Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all patients have appropriate and timely access to the services they need in NHS Scotland. The management of local actions in implementing national policy, and decisions on local spending priorities, are the responsibility of relevant local agencies. This includes assessing the needs of local populations. It is therefore the responsibility of NHS Boards and local authorities to work with their partners and regularly review spending decisions to ensure they deliver fit for purpose services which respond to the needs of their local population, including the level of service provision required regarding dieticians.

We know that people with severe and enduring mental illness may have their lives shortened by 15 to 20 years because of physical ill-health. This is a significant health inequality, and tackling this premature mortality is a key ambition in the Mental Health Strategy 2017-27.

In response to Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) recommendations, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) published its Equalities Action Plan for Modern Apprenticeships in Scotland on 2 December 2015.

The plan has a focus to increase the number of young disabled people; Ethnic minority groups and care leavers entering Modern Apprenticeships.

In order to attract and support young people on the autistic spectrum to be successful in a Modern Apprenticeship (MA) and other employment opportunities, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) has engaged in a number of approaches to attract young people to available opportunities and to ensure that support is optimised once they have embarked upon their opportunity.

As part of the Scottish Strategy for Autism Scottish Government have worked with partners to increase the number of people with autism taking up employment. We funded Values into Action Scotland’s three-year project ‘Diversity Works 4 U’ to support young people with autism to access Modern Apprenticeships (MA) and to ensure the MA scheme is both inclusive and fully responsive to the needs of autistic people.

We have also supported a range of other supported employment models, including Project SEARCH, to support people with autism to find and sustain in employment. We will continue to work with our partners to promote personal outcomes approaches and to support more autistic people to take up employment.

Work around the child and adolescent health and wellbeing strategy is continuing to develop and will be published to coincide with the Year of the Young Person in 2018. The Scottish Government is ensuring there is a joined up approach to this work involving many policy areas, including alignment with the Mental Health Strategy. 

Engagement with a wide range of experts and stakeholders is being planned and there will be meaningful involvement of children and young people throughout the development, implementation and roll-out.

Local authorities currently have duties under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to provide secure expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic, including the parking matters. Under the 1984 Act, local authorities can decide to restrict or prohibit parking by making a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO). A TRO can be promoted for a variety of reasons and is enforceable when the appropriate road signs or markings are displayed. The restrictions could cover particular hotspots, such as roads near schools or larger areas, and need not necessarily prohibit parking at all times – this would very much depend on the wording of the TRO being promoted by the local authority. As Local Authorities have jurisdiction over local roads it is not for Scottish Ministers to intervene in a Local Authority's day-to-day performance of these particular duties.

However, we have published a public consultation paper entitled ‘Improving Parking in Scotland’, which explores how parking is managed and enforced across the country. The paper is seeking views of the public about how we can improve parking management in Scotland. The findings of the public consultation paper will inform the development of future legislation.

In Scotland, almost all abortions are carried out in NHS hospitals, but for women in England and Wales, a majority take place in the independent sector. The independent sector in England and Wales has well established arrangements in place to provide privately-funded abortion care to women resident in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, in addition to providing NHS-funded care for residents of England and Wales.

Improving food access is an important part of the Scottish Government’s work to tackle health inequalities and close the opportunity gap. Community food initiatives are a key route through which we are working to improve food access in communities across Scotland. 

Through Community Food and Health Scotland (CFHS), the Scottish Government supports work within low-income communities to improve access to, and take-up of, a healthy diet. As part of their work, CFHS engage with community food initiatives to highlight the positive impact that work involving food can have on mental health and wellbeing.

For 2016-17, the Scottish Government also provided £95k to community food networks across Scotland, to help them build capacity and support local food projects which improve access to healthy, affordable food in the community.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-08581 on 24 April 2017. 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

Integration Authorities and local authorities should consider national data and their own local data to determine levels of mental health and wellbeing inequalities experienced in their areas. Good Mental Health for All can act as a resource for planning to address mental health and wellbeing inequalities.

Scottish Government has endorsed Good Mental Health for All, published by NHS Health Scotland in 2016. Local Authorities can use that document and plan partnership action to tackle the determinants of mental health, the causes of inequalities in mental health, and in developing local mental health strategies.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-08581 on 24 April 2017. 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