Chamber and committees

In 2022, the Scottish Government was notified of 12 cyber incidents under our Notifiable Scottish Public Sector Cyber Incidents Policy and Procedure.

The Scottish Government will not provide further details as this would likely cause substantial harm to the effective conduct of public affairs and the secure delivery of our public services.

This, combined with other publicly available information, would likely allow identification of the organisations that reported cyber incidents under the procedure. It would therefore undermine the confidentiality of the policy procedure and adversely affect the trust and openness with which organisations currently report incidents and participate in the reporting process.Making further information on the timing of past cyber incidents publicly available would have a negative impact on the cyber security and resilience of the public sector.

The majority of spend relating to the Enhanced Psychological Practice programme relates to salaried posts in NHS Health Boards, creating additional capacity within the workforce and enabling delivery of evidence based psychological interventions at enhanced level. The allocated spend to date is as follows (please note numbers of learners/practitioners are cumulative and there are ongoing discussions with partners about the programme for future years):

2021-22 - £377,446

• £224,538 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for 20 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
• £152,908 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, eLearning development, teaching support and consultancy, learning resources

2022-23 - £2,193,767*

• £1,925,908 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for up to 81 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
• £267,859 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, teaching support and consultancy, eLearning development, SQA fees and learning resources

*salary costs included in this figure are based on 2021-22 Agenda for Change rates and will need to be amended on confirmation of the Pay Award for 2022-23.

The Scottish Government is committed to advancing gender equality in Scotland, and since 2018 has introduced a range of legislative and other measures to implement the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Scotland.

This includes introduction of the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 to ensure access to free period products, introduction of the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Act 2021 to provide for consistent access to healthcare and forensic medical examinations without first making a report to police, publication of the Women’s Health Plan in 2021 to improve women’s health outcomes, and the expansion of free early learning and childcare provision. In addition, the Scottish government is committed to introducing a new Human Rights Bill which will incorporate CEDAW into Scots Law, as far as possible within devolved competence, andwill consult formally on proposals this year. Through incorporation of CEDAW the Scottish Government will enhance our efforts to eliminate the discrimination, traditional gender roles and stereotypes faced by women and girls. It will ensure a focus on fulfilling their human rights and development.

The UK’s 9th periodic report on the implementation of CEDAW is due to be submitted to the UN CEDAW Committee by the end of March 2023. In addition to contributing to the periodic report, the Scottish Government will publish a standalone Scottish Position Statement in 2023, reporting on progress made since 2018 under each of the articles of CEDAW.

This Government has delivered the highest school spending, and has more teachers per pupil, than any other UK nation. Our pupil teacher ratio is just 13.2 – its lowest level since 2009 - compared to 18 in England and 18.5 in Wales.

In our Budget we have sought to protect Councils by providing over £13.2 billion in the Local Government Settlement for 2023-24. This funding package represents a real terms increase compared with 2022-23 and enables the continued delivery of high quality education for our children. As part of this, we will continue to provide local authorities with specific funding of £145.5 million per year to support the school workforce.

The Final Report from the Oversight Group has been published today on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805254362

Overall, the report is positive. It highlights where progress has clearly been made but also states a number of areas where further work is required.

The Scottish Government will continue to support sustainable change and improvements in Tayside, to ensure the safe and effective delivery of mental health services. We will work with partners in Tayside to ensure a detailed improvement plan is in place, with clear milestones and deliverables which progress the key areas for action detailed within the Oversight Group’s Final Report.

We will measure progress against agreed key deliverables in this plan, working closely with NHS Tayside, Local Authorities, Integration Joint Boards, the Chief Officer for Mental Health and other Chief Officers in Tayside. These arrangements will inform whether NHS Tayside can be deescalated from Level 3 to Level 2 for Mental Health Services in the future.

The Scottish Government will provide additional support to colleagues across Tayside, including access to advice and support from Professional Advisors and Senior Officials in the Mental Health Directorate to support progress.

I would like to thank the Oversight Group for the meticulous approach to this work. I have particularly welcomed the wide engagement the Chair and Members have had with staff and people with experience of using mental health services across Tayside, which has been a critical aspect in the successful delivery of this very challenging, but extremely important, programme of work.

Staff across a wide range of services play a role in growing community mental health resilience and directing social prescribing, While it is not possible to quantify the total number of staff contributing to this objective, Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-27 outlined our commitment to funding 800 additional mental health workers in key settings, including A&Es, GP practices, police station custody suite and prisons – ensuring local provision and support is at the heart of our plans. At the end of the commitment, an additional 958.9 whole time equivalent (WTE) mental health roles have been filled using Action 15 funding. This exceeds the original commitment and includes an additional 356.1 WTE mental health workers recruited to GP practices.

We have also prioritised investment through the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF). At March 2022, 260 WTE mental health workers had been recruited to primary care settings. The PCIF also funds Community Link Workers (CLWs) as part of primary care multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs). CLWs also play a role in social prescribing by enabling people to identify and access relevant resources within their community. At March 2022, 249 WTE CLWs had been recruited to support GP practices.

Since 2021, we have invested £36 million in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults. We have made over 1,800 awards to grassroots community projects focused on prevention and early intervention, with the aim of building capacity within community organisations to support the mental health and wellbeing of individuals.

We are continuing to invest in community-based supports for children, young people and families, with a further £15 million being provided this year. These services benefitted over 38,000 children, young people, parents and carers in the first six months of this year alone. Many of these services include links to local sport and recreation activities, which capitalise on the benefits of young people being active.

The target intake for nursing and midwifery have seen 10 consecutive years of increases but we recognise that undergraduate entry programmes are just one route into these two critical professions in our NHS.

The Scottish Government alongside a wide range of stakeholders including NHS Boards, Higher Education Institutions and Skills Development Scotland is taking forward work to develop alternative career pathways into these professions including potential apprenticeship models and other ‘earn as you learn’ routes that will widen access into the profession to those individuals who may not choose the undergraduate route. These developments will allow people to study and work at the same time as they progress their career. These new routes aim to attract new employees to NHS Scotland and at the same time offer existing staff opportunities to develop and progress towards registered roles.

The Scottish Government remains committed to introducing a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service in Scotland. As a result of the Emergency Budget Review, the thrombectomy service was not reduced, rather the expansion of the service was paused.

The budget for thrombectomy and development of a refreshed stroke improvement plan has been increased from £8.6 million for 2022-23 to £12.5 million in 2023-24. Prior to the 2023/24 budget announcement, the delivery of a national thrombectomy service had already received over £16 million of investment.

Work is ongoing to establish the most effective means of further expanding access to thrombectomy, including how the increased budget will be best used in recruiting staff to maximise the number of patients able to benefit from this treatment.

We are also in discussions with National Services Division, to ensure that decisions taken on potential expansions of the thrombectomy service consider the wider access requirements of patients across Scotland and ensure access is as equitable as possible.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13391 on 11 January 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