Chamber and committees

The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) helps to offset the cost of any accommodation required by eligible visitors.

The YPFF terms and conditions direct claimants to access NHS Board visitor accommodation in the first instance. Where this is not available, private accommodation (e.g. hotel) can be booked and the fund’s terms and conditions direct the NHS Board to book on behalf of the claimant where this is possible.

This process helps to ensure that most claimants avoid having to pay large accommodation bills upfront. My officials have not been alerted to an issue with this process, however, I have asked them to write to YPFF administration teams in NHS Boards to remind them of the importance of taking action to reduce unnecessary temporary financial pressures on families.

As part of the next phase of the work Scottish Government have commissioned Consulting firm RSM-UK to undertake detailed modelling work to fully map the capacity requirements across the system to inform further capacity building and implementation of the new model.

In the meantime discussions are underway in the regional forum to prepare and plan for the changes, which will be further informed by the modelling. The Scottish Government has provided funding to the Boards hosting the Neonatal Intensive Care units to build the capacity required in the intensive care units.

As this commitment relates to activity currently underway and due to be completed by the end of this financial year, this data will therefore not be available until after the end of the 2023-24 accounting period. Activity will include participants in NHS Get Started and Get Into programmes as well as Achieve educational events.

The Scottish and UK Governments have committed over £3 billion to the City Region Deals programme and its associated investments. Information on the individual projects funded through the growth deals are outlined in their associated deal agreements.

The external costs associated with the production and publication of the paper ‘Social Security in an independent Scotland’ were published in response to question S6W-23643 on 20 December 2023. 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 .

The Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce, which brings together representatives from a broad range of stakeholders, including the RCN, RCM, and academia, focuses on retention as one of its five key themes. Retention, including the retention of nursing graduates, is currently being assessed with recommended action as indicated by its findings due in the coming year.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who reply in writing within 20 days.

As I noted in my response to a question from Jackie Dunbar MSP on 12 December, the Scottish Government remains committed to introducing Land Reform legislation to further improve transparency of land ownership, help ensure large scale land holdings deliver in the public interest, and empower communities by providing more opportunities to own land and have more say in how land in their area is used.

To allow time for this further consideration and ensure we get the proposals right for introduction, we are planning a slight delay to the introduction of the Bill but it remains a Programme for Government commitment for 2023-24.

We recognise the strain the UK cost crisis is placing on social enterprises. S-Mart have already made contact with Community Enterprise who co-ordinate a crisis recovery service for social enterprises, designed to help organisations get the right support quickly.

The Scottish Government understands the important role that Social Enterprises have to play in delivering our ambition for a Wellbeing Economy, helping to build a greener, fairer and more equal society.

To support the growth of the social enterprise ecosystem in Scotland we launched our Social Enterprise Strategy in 2016. This sets out a wide-ranging, ambitious and long-term programme to develop the potential of Scotland's social enterprise sector.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who reply in writing within 20 days.