Minimal Asset Process bankruptcy has been widened by increasing the maximum debt threshold from £17,000 to £25,000 and excluding student loan debt from that threshold;
• extending the period for trustee’s to seek a contribution order from 6 to 12 weeks after the award of sequestration, and
• improved the efficiency of the processes by allowing more electronic and virtual administration (for example, removing the need for wet signatures and allowing virtual meetings).

Guidance to support the administration of Scotland’s insolvency products is maintained on the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s website and this is regularly reviewed and updated in line with legislative changes. Additionally, updated guidance is provided to professionals within the insolvency sector. This guidance fully reflects the provisions of the two Acts, including the provisions for reporting and review that they contain.

The Scottish Government has committed to undertake a wider review of all statutory debt solutions and this work is underway.

In general, Company Insolvency is reserved to the UK Government and in June they brought forward the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 with the aim of providing businesses with flexibility and breathing space to help them avoid insolvency. A link to the UK Government’s guidance is as follows:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/corporate-insolvency-and-governance-act-2020

Scottish Government have never determined Dyslexia assessments as non-essential. For children, Scottish Governments reopening of schools guidance advises that movement between schools should be kept to a minimum until further notice. This includes attendance at school of those who visit, including dyslexia assessors.

The guidance recognises the importance of holistic support for children and young people and the requirement to meet their needs, and advises that every effort should be made to meet these needs through lower risk methods such as digital or virtual means. It is therefore up to individuals schools to consider the urgency of the assessment and whether it could be undertaken remotely in assessing the risk of a face-to-face assessment.

For adults, current Coronavirus restriction will impact on face to face assessments, however it is at the discretion of the individual private assessors as to whether they offer digital or virtual assessments until face to face assessments can return.

As set out in the Scottish Government’s “Coronavirus (COVID-19): advice for animal owners” ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-for-animal-owners/pages/self-isolating-households/ ), individuals who are self-isolating should ensure that all animals they are responsible for continue to be cared for.

Individuals who are self-isolating should not walk their dog outside. Instead, you should ask someone outside your household to walk your dog for you.

The person who walks your dog should avoid coming into your home, and ensure that dogs are kept on a lead to avoid contact with other people and dogs.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-30816 on 6 August 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 .

In developing the Neurological Framework for Care and Support in Scotland, which was published in December 2019 , we commissioned the NHS Information Services Division to undertake a study of available data to investigate how many people in Scotland are living with different neurological conditions. This study provided a series of prevalence estimates for some but not all conditions; it was not possible to estimate a prevalence for ME/CFS.

We recognise that improved data will enable better understanding of people’s needs; this will also enable more accurate population-level prevalence estimates and other data analysis to inform service planning and development.

That is why one of the Framework’s commitments is to work with NHS Information Services Division and others to ensure a cohesive approach to capturing the needs of people with a neurological condition. We are investing £4.5 million over the next five years to implement the Framework’s 17 commitments.

Following a clinical assessment, personal retail services, including Complementary and Alternative Medicine services (CAMs) and massage therapy, were advised that they could resume services as of 22 July 2020, where the service is carried out in a therapist’s own premises (i.e. not a mobile therapist, who provides treatment in a patient’s home), and the close contact retail guidance has been updated to reflect this.

The Scottish Government are undertaking further clinical assessment of the risk of transmission of COVID-19 for mobile massage and CAM services, and are considering whether further guidance is required for these.

Mobile beauty and massage close contact services performed in customers’ homes are currently not permitted. This is due to concerns regarding the provision of certain services in uncontrolled environments. Beauty and massage services can take place in a business owners’ own premises provided they follow the published guidance. Further guidance is being developed to ensure that mobile close contact services can recommence as soon as it is safe to do so.

It is crucial that carers are supported to undertake their caring role safely. That is why this Government brought forward the Carers Act to enhance and extend the rights of all adult carers and young carers to support across the country.

Local authorities have a duty to identify carers’ needs for support. Carers also have the right to support to meet their eligible needs. This may include needs for training, including on moving and handling.

Local authorities have a separate duty to maintain an information and advice service for carers. These services, normally delivered by carer centres, must provide information and advice on a variety of issues, including training available to carers.

Carers also have a right to be involved in conversations about the support for the person they care for. This means they should be aware of any particular moving and handling needs and decide to what extent they are willing and able to provide that type of care.

Where necessary, input from Allied Health Professionals and other clinical colleagues can be provided to support and guide carers with moving and handling, along with helping them to secure access to the right equipment. These services will provide individual assessments where needed and are part of local mobilisation plans, although they may look different to ensure safe delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ministers and COSLA wrote to Health and Social Care Partnerships on 10 April to ask them to prioritise additional carer support in their local mobilisation plans for responding to the pandemic. This is on top of the extra £11.6 million for carer support in the 2020-21 budget. Partnerships were also asked to include local carer organisations in their local resilience planning.

We are encouraging carers to make plans for the future. Many local carer services provide support for carers on future and emergency planning. As many local carer services are unable to offer face to face support at the moment, we launched a £500,000 fund to support local carer services to operate remotely, over the phone or online.