Chamber and committees

All frontline staff have monthly call reviews and one-to-one meetings with their line manager, real time clinical supervision and coaching with debrief sessions at the end of each shift. This is in addition to mandatory e-learning and personal development plans.

The Consolidated Accounts are published annually and include a Performance Report which includes a Performance Overview and Performance Analysis, with high level financial information split by portfolio. The Consolidated Accounts for the years noted can be found at the following links:

The Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023 (www.gov.scot)

I receive regular performance delivery updates on the three Policy Prospectus missions of equality, opportunity and community. I also engage regularly with Cabinet Secretaries to support strong collaboration across portfolios and budgets and enable effective delivery of Mandate Letter commitments. These arrangements are routinely reviewed and improved where appropriate.

The statutory review of the National Performance Framework National Outcomes is underway and reporting on progress towards the National Outcomes will continue to be delivered via the NPF website nationalperformance.gov.scot

a) Estimates of the number of adult and young carers in Scotland are produced using the Scottish Government’s Scottish Health Survey and the National Records of Scotland mid-year population estimates , as detailed in the most recent publication of unpaid carer estimates .

The Scottish Health Survey asks respondents whether they provide any regular help or unpaid care for any sick, disabled or frail person. The percentage of respondents who indicate that they provide care is then applied to the relevant mid-year population estimates for Scotland, to provide an estimate of the number of people providing unpaid care. As the Scottish Health Survey samples children aged 4 and over, this provides an estimate for adult carers by using the percentage of people over the age of 18 providing care and for young carers by using the percentage of people under the age of 18 providing care.

b) Different surveys will give different percentages of those providing care. For instance, the Scottish Survey Core Questions (SSCQ), which pools samples from the Scottish Health Survey, the Scottish Household Survey and the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, tends to give a higher percentage than the Scottish Health Survey alone which in turn, would lead to a higher estimate of unpaid carers aged 16+.

However, the Scottish Health Survey is the only one of these surveys to sample people under the age of 16, which allows us to produce estimates for both adult carers and young carers. It also includes further questions specifically for carers which allows for more detailed analysis.

We have invested over £2m within this parliamentary term to deliver the Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery which looks to reduce the impact of chronic pain, including fibromyalgia, on quality of life and wellbeing and improve information, care and services for people in Scotland.

In 2022-23, as part of Section 10 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, the Scottish Government provided grant funding of £7,920 to Pain Concern and Flippin’ Pain to host an online awareness raising event for people in Scotland living with fibromyalgia. The event was also open to healthcare staff.

In December 2021, our Response to Scotland’s Climate Assembly: Recommendations for Action included the commitment to investigate opportunities for whole life emission reporting.

Following this commitment we engaged with Zero Waste Scotland and some of the UK’s leading embodied carbon experts to scope research which produced the report Regulating Embodied Carbon in Scotland’s Buildings .

National Planning Framework 4 makes clear that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a cross-cutting outcome of development and includes policy that requires a minimisation of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions and the use of materials with the lowest forms of embodied emissions, such as recycled and natural construction materials.

We are currently engaging with key organisations and UK counterparts to understand the viability of such action and benefit that can be derived from a requirement to report on the broader environmental impact of new development, including the assertion that this could be addressed through building regulations.

It can be noted the new safeguards on XL Bully dogs operate independently of any Dog Control Notices (DCNs) that may have been imposed on individual XL Bully dogs. A dog can both be subject to the safeguards required through being a XL Bully and subject to conditions imposed in a DCN as a result of being assessed as a dog that was previously out of control.

Within this context, the operation of the DCN regime, as set out in the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 (“the 2010 Act”), is entirely a matter for local authorities. It would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to intervene in such operational matters.

The 2010 Act places a duty on local authorities to monitor the effectiveness of and enforce all DCNs issued by local authority appointed officers.

The Scottish Government is committed to keeping the 2010 Act statutory guidance document under review and will work with local authorities and the National Dog Warden Association to consider any specific updates that may be required in light of the introduction of the new safeguards on XL Bully dogs.

The Scottish Government expects all women, at all times, to receive high-quality, person-centred maternity care, tailored to their needs, with quality and safety for mothers and babies central to decision-making. We recognise that every woman’s experience of pregnancy and birth is different and that, for a variety of reasons, some women may require support related to trauma.

We continue to participate in four UK-wide audits and confidential enquiries, including the MBRRACE-UK programme, to highlight quality and safety of maternity and neonatal care and where that can be improved. The Scottish Government considers the findings of all data reports and reviews carefully and expects all NHS Boards to do the same locally. Where areas for improvement are identified, the Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) Perinatal arm provides support and guidance for NHS Boards to undertake focused quality improvement activity.

We are also committed to supporting the development of perinatal and infant mental health services across Scotland. We are working with NHS Boards to develop specialist Community Perinatal Mental Health services to provide assessment and care for women with moderate to severe mental illness, including psychological impact following the birth of a baby. All pregnant women in Scotland are provided with a copy of Ready, Steady, Baby! , a guide to pregnancy, labour and birth and early parenthood, during their routine antenatal care. This provides information for women on mental health and wellbeing in pregnancy and after birth, including signposting to other resources such as the Birth Trauma Association.

The Scottish Government is developing a place-based, industry specific Just Transition Plan for the region, committed to in our 2023 Programme for Government, that will outline the strategic long-term future of the industrial cluster.

The plan will outline a range of possibilities for operations at Grangemouth in 2045, including low-carbon hydrogen manufacture, carbon capture and Storage, bio-manufacturing and alternative low-carbon fuels as well as wider Just Transition impacts on the workforce, community and surrounding environment.

SG leads on this work, in partnership with the Grangemouth Future Industry Board, and has been working extensively with multiple industrial operators including Petroineos, and wider stakeholders to develop a baseline as well as a co-designed vision for the future Grangemouth Industrial Cluster.

A draft Grangemouth Just Transition Plan and Vision will be published in May 2024.

Public Health Scotland (PHS), through the Scottish Vaccination and Immunisation Programme (SVIP), is responsible for oversight and leadership of vaccine delivery in Scotland. The Scottish Government is part of SVIP and is working closely with PHS and NHS Boards to promote and encourage uptake of all childhood immunisations.

It is important that all parents and carers ensure that children attend their routine scheduled childhood vaccinations when invited to give them the best protection possible against vaccine preventable diseases.

The NHS Inform website provides details of how to arrange an appointment for anyone who has not had two doses of the free MMR vaccine.

The most recent childhood immunisation uptake statistics, which were published on 19 December 2023 for the quarter ending 30 September 2023, can be found on the PHS website: Childhood immunisation statistics Scotland - Quarter ending 30 September 2023 - Childhood immunisation statistics Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Clinical outcomes are reported monthly and any clinical mental health incidents reported to NHS 24, through any feedback channel, will receive a full investigation and clinical review.