Chamber and committees

From April 2024, social care workers in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sectors in a direct care role, and those working in the PVI sector to deliver funded early learning and childcare will see their pay increase to at least £12 per hour. This will mean an increase that could be worth up to £2,000 per year for those on full-time contracts. This uplift recognises the financial pressures of those working in these sectors, and will help to address issues with recruitment and retention.

Across both the adult social care and child care sector, we are also working closely with partners, including COSLA and individual Local Authorities, to understand and address workforce challenges.

We are committed to improving fair work practices across the adult social sector and, through the Fair Work in Social Care Group (FWISCG), we are taking action to improve the experiences of the workforce. Alongside a workstream on pay, the Group is focused on establishing a set of minimum standards for terms and conditions, developing a framework to embed the principles of effective voice in social care, and advancing sectoral bargaining arrangements.

We are working with partners and staff from across the childcare sector to develop a Strategic Framework for Scotland’s Early Learning and School Age Childcare Profession. The framework will set out the priorities for the profession now and in the coming years, as well as actions we will take to support a sustainable, diverse and thriving profession. We have also implemented a Protection of Vulnerable Groups fee waiver for childcare workers until March 2024 to help support workers with the cost of living.

We recognise the incredible contribution that all of Scotland’s unpaid carers make to our communities as well as the pressures many carers are under. We are implementing our National Carers Strategy which sets out a cross-government approach to carers issues, including through social care, social security policies and supporting carers in employment and education.

Carers in Scotland already benefit from extra financial support through our Carer's Allowance Supplement, which by the end of this year will have provided eligible carers with £3,300 above Carer’s Allowance since its introduction.

Our Carer Support Payment will begin to replace Carer’s Allowance this month, providing unpaid carers with income in recognition of their caring role and helping them access opportunities outside of caring. Carers in Scotland getting Carer’s Allowance and Carer Support Payment will continue to benefit from Carer’s Allowance Supplement.

Adult social care workers delivering direct care in commissioned services will see their pay increase to a minimum of £12 per hour from April 2024. This increase represents an increase of over 10% from the £10.90 minimum rate that was introduced in April 2023.

I would encourage anyone who is struggling due to a caring role to contact their social work department or local carer centre, and speak to them about what help they may be able to offer.

Ministers are required by the Community Empowerment Act (2015) to review the National Outcomes within five years of their previous publication, and the next review is currently underway. The Scottish Government intends to lay the statutory document in Parliament in early 2024. This will outline the work undertaken during the Review, including any proposed changes to the National Outcomes.

Menopause care and support is a top priority in the Women’s Health Plan . Progress against the menopause actions can be found in our Women’s Health Plan: Report on Progress and Interim Progress Update 2023 .

Since the publication of the Interim Progress Update, the development of a menopause public health campaign has begun and this is planned at present to be delivered within the current financial year. We are also continuing to promote menopause information on the NHS Inform Women’s Health Platform, and in October 2023 we held a ‘Talk Menopause’ panel session with The Alliance to raise women’s awareness of the menopause and menopause symptoms.

The NHSScotland Menopause and Menstrual Health Policy was launched on 31 October 2023. Whilst the policy was written specifically for NHS Scotland, the supporting resources, including line managers’ guidance and workplace adjustment guidance, are intended for use more widely and are available on the National Wellbeing Hub .

The Scottish Government has a long-standing commitment to the principles of Fair-Work for the social care sector as we recognise and value the work that they do.

The £12 minimum pay-rate from April 2024 for Adult Social Care workers represents a 14.3% increase for these workers in the last two years; with pay rising from at least £10.50 per hour in April 2022.

We have continued to progress a number of key projects to take forward and improve Fair Work principles, which will not only improve the current experience of the workforce, but also help to attract and retain new staff into the workforce.

We will also continue to build a National Care Service that has Fair Work, Ethical Commissioning and Sectoral Bargaining at its heart.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) continues to provide early information - on an in confidence basis - to Health Boards on medicines in clinical development that are expected to require a companion diagnostic through regular horizon scanning reports.

As part of the Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine (SSNGM), the Scottish Genomic Testing Advisory Group (SG-TAG) for cancer is now live, and has successfully carried out a review of a new genomic testing pathway for biliary tract cancer which was approved for implementation. This cancer pathway includes diagnostic and prognostic targets, and also targets for SMC approved medicines. The equivalent group for Rare and Inherited Conditions is due to launch next month. Both groups will include a process for considering the laboratory genomics delivery model as well as the cost of the genomic testing pathway for SMC approved medicines.

The only precision medicine accepted by the Scottish Medicines Consortium where the companion diagnostic test is not yet offered by NHS Scotland laboratories is Pemigatinib (SMC Number 2399).

We are continuing to work closely with key partners, such as the Scottish Strategic Network for Genomics Medicine (SSNGM), to ensure there is capacity within laboratories for companion diagnostics tests to be offered as soon as practically possible.

Priority six in the Stroke Improvement Plan is focused on psychological care and includes commitments to understand the availability of existing resources and develop strategies for raising awareness of the emotional and psychological impact of stroke on mental wellbeing. Work to appraise the range of resources currently available is scheduled to begin in 2024.

Education and training programmes on post-stroke psychological and emotional impacts are available as part of the Stroke Training and Awareness Resources (STARs) Core Competencies and Advancing Modules, hosted by Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland (CHSS). These resources were developed with the input of clinicians from across Scotland.

The criteria for NHS Board reviews sets out the Scottish Government’s expectation that all staff potentially dealing with hyperacute stroke patients should have undertaken the STARS Advancing Modules.

Monitoring of performance against the nationally agreed criteria in the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme, which now includes a requirement to demonstrate adequate provision of psychological support, allows us to identify where challenges are being faced in the delivery of high-quality stroke care and supports the implementation of quality improvements.

Demonstrating provision of post-stroke psychological care is a new requirement for NHS Boards and therefore it will take time for implementation to be successful.

The Scottish Government expects NHS Boards to increase performance against the criteria outlined in the review process, and we will work with them to support this.

The new Stroke Improvement Plan , published in June, includes a commitment to assess the current ability of NHS Boards to implement the National Model of Psychological Care in Stroke (Scotland).

This is being assessed via NHS Board reviews, which now include a requirement to demonstrate adequate provision of psychological support for those who have suffered a stroke.

In September, we published the National Specification for Psychological Therapies to help support improvements in the delivery of psychological care.