Chamber and committees

The Childsmile Programme is designed to help improve the oral health of children in Scotland and is delivered through a range of measures. The Childsmile Core Programme is available throughout Scotland and is introduced to families by their Health Visitor. Every child in Scotland is provided with a dental pack containing a toothbrush and toothpaste on at least six occasions by the age of five and can receive twice-yearly applications of fluoride varnish from the age of 2.

Childsmile School and Nursery ensures that all 3 and 4 year old children attending nursery are offered free, daily, supervised toothbrushing. Those children in the 20 per cent most deprived areas of Scotland are also able to receive an additional twice-yearly fluoride varnish applications by Childsmile dental teams in nurseries and schools until at least primary 4.

More information on the Childsmile programme can be found at: https://www.child-smile.org.uk/index.aspx .

IJBs were given a funding allocation in 2021-22 to support a range of Covid pressures. This was a ring fenced allocation specifically for Covid.

There have been a number of significant changes to Public Health policies in relation to Covid over the summer, resulting in the profile of Covid spend reducing significantly compared to when funding was provided to IJBs.

In response to this, we communicated the action to reclaim surplus Covid reserves to be redistributed across the sector to meet current Covid priorities. We will continue to work with IJBs to understand their financial forecasts and further detail will be communicated later in the financial year. The detail will follow at an IJB level and the process and timetable will follow through further communications.

We communicated the action to reclaim surplus Covid reserves to be redistributed across the sector to meet current Covid priorities on 12 September 2022. We will continue to work with IJBs to understand their financial forecasts and further detail will be communicated later in the financial year. The detail will follow at an IJB level and the process and timetable will follow through further communications.

The information requested is not held centrally.

An estimate of the number of people with complex disabilities was published by the charity Sense in a short report in May 2022, which estimated that there were around 157,000 people in Scotland that could have complex disabilities, where complex disabilities were defined as a person having two or more of the following conditions: ‘deaf or hearing impairment’, ‘blind or vision impairment’, ‘learning disability’, ‘autism’. A link to the report is available here: https://www.sense.org.uk/about-us/statistics/complex-disabilities-in-scotland/

No data is collected on the return or disposal of medicines due to the difficult nature of quantifying and recording this information. Health Boards are responsible for ensuring unused medicines are safely disposed of, though are not required to record this data.

The Scottish Government values the important role of those working in Scotland’s third sector to tackle tough social issues at source. We recognise the challenges faced by the third sector in the current cost crisis and we will ensure the sector is not excluded from any financial support made available to the public or private sectors.

The Scottish Government is doing what it can with its limited powers to ensure people receive the help they need. We are already providing significant support for households to mitigate the impacts of the cost crisis. By the end of March 2023, we will have invested almost £3bn in a range of measures for households, supporting energy bills, childcare, health and travel, as well as social security payments that are either not available anywhere else in the UK or are more generous, such as the Scottish Child Payment.

The Scottish Government has developed a website as a ‘one stop shop’ to help those struggling with the cost of living crisis. The website provides information on the wide range of advice and financial support available to people to meet rising energy, housing and other costs. The new website address is http://gov.scot/costoflivingsupport

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11633 on‎ 14 November 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 Scottish Government designated the Complex Pelvic Mesh Removal Service in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC). This service assesses needs and, where appropriate and subject to shared decision making and informed consent, performs mesh removal surgery.

The Scottish Government fully understands that women feel that they have been let down by clinicians in the past. When establishing the service, NHS GGC has kept this in mind and, as such, there are a number of consultants, including one who has joined the service from NHS England. This gives women choice over who is involved in their care. All patients who are being considered for surgery are reviewed by a multi-disciplinary team that includes mental health, physiotherapy and pain management specialists. The service also employs specialist nurses who help direct women through the service and help to ensure that they are comfortable and reassured during their visit.

More information is available online: National Complex Mesh Surgical Service Webpage .

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-11396 on 1 November 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 .

Cancer services do not sit in silo, they cross-cut numerous specialties and teams which have been greatly affected by the pandemic, including diagnostics. While those referred as an urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) continue to be prioritised and more patients were treated on a 62-day pathway in the latest published quarter (Q2 2022) compared to pre-COVID, clearly recovery will take time. This is why we published our NHS Recovery Plan in August 2021. It reinforces our commitment to continue to invest in cancer pathways - £10 million was released to Boards in August 2022 – and our ambition to maintain the 31-day standard and achieve the 62-day standard on a sustainable basis.

Our National Cancer Plan set out to recover and redesign cancer services, with 68 individual actions across the patient pathway to improve patients’ experience of care, and roll-out innovative treatments. The plan adopts a ‘Once for Scotland’ approach to cancer services and ensures that access to care and treatment is equitable across Scotland.