Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government received a response from UK Government on 27 November to the previous correspondence sent by myself.

Despite our earlier requests seeking clarification on support available for remediation, the letter made no reference to additional funding.

The budget process is underway and we are prioritising programmes of work which have the greatest impact on the delivery of our three core missions of equality, opportunity, and community. We will set out our spending plans in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget on 19 December.

The Scottish Government has met with several Local Authorities to discuss their delivery of Free School Meals during which views on being involved in any future pilot were sought. These meetings took place; on the following dates;

• Western Isles Council – 5 July 2023
• Inverclyde Council – 26 July 2023
• North Ayrshire Council – 9 August 2023
• COSLA – 16 August 2023
• Edinburgh City Council – 16 August 2023

Most recently, on 11 October 2023, ADES and COSLA were invited to ask members if they would be interested in taking part in the pilot of universal free school meals at secondary.

The Hydrogen Action Plan, published in December 2022, set out a clear commitment to support renewable hydrogen production.

In May 2023, a funding award totalling over £7 million to thirty-one projects via the Hydrogen Innovation Scheme was announced, which supports innovation in the production, storage, and integration of renewable hydrogen. Thirty of these projects are now underway.

The Energy Transition Fund and the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund were launched in June and September 2020 respectively.

The National Digital Platform continues to undergo development, with core components that will enable individual access, such as standards-based data storage and integration, access controls and user authentication for the workforce now largely in place.

However, the Platform itself will not provide patients digital access to their medical records or the ability to book appointments, rather it will power the underlying data requirements and systems integration for digital services that are public facing. Examples of such services include the Scotland-wide national vaccine service, where patients could access their vaccine information and book appointments through systems that relied on the capabilities of the National Digital Platform. Additionally the Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment (ReSPECT) digital application, which is designed, delivered and deployed on the National Digital Platform is currently live in two Boards, and being implemented in several others. The Platform is also being used to power the developing OpenEyes Ophthalmology electronic patient record and the development of a Stroke Assessment tool.

A more detailed update on the National Digital Platform, along with detail on how patient access to their medical information and how appointments will be able to be booked online, will be provided to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee in February 2024 in response to their correspondence on 05 December related to electronic patient records.

The vast majority of spending on mental health is delivered through NHS board budgets – and this is not directly affected by the Budget reprioritisation. Between the Scottish Government and NHS boards we expect spending on Mental Health to be well in excess of £1.3 billion in financial year 2023-24.

Historically Scotland has a relatively high number of mental health beds per 100,000 of the population and lower levels of bed occupancy (compared to the rest of the UK). However, we are aware of recent pressures on the availability of psychiatric beds, exacerbated by the continuing impact of seasonal illness and COVID-19 on staff capacity in both inpatient and community settings.

Officials have developed a support and engagement plan across mental health services. This will include routine engagement with NHS Boards, alongside access to professional advice and tailored support for those NHS Boards with the highest levels of delayed discharge.

We remain fully committed to delivering the Coming Home recommendations, and to support public bodies to reduce inappropriate hospital stays and out-of-area placements experienced by people with learning disabilities and complex care needs.

Historically Scotland has a relatively high number of mental health beds per 100,000 of the population and lower levels of bed occupancy (compared to the rest of the UK).

However, we are aware of recent pressures on the availability of psychiatric beds, exacerbated by the continuing impact of seasonal illness and COVID-19 on staff capacity. Officials have developed a support and engagement plan across mental health services. This will include routine engagement with NHS Boards, with additional support for those with the highest rates of delayed discharge.

We are continuing to invest record amounts into mental health provision across the country, to ensure the needs of the population are met effectively, safely, and in a timely fashion – this includes advancing our aspiration for care to be person centred and delivered in the community wherever appropriate.

The Scottish Government welcomes the UK National Screening Committee’s (UK NSC) recommendation that the four nations should move towards implementing a targeted lung screening programme for those aged 55-74 with a history of smoking. However, the roll-out of any screening programme is a complex undertaking, and the UK NSC acknowledged in its recommendation that there remain a number of significant issues that must be worked through before a full programme of lung screening can be implemented. Scotland is a member of the four nations group established to explore some of these issues, and has also established its own targeted lung cancer screening Scottish Expert Advisory Group (SEAG).

The SEAG’s remit is to provide the Scottish Government with advice on the scoping, implementation, establishment and delivery of a targeted lung cancer screening programme. The first stage of this work is underway and will support development of an evidence-based assessment of timescales for design and implementation.

Older people can be particularly vulnerable to being targeted by criminals intent on carrying out fraudulent activity. The Scottish Government is committed to working with partners on the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce (SOCT) to disrupt fraudsters and protect our elderly from being exploited.

The SOCT recently published its Progress Report which highlighted the success of the Banking Protocol. This has prevented the loss of £29 million since its introduction in 2018. The Scottish Government also funds and supports a range of campaigns, and online and in-person workshops, such as ‘ DigiKen ’ which aims to raise awareness of how to stay secure online, and Digital Skills Education , which supports older people on how to spot and avoid scams, and how to protect personal information.

We published guidance in 2017, ‘ Developing a positive whole school ethos and culture: relationships, learning and behaviour’ to support local authorities, education settings, practitioners and partners to further improve the ethos and culture, and relationships and behaviour, in Scottish schools. This is in addition to national guidance on the prevention and management of exclusion from school that was published in 2017, ‘ Included, Engaged and Involved – Part 2 – preventing and managing school exclusions’.

Education Scotland also provide guidance on developing a local relationship and behaviour policies https://education.gov.scot/media/ycofs2fq/national-relationships-policy-guidance-for-schools.pdf

Following the publication of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research 2023, we are currently working with the Scottish Advisory Group for Relationships and Behaviour in Schools to develop a national action plan and as part of this development we will consider whether any additional guidance is required.