Chamber and committees

The way Social Security Scotland delivers disability benefits is fundamentally different to the UK – people are treated with dignity, fairness and respect.

A significant change is that Social Security Scotland will collect information to support someone's application if needed. Under the DWP, people are forced to do this themselves.

To support faster decision making on applications, listening to feedback from clients and third parties, improvements include

• improved wording on the application to help clients understand what supporting information to supply,
• early phone engagement with clients who have submitted applications without supporting information to establish if they have readily available information to allow a decision to be made,
• improved communication with health and social care professionals and introducing a payment to support third sector organisations who provide supporting information at the agency’s request.

The Scottish Government closely monitor excess deaths statistics and work closely with our analytical partners Public Health Scotland (PHS) and National Records of Scotland (NRS) to understand the causes of excess deaths.

NRS are responsible for publishing Scotland’s excess deaths statistics, which includes breakdowns by cause of death.

A British Medical Journal editorial from the four UK Chief Medical Officers acknowledged that the UK, like many other European countries is currently experiencing substantial excess mortality. This editorial highlights the reasons behind this excess mortality are likely to be multifactorial, including persisting direct and indirect effects of COVID-19, surges in flu and respiratory infections, significant pressures on NHS acute services, and reductions in secondary prevention as an inevitable part of the response to COVID-19.

Published figures on the most recent and historical numbers of patients that have been admitted to hospital can be found within the within the Annual Acute Activity publication, which was published on 26 September 2023 by Public Health Scotland. The publication can be found below:

Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (annual) - Annual – year ending 31 March 2023 - Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (annual) - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Published data is only available for a ten year period, from financial year 2013-14 to financial year 2022-23, and is only available at a Scotland level. Data on patient activity is presented in Table 2 – inpatient and day case activity, and the measure of interest can be found by selecting the NHS board of residence in the indicator drop down and either stays, episodes or patients within the measure drop down. Figures where ‘no fixed abode’ will then be listed in the table.

The Scottish Government places great importance on community sports and leisure facilities. They are crucial to the wellbeing of all our country and most importantly, for our children and young people to be healthy and active.

We are fully aware that local authorities are facing challenging financial circumstances, particularly in the maintenance and operating of facilities such as swimming pools, largely due to energy costs and other cost of living pressures. In 2023-24, East Lothian Council will receive £221.5 million to fund local services, which equates to an extra £8.1 million to support vital day to day services or an addition 3.8 per cent compared to 2022-23.

Decisions on future local government finance settlements will be the subject of negotiations with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities and will be announced as part of the outcome of future Scottish Budgets.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

sport scotland are supporting Scottish Swimming to undertake the Scottish Swimming Facilities Project. This is a detailed piece of work to accurately understand the current pool provision and life cycle, and to predict the landscape in the short, medium, and long term. This important piece of work can help inform future investment decisions both nationally and locally to ensure sustainable facilities, in the right places, to serve their local communities’ needs.

Individuals from NHS Scotland Health Boards fulfilling Service Level Agreements continue to be supported and managed under the policy requirements and the terms and conditions of employment of their substantive role. They will also be expected to meet certain requirements of the host organisation, particularly code of conduct and standards of behaviour.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that Scotland’s babies have the best possible start in life. Before birth, midwives, maternity and other professionals can apply the values and principles of ‘Getting it right for every child’ to support parents in considering their wellbeing, and that of their baby.

As part of their booking process, all women are asked a variety of wellbeing questions, including on alcohol consumption, to assess for additional care needs which may assist them, and their families, to prepare for parenthood and facilitate positive maternal health.

All of Scotland’s young families are entitled to the support of a Health Visitor until a child starts school through the Universal Health Visiting Pathway. Where additional input is required, the pathway provides a gateway to other levels of Health Visiting provision and referrals to more specialised healthcare services.

Additionally we have established The Family Nurse Partnership programme which provides intensive, tailored support to eligible first-time mothers aged 19 and under across Scotland. An expansion of this programme will see an additional 500 families supported per year by the end of 2025.

The only precision medicine accepted by the Scottish Medicines Consortium where the companion diagnostic test is not yet offered by NHS Scotland laboratories is Pemigatinib (SMC Number 2399).

We are continuing to work closely with key partners, such as the Scottish Strategic Network for Genomics Medicine (SSNGM), to ensure there is capacity within laboratories for companion diagnostics tests to be offered as soon as practically possible.

There has been one case of disciplinary action taken against a Scottish Government employee as a result of a failure to ensure that records are maintained and disposed of in accordance with its record management principles. The disciplinary action was taken in 2018 and the case was dealt with under the minor misconduct procedures.

The NHSScotland Menopause and Menstrual Health Policy launched on 31 October 2023. Whilst the policy was written specifically for NHS Scotland, the supporting resources, including line managers guidance and workplace adjustment guidance, are intended for use more widely across a variety of employment sectors and are available on the National Wellbeing Hub which is accessible to the public.

With the publication of the Policy and Supporting Documents having recently taken place, work can now commence on promoting the policy more widely amongst employers across all sectors.

The Scottish Government has continued to use its convening power to meet both trade unions and employers to urge continued dialogue and collaboration over a range of workforce issues, including the ongoing pay negotiations. However, the Scottish Government has been absolutely clear that it has no locus to be involved directly in the national bargaining process. This position is in line with the findings of the Lessons Learned report and respects the national collective bargaining framework.