Chamber and committees

The Neonatal Expenses Fund (NEF) ran from April 2018 to July 2021. The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) was launched on 26 July 2021 and the new fund subsumed the NEF to create a single unified fund.

Part (a) With regard to the budget to date for NEF/YPFF I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18481 on 14 June 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

Part (b)

The decision to remove shared cabins was taken solely by NorthLink following their risk assessments. The Scottish Government notes concerns about the impact of the removal of shared cabins on the National Concessionary Travel Scheme entitlement and this is being reviewed as part of the Fair Fares Review and Islands Connectivity Plan.

The first phase of Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) has run since September 2015, and is coming to an end on 29 September 2023. The second phase of the scheme will launch on 02 October 2023, and will run initially for 5 years, with an option for it to run for 7 years. Warmer Homes Scotland is a demand-led scheme which aims to support people in or at risk of fuel poverty through the transition to zero emissions heat, improve their energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions from heating. Reaching EPC band C is not a specific objective of either the original or new phase of the scheme, and therefore no target for this has been set.

The following table outlines the number of households who have received measures through Warmer Homes Scotland between September 2015 and 31 July 2023 in each constituency that have reached EPC band C and the average SAP point increase after receiving measures through Warmer Homes Scotland. The data is at constituency level as data at parliamentary region level is not collected.

The Scottish Government has not routinely published expenditure for The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) as Health Boards have, up to now, been developing mechanisms to ensure the recording of full and accurate YPFF data.

We are continuing to work with NHS Boards to ensure the comprehensive recording of data and we will aim to publish YPFF data routinely following the conclusion of that work.

The Scottish Government has no plans to review the Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) in light of the plans to reduce the number of level 3 neonatal units in Scotland. The cost of visiting a child or young person in hospital should not be a barrier for families which is why parents/carers and siblings (under 18) can claim under YPFF, regardless which neonatal unit their baby is being cared for in. The fund helps to offset the cost of: travelling to and from hospital during a child or young person’s inpatient stay; the subsistence required to allow claimants to spend time at the hospital; and any accommodation required by eligible visitors. There are no restrictions on the number of claims an eligible visitor can make.

SG does not currently hold central information of individual grants at the locality level. Most grants are provided to organisations for specific policy aims and those grants are managed by various specific policy areas within SG. To ensure fair and transparent application processes, these funds are advertised as appropriate on the Gov.scot website or other specific sites to ensure stakeholders and key specific groups are targeted for applications. Although it won’t cover all grants in the locality requested, Scottish Enterprise may be able to provide more information on specific enterprise grants in the area, I have instructed my officials to reach out to Scottish Enterprise to provide you with the information you have requested.

In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, Scottish Funding Council (SFC) publications including those reporting on college withdrawals, undergo systematic and periodic reviews on the strengths and limitations of the data.

As an example of the continuing work in this area, the SFC has initiated collection of students’ reasons for withdrawal from colleges. Experimental data has previously been collected, and SFC will be working with Colleges Scotland and College Development Network to improve the capture of student withdrawal data for publication in future years.

The SFC is also progressing an internal review of the definitions of college student outcomes metrics, to ensure that they provide the most appropriate measures of success for students.

The Social Housing Net Zero Heat fund has awarded grant for the retrofit of 11,662 homes since its creation in August 2020 and March 31st 2023. The breakdown across financial years and by local authority can be found in the following table:

The project to introduce a pilot National Dashcam Safety Portal in Scotland is in the initial business case stage, with Police Scotland currently looking at the internal processing, handling and storage of digital images and how that best fits with current and projected processes. The initial implementation date for the project pilot was indicated as January 2023, however, Police Scotland has now stated that they are reviewing the project’s timings as part of their wider planning for 2023-24 and beyond.

My officials remain in discussion with Police Scotland on this matter and will meet with them again later in August as we look to progress this important road safety initiative.

Evidence shows that the very smallest and sickest babies, including those born extremely premature (below 27 weeks), do best when they are cared for in larger specialist neonatal units which look after a lot of these babies, and have the right staff and services available on site to give them the very best care. The Best Start report recommended that we move to three of these units in Scotland, to meet the needs of our population, and neonatal experts then went through a rigorous process to decide on the three NICUs of the ERI in Edinburgh, the RHC in Glasgow, and the Aberdeen Maternity Hospital.

The Best Start emphasises parents as key partners in caring for their baby and aims to keep mothers and babies, and families together as much as possible in the crucial early weeks, with services designed around them. We have a number of measures already in place to support families with babies in neonatal care:

• Providing accommodation for parents to stay on or near neonatal units and facilities within the unit to encourage kangaroo skin to skin care and early support for breastfeeding;
• Roll out of the Young Patients Family Fund (formerly the Neonatal Expenses Fund) to support all families with the costs of travel, accommodation and food whilst their baby is in neonatal care; and
• Repatriating babies to their local neonatal units as soon as clinically possible

As part of the next phase, Scottish Government will be consulting with families in the affected areas on implementation of the proposals, so that we can take account of their concerns when the pathways and processes for the new model of care are designed.

This will affect a very small number of families however it is important that we hear the voices of those families to input into design of service delivery.