Chamber and committees

The Stigma Action Plan was published on 12 January 2023 as part of the Cross Government response to the Drug Deaths Taskforce. As part of this, a “Design Team” made up of people with lived and living experience are currently exploring what concrete future actions should be taken to minimize the impact of stigma for people who are experiencing problems with their drug or alcohol use.

A number of existing initiatives are already working to reduce the stigma people who use drugs and their families experience. For instance, the Charter of Rights, to be launched on December 11th this year will articulate the Right to Health for this community, a Mental Health Protocol, delivered by Health Improvement Scotland addresses the barriers to accessing co-existing mental health and substance use problems, and an initiative named Humanising Health Care is working with medical students, providing opportunities for them to meet and speak to people in recovery to learn about the human costs of drug and alcohol problems.

We have been working closely with a range of stakeholders to make sure that children, young people and families affected by harms of alcohol or drug use are supported in their own right, as well as being involved in their loved one’s treatment and recovery without having to suffer the shame of stigma which we knows drives people away from support.

The Scottish Government has established a National Rehabilitation Network, comprised of rehabilitation leads from each health board or health and social care partnership. Network members lead on supporting the application of the Six Principles of Good Rehabilitation and share best practice where the principles are already in place.

The introduction of the Rehabilitation Self-Assessment tool, issued to all 14 health boards in September 2024, will support the evaluation of progress against the Six Principles of Good Rehabilitation to improve rehabilitation services as set out in the Once for Scotland Rehabilitation Approach. The data collected through the self-assessment can be used to demonstrate the impact of rehabilitation services across health and social care services and raise the profile of rehabilitation.

Scottish Government reconfirmed the commitment to improving rehabilitation services through joining the World Rehabilitation Alliance (WRA) in May 2023. This global network of stakeholders supports the implementation of the Rehabilitation 2030 Initiative through advocacy activities. Scottish government continue to share approaches and learning internationally.

We know that people affected by substance use and their families face ongoing issues relating to out of hours support. The Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) operate a services directory which has details of drug and alcohol support services across Scotland.

As well as local contacts, we support national phone lines that are available for anyone to call. Know the Score operate a phoneline which is open until 9pm during the week and then open 10am until 4pm on weekends. This provides free, confidential support for people experiencing issues with drugs, alcohol or mental health.

Scottish Recovery Consortium publish information on recovery communities and local groups which operate during the Christmas period and this is available on their website ahead of Christmas.

To support practitioners in applying the Six Principles of Good Rehabilitation, Scottish Government has developed a self-assessment tool in partnership with the National Rehabilitation Network. This tool was issued to all 14 health boards in September 2024, to be used as a local benchmarking assessment in line with local rehabilitation strategies, for monitoring and evaluation purposes as well as improvements in patients care.

The data collected through the self-assessment will be used to demonstrate the impact of rehabilitation services across health and social care services.

Since the strategy was published Scottish Government has also awarded funding to support the delivery of the Once for Scotland Approach. This includes £526,650 to the Care Inspectorate to enable them to scale up their Care About Physical Activity Programme and £250,000 to Thistle Foundation to support rehabilitation teams to adopt person-centred rehabilitation.

As set out in the answer to question S6W-30423 on 22 October 2024, the Civil Aviation Authority has made a series of safety recommendations regarding hospital helicopter landing sites following a tragic accident in Plymouth, in 2022. The safety recommendations apply across the UK and those that are applicable to Scottish sites are being acted on by NHS Boards, with support from NHS Assure.

While this work is ongoing, Search and Rescue helicopters will land at alternative sites where this is required for safety reasons. Scottish Air Ambulance and charity air ambulances can continue to land at NHS Scotland helipads.

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.

Supporting fair and green economic growth is a core priority for this Government, as highlighted in our recently published Programme for Government. Since 2007, Scotland’s GDP per capita has grown by 10.7%, outpacing the UK’s growth of 5.6%. Productivity in Scotland has also increased at an average of 1.1% per year, well above the UK average of 0.4%.

It is encouraging to see Sir Tom Hunter lending his support and expertise to promising businesses in Scotland. The ScaleUpScotland programme aligns well with the broad range of initiatives we support to help businesses grow, such as the Techscaler programme, Scottish EDGE, and the support from our Enterprise Agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank. All of these efforts are integrated into our New Deal for Business, creating a strong foundation for economic success.

I wrote to the then Secretary of State for Scotland on 29 February and made a commitment to keep the UK Government appraised of progress on this matter as it develops.

The report has been proposed for peer review, which will take some weeks. Release of a draft of the report is not proposed before the review stage is completed.

a) A national headache pathway was launched in October 2023 by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery at NHS Golden Jubilee. This pathway aids clinicians, including GPs, in the diagnosis and management of headache disorders, including migraine. The pathway specifically includes guidance for the treatment of migraine in primary care.

b) Through the Neurological Care & Support Framework, the Scottish Government provided £221,176 in total to the Migraine Trust across 2022-24, to work with community, primary and secondary care pharmacists to help people with migraine manage their symptoms and treatments more effectively. The work has been undertaken in NHS Grampian, and is being expanded into further NHS Boards who are working towards adopting this model of care.

Through this work an eLearning programme and resource page has been developed on NHS Education for Scotland’s platform TURAS. This comprises a suite of training materials available for all pharmacists and pharmacy teams to access.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the availability of medicines that patients in Scotland need.

A national headache pathway was launched in October 2023 by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery at NHS Golden Jubilee. This is to aid clinicians in the diagnosis and management of headache disorders, including migraine, and offers guidance on management of conditions.

Through the Neurological Care & Support Framework, the Scottish Government awarded £221,176 in total to the Migraine Trust across 2022-24, to work with community, primary and secondary care pharmacists In NHS Grampian to help people with migraine manage their symptoms and treatments more effectively.

Through the success of this project, a further seven NHS Boards are working towards adopting this model of care in future.

In Scotland, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) appraises the clinical and cost-effectiveness of newly licensed medicines, following receipt of a submission from the manufacturer. Where the SMC accepts a medicine, or accepts it with restrictions or on an interim basis, there is an expectation that NHS Boards will consider the medicine and make it (or its equivalent) available. This is considered by each NHS Boards’ Area Drug and Therapeutics Committee.

NHS Boards are expected to reach a decision within 90 days of being informed of the SMC advice, which provides time to consider any issues associated with the implementation of the medicine, such as changes to the care pathway and staff training. Boards should publish their decision on their website within 14 days of the decision.

The SMC appraisal is undertaken independently of Scottish Ministers and is based on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the medicine at a population level.