Chamber and committees

Scottish Government officials meet regularly with the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to discuss a range of improvement programmes that support service innovation and redesign, including new pathways of care that are more efficient and provide sustainable solutions for the future.

The CfSD was first approached about urogynaecology waiting times on 19 May 2023 and a plan to identify treatment options for long waiting patients across Scotland, including NHS Tayside, was agreed on 5 June 2023.

As the information requested is personal data of a third party, disclosing the list of attendees at these meetings would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Professor Graham Ellis, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, met separately with Dr Pamela Johnston, Operational Medical Director of NHS Tayside, on 11 May 2023.

NHS Boards regularly assess continence patients’ needs, with the assessments undertaken by dedicated Bladder and Bowel Teams or community nursing staff. This ensures that patients’ needs are met, either through treatment or through provision of appropriate containment products. Referrals can also be made by patients’ GPs where necessary, and also by a range of other healthcare professionals including pharmacists, consultants, and care home staff.

Where a patient has been assessed as requiring continence products, these are provided by their local NHS Board’s continence service on prescription. As such, any person that is suffering from incontinence, such as men living with prostate cancer, should seek a referral to their local continence service in order that their incontinence can be assessed, treated where appropriate, or managed through the prescription of continence products.

The recently published Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy places strong focus on prevention, early intervention and recognises the importance of a diversity of service provision.

Later this year we will publish the accompanying Delivery Plan and the Workforce Action Plan. Thereafter, we will publish actions to support students.

The Scottish Government has not been made aware of any issues with regard to the disposal of used incontinence products, and has no plans to require that public toilets have incontinence bins installed.

A new edition of the Scottish Ministerial Code was published on 20 July 2023 and is available here: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781835210567 .

Third sector organisations are vital in delivering services to those affected by drugs and alcohol, and their families. The majority of available National Mission funding is allocated to alcohol and drugs partnerships who have local arrangements to support third sector organisations. Scottish Government also fund third sector organisations directly including through the Corra Foundation funds which values £65m over 5 years, and via SG managed grants.

As funding is distributed through these various channels, throughout the year at both local and national level, the total available to third sector organisations is subject to factors such as grant funding applications and local decision making.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19700 on 31 July 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 Scottish Government does not hold NHS Boards' Business Continuity Plans and the responsibility for ensuring appropriate contingency arrangements are in place lies with the individual NHS Boards. Once the extent of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in the NHS Estate is fully understood, NHS Boards will be able to incorporate appropriate plans into their Business Continuity Plans.

As set out in a letter I sent to Pam Duncan Glancy MSP on 27 June and as covered during portfolio questions in Parliament on 28 June https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-28-06-2023?meeting=15400&iob=131343#orscontributions_M16199E320P809C2508836 I remain committed to working with the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers to explore how we can progress a reduction in teachers’ class contact time by ninety minutes per week (from the current contracted figure of 22.5 hours to 21 hours). To help inform this discussion and ensure effective and evidence-informed workforce planning I will be commissioning an external piece of work which will consider and bring together a range of factors, including effective local and national teacher workforce planning, pupil teacher ratios and the projected decline in the number of school-aged children in Scotland.

The Scottish Government budget is confirmed on an annual basis, in line with UK Government budget announcements. The 2023-24 Mental Health budget has now been approved and we will shortly confirm funding awards.

Autism Understanding Scotland are able to apply for funds made available for eligible projects and through our fair and open application process.