Chamber and committees

Information relating to the design of the water systems for both The Baird Family Hospital and The ANCHOR Centre was submitted to Scottish Water in December 2022 and notification was received on 28th February 2023, confirming that the application complied with the guidelines in the current edition of Water for Scotland. The design of the water systems is in line with the principles of relevant guidance, including Scottish Health Technical Memorandum (SHTM) 04-01 Water Safety for Healthcare Premises (Part A relates to design, installation and testing). The design also meets requirements set out in the Scottish Water Byelaws; Water Supply Regulations; HSE Approved Code of Practice (L8) and relevant British Standards.

The design of the water system was also subject to an interim design review by NHS Scotland Assure and a series of observations were made by the review team which were addressed by the design team as part of the close out process for the interim review.

Furthermore, no new health facility in Scotland can open until NHS Scotland Assure have indicated that they are satisfied with the facility; this includes checking the safety of drinking water. The Baird Family Hospital and The ANCHOR Centre will be subject to this extensive process of review, prior to it opening to patients.

There have been no material changes to the design of either the Baird Family Hospital or the ANCHOR Centre agreed to date. An important part of any large capital project however, is the ongoing testing and refinement of the design, in particular the mechanical and electrical aspects. This process, informed by a range of internal and external experts and subject to independent review led by NHS Scotland Assure, is intended to provide assurance of compliance with the most up to date standards and also that learning from recent large projects is incorporated appropriately.

The Scottish Government liaise closely on an ongoing basis with NHS Grampian to ensure that any emerging pressures on the project are managed appropriately and this includes the outcomes and recommended action arising from the design review processes. The report on the recent NHS Scotland Assure Review of the ANCHOR Centre Construction stage is expected shortly and any associated action will be reported to the next NHS Grampian Board meeting 6 April 2023.

NHS Scotland’s staffing levels are at a historic high, staffing levels have grown by over 2,900 whole time equivalent, permanent staff, representing ten years of consecutive growth.

NHS Boards are responsible for ensuring they have local policies in place to effectively recruit and retain staff. We support this through our National Workforce Strategy, which outlines the actions we will take in partnership with boards to plan, attract, train, employ and nurture the health and social care workforce.

NHS Education Scotland publishes official workforce statistics on the NHS workforce, providing evidence of the effectiveness of recruitment and retention policies of NHS Boards.

The NDAP process was an iterative process undertaken over a number of months, involving the NDAP Team from NHS Scotland Assure, the NHS Grampian Project team, key stakeholders, Graham Construction and their design team. The NHS Grampian Project team worked through each of the NDAP issues with stakeholders, until a design solution that met the needs of all parties was achieved and evidenced, in line with appropriate standards and guidance. This led to a ‘supported’ NDAP Report.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15497 on 16 March 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

There are currently 56 stations equipped with defibrillators across the 359 railway stations on Scotland’s Railway. This includes stations with some of the highest footfall across the Scottish network, including Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central and Paisley Gilmour Street.

I can confirm that EY is meeting the STUC and trade unions to discuss Project Neptune on 20th March.

The Scottish Government is committed to keeping The Promise and improving the outcomes of care experienced children and young people in education. To achieve this we continue to work with partners, including Education Scotland, COSLA and ADES.

Our national guidance, Included, Engaged and Involved Part 2 , is clear that exclusion should be used as a measure of last resort. The guidance includes particular considerations regarding the exclusion of care experienced young people.

Engagement activity includes with the Scottish Advisory Group for Relationships and Behaviour in Schools (SAGRABIS), to consider exclusion in the context of promoting positive relationships and behaviour in schools.

The Scottish Government remains committed to Keeping The Promise by 2030, working in partnership with all partners including Local Authorities, the third sector and importantly the care community to create the conditions for change at a national and local level.

We continue to support a wide range of projects and initiatives across communities in Scotland that improve outcomes for children, young people, adults and families who are care experienced and those on the edges of care.

The Scottish Government has committed £4 million per year up to March 2025 for The Promise Partnership Fund which launched in 2021. This has been established to help organisations with early intervention and to deliver changes to better support children, young people and families in or on the edges of care.

The 2023-24 budget allocated £30 million towards Keeping The Promise to children and families with care experience. In addition, £50 million has been allocated for Whole Family Wellbeing Funding. This funding will focus on the system changes required to shift investment towards early intervention and prevention activities, to ensure families can access support before they reach crisis point.

We have already implemented some measures, such as tightening waste exemptions, and are undertaking work to consider further measures similar to those mentioned in the UK Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan 2023.

In addition, where the necessary powers to tackle opportunities for waste crime are reserved, we are working with UK Government to ensure the interests of Scotland are fully considered. This includes in the development of a ban on exporting plastic waste to non-OECD countries.