Chamber and committees

We are currently in the early stages of establishing a Fair Work Task Force for the creative and cultural sector. The first date will be agreed in due course.

Future funding for the for the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults will be subject to the annual budget process and approval by the Scottish Parliament. We expect to confirm funding as soon as possible thereafter.

The Regional Early Years Speech and Language Leads will work alongside the Regional Improvement Collaboratives and across local services and agencies to encourage the development of a sustainable whole systems approach to improving children’s speech, language and communication outcomes from pre-birth to school entry. They will work together to connect partners, develop and share resources and expertise, and maximise opportunities to support children’s speech, language and communication development.

We are committed to bringing people back into towns and encouraging local footfall as we continue to implement the Town Centre First Principle and deliver the Town Centre Action Plan.

In collaboration with Scotland’s Towns Partnership, we continue to support the Scotland Loves Local programme, which encourages people to think local first, increase footfall in town centres and ultimately support local shops and businesses. This package of support includes the Scotland Loves Local week, highlighting good practice, and continued promotion of the physical and digital Gift Card.

Local Development Plan regulations, which came into force last year, require planning authorities to have regard to any Local Housing Strategy when preparing their plans. This includes their outcomes and actions to address housing need and demand.

National Planning Framework 4 forms part of the statutory development plan and sits alongside Local Development Plans. It contains a general expectation of at least 25% affordable housing provision on development sites, but allows some flexibility to reflect local circumstances. The NPF4 definition of affordable housing explicitly includes ‘housing sold at discount’.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-11669 on 24 October 2017. 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 Scottish Government does not currently directly fund training for physician associates or anaesthesia associates via the Health and Social Care Portfolio. Health Boards may choose to put in place local arrangements for staff to train as an anaesthesia associate through existing UK-based course provision, in line with their local workforce and operational plans.

We are working with NHS Education for Scotland to determine whether, and to what extent, we make investment in additional domestic training provision for medical associate professionals (MAPs), in order to strengthen future workforce supply in a way that is commensurate with our commitment to take a progressive and evidence-based approach to the expansion of MAP roles across NHS Scotland.

The evidence for prehabilitation across several areas of oncological care has grown and demonstrates that a multi-modal tired intervention can lead to better functional outcomes and improve other important outcomes associated with cancer treatment including quality of life.

Focus groups with people affected by cancer, evaluations of prehabilitation activities, and evidence collated by others working with people with lived experience of cancer, also tells us that prehabilitation is welcomed by the Scottish population and provides an opportunity for them to engage in their care.

Up to £1 million was allocated in 2023 for prehabilitation to NHS boards via the Transforming Cancer Care programme. This has been distributed via the Regional Cancer Networks through regionally agreed prioritisation processes.

£80,000 was allocated to Maggie’s in 2023 to embed their pilot of universal prehabilitation at all eight Maggie’s Centres in Scotland, building on our previous investment to develop this programme of £270,000 in 2021.

Cancer remains a national priority for the NHS and Scottish Government which is why we published a ten year strategy in June 2023, focused on improving cancer survival and providing equitable access to treatment. The strategy and plan take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways in cancer from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care.

The evidence base for prehabilitation specifically for each of the less survivable cancers is currently limited. Work is underway to improve this, particularly with respect to upper gastrointestinal and lung cancers. Learnings from the prehabilitation currently being delivered under the Transforming Cancer Care Programme in association with our findings from the Single Point of Contact and Improving the Cancer Journey initiatives will provide opportunities to target areas of deprivation with early interventions. As such, efforts are being made to exploit these opportunities and progress screening, assessment and timely prehabilitation interventions across Scotland.