Chamber and committees

PSD (Scotland) has implemented the industry-standard ITIL Service Management approach, which includes Problem and Incident Management. Some GP Practices have encountered as lowdown of their usual processes, while they become familiar with using new software. There have also been some issues connected to the IT system, server capacity and rollout .Any issues reported by GP Practices about the software are escalated to the supplier, OneAdvanced, as a priority.

We do not hold this information. OneAdvanced, the supplier of the Vision GPIT system, have recently moved from a legacy service desk system to a different service desk providers of previous records of the numbers of reported issues are unavailable. In May 2026, 22 technical issues were reported to the service desk by GP practices and Health Boards.

There is a significant Business Continuity component to the solution, which was validated as part of the overall system functionality accreditation and validation process in 2022, and then further evaluated as part of each health board area's local mini-competition award process. This includes local training and processes being enacted. The Vision Anywhere product is available to clinicians to provide access to patient records during any down time and an Appointment backup is taken for access in the same circumstances.

As part of an annual update on Primary Care Improvement Plans (PCIP), the Scottish Government (SG) publishes information on workforce numbers for the General Practice Multidisciplinary Team (MDT), which support delivery of the 2018 GP contract. Community Link Workers (CLWs) are a key part of the MDT and detailed information on their workforce numbers can be accessed at: Primary care improvement plans: implementation progress reports - gov.scot. Please see the below table for a breakdown of WTE CLWs in post from 2017 to 2026.

The GP IT Re-provisioning Programme regularly updates senior stakeholders about the status of the programme and migrations to the Vision system. This includes The GP IT Service Management Board, which meets every two months, and has members representing Scottish Government (DHAC and Primary Care), Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), Scottish General Practitioners Committee (SGPC, part of the British Medical Association), Scottish National Users Group (SNUG), as well as health board Chief Execs, Digital Leads, Chief Officers and other health board representatives. These updates include any performance, reliability and interoperability issues and the investigation and fixes being applied.

The Summer of Sport programme is designed to give children and young people opportunities to get active within their local communities through events and activities delivered by schools, clubs, sporting bodies and local authorities. At this stage, no specific portion of the £20 million funding has been earmarked for bowls and local partners are currently finalising their plans for submission to sportscotland at the end of June.

Alongside this, the Scottish Government has committed £1 million to support a live site at Kelvingrove Park during the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, where families will be able to take part in a wide range of free and accessible activities, including opportunities to try sports such as lawn bowls.

Funding has been provided to bowling clubs through the Glasgow 2026 Festival Fund, to create more opportunities for young people to access and take part in bowling. This fund is helping celebrate sport, culture and community in the lead-up to and during the Games.

The Scottish Government recognises the Heriot Watt University report as a valuable contribution to understanding the potential international scale of offshore wind deployment in the North Sea.

Each health board, during their preparation period, implementation, go-live and post migration have been provided with weekly support from the national team and the GP IT supplier, OneAdvanced, providing them with the tools to cascade the implementation process and advice to their GP Practices within a timescale that provides plenty of time for practices to undertake their pre-learning and preparation.

The closure of the Victoria Quay nursery followed the withdrawal of the sole service provider during the contract renewal procurement exercise. The provider indicated that continued operation was not viable, reflecting reduced demand. The decision to close the nursery was not taken by the Scottish Government.

We recognise that the closure of the nursery was difficult for the families affected. To support the transition to closure, the Scottish Government put in place a short-term contract extension to enable parents to secure alternative childcare; and all parents using the VQ nursery, and those on the waiting list, were offered alternative provision by the original provider at a site 2.5 miles away.

No specific assessment of the closure has been undertaken. However, a range of support is available to parents, including flexible working arrangements, flexi-time to support work–life balance, special leave for unexpected emergencies, and carers’ leave for parents of disabled children.

Parents and guardians also have access to our Employee Assistance Service that can provide information and support in relation to childcare or parenting.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with the parent group and, as previously committed, will keep future provision under review based on demand.

Whilst the Scottish Government sets strategic policies and frameworks for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing are the responsibility of the relevant NHS Board. This ensures local recruitment decisions are based on regional and local priorities. NHS Boards are responsible for providing safe, effective and high quality care, in line with their statutory service provision, national standards, providing access to psychological treatments and workforce planning responsibilities.

Clinical psychologists are highly valued as part of wider multi-disciplinary teams in Scotland. They play an important role in supporting people to access psychological therapies (PT) and helping local areas to meet the national waiting times standard for PT.

In September 2023 we published the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions and the Core Standards for Mental Health. These set out the standards to which we expect psychological therapies and mental health services to be delivered, including appropriate staffing.

We recognise the vital role of effective workforce planning in supporting the renewal of our health services, ensuring Scotland has the right number and mix of staff, including clinical psychologists, now and in the future. Work is underway to develop a comprehensive approach that strengthens workforce planning across Scotland, aligned with the ambitions of the Health & Social Care Service Renewal Framework. This work will improve the quality and use of workforce data, enabling us to better understand current capacity, forecast future demand, and respond proactively to the needs of our workforce.

We are committed to working collaboratively with partners across health, social care, education and the third sector, to ensure our workforce planning is robust, evidence-based and sustainable.