Chamber and committees

We currently have no plans to introduce a professional care home worker category.

Registration with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), the regulator for the social services workforce in Scotland, already means that care home workers are part of a professional and regulated workforce similar to teachers and nurses. In adult care home services, the workforce is currently registered either as support workers, practitioners, supervisors or managers depending on roles and responsibilities.

Registration is based on achieving minimum qualifications. Employers also have a responsibility in making sure staff are trained for the role they are being asked to undertake. All registered staff require to evidence continuous professional learning (CPL) as part of their continued registration. The SSSC is considering a change to current regulation rules so that it can mandate specific training that we may want people to undertake as part of their CPL. This would involve discussion with the Care Inspectorate, the regulator for care services, as well the sector and Scottish Government.

Staff in care homes can already train in infection control. A National Infection Prevention and Control Manual, developed by NHS Education Scotland has been in place since 2012, the most recent update being October 2019. It provides a training framework and e-learning resources linked to certification that supports the practice of health and social care staff. As mentioned in my response to your question S5W-29709, additional guidance and learning resources have also been made available to support staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are working hard to learn lessons from COVID-19's effect on care homes, which has sadly impacted so terribly on so many individuals and families across Scotland. We will continue to do that so we can best ensure existing approaches are strengthened over the coming weeks and months.

The First Ministers announced on 18 June that zoos and gardens will be able to re-open their outdoor spaces to the public from 29 June, for local visitors only.

The Care Inspectorate is currently operating in unprecedented circumstances and have the resources to respond in a risk assessed way to carry out their duties and provide public protection. Like other organisations, the Care Inspectorate has had to manage a number of staff vacancies caused by normal turnover and has robust systems and processes to do this effectively.

My officials and I continue to hold regular meetings with the Care Inspectorate on a number of matters, including the review of staffing and resource for this and future operational years.

During the pandemic the Care Inspectorate has maintained contact with every care home in Scotland regularly, and sometimes daily depending on individual circumstances. Up to 31 May 2020 their 300 inspectors had made 19,047 contacts with care services, with 630 of these being virtual meetings.

As part of the continuous review in their response to Covid-19, the Care Inspectorate has put in place a programme of increased unannounced onsite inspections to care homes, and under the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No2) Act 2020 they will lay a fortnightly report on inspections before Parliament.

As you will no doubt be aware, in the private, public and third sectors, the supply of PPE for social care is primarily the responsibility of social care providers themselves. However, given the immense pressure that global supply chains have been put under during the pandemic, we have been committed to providing top-up and emergency provision to ensure that staff have what they need and that they and the people they support have the necessary protection. That is why we set up supplies of PPE to support our essential social care sector from the national stock.

Local PPE Hubs in all Health and Social Care Partnership areas that were set up in March are now well established in supporting care homes and other social care providers with their PPE needs. Social care providers including care homes also have access to a dedicated PPE helpline if they need emergency supplies that can’t be met by the Hubs.

We have not reserved a specific number of PPE items for care homes from the national stock. Instead, the local social care PPE Hubs in every Health and Social Care Partnership area, where care homes can access additional supplies if they are struggling to get what they need through their normal supply routes, are being replenished weekly on the basis of demand and consumption. This ensures their stock levels are adequate to meet care homes’ and other social care providers’ needs, beyond providers’ own supply routes. Needs will vary across the sector and between different care homes, and this approach ensures that PPE levels through the national routes respond adequately to those needs. We are delivering between 4 and 5 million items of PPE per week from the national stock into the social care sector. Approximately 50% of these items are being consumed by care homes.

Prior to this pandemic we routinely held a pandemic stockpile of PPE, of which 25% was dedicated to the social care sector.

In both private and public sector care homes (and also all other social care providers), the supply of PPE is primarily the responsibility of the care home/social care provider itself. However, the Scottish Government recognises that global supply chains have been put under immense pressure by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which is why we set up supplies of PPE from the national stock to support our essential social care sector. As at 28 May, through these national routes, more than 46 million items of PPE have been distributed since March to social care organisations, including private and publicly managed care homes.

These PPE items have been delivered to over 1,000 locations across Scotland, to a range of services and individuals, including care homes, care at home providers, housing support services, and unpaid carers and social care Personal Assistants. The services that have accessed the PPE have spanned local authority, private, and voluntary/not-for-profit sectors.

We do not gather data on how many items of PPE care homes themselves buy. We therefore cannot say what proportion of PPE supply in care homes consists of the Scottish Government contribution.

We are encouraging all social care providers, including care homes, to use their own routes for supplies before accessing the supplies through the national support routes. This is to ensure supplies from the national stock are distributed to those who are in most need.

NHS Health Boards have made assessments of their capacity for radiology and pathology. Separate patient flows have been developed within services for COVID and non-COVID referrals which enable patients, who are fit and able to attend, to have their imaging undertaken as a priority.

NHS Scotland has and continues to prioritise capacity for pathology and radiology for those patients referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer, including lung cancer patients. We expect this to continue throughout and beyond the COVID-10 pandemic.

The Scottish Government welcomes this survey as an important step in identifying cultural issues in Argyll & Bute Health & Social Care Partnership, as recommended by the Sturrock Review.

Whilst the findings cannot necessarily be compared directly with those in the Sturrock Review because of differences in the methodology and approach, it is clear that the major themes identified are similar.

I have always been clear that I expected NHS Highland to bring forward a healing process to deal with issues raised by current and former employees and that those issues should be responded to on a case-by-case basis, with the principles of fairness, kindness and compassion underpinning the whole process as recommended by the Sturrock Review.

We would encourage any NHS Highland staff impacted by bullying and harassment to access the Healing Process that was launched on 27 May 2020. This includes staff who have worked or are currently working in Argyll and Bute.

The evidence for a number of alternative technologies for decontamination is currently being reviewed across the UK for both efficacy and safety in a variety of settings. These include UV light, hydrogen peroxide vapour and germicidal UV (GUV) and while there are no current plans to examine the effectiveness of negative ion ionisers, there is a wider piece of work which is looking at Air Scrubbers and Health Facilities Scotland will suggest ion ionisers are included as part of that programme.

It is recognised that some of these technologies, whilst they may be considered effective for decontamination may be challenging to implement in some environments and have a number of safety considerations; they will also require validation testing prior to being considered for use in areas where they have not been used before.