Chamber and committees

Article 26 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ( Article 26 – Habilitation and rehabilitation | United Nations Enable ) sets out several obligations relating to habilitation and rehabilitation.

These obligations have the stated aim of enabling “persons with disabilities to attain and maintain maximum independence, full physical, mental, social and vocational ability, and full inclusion and participation in all aspects of life”, through timely access to “multidisciplinary assessment of individual needs and strengths” to “support participation and inclusion in the community and all aspects of society.”

The Scottish Government are committed to ensuring that people who have had a stroke receive the best possible care as quickly as possible. We know that early assessment of rehabilitation need following an acute stroke, and the delivery of rehabilitation by a multi-disciplinary team, are important elements of improving outcomes and these are priorities within the Scottish Stroke Improvement Plan (2014).

Through the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme (SSIP), NHS boards are required to demonstrate their provision of access to acute therapy assessment, access to inpatient stroke therapy, access to community stroke therapy and the availability, by days per week, of community therapy input.

Article 26 also requires the provision of appropriate training for professionals working within habilitation and rehabilitation, as well as the “availability, knowledge and use of assistive devices and technologies, designed for persons with disabilities”.

Through SSIP reviews, NHS boards are also required to demonstrate that health and social care staff in hospital and community settings are trained to a level appropriate for their involvement in stroke care. Where appropriate, highly-trained specialist staff involved in the rehabilitation process are best placed to advise on the provision of assistive devices and technology that may be of benefit to people affected by stroke.

The most recent Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme annual national report ( Scottish stroke improvement programme 2021 national report - Scottish stroke improvement programme - Publications - Public Health Scotland ), which includes data from the Scottish Stroke Care Audit (SSCA), was published on 29 June 2021.

This annual report reflected the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the provision of stroke services, as well as the incredible work that NHS Scotland staff in stroke services continued to deliver in unprecedented circumstances.

This report shows us the high level of care provided for stroke patients throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. It is positive that, despite the pandemic, performance improved in a number of key areas.

We remain focused on ensuring that people who have had a stroke receive the best possible care as quickly as possible to enable them to live longer, healthier and independent lives.

As committed to in the Genome UK: shared commitments for UK-wide implementation 2022 to 2025 document, the Scottish Government is committed to developing and publishing a Scotland specific Genome UK implementation plan by the end of 2022.

The requested information on retirement numbers is not centrally held. NHS Education for Scotland publishes annual data on joiners/leavers, but this information is not available by reason for leaving or destination.

Information on joiners/leavers by staff group for each financial year can be found (turnover tab) here: https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/data-and-reports/official-workforce-statistics/all-official-statistics-publications/01-march-2022-workforce/dashboards/nhsscotland-workforce/?pageid=6429

Health Boards are responsible for conducting pre-retirement interviews and no data is held on this centrally. The Scottish Government would expect Boards to ensure that managers engage with staff at all points within their career as a matter of good practice, including prior to retirement to discuss staff experience and career journeys.

The Scottish Government's 'Supporting the work-life balance' PIN Policy contains provisions for supporting staff approaching retirement, including the opportunity to attend a pre-retirement course where they will have access to a wide range of information to support their retirement planning: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/corporate-report/2015/07/supporting-worklife-balance-partnership-information-network-policies/documents/supporting-work-life-balance-pin-policy-july-2015/supporting-work-life-balance-pin-policy-july-2015/govscot%3Adocument/00481986.pdf

Following receipt of the Royal College of Nursing's recent 'Nursing Workforce in Scotland' report, I was fortunate to attend a roundtable event on 30 March, hosted by the RCN, to hear directly from nurses on their priorities and concerns. These discussions will inform work with Health Boards to explore what more can be done to ensure even greater workforce flexibility.

This is a matter for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Highland. The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government allocated £5 million in the financial year 2020-21 to support the wellbeing of people working in health, social care and social work. This money was allocated to the following services;

• Coaching for Wellbeing
• Digital Resources
• Formal Psychological Interventions
• Workforce Specialist Service

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) publish the number of ‘Funded Places’ and ‘Students Eligible for Funding’ in the Official Statistics release “Students Eligible for Funding” here:

https://www.sfc.ac.uk/publications-statistics/statistical-publications/2021/SFCST042021.aspx

with historic publications available here:

https://www.sfc.ac.uk/publications-statistics/statistical-publications/statistics-schedule/statistical-publication-schedule.aspx

No split by domicile for ‘funded places’ is available.

Following the pandemic and the move to a publicly owned ScotRail we are committed to encouraging people to return to our railway. We now have the opportunity to ensure that passenger services reflect changing passenger needs and travel behaviours whilst restoring the financial sustainability of rail services in Scotland.

On 9 May, I launched ScotRail’s 50 per cent off peak ticket offer. This fares offer, funded by the Scottish Government, is the latest ‘Yours to Use’ initiative and is focused on welcoming customers back to rail as the country continues to recover from the pandemic.

The 50 per cent off tickets can be purchased in the following ways:

• Online at scotrail.co.uk/sale
• By phone on 0344 811 0153
• Via the ScotRail app, using the promo code SRSALE in the railcards/promotions field

Earlier this year, I announced that our National Rail Conversation will offer rail staff, passengers and communities an opportunity to contribute to the future Vision of Scotland’s Railway. This will help us to fully understand what the people of Scotland want and need when it comes to choosing rail as their mode of choice.

The Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme Lead, who conducts the annual review process, meets with NHS boards on behalf of Scottish Government. This engagement allows us to understand the provision of stroke services, including training and staff capacity across NHS boards, and where challenges or opportunities for sharing good practice exist.

Scottish Government representatives also sit on the National Advisory Committee for Stroke (NACS), where specialists from NHS boards across Scotland provide expert advice and recommendations relating to Scottish Government policy for the provision of stroke care. NACS has recently developed the Progressive Stroke Pathway ( Strokes: progressive stroke pathway - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ), which was published on 22 March 2022. This document sets out an ambitious vision of what a progressive stroke service in Scotland should look like.

The rehabilitation sub-group of NACS, which is made up of specialists across a range of disciplines from various NHS boards in Scotland, played an important role in helping to shape the Progressive Stroke Pathway recommendations relating to stroke rehabilitation services. On the back of this input, the Progressive Stroke Pathway makes a number of recommendations relating to the provision of stroke care, and the contributions of appropriate training and staff capacity in helping deliver this.

We will continue to engage regularly with these specialists from across Scottish NHS boards as we move into the implementation phase, considering the recommendations made in the Progressive Stroke Pathway.

The Scottish Government has committed £6.2 million to genomics for the financial year 2022-23. This is in addition to the funding allocated to the 4 genetic laboratories in Scotland by NHS Boards through NHS National Services Division (NSD) commissioning arrangements.

The Scottish Government fully recognises the role of genomics in improving patient outcomes. We have provided funding to NSD to establish a Transformation Team led by a Lead Clinical Scientist alongside resource that specialises in transformative programme management and Data Analytics. The Team will be operational from June 2022.

This team will be responsible for delivering the rapid adoption of a number of genetic tests for cancer across the genetic laboratories as well as developing an action plan for the implementation of the recommendations from the Genetic Laboratory Major Service Review.

The transformation team will work within NSD and support the Scottish Government to develop our long term plans for genomics medicine in Scotland.