- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 5 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by NHS board of the £4.25 million allocated specifically for clearing child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) backlogs, as referenced in its publication, NHS Recovery Plan 2021-26: Annual Progress Update 2023.
Answer
Table 1 shows funding allocated to each NHS Health Board in 2021-22 for clearance of any backlogs on waiting lists for CAMHS.
Table 1:
NHS Board | CAMHS Waiting List Allocation |
Ayrshire & Arran | £311,701 |
Borders | £90,925 |
Dumfries & Galloway | £126,671 |
Fife | £289,470 |
Forth Valley | £230,681 |
Grampian | £417,066 |
GGC | £938,449 |
Highland | £282,928 |
Lanarkshire | £517,719 |
Lothian | £639,161 |
Orkney | £21,902 |
Shetland | £21,208 |
Tayside | £333,155 |
Western Isles | £28,964 |
Scotland | £4,250,000 |
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 5 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the update on child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) staff set out in its publication, NHS Recovery Plan 2021-26: Annual Progress Update 2023, how many additional CAMHS cases have been taken on since 2021, and whether the "potential to increase capacity for CAMHS cases by over 10,000" includes the caseload from the last two years.
Answer
It is not possible to report accurately on the number of additional CAMHS cases taken on since 2021 as the current aggregate data set does not allow identification of separate individuals, it only gives a snapshot of the total number of open cases at any one time.
In the NHS Recovery Plan, published in 2021, we committed to provide sufficient funding for around 320 additional staff in CAMHS over the next 5 years, with the potential to increase capacity for CAMHS cases by over 10,000. This estimate was based on the Choice and Partnership Approach (CAPA) capacity model, where each full time clinician can hold around 40 open cases at any one time, and manage around 40 new cases per year.
From March 2021 to September 2023, 295 WTE CAMHS staff have been added to the workforce, significantly increasing capacity to manage CAMHS cases. We see this reflected in numbers waiting - the total number of children and young people waiting for treatment has fallen from 10,499 in December 2021 to 5,344 in September 2023.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 5 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with NHS boards to ensure that unpaid carers are involved in decisions about discharge plans for the people that they care for after they have spent time in hospital.
Answer
Our National Discharge Without Delay Steering Group has representatives from every NHS Board and Health and Social Care Partnership in Scotland. The group leads on improvement and sharing best practice across Scotland on areas related to good hospital to community transfer or discharge planning. The group meets monthly and there is a standing agenda item on support for unpaid carers which has highlighted examples of good practice.
We have funded NHS Education for Scotland to develop three training modules for the health and social care workforce, to help them to identify, include and support unpaid carers which we expect to be launched in January 2024. This will include highlighting carers’ right to involvement in hospital discharge decisions.
We have also funded Healthcare Improvement Scotland to work to improve practice on carer involvement across health, with a focus on carer involvement in hospital discharge.
As part of this, in September 2023, we brought together Health and Social Care Partnership carer lead officers and Carer Centre Managers to focus on this issue and share good practice.
- Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 5 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to extending the NHS perinatal treatment period to two years.
Answer
Over the last 4 years we have seen a big expansion in specialist perinatal mental health services in Scotland so that all 14 Health Boards now have specialist perinatal mental health services to support women and babies. We have also developed enhanced Mother & Baby Unit provision and established new infant mental health and Maternity and Neonatal Psychological Interventions services across Scotland.
Currently provision within inpatient and community perinatal mental health services spans pregnancy and the first postnatal year. There may be some circumstances where patients may be seen beyond the 12 month period. This decision rests with the local perinatal mental health team and should be based on what a patient needs and what the service can realistically provide given current caseload, waits, and capacity.
It is important to identify the service which is most helpful for the patient, which may sometimes be a Community Perinatal Mental Health Team but could also be an infant mental health service, Maternity and Neonatal Psychological Interventions (MNPI) or adult mental health services. We are committed to taking an integrated approach to service provision, so that there are no barriers to ensuring that women and infants get the most appropriate service for their needs and can easily transition between services as that need changes.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 5 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that unpaid carers have access to tailored mental health support, including support for anticipatory grief, bereavement counselling and support for young carers.
Answer
Under the Carers (Scotland) Act, all adult and young carers have the right to a personalised plan to identify what is important to them, which may include counselling and emotional support, according to their individual circumstances. Future needs for bereavement support can be considered as part of the process and any eligible needs for support must be met.
Local authorities must also have a carer information and advice service, usually delivered via local carer centres, to help all adult and young carers access support in their area. This must include information and advice on counselling and bereavement support available to carers, not necessarily carer-specific services. In addition to information and advice services, many local carer centres provide their own counselling and support services which can include group/peer support and bereavement support.
The Scottish Government is investing £88.4m per year in local carer support through local authority Carers Act funding.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 5 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the recommendation in the Carers Scotland report, State of Caring 2023, to fast track unpaid carers to support by introducing vouchers or payments to access non-NHS assessments, counselling and other services.
Answer
We recognise the significant contribution that Scotland’s unpaid carers make to our communities. It is very important that people who are caring for others know how to access carer support, and that professionals know how to direct people to support.
Under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016, Local Authorities and Integration Authorities are responsible for supporting carers, according to their individual needs, and commission Third Sector organisations to provide much of that support on their behalf. This includes providing or signposting to counselling and other services that are available to them locally. Much of this vital support is delivered through local carer centres.
We are investing £88.4m per year in local carer support through local authority Carers Act funding.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 5 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its progress in delivering the National Carers Strategy.
Answer
We are approaching the end of the first year of implementing the National Carers Strategy (published in December 2022). The implementation of the strategy is monitored by the Carers Rights and Support Steering Group (CRSSG), made up of representatives from national and local carer organisations, statutory sector representatives and unpaid carers - so that carers are directly involved in measuring and monitoring the impact of the strategy during its lifespan.
The CRSSG agreed 43 actions to be prioritised for Year 1. The actions cover a broad range of topics including COVID-19 and cost of living as well as outlining employment, financial and mental health support. Examples of actions that have been progressed this year include:
- We distributed £560,000 to carer centres in 2022-2023 to improve local capacity for carer support.
- We funded the Carers Parliament and the Young Carers Festival in 2023, with record numbers attending the Young Carers Festival this year. We will continue to fund events which enable carers to engage directly with decisionmakers.
- We have engaged with carers in 2023 to produce the National Dementia Strategy, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and we have involved carers in the review of the National Outcomes and the National Care Service co-design. We will continue to engage with carers to ensure their voices are heard and reflected in policy across the Scottish Government.
- We are continuing to fund and promote increased uptake of the Carer Positive employer accreditation scheme, with 264 employers now signed up who are responsible for 493,000 employees (as of November 2023).
- Social Security Scotland successfully launched the initial pilot for Carer Support Payment in November 2023, with the benefit to be available nationally by autumn 2024. The benefit is a key milestone in improving support for unpaid carers and will be available to many carers in full-time education who cannot currently get Carer’s Allowance.
- Through the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, we invested £15 million in 2022-23 in community-based initiatives to promote good health and wellbeing and tackle the mental health issues for people, including unpaid carers.
The Strategy is kept under review so that we are able to respond to changing circumstances and ensure progress towards meeting the actions contained within it.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 5 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it made of the mental health of unpaid carers in the formulation of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.
Answer
As part of the process to develop the Scottish Government/COSLA Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, we undertook a literature review and engaged with stakeholders, people with lived experiences and the Equality and Human Rights Forum to gather evidence and better understand marginalised groups’ experiences of mental health. This included unpaid carers, and professional bodies, third sector and equalities organisations representing their interests.
This evidence has been published in the Scottish Government Mental Health Equality Evidence Report accompanying the Delivery Plan, with a specific section on carers at chapter 12. This evidence was invaluable in undertaking a robust Equality Impact Assessment and shaping the Strategy and subsequent Delivery and Workforce Action Plans.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 5 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government when it expects the review of home slaughter guidance being undertaken by Food Standards Scotland to be completed, and whether it will publish its findings.
Answer
Food Standards Scotland (FSS) are preparing to launch a 3 month consultation on a proposed amendment to the Home Slaughter Guidance, following which responses received will be considered as part of the ongoing review and FSS intend to publish the outcome of the consultation and any revised guidance in 2024.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 December 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 January 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns that if the charitable hospice sector is unable to match NHS pay awards, nurses and hospice staff will leave the sector in search of better pay.
Answer
The Scottish Government has listened to concerns that independent hospices have about the recruitment and retention of staff, and will continue to do so.
As Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) are responsible for the governance, planning, and resourcing of adult palliative care services, including hospices, using the integrated budget under their control, we will continue to work with Chief Officers to support longer term sustainable planning and commissioning for the hospice sector, and will work jointly to develop a national guidance framework to support and improve consistency of local planning and commissioning.