Chamber and committees

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Programme Board is overseeing the delivery of new community mental health and wellbeing supports and services for children and young people aged from 5-24 and their families.

The Programme Board has developed and signed off a framework which sets out a clear broad approach to this support and is designed to assist local collaborative partnerships. This framework has been circulated to Community Planning Partnerships who are being asked to take a collaborative local approach.

A set of principles around delivery of this have been jointly agreed between Scottish Government and COSLA. We are working closely with a range of partners including local authorities, Community Planning Partnerships and Children’s Services Planning Partnerships on the implementation of supports and services as laid out in the framework.

An initial first tranche of funding of £2 million has been made available to support planning and development.

Further funding of up to £15 million will be provided in 2020-21 to enable the roll out of supports and services following the initial planning period.

The public interest cases contained in the published information within the report provided by the Whistleblowing Alert and Advice services for NHSScotland, reflect the exact number of whistleblowing cases raised with them. These are as follows:

- From 1 August 2017 to 31 January 2018- 22 cases

- From 1 February 2018 to 31 July 2018 -16 cases

- From 1 August 2018 to 31 January 2019 34 cases

- From 1 February 2019 to 31 October 2019 -26 cases

I can confirm that the Chief Medical Officer wrote again to Dr Veronikis last week, to re-iterate an invitation to visit Scotland in the spring. It is intended that this visit be observational in nature for reasons I outlined in Parliament on 27 February, i.e. so that Dr Veronikis can experience the environment in which he would be operating, including theatre list, pre- and post-operative processes, the use of multi-disciplinary teams, and consent processes. As such, Dr Veronikis will not be expected to formally consult with patients during this initial visit.

We await Dr Veronikis' response, and we remain hopeful that his commitments will still allow him to visit in the spring.

Local authorities have a duty under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 to carry out social care support assessments. Any person who feels their quality of life would benefit from social care support can request a social care support assessment. This includes any person with mild cognitive impairment or with dementia. This request can be made by the person themselves, members of their family, carers, friends or from their medical practitioners.

Registration is devolved, and the setting of fees for registration matters – including charges for extracts from the Birth and Death Registers (birth certificates and death certificates) – is the responsibility of the Registrar General for Scotland subject to the approval of Scottish Ministers. Certificate fees are kept under regular review and set on a cost-recovery basis.

More widely, the UK Gender Recognition Panel charges £140 to applicants seeking a gender recognition certificate, including those resident in Scotland. Applicants can apply for help to pay these fees if they receive certain benefits or are on a low income.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-27297 on 4 March 2020 which outlines the numbers of people who have been admitted with an eating disorder diagnosis1 by health board of treatment, per year (January- December) 2013 - 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Comparison per head of population between Scotland, England and Wales is provided in the following table.

Comparison of admissions to Scotland, England and Wales for people with an eating disorder diagnosis per 100,000 for Financial Year 2018-19.

ISD collects information on patients who are admitted to hospital for psychiatric inpatient care. People who are admitted with an eating disorder are included in this dataset and can be identified. Work is underway to collect patient level data from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and Psychological Therapy Services. This dataset will identify the reason and diagnosis of individuals, including if they have an eating disorder. This new dataset is at an early stage of development and ISD are working with NHS Boards to improve the data quality.

Since the launch of the ECHO peer coaching service during Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2019 there have been 188 hours of support provided to parents and carers of those with an eating disorder. The service has supported 20 parents and carers since February 2019.

The Scottish Government is clear in our engagement with NHS Boards that patients should be assessed according to their clinical need. Our expectation is that those who need immediate necessary treatment, whether for an eating disorder or for any condition or disorder requiring access to mental health services, will receive that care quickly and in line with clinical guidance. We expect Boards to ensure that their services are planned efficiently so that patients have swift and safe access to the full range of services they need.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to introduce a waiting times standard for eating disorders. We are clear in our engagement with NHS Boards that patients should be assessed according to their clinical need. Our expectation is that those who need immediate necessary treatment, whether for an eating disorder or for any condition or disorder requiring access to mental health services, will receive that care quickly. We expect Boards to ensure that their services are planned efficiently so that patients have swift and safe access to the full range of services they need.