Chamber and committees

The recent Programme for Government and draft Budget set out a range of significant measures to support growth in the economy. These measures, including a 64% increase of £270 million in the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work budget as part of a total investment of £2.4 billion in enterprise and skills, will unlock innovation, drive increased productivity and, just as importantly, tackle inequality.

In 2018-19 NHS Grampian will receive a baseline funding uplift of £18.5 million, and a share of the £175 million increase in funding for reform, which includes a £17m increase for Mental Health and CAMHS services. NHS Grampian is also benefiting from a share of the £150 million investment in mental services which we are making over a five year period.

We expect all Health Boards, including NHS Grampian, to meet and maintain national performance targets and standards from the resources provided. The Scottish Government remain determined to hit our target of 90% of people seen within 18 weeks from referral to treatment for Psychological Therapies. We will continue to work with Boards to make sure that happens right across Scotland.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission is responsible for producing independent economic and fiscal forecasts to inform the Scottish Budget.

The SFC’s forecasts are informed by judgements on overall macroeconomic conditions across the Scottish and UK economy. The SFC’s recently published forecast highlights Brexit as one of the downside risks facing the Scottish economy across the forecast period alongside generally tightening fiscal policy from the UK Government, and the contractionary direction of monetary policy.

The NRAC formula reflects the most objective measure of funding equity we have developed. The formula is kept under continuous review by experts to ensure it remains a robust and equitable method of allocating health service funding.

NHS Grampian was 3.7% behind its target funding allocation when the NRAC formula was introduced in 2009-10. The Scottish Government has invested significantly in supporting the Boards that are behind parity and, since 2015-16, NHS Grampian has received additional funding of £47 million for the specific purpose of accelerating NRAC parity, and will receive a further £5 million in 2018-19 to support a further move towards parity.

As with all NHS Boards, we are continuing to work with NHS Grampian to ensure public money is being used effectively to deliver better services, better care and better value. NHS Grampian has received a £4.9 million share of the £50 million made available in May 2017 to improve waiting times performance for all parts of the patient journey. This is supported by the Access Collaborative which brings together clinicians, staff and patients to help reduce planned waiting times by improving communications between community and hospital staff to identify the right treatments, and streamline patient care.

Grampian will also receive a share of the £8.4 million announced on 11 December. This additional investment will enhance resilience ahead of the busy Christmas and New Year period.

We expect all Health Boards, including NHS Grampian, to meet and maintain national performance targets and standards from the resources provided.

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Latest published figures for psychological therapies waiting times across Scotland indicate that the average waiting time was 7 weeks compared with 13 weeks in NHS Grampian. While the average wait in NHS Grampian is higher than the national average this is still within the 18 waiting times standard. Where patients are waiting longer these are typically complex cases requiring multi-agency interventions. We want to reach a position where people receive the appropriate support and treatment according to their clinical need and in line with clinical good practice.

While the regulatory fiscal and legislative process in respect of the industry are reserved to Westminster and UK Ministers, a recognition of the industry’s importance to our energy mix and economy, The Scottish Government has strongly supported the sector during the recent period of challenging prices and the associated downturn in exploration and development work this has caused. Through the Energy Jobs Task Force we have developed a number of interventions to support the sector, augmenting the pre-existing work of the oil and gas team within Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. These interventions include support for workers, in the form of the Transition Training Fund, and we have provided a further £12.5 million to support innovation and business resilience; this specific support is available to business operating in the oil and gas sector across Scotland, including the North East. This included £10 million of SE funding to help firms take forward vital research & development to support innovation and improved productivity. To date around 111 innovation projects with a total project value of around £43 million have benefited from increased funding of around £16 million of SG support so far; we have also provided targeted support for business resilience reviews from industry experts, with over £2.5 million investment committed to this at the time of writing.

In addition, the Scottish Government and the UK Government have committed to investing on a 50:50 basis to support the development of an £180 million Oil & Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) through the £250 million Aberdeen City Region Deal. This is now underway and is making great progress on a path to become a new, world class centre to support innovation of the oil and gas industry in the North East, the rest of Scotland and across the whole of the UK.

The Autumn Budget included a commitment to make transferable tax histories available for North Sea Assets from November 2018 to facilitate the transfer of late life asset transfers, expanding access to decommissioning tax relief to new entrants. The Scottish Government has led the call for all UKCS fiscal reforms in recent years, including on this measure given that essential reforms have often lagged and delayed investment in the sector. While the transfer of tax histories is a positive step, we have been calling for this since the Autumn Statement 2015 and we remain of the view that Loan Guarantees commitments need to be fulfilled.

As I announced on 14 December, the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2018-19 protects local government day to day spending for local services in cash terms, and delivers an increase in capital spending of £89.9m.

Taken together with the additional spending power that comes with the flexibility to increase Council Tax by up to 3 per cent (worth around £77 million) this means that the total funding available next year will deliver an increase in the overall resources to support services of 1.6 per cent in cash terms and a real terms increase of 0.2 per cent.

The Scottish Government sets national direction of policy on mental health and provides funding to agencies, including NHS boards and local authorities, to support implementation of policy.

The management of local actions in implementing national policy, and decisions on local spending priorities are the responsibility of relevant local agencies. It is therefore the responsibility of NHS boards, local authorities and Integration Authorities to work with their partners and regularly review spending decisions to ensure they deliver fit for purpose services which respond to the needs of their local population, including for people living with an eating disorder.

Scottish Government actions to improve the mental health and wellbeing of Scotland’s population are set out in the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027. Delivery of these actions will impact positively either directly or indirectly on the care and treatment of those living with an eating disorder.

In the current Strategy we are committed to developing a digital tool to ensure young people with an eating disorder are able to access support in a way that reflects digital lifestyles. We are also committed to a number of actions around prevention and early intervention and improving access to treatment and joined up accessible services. For example we are working with partners to improve access to child and adolescent mental health services; to improve access to psychological therapies as an evidence based treatment for eating disorder and other mental health conditions; and to improve responses for those in distress.

The psychological therapies waiting times standard was introduced in 2014 as an improvement target and we have seen significant progress since then with much more robust and transparent data. The continued and substantial increase in demand for services clearly shows that in the past there were far too many people who were unseen, and whose need was unmet. As the capacity and provision of services have increased we are have seen more people accessing treatment each quarter and this should be welcomed.

In order to meet the target, Boards will need to have in place services that meet the full range of people’s needs, including lower-intensity interventions that can prevent people needing to access higher intensity treatments such as psychological therapies. It will also require all areas of mental health services to be working effectively together. We remain determined that we will hit our 90 per cent target and we will continue to work with Boards to make sure that happens right across Scotland.