Chamber and committees

Our guidance to local authorities on the administration of the cost of living award, available at Local government finance circulars - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) , sets out that councils have discretion to choose how this support is provided to eligible households in order to ensure delivery in April 2022.

All local authorities have now confirmed that most payments are included as a credit in Council Tax Bills for 2022-23.

( a) The information requested is not held centrally.

(b) The Scottish Government recognises that accurate data on long COVID prevalence and symptoms is needed to forecast and plan for the need for healthcare services arising from long COVID. Public Health Scotland will lead on surveillance of long COVID. It is currently anticipated that this surveillance will be undertaken via the EAVE II study, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh ( About EAVE II | The University of Edinburgh ). Funded by the Medical Research Council, the EAVE II study has used a pseudonymised patient dataset to track the COVID-19 pandemic across Scotland. In a separate project funded by the Chief Scientist Office, the EAVE II dataset will be used to create a tool to identify people at greatest risk of developing long COVID. The findings will in due course provide information about the number of people diagnosed with long COVID and their use of health services, including among residents of care homes.

Providing consistent high quality personalised care for people living in care homes is a key priority for health and care services in Scotland. The Scottish Government is clear that anyone living in a care home who would benefit from access to NHS services should receive it. This includes access to care and support in relation to symptoms caused by long-term effects of COVID-19, where such services are clinically assessed to be in the best interest for their care.

The Scottish Government is currently working with people, families, the care home sector and other stakeholders to develop a framework for adults living in care homes. The Framework will seek to examine how the health and care of people living in care homes should be optimised, supported, and delivered, and to ensure that they receive the right care from health care professions at the right time and have access to the same level of involvement, choice and support for their health and wellbeing as if they were living in their own home. It will also aim to enhance the health of people living within a care home, improving the way we assess, monitor and respond to enduring and changing health and care needs through working with health and care professionals, health and social care partnerships and care home providers.

In addition, we have awarded the Care Inspectorate £95,000 to enable them to build on the learning from the Care About Physical Activity (CAPA) programme. The project will work across cares homes, care at home, housing support and day services for adults, with a focus on engaging people in physical and mental activities and movement in order to positively affect health and wellbeing.

A directors letter (DL) was issued by Chief Nursing Officer on 31 March regarding the de-escalation of enhanced IPC measures as we now observe that harms associated with reduced elective services within NHS Scotland are now outweighing COVID-19 harms. The DL outlined the removal of guidance on physical distancing and car sharing as well as changes to the types of COVID-19 tests that are available for patient use.

NSS ARHAI Scotland are also undertaking a gap analysis across the current Scottish Winter (21/22), Respiratory Infections in Health and Care Settings Addendum and the National Infection, Prevention and Control Manual (NIPCM). This analysis will highlight which COVID-19 specific aspects of the winter respiratory guidance, require to be retained and carried over into the NIPCM. This work is envisaged to be completed in early May.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor the wider physical and mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic through the following initiatives:

? Scottish Health Survey - This survey monitors physical and mental health in the Scottish population. The latest published results are based on the telephone survey conducted in 2020. The results of the 2021 survey will be published in November 2022.

? Scottish COVID-19 Mental Health Tracker Study - This study measured the mental health and wellbeing impacts of the pandemic on Scottish adults. The latest phase, covering Summer 2021, was published on 24 February 2022.

? COVID-19 wider impacts on the healthcare system - This dashboard, published by Public Health Scotland, shows activity trends across areas of the healthcare system including Cardiovascular, Cancer and Mental Health services.

? YouGov online polling - Opinion polling continues on Scottish adults around once a month. Throughout the pandemic questions have been asked regarding concerns about mental health and loneliness.

? COVID-19 burden of disease - The Scottish burden of disease study looks to estimate the overall impact, and inequalities in the impact, of COVID-19 on public health measures.

Public Health Scotland also continue to publish on their website a wide range of research and statistics which will help to monitor areas of physical and mental health as time progresses.

On 11 March we published the National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy.

As part of the strategy, we have committed to taking forward specific actions to improve how we gather, use and assess NHS Workforce data. This includes taking steps to improve the demographic data we collect and the analysis we undertake of data obtained at different geographic levels within our health and social care system.

The strategy further commits us to taking forward complementary actions to improve workforce planning capacity and capability within our health boards and health and social care partnerships (HSCPs).

New guidance has already been communicated to health boards and HSCPs to support the production of demand-led 3-year workforce plans, supported by local systems’ workforce data. Later this year we will also publish new staffing projections for health and social care.

Complementary data systems and data improvement work is taking place, as part of the Implementation Programme being established to support delivery of the Workforce Strategy. We have undertaken to publish annual updates outlining progress with the strategy’s implementation, in support of our tri-partite ambition to achieve long-term workforce sustainability through recovery, growth and service transformation.

Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit continues to be delivered by the UK Government who decide which conditions should be prescribed for the purposes of the benefit. Once the Scottish Government commences delivery of Employment Injury Assistance, it will be able to consider which diseases and occupations should be prescribed for the purposes of entitlement.

The Scottish Government will undertake a public consultation on Employment Injury Assistance well in advance of delivery which will consider a range of issues relating to its delivery and administration.

Individuals who are impacted by long COVID may be entitled to Adult Disability Payment, the Scottish Government replacement for Personal Independence Payment, depending on their individual circumstances.

The Scottish Government's approach to healthcare has for a number years prioritised a preventative approach, recognising the wide range of benefits this can provide. This has been supported by broader initiatives that take a whole-system approach, for example through Scotland's world-leading approach to ill-health prevention policies on reducing smoking and alcohol consumption.

A preventative approach will underpin the National Care Service (NCS), which the Scottish Government is committed to introducing by the end of this Parliament to end the postcode lottery of care provision, ensuring quality, fairness and consistency of provision that meets individuals’ needs, regardless of where they live in Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises that change cannot wait until the NCS is in place, and we have established a number of programmes across the Health and Social Care portfolio which will further embed a preventative approach. The Preventative and Proactive Care programme will help develop preventative healthcare models, and will support the delivery of many of the recommendations made in the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, which highlighted the need for a greater preventative approach. A range of pathfinders are being considered to test potential models in various settings.

The Place and Wellbeing Programme has a primary focus on preventative local action in partnership with communities and how we – as the system – can support that. This will bolster local cross-sector partnerships with evidence, data, intelligence and the right policy context and funding so they can together address the root causes of health inequalities in their area. We are also working to better integrate community-led Third Sector provision of health improvement activity within local health and social delivery across Scotland. This will make it easier for individuals to reach preventative and early intervention support in their community.

A fundamental shift in how the NHS and the NCS contribute to community wealth will widen access to fair work in the sector with accelerated routes into these jobs for those furthest from the job market. Alongside actions to enable partnership working and local leadership, the Scottish Government will support health and social care providers to be active anchor institutions and build wealth in their community. This will mitigate against some of the drivers of poor health and health inequalities, such as unemployment.

The regulations for foods for special medical purposes are one of the categories covered by the foods for specific groups legislation. Retained Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 on Foods for Specific Groups replaced the former Foods for Particular Nutritional Uses approach and begun a new EU phased process to review and update the composition and labelling for each category. As part of this process, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/128 was introduced and has applied to businesses since 2019.

This, now retained Regulation, lays out the compositional, labelling and notification requirements of foods for special medical purposes. These foods are a category of Foods for Specific Groups , specially processed or formulated and intended for the dietary management of patients and to be used under medical supervision.

These foods are intended for the exclusive or partial feeding of patients with a limited, impaired or disturbed capacity to take, digest, absorb, metabolise or excrete ordinary foodstuffs or certain nutrients contained therein or metabolites. They are also intended for use by patients with other medically-determined nutrient requirements, whose dietary management cannot be achieved only by modification of the normal diet, by other foods for particular nutritional uses, or by a combination of the two.

The powers to enforce the requirements in Scotland are contained within The Foods for Specific Groups (Scotland) Regulations 2016 (as amended).

We engage with the UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on a range of issues.

We are not working with DHSC on this particular matter.