Chamber and committees

The number of households, and particularly those with children, in temporary accommodation in some local authorities is unacceptably high. I have written to the Housing Conveners of the councils with temporary accommodation increases, requesting an urgent meeting to discuss how we can work together on potential solutions. The first meeting will take place later this week.

I have also asked an expert group, chaired by Shelter Scotland and ALACHO, for an action plan to reduce the numbers of people in temporary accommodation, with a strong focus on households with children. The group’s final report will be published at the end of March and will inform our approach to working with our local government and third sector partners to reduce the use of temporary accommodation.

Our strong homelessness legislation means that homeless households, including those with children, have a right to temporary accommodation. The majority of households in temporary accommodation are living in council or housing association homes.

a) The Rehabilitation and Recovery: A Once for Scotland Person-Centred Approach to Rehabilitation in a Post-COVID Era was published in June 2022 and provides a framework to deliver person-centred, innovative and inclusive rehabilitation to all.

The Once for Scotland approach recommends that all individuals should have access to a person-centred assessment, which will provide a better understanding of their rehabilitation needs.

As this work now moves into an implementation phase, rehabilitation services are encouraged to benchmark themselves against the Six Principles of Good Rehabilitation in order to identify gaps in service provision and opportunity for development and innovation.

b)Through the Heart Disease Action Plan funding call in 2021 we provided funding for the development of a self-management resource for people with Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction.

Delivery of this action is a long term objective of the plan. The National Heart Disease Task Force will consider the prioritisation of work to be undertaken in 2023/24 as part of our ongoing implementation of the commitments within the Heart Disease Action Plan.

The Scottish Government recently awarded Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland and the Research Resuscitation Group (Edinburgh University) funding to deliver a pilot project of telephone support and the development of website information for people who witness an out of hospital cardiac arrest/sudden cardiac death.

There have been two pieces of work carried out in relation to training and education for the wider Healthcare Science professional group of which cardiac physiology is one specialty. The baseline exercise Healthcare science - education and training provision: baseline review - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) has provided an overview of the education and training landscape for Healthcare Science.

The outcomes of this work has informed the context of the scoping review committed to within the National Workforce strategy 2022. Recommendations have been made as to the next steps and once confirmed these will be shared with the wider stakeholder groups.

Under the Heart Disease Task Force oversight, a Short Life Working Group has been supporting the development of a layer of cardiac specific competencies intended to complement the wider Transforming Nursing Roles competencies for Clinical Nurse Specialists.

The Scottish Government is currently working with NHS Education for Scotland to identify a workplan for the next phase of the Transforming Roles Programme. This involves agreeing priority actions and implementing outstanding recommendations from the ‘Transforming Nursing, Midwifery and Health Professions’ Roles: Review of Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner Roles within Scotland’ publication.

At a time of significant system pressure, this priority setting is to be undertaken as part of wider considerations in collaboration with the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors Group in Spring 2023.

In addition, the Allied Health Professional Education and Workforce Policy Review that considered the actions necessary to deliver a national education and workforce plan for AHPs has now been completed. The recommendations will be published early 2023 and an implementation plan will be developed thereafter.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) are invited as a member of the delivery group for the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy 2021 – 2026, as are Scottish Government. This work is overseen by Save a Life for Scotland and is focused on delivery of the aims included within the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy 2021 – 2026.

A follow up report detailing progress on implementation of the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Response to Deaths in Prison Custody was published in December 2022. This is available at: Independent Review of the Response to Deaths in Prison Custody: progress report - follow up .

Gillian Imery was appointed as an external chair to provide strategic leadership and oversight of the implementation in April last year and reported on progress.

The progress report outlined that three recommendations have been implemented and introduced into the system and another recommendation has been partially implemented and introduced into the system. Broken down by theme these are:

• Theme 1: Family contact with the prison and involvement in care

(a) and (b) 1 (recommendation 1.4)

• Theme 2: Policies and processes after a death

(a) and (b) 1, partially implemented (recommendation 2.2)

• Theme 3: Family contact and support following a death

(a) and (b) 1 (recommendation 3.1)

• Theme 4: Support for staff and other people held in prison after a death

(a) and (b) 0

• Theme 5: SPS and NHS documentation concerning a death

(a) and (b) 1 (recommendation 5.4)

The progress report recognises that some of the issues are complex and will take some time to resolve and implement. The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with the other agencies responsible for delivery including the Scottish Prison Service and NHS to continue to develop compassionate and robust processes that meet the needs of those in custody and their families.

A further report on progress will be prepared by Gillian Imery which is expected to be published later this year.

Social Security Scotland does not routinely produce information on couples claiming social security benefits.

Information on the characteristics of applicants, including gender, is published as part of Official Statistics publications on Social Security Scotland client diversity and equalities analysis.

These statistics were most recently published in September 2021 and are available at: https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/reporting/publications/social-security-scotland-client-diversity-and-equalities-analysis-to-may-2021.

There is currently work being undertaken to produce an update to this publication, which will be published by the end of summer 2023. This will cover the period from June 2021 to October 2022.

Details of all Ministerial engagements and expenses are proactively published by the Scottish Government, including the costs of travel and accommodation. The information can be accessed at the below link: https://www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/.