Chamber and committees

A report recently published by Public Health Scotland provides details of the most recent statistics for the bowel screening programme, which includes the uptake differences between areas of different socioeconomic status. The overall uptake continues to exceed the HIS standard of 60% of the eligible population, but there continue to be inequalities in the return rates for bowel screening kits, including between the least and most deprived communities in Scotland.

Since 2017, the Scottish Government has provided £1 million funding annually to address screening inequalities, part of which has been distributed to NHS Boards to fund initiatives catering to their specific populations.

The funding is also used for national initiatives, such as the development of the Screening Intelligence Platform (ScIP), which aims to simplify the process of gathering and analysing all screening data. This will allow greater insight into screening inequalities across a range of characteristics, including socioeconomic status, and supporting efforts to increase screening uptake across all groups.

In addition, the Equity in Screening Strategy was published last year. This set out a vision for equitable access across the full screening pathway, including in the bowel screening programme. It is accompanied by the implementation of an Equity in Screening Network that allows those who work across screening to share evidence, best practice and learning around screening inequalities. This will enable NHS Boards to consider proven interventions to address inequalities in uptake, and therefore increase participation in the bowel screening programme.

We have invested over £2m within this parliamentary term to deliver the Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery which looks to reduce the impact of chronic pain, including fibromyalgia, on quality of life and wellbeing and improve information, care and services for people in Scotland.

In 2022-23, as part of Section 10 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, the Scottish Government provided grant funding of £7,920 to Pain Concern and Flippin’ Pain to host an online awareness raising event for people in Scotland living with fibromyalgia. The event was also open to healthcare staff.

Officials intend to present a paper to the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors (SEND) outlining the results of the information gathering exercise, with a view to providing an update on the outcomes of the group's consideration of the paper by the summer.

Parents/guardians who make the choice to home educate take on full responsibility for providing a suitable and efficient education for their child(ren) in place of the local education authority.

Scottish Ministers encourage local authorities and parents to work together to develop a positive relationship that functions in the best educational interests of the child. As set out in the Scottish Government home education guidance , local authorities are encouraged to take a reasonable approach and make available any resources or support that they can offer. Responsibility for the provision of home education rests with the parent/guardian of the child, however a local authority may be able to provide support at their discretion.

The Scottish Government encourages parents/guardians to refer to the Scottish Government home education guidance and liaise with their local authority to find out what support may be available to them.

I can confirm that the Care Inspectorate made a pay award offer for financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25 during week commencing 19 February 2024. There has been some variation in the timing of pay award offers due to differing governance processes and arrangements across Non-Departmental Public Bodies and Scottish Government departments.

Clinical outcomes are reported monthly and any clinical mental health incidents reported to NHS 24, through any feedback channel, will receive a full investigation and clinical review.

There is around 484,000 hectares of Common Grazing land in Scotland that is registered in claims and applications with Rural Payments and Services. Of this, there are an estimated 286,000 hectares of peatland (50cm depth), or around 60% of the total land area. Around two-thirds of this peatland is in a degraded state. The Scottish Government’s Crofting Bill Team and stakeholder group are considering a number of proposals that will make it easier for crofters to use their common grazings for other purposes than agriculture, such as peatland restoration.

The Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Scottish Enterprise (SE) have approved up to £24.5m in grant funding to the Sumitomo Electric UK Ltd high voltage cable manufacturing project. This comprises £19.37m in Scottish Government funding, £4.6m from HIE and £0.53m from SE.

The project will create around 330 jobs and bring £350 million inward investment to Scotland. This major investment in the Highlands will support the delivery of the First Minister’s flagship commitment of up to £500 million over five years to anchor our offshore wind supply chain and create good, green jobs.

The grant support was essential to progressing this significant investment into our renewable energy future. As a global player in the offshore cable market, Sumitomo’s decision to invest in Scotland required support to ensure that the case for the creation a new facility in Scotland could be considered competitively alongside alternative locations across the globe. Sumitomo’s Scottish Highlands investment is their first in Europe, and an indicator of the attractiveness of Scotland as a place to do business in what is a globally competitive market.

All frontline staff have monthly call reviews and one-to-one meetings with their line manager, real time clinical supervision and coaching with debrief sessions at the end of each shift. This is in addition to mandatory e-learning and personal development plans.

I understand that there has been reported concerns regarding the pay deal offer from the Care Inspectorate. I can confirm that the Care Inspectorate made a pay award offer for financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25 during week commencing 19 February 2024. The Care Inspectorate’s recognised trade unions agreed to ballot their members on this offer.

The results of the trade union ballots are expected in the second week of March. Should the offer be accepted, the Care Inspectorate intends to pay their staff the first element of the 2023-24 award in their March 2024 salaries.