Chamber and committees

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) Medicines Collaborative was hibernated in 2020. Since then, the following elements have restarted:

• Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAID) Safer Care Bundle
• NSAID Communication Care Bundle
• Medicines Sick Day Rule Cards
• High Risk Medicines Framework
• High Risk Medicines Discussion Framework

Two elements which have ceased are:

• Omitted medicines, which has moved to the Excellence in Care team
• Reducing Medicines Harm Across Transitions

Medicines safety continues to be a priority across Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) and their current focus is on supporting the implementation of primary care pharmacotherapy services. This includes quality improvement work to ensure safe and timely access to medicines using resources from the acute prescribing and serial prescriptions toolkits. These toolkits have been developed in collaboration with primary care teams to ensure people have safe and timely access to medicines including regular, person-centred medication reviews. HIS also provides hands on implementation support to teams who can apply to join a seven week sprint programme. During this programme teams are supported to understand their local system and implement the tools and resources within the pharmacotherapy toolkits.

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) has developed a number of tools and resources to improve medicines safety. One area of focus has been on developing resources around the use of high risk medicines, and within high risk situations. The high risk medicines framework and discussion tool has been reviewed by the clinical team supporting Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to ensure they remain up to date and beneficial. There are also some more in-depth evaluations and updates of specific resources. The sick day rule cards are being updated in collaboration with the Quality Prescribing and Therapeutics Division of the Scottish Government and will be included in polypharmacy guidance, and HIS has commissioned the University of Strathclyde to complete a national evaluation of the Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAID) safety bundles. This evaluation will be completed in the coming months and a report will be issued outlining the findings.

A programme of stakeholder engagement has taken place to develop our strategic approach to workforce planning for mental health and wellbeing. Our strategic approach, which will align with the Health and Social Care: National Workforce Strategy published March 2022, will be included within the forthcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

We continue to work closely with stakeholders to develop the Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan which will accompany the Strategy's delivery plan, with the intention of publishing in Autumn 2023.

The Scottish Government has provided funding of £2m since December 2020 to a number of third sector organisations to pilot Autism Post Diagnostic Support Schemes. The pilots and associated funding were extended to March 2023. We are currently working to develop a permanent Autism Post Diagnostic Support scheme, which will be informed by the pilot, and will confirm arrangements soon.

We are keeping stakeholders up to date with progress.

Following a meeting with Ministers on 14 March 2023 the Scottish Government is in regular contact with Hospice UK and the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group, as representative organisations, on the issues discussed at that meeting, including the financial challenges facing hospice.

The Scottish Government remains committed to removing non-residential charges for social care within the lifetime of this Parliament.

Social Security Scotland is committed to building a trauma-informed workforce. All client facing staff undertake a 6 week “Routeway” training course featuring specific sessions on Trauma Informed Practice and on Mental Health and Supporting Vulnerable People.

Social Security Scotland has been designed with the people who use it to ensure that processes are clear and inclusive and that it delivers support to people with dignity, fairness and respect. 94% of people who took part in the latest annual client survey said they were treated with kindness.

Social Security Scotland have signed the Scottish Government’s Leadership Pledge of Support for trauma-informed practice and are fully committed to building an awareness and understanding of the impact of trauma into their work. This includes understanding when trauma might create barriers for people.

The forthcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and accompanying Delivery Plan will be evidence-based, informed by lived experience, and underpinned by equality and human rights. The Strategy, and actions contained in the Delivery Plan, will be based on ten core principles, one of which is 'trauma responsive and informed'.

The Register is a significant transparency measure that will shed light on who makes decisions about Scotland’s land. It has been live since 1 April 2022 and there is no charge to make a submission to the Register. For some, there may be a resource cost for the time taken to gather the information they require as part of their preparation prior to making a submission. The greater the number of properties owned, the greater the effort required is likely to be.

The Church of Scotland are one of the largest owners by volume of property titles held. This makes it important for the integrity of the Register that they comply with the RCI.

On 16 March 2023 the Scottish Parliament unanimously supported a 12-month extension to the transitional period to 1 April 2024 before offence provisions take effect. This is easing the burden by allowing those in scope to spread it over the coming year.

In letters of 16 February 2023 and 27 March 2023, the Scottish Government offered the Church of Scotland the option of another meeting with Registers of Scotland and Scottish Government officials to discuss how they can work together to help achieve compliance. The Scottish Government has not yet received a response to that offer, however officials will be in touch with the Church of Scotland to follow up on this.

The Scottish Government and Registers of Scotland are working together to deliver an additional engagement plan to help support stakeholders through the registration process. This will include additional awareness raising and a review of the existing guidance. It will not include further legislative intervention or legal advice.

The Scottish Government chair and provide secretariat support to the Eskdalemuir Working Group (EWG). This group was originally formed in 2012 and commissioned seismic study work that was co-funded by the Scottish Government, UK Government and Ministry of Defence to a total sum of £257,744.11 (exclusive of VAT). The Scottish Government’s share of this work was £50,137.00 (exclusive of VAT).

Following re-formation of the group in 2018, the Scottish and UK Governments and Ministry of Defence have been working constructively together through the Eskdalemuir Working Group. Scottish Government has commissioned a series of technical studies over the course of 2020 to 2022, on behalf of the working group, in order to provide updated wind turbine data that can be used in the noise budget allocation calculation.

This work was conducted over a series of five phases, with the total sum of work to date coming to £462,851.60 (exclusive of VAT). Of this amount, Scottish Government have paid £171,184.94 (exclusive of VAT). The results of these studies are publicly available and are hosted on the Scottish Renewables website.

The Eskdalemuir Working Group has recently gone through a second re-formation, with membership being refined to ensure resource pressures are minimised and constructive discussion on this issue can take place.

The Scottish Government remains committed to finding an enduring solution that ensures safeguarding of the Eskdalemuir Seismic Array and maximisation of onshore wind deployment in the surrounding area and therefore allocates appropriate resource to the Eskdalemuir Working Group to ensure effective engagement can continue.