Chamber and committees

The review of the adaptations system has begun. Adaptations are an integral part of support for independent living for older and disabled people. The scope of the review is to identify and overcome the barriers to a streamlined and responsive system where adaptations are planned for, funded and delivered in a timely and appropriate manner.

Officials have met with a number of stakeholders and will continue engagement with the newly formed Accessible Housing and Independent Living Stakeholder Group to ensure all those who have an interest and those with lived experience are able to contribute to the review. As the review is ongoing the list of consultees has not been finalised.

The initial review findings and recommendations are expected in the Summer.

The Scottish Government is developing a new Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy, which aims to ensure that everyone in Scotland receives well co-ordinated, timely, and high quality palliative care based on their needs and preferences including support for families and carers. We have appointed a National Clinical Lead for Palliative and End of Life Care to drive this, supported by a Clinical and Practice Advisory Group and a wide-reaching Strategy Steering Group. The Steering Group is currently reviewing the information and evidence we have and need to develop the strategy, including mapping services and support across Scotland across all care settings including people’s own homes. We will develop a strategy that reflects what matters to people experiencing serious illness, dying and bereavement, and are therefore also reviewing the information and evidence we have about people’s experiences of palliative and end of life care, and bereavement, in order to inform our strategy going forward.

The Scottish Government recognises that all recorded information relating to its business is subject to Freedom of Information law, irrespective of its format or the platform on which it is held. This includes any information held in or originally generated in WhatsApp or similar messaging apps.

The Scottish Government has previously released such messaging exchanges in response to Freedom of Information requests. However, to ascertain the number of responses which have included such exchanges officials would require to individually check every FOI response the Scottish Government has issued. For that reason, this information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The Scottish Government’s budget of £126m is available to grant recipients to draw down until the end of March 2023. This means that there is still time for spend to be incurred, including grant funding to our delivery partners which we may need to accrue for if payment hasn’t been made before the 31 March 2023. The final actual spend for the 2022-23 financial year will be known when the Annual Accounts are finalised.

Transport Scotland is working with the grant recipients to ensure as much of the maximum amount of grant funding available is drawn down before the end of the financial year.

The Scottish Government has not had discussions with NHS Golden Jubilee regarding the use of the hotel to generate income. The Scottish Government does not hold information on the Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel centrally. We advise the member to contact NHS Golden Jubilee directly.

Scottish Child Payment was fully rolled out on 14 November 2022 on which date it opened for new applications to all eligible people in receipt of a qualifying benefit with responsibility for children under 16, and for people who wished to add children aged under 16 to an existing claim for children aged under 6.

The Scottish Government is committed to raising awareness of all forms of cancer, including brain, through our Detect Cancer Earlier (DCE) Programme, which we continue to invest in.

A new Detect Cancer Earlier campaign was launched on 06 March 2023 to reduce fear of cancer and encourage those with possible symptoms to contact their GP practice. The NHS Inform website highlights the common symptoms of brain tumours .

The Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer support primary care clinicians in identifying patients who are most likely to have cancer and therefore require urgent assessment by a specialist. DCE funded a clinical refresh of eight pathways in 2018, including brain, with revised guidance published January 2019. Work continues with primary care clinicians to raise awareness of the Guidelines and share best practice.

A new cancer strategy is under development, which will include a new earlier diagnosis vision for Scotland. It is expected to publish in Spring 2023.

The UK Government Apprenticeship Levy is a reserved tax on employers which was implemented by the UK Government. The Scottish Government has no direct control or responsibility for its operation

The Scottish Government has been clear that significant funding will continue to be invested in skills, training and employability to meet the needs of employers, the workforce, young people and Scotland’s economy. The overwhelming majority of funding, which includes investment in employment support and our apprenticeship programme, is available to employers regardless of their size or whether they pay the Levy.

Statistics published by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) confirms the following number of Modern (MA), Graduate (GA) and Foundation Apprenticeship (FA) starts/ enrolments in each of the last five years.

The third sector is hugely diverse and works alongside the public and private sectors across all services and industries, often providing lifeline services in our most vulnerable communities. It faces many pressures but we know that there are particular challenges given fixed grants and falling donations.

We recognise that the third sector needs stability of funding and the opportunity for longer term planning and development. We are committed to delivering a Fairer Funding approach for the third sector, the cornerstone of which is multi-year funding, and we are now beginning the roll out of this commitment. We hope this will provide a much needed stable platform to enable the sector to work to its full potential.

There are 56.3 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) obstetrics & gynaecology staff working in NHS Lanarkshire as at December 2022.

There are 35.7 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) obstetrics & gynaecology staff working in NHS Forth Valley as at December 2022.

This includes staff at all medical grades.