- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 9 May 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides regarding the teaching of nutrition and healthy food preparation as part of home economics education in schools.
Answer
Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) provides a broad set of national guidance to support schools in developing their curriculum. However, the specific content of teaching programme is decided by schools and local authorities in order to meet children’s and young people’s needs at local level.
Guidance on teaching of Nutrition and healthy eating comes under Food and Health in the Health and Wellbeing Experiences and Outcomes of Curriculum for Excellence beginning in Early Years, continuing through primary school and delivered predominantly via Home Economics in secondary schools. The Health and Wellbeing Experience’s and outcomes and Benchmarks are a set of clear and concise statements about children's learning and progression in each subject area, including Food and Health/Home Economics. They are used to help plan learning and to assess progress.
https://education.gov.scot/Documents/health-and-wellbeing-eo.pdf .
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 April 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 9 May 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides regarding stages of cooking skill progression as part of home economics education to ensure that pupils learn new skills every year.
Answer
Curriculum for Excellence outlines the entitlement for children and young people to experience a number of Broad General Education Experiences and Outcomes from 3-15 education beginning at early learning and child care stage and continuing through primary school right up to S4-S6.
Benchmarks make clear what learners need to know and be able to do to progress through the levels, and to support consistency in teachers’ and other practitioners’ professional judgements .
Food education permeates every area of the curriculum and is a great context for real life learning. Learning to cook is a skill for life. The Good Food Skills resource supports practitioners with information & activities in relation to the classroom management and teaching of practical food education and skills from early level to fourth level. The importance of Home Economics teachers within secondary schools should be emphasised in relation to building on prior learning from primary school experiences, and teaching combined health, nutrition and practical skills.
The resource will build knowledge and understanding appropriate for every level and offers a skills progression framework with suggested recipes which match the skill set of learners at every level. This will ensure highly effective teaching & learning experiences for children and young people relating to practical food education.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 April 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 8 May 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-22254 by Christina McKelvie on 28 March 2019, for what reason it has decided not to quantify the historic implications of slavery for Scotland as a whole, and whether it will encourage other public bodies to carry out this work.
Answer
Whilst we are determined to learn from our past and the role Scotland played in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, our efforts at the present time are focused on ensuring we deliver positive outcomes for the minority ethnic people of Scotland now. This work is being carried out through the Race Equality Action Plan and Race Equality Framework which sets out our approach to promoting race equality and tackling racism and inequality between 2016 and 2030.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 29 April 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 8 May 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that abortion care meets the needs of women who are disabled, have ME or are refugees, and LGBTI people, as recommended in the Engender report, Our Bodies, Our Rights.
Answer
The Scottish Government believes all women in Scotland should have access to clinically safe and legal abortion services, within the limits that are currently set down in law, should they require it. It is our view that abortion care should be part of standard healthcare provisions, free from stigma. We continue to work with NHS boards on the provision and further improvement of abortion services across Scotland.
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that abortion services in Scotland are all-inclusive and accessible to all individuals, regardless of disabilities, age, gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity. Services should meet the needs of individuals in a person-centred and respectful way.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 May 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the evidence given by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport to the Public Petitions Committee on 24 January 2019 regarding petition PE1690 (Official Report, c. 30), what further information it can provide regarding the training module for GPs that is being developed by NHS Education for Scotland, and whether it will take account of the views and experiences of people with lived experience of the condition.
Answer
The NES Practice Based Small Group Learning (PBSGL) membership (including GPs, GP nurses, and pharmacists in Scotland) has selected ME as a module for NES to develop and produce in 2020, aligned to the production of the new NICE guideline also due in 2020. It is appropriate to produce this module informed by the NICE guideline to ensure the training module reflects current research findings.
PBSGL modules are designed to meet the learning needs of primary care clinicians. The first step in developing the educational content of the module will be for a small number of primary care clinicians to take part in an online focus group to identify the clinical challenges and learning needs of Scottish primary care. In addition to this, there is often a resource page in the module for use by PBSGL members, which usually contain a range of website sources, including information from charities, third sector organisations and other information clinicians may find useful.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 April 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 3 May 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Health Protection Scotland issuing a health alert following the discovery of poisonous toxins in samples of heroin circulating across the country since February 2019.
Answer
Scottish Government continue to monitor this situation closely. Health Protection Scotland (HPS) are working closely in collaboration with NHS Health Boards in the affected areas and Police Scotland.
HPS have issued a Scotland wide briefing note to alert frontline workers in healthcare and addiction services to the possibility of further cases. Health Protection Scotland have also worked in collaboration with Public Health England to issue an alert through the Early Warning and Response System operated by the European Centre for Disease Control to alert Member States to the potential for further cases and to ascertain whether other Member States have detected any similar events.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2019
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment the finance secretary has made of the contribution that immigration makes to Scotland's economy.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2019
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 1 May 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what health and safety controls exist to ensure that mobile medical testing units meet the required standards, and who is responsible for ensuring that they do.
Answer
When a Health Board provides healthcare services, whether they be from permanent or modular portable buildings, the primary responsibility for ensuring the safety of staff, patients and visitors lies with the Board. The Board must ensure that services and equipment are tested in accordance with the appropriate legislation prior to use and as part of their normal maintenance routines. Boards also have access to guidance produced by Health Facilities Scotland and others to help them in discharging their responsibilities.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 1 May 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS boards have used mobile medical testing units in the last 12 months, and how much was spent on such units in each of the preceding three financial years, broken down by board.
Answer
Individual Health Boards determine any requirement for mobile testing units. This information is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from each Health Board.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 1 May 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on NHS boards using mobile medical testing units provided by private companies, such as Vanguard Healthcare.
Answer
It is for individual Health Boards to determine how best to deliver services to meet the needs of their local population, ensuring that quality care and patient safety remains the priority. One advantage of such testing units is that they allow Boards to deploy additional capacity quickly and effectively.
For example, under the Waiting Times Improvement Plan, NHS Highland have received funding to contract for a Vanguard theatre to support them to tackle long waiting patients. The unit became fully operational from mid-March 2019 and will enable multiple teams to provide treatment to patients in key specialties such as ENT, General Surgery and Urology.
