Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has listened to young people and their families about the application process and works closely with delivery partners and local councils to make improvements.

In light of feedback received, the Improvement Service, which manages the online portal getyournec.scot , delivered a number of updates to the website in June 2022 to improve the application process whilst maintaining the integrity of the child safety and identity requirements. These improvements included broadening the range of accepted proof documents, providing additional guidance, and enhancing the functionality of the website by adding a save and return feature so that applications can be made in multiple sittings.

The Year 1 evaluation - Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme | Transport Scotland found that a majority (64%) of survey respondents that had signed up for the scheme indicated that the application process had been either very or fairly easy, and those who had signed up after improvements were made were more likely to find the process easy.

Furthermore, local councils provide a variety of options for applications to be made offline or via parentsportal.scot . Many also have dedicated staff on hand to help those who may need additional support through the application process.

The Scottish Government continues to improve provision of maternity and neonatal services through implementation of The Best Start: A Five Year forward plan for Maternity and Neonatal care in Scotland.

We receive regular reporting from Health Boards stating they have accommodation provisions in place to support and meet the needs of the parents.

With the announcement of the new model of neonatal care the Scottish Government have commissioned RSM UK to provide detailed analysis of the capacity requirements associated with the new model.

We recognise the scale and impact of heart disease across Scotland and have set out our strategic direction to address this in our 2021 Heart Disease Action Plan. This includes actions to ensure that people with suspected heart disease have timely and equitable access to diagnosis, treatment and care.

We are making progress in the delivery of these actions including the development of nationally agreed pathways and ensuring the effective use of data to drive improvements.

We expect Health Boards’ 2024-25 annual delivery plans (due March) to clearly set out how they will increase productivity and reduce waiting times across all inpatient, day-case, outpatient specialities.

The existing "Scottish Government Records Management Health and Social Care Code of Practice (Scotland) 2020 has short section on dealing with health records of those who identify as transgender. This links to guidance from the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, the General Medical Council and NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). It was recognised in 2020 that it was an area under development, and subsequently the Scottish Government's Chief Statistician issued guidance for public bodies on the collection of data on sex and gender (2021). The draft Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care, due out in the spring of 2024 aims to incorporate the Chief Statistician's guidance along with feedback from stakeholders and provide further guidance to NHS Boards.

The Heart Disease Action Plan recognises the need to ensure timely and equitable access to diagnostics, including echocardiography. We remain committed to supporting Boards to target resources to reduce waiting times through service innovation and redesign.

This includes the Centre for Sustainable Delivery's (CfSD) Accelerated National Innovation Adoption Pathway (ANIA) which focuses on using technology to fast-track proven innovations into the healthcare frontline that will improve patient outcomes.

As part of this work, CfSD is currently considering the roll out of innovations that optimise delivery of the heart failure diagnostic pathway, in which access to echocardiography is an important component.

The following table shows the number of homes approved from applications received from (a) registered social landlords (b) local authorities since the National Acquisition Programme was announced on 19 July 2023. This information is to 31 January 2024:

The information requested on what the current vacancy rate is for cardiac physiologists in NHS Scotland is not centrally available.

Information on Healthcare Science staff in post and cardiology consultants, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence .

The total cost for commissioning the Lessons Learned report was £25,000.

The National Recognition and Procedures Agreement (NRPA) is an agreement between Further Education Colleges and trade unions.

While issues around NRPAs are for colleges and trade unions to negotiate and resolve, the Scottish Government, through its Fair Work Agenda, is clear that workers must have effective voice and therefore, expects that they have access to trade union representation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-25100 on 27 February 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .