Chamber and committees

The data gaps identified by Audit Scotland relate to different elements of funded early learning and childcare (ELC). These include workforce movement, the living wage, parental demand, financial data, and the extent to which children with additional support needs are accessing funded ELC. As Audit Scotland note, providing a national overview of ELC data will require action by the Scottish Government, local authorities and other partners.

In relation to data on the movement of childcare staff between different types of provider, the Scottish Social Services Council will be publishing an analysis of staff movement within the Day Care of Children Category before the end of June 2023.

In relation to financial monitoring, the Scottish Government is working to change reporting through local financial returns to produce more detailed information on how much councils have spent specifically on the provision of funded ELC.

For information on action that the Scottish Government is already taking to improve ELC monitoring data in relation to the living wage and children with additional support needs, I refer the member to the answers to questions S6W-18994 and S6W-18992 on 21 June 2023.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The following table summarises the survey work conducted by the Marine Directorate in the Firth of Clyde, between June 2021 and June 2023.

The Scottish Government will be undertaking an economic evaluation as part of our multi-year strategy for evaluating the impact of the expansion of funded early learning and childcare (ELC) to 1,140 hours on outcomes for children, parents and families. The purpose of an economic evaluation is to compare the value of the outcomes of a policy to the overall costs of that policy, in order to determine the value for money of the programme. Details of the economic evaluation approach were published in section 6 of our Evaluation Strategy published in October 2022. Work on the economic evaluation will begin in 2023 and the final phase of this work is due to be completed in late 2025 – to allow the information from the Scottish Study of Early Learning and Childcare (SSELC) to be used in the economic evaluation.

The Scottish Government is acutely aware of the suffering of those who were infected with HIV or hepatitis as a result of NHS treatment in the 1970s and 1980s and welcomed the publication in April 2023 of the Infected Blood Inquiry’s second interim report on compensation.

I recently met UK and Welsh Ministers and the Permanent Secretary for the Northern Ireland Department of Health to seek to ensure progress on the Inquiry’s report. There is a common determination to provide appropriate redress for victims of this dreadful tragedy.

The UK Government's position that there is a moral case for compensation to be paid was welcomed and Ministers and the Northern Ireland Permanent Secretary looked forward to working together in considering the recommendations in the report to enable a response as soon as possible after the Inquiry concludes. It was noted however that this does not preclude earlier announcements as work progresses and it was agreed that a further meeting would take place in the coming weeks to take stock of progress.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme continues to provide ongoing financial support and all beneficiaries on the schemes - both infected individuals and bereaved partners - received an interim compensation payment of £100,000, following the Inquiry's recommendation in its first interim report of July 2022.

The Scottish Government does not yet have complete data for the Young Patients Family Fund for period 2022-23 and are committed to working with Health Boards to achieve this.

Scottish Government do not hold this information centrally. Individual Health Boards would need to be contacted to provide a breakdown of menopause specialists employed by each Health Board. There is a specialist menopause service in every mainland NHS Board, with a buddy system in place for the Island Boards.

Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme would be a major part of our efforts to reduce littering. The Scottish Government does not consider that section 67 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 is relevant to any bottles or cans which have been littered and therefore no assessment has been made of its impact on the scheme.

The new Policy Prospectus, set out by this Government on 18 April, further commits us to sustained and improved equitable national access to NHS dentistry by 2026. This reaffirms our commitment to the sector and to patients in all parts of Scotland.

Official statistics published in May this year by Public Health Scotland show a significant recovery in NHS dental service provision, with over 3.8 million courses of treatment completed in 2022-23, an increase of more than 40% compared with 2021-22, when IPC restrictions were in force

Through a combination of payment reform and working closely with NHS Boards on local solutions, the intention of Scottish Government is to continue to build on this positive trend.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18980 on 21 June 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Women’s Health Plan sets out actions which aim to address women’s health inequalities by raising awareness around women’s health, improving access to health care for women across their lives, and reducing inequalities in health outcomes for women and girls.

NHS Boards are responsible for determining and delivering the services required by their local populations. For NHS Boards that cover remote and rural settings, local planning is expected to take account of the particular needs of these populations. Integration Authorities also engage and consult with a range of stakeholders, and work with local communities and professionals to improve outcomes and sustainability of provision through service redesign.