Chamber and committees

Providing consistent high quality personalised care for people living in care homes is a key priority for health and care services in Scotland. The Scottish Government is clear that anyone living in a care home who would benefit from access to NHS services should receive it. This includes access to care and support in relation to symptoms caused by long-term effects of COVID-19, where such services are clinically assessed to be in the best interest for their care.

The Scottish Government is currently working with people, families, the care home sector and other stakeholders to develop a framework for adults living in care homes. The Framework will seek to examine how the health and care of people living in care homes should be optimised, supported, and delivered, and to ensure that they receive the right care from health care professions at the right time and have access to the same level of involvement, choice and support for their health and wellbeing as if they were living in their own home. It will also aim to enhance the health of people living within a care home, improving the way we assess, monitor and respond to enduring and changing health and care needs through working with health and care professionals, health and social care partnerships and care home providers.

In addition, we have awarded the Care Inspectorate £95,000 to enable them to build on the learning from the Care About Physical Activity (CAPA) programme. The project will work across cares homes, care at home, housing support and day services for adults, with a focus on engaging people in physical and mental activities and movement in order to positively affect health and wellbeing.

A directors letter (DL) was issued by Chief Nursing Officer on 31 March regarding the de-escalation of enhanced IPC measures as we now observe that harms associated with reduced elective services within NHS Scotland are now outweighing COVID-19 harms. The DL outlined the removal of guidance on physical distancing and car sharing as well as changes to the types of COVID-19 tests that are available for patient use.

NSS ARHAI Scotland are also undertaking a gap analysis across the current Scottish Winter (21/22), Respiratory Infections in Health and Care Settings Addendum and the National Infection, Prevention and Control Manual (NIPCM). This analysis will highlight which COVID-19 specific aspects of the winter respiratory guidance, require to be retained and carried over into the NIPCM. This work is envisaged to be completed in early May.

The Model Retirement policy (included within the Supporting the Work-Life Balance PIN policy 2015 ) asks that all NHS Scotland Boards arrange an individual interview with a member of staff 9 months before a proposed date of retiral in order that a ‘Retiral Plan’ may be drawn up. Each circumstance is different, however, this would provide an opportunity to discuss retaining staff where possible.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-05524 on  24 January 2022 and S6W-07942 on 29 April 2022. 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 eligibility criteria for new COVID-19 treatments were developed by an independent expert working group commissioned by the UK Department of Health and Social Care, based on detailed clinical evidence. The criteria are set out in a UK-wide clinical commissioning policy . The policy targets those higher risk individuals who have the potential to both be least likely to generate a material immune response to vaccines and be at highest risk of disease progression, hospitalisation and death.

The UK Department of Health and Social Care has recently established an expert panel to provide advice to the UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) on which patient cohorts should be eligible for access to COVID-19 treatments, including whether changes should be made to which patient cohorts are currently eligible for direct access to antivirals to reduce the risk of hospitalisation. More information about the Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel, including how to submit an enquiry to the panel can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/covid-19-therapeutics-clinical-review-panel

General information on the arrangements for direct access to COVID-19 treatments in Scotland can be found on NHS Inform .

The Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards were published on 31 May 2021, and the Scottish Government made a commitment that Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) will embed the standards by April 2022.

Work to embed the MAT standards by local services and Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) is a crucial and significant undertaking. To support progress, we are providing multi-year funding to HSCPs specifically for the standards and have set up a MAT support team, based within Public Health Scotland to lead this work.

I have committed to update Parliament on the progress of MAT standards on a six monthly basis and will be returning to Parliament in June to provide an update on progress on embedding the standards.

Local progress from each HSCP area is currently being evaluated and a report will be published in June to coincide with the update to Parliament. This report will be a collation of process, data and lived experience evaluation. This will be followed in short order during the summer with a report providing more detail of work undertaken in each area.

April 2022 is not the end of line for the standards and what happens post April is as equally important. From now and over the life of the National Mission, work will continue on the standards to make sure they are not only embedded, but are improving and are sustainable.

I know that many rural households, living in off gas grid areas and reliant on heating oil, are likely to be facing difficulties as the price of kerosene has soared in recent months. We are doing all we can within our powers to assist those worst affected and have recently allocated a further £10 million to our Fuel Insecurity Fund (FIF). The FIF is delivered through trusted third sector partners including the Fuel Bank Foundation and Advice Direct Scotland, who administer our Home Heating Support Fund. Both these organisations are able to provide direct assistance to households who rely upon solid, or liquid fuels such as kerosene, for their heating.

Following on from recent discussions with the heating oil trade body, UKIFDA, my officials have engaged with the UK Government to raise concerns about the recent unprecedented rises in heating fuel costs for off-gas-grid customers in parts of Scotland. However the UK Government has indicated that there are no plans to regulate the sector.

The powers required to legislate in respect of company acquisition and ownership are reserved to the UK Parliament and, as such, the Scottish Government does not have the power to take action in this area. In addition recent legislative change in the UK via the National Security and Investment Act enables an increased screening of acquisitions in certain sectors on grounds, for example, of national security. This reflects similar change in EU legislation.

The Scottish Government and Enterprise Agencies therefore aim to work with businesses in Scotland, domestic and overseas owned, to ensure Scottish operations are not only secured here but opportunities for growth are pursued. Scotland has a highly supportive eco-system for early stage and high growth businesses with potential to scale. In a UK context Scotland is recognised by the Scale Up Institute as having a particularly supportive business eco-system for ambitious Scottish companies, with our Enterprise Agencies at the centre of a network based upon collaboration between public, private, third sector organisations and academic partners.

In support of this approach both our Inward Investment and Global Capital Investment Plans place maximum emphasis on securing good quality investment into Scotland aligning with our values as a nation and delivering our net zero economy supported by good green jobs. We will therefore continue to work closely with those Scottish and overseas-owned businesses and organisations with whom those values most closely align.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor the wider physical and mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic through the following initiatives:

? Scottish Health Survey - This survey monitors physical and mental health in the Scottish population. The latest published results are based on the telephone survey conducted in 2020. The results of the 2021 survey will be published in November 2022.

? Scottish COVID-19 Mental Health Tracker Study - This study measured the mental health and wellbeing impacts of the pandemic on Scottish adults. The latest phase, covering Summer 2021, was published on 24 February 2022.

? COVID-19 wider impacts on the healthcare system - This dashboard, published by Public Health Scotland, shows activity trends across areas of the healthcare system including Cardiovascular, Cancer and Mental Health services.

? YouGov online polling - Opinion polling continues on Scottish adults around once a month. Throughout the pandemic questions have been asked regarding concerns about mental health and loneliness.

? COVID-19 burden of disease - The Scottish burden of disease study looks to estimate the overall impact, and inequalities in the impact, of COVID-19 on public health measures.

Public Health Scotland also continue to publish on their website a wide range of research and statistics which will help to monitor areas of physical and mental health as time progresses.

On 11 March we published the National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy.

As part of the strategy, we have committed to taking forward specific actions to improve how we gather, use and assess NHS Workforce data. This includes taking steps to improve the demographic data we collect and the analysis we undertake of data obtained at different geographic levels within our health and social care system.

The strategy further commits us to taking forward complementary actions to improve workforce planning capacity and capability within our health boards and health and social care partnerships (HSCPs).

New guidance has already been communicated to health boards and HSCPs to support the production of demand-led 3-year workforce plans, supported by local systems’ workforce data. Later this year we will also publish new staffing projections for health and social care.

Complementary data systems and data improvement work is taking place, as part of the Implementation Programme being established to support delivery of the Workforce Strategy. We have undertaken to publish annual updates outlining progress with the strategy’s implementation, in support of our tri-partite ambition to achieve long-term workforce sustainability through recovery, growth and service transformation.