Chamber and committees

Guidance on Self-Directed Support during the Pandemic (updated and published on 11 March 2022) addresses the underspend of allocated budgets. The guidance states "Where Local Authorities or Health and Social Care Partnerships have concerns about underspend of allocated budgets, these should be reconciled in line with local contractual arrangements." Local authorities were notified of the updated guidance in a letter from myself on 11 March 2022.

Once again, I want to thank our health and care staff for their magnificent work to date. The last few months have been enormously difficult and our health and care services are continuing to deal with a challenging combination of issues.

We are now seeing a steady reduction in new Covid cases. However, I am aware that the system remains under significant pressure. We must continue with a measured and consistent approach to the recovery and renewal of the vital service that we all rely upon. This will require balancing the capacity of the NHS and the wellbeing of our workforce to respond to increasing demands of emergency and urgent care, whilst reducing the backlog of planned care.

As we move through the next phase of the Strategic Framework, we will continue to support our NHS Boards to deliver against commitments in the NHS Recovery Plan and associated Delivery Plans to enable our NHS to plan and prepare the future delivery of health and social care services to our communities. We are confident that we have continued to build on lessons learned and that NHS Boards will be able to respond appropriately to any further challenges which lie ahead.

With that in mind, I have decided that the NHS will no longer remain on an emergency footing after 30 April 2022.

There are temporary terms and conditions provisions that were enacted to support the NHS through this time, including to support those who came back to work on a temporary basis to aid with pandemic response. We will now take the opportunity to review these, and will work through the established structures to set a timetable to return to normal arrangements. In the meantime, these temporary measures remain in operation.

We know that the pandemic has had a significant impact on the mental health and wellbeing of many children and young people. There is help available for anyone struggling with their mental health, including support for young people feeling suicidal – details are set out on the NHS24 website. Young people who are struggling are urged to speak to a trusted adult; to contact their GP; seek help via the NHS24 helpline on 111, or call Childline on 0800 11 11.

The Scottish Government set up the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG) to oversee the delivery of the Suicide Prevention Action Plan ‘Every Life Matters’, published in 2018. The Plan continues to deliver a wide range of actions, including: improving suicide prevention skills of the workforce; ensuring effective, compassionate support to anyone in crisis, and supporting local suicide prevention planning. In addition, the NSPLG identified restricting access to means of suicide as a priority during the pandemic, and is currently drawing together international evidence to identify effective approaches to reducing access to means of suicide for people in crisis, including self-poisoning.

The NSPLG is setting up a Youth Advisory Group to bring together young people with lived experience of suicide, self-harm and poor mental health. This Group will ensure suicide prevention policies and approaches are designed to reach, and support, children and young people; this includes informing the new suicide prevention strategy which will publish in September. Finally, the NSPLG is planning a social media campaign over the coming months aimed at young people, with the objective of encouraging young people to talk more openly about suicide, and to seek help.

We recognise that for some people self-poisoning is a form of self-harm rather than a suicide attempt, and the Government is actively developing a stand-alone self-harm strategy to ensure the right policies and support are in place for people who self-harm. We are currently working closely with stakeholders and people with lived experience to inform the Strategy and supporting Action Plan. We are already investing approximately £1.5 million over three years to Penumbra to pilot self-harm support services for people currently self-harming, or people at risk of self-harming. The pilots will begin over the Summer, with the learning providing valuable insight to the development of the strategy.

We know that providing emotional support to school age children is vital, and we provide local authorities with £16m per annum so that every secondary school has access to counselling support. Additionally, a learning resource has been developed for school staff to help them recognise the signs of poor mental health among young people, including signs of self-harm, and giving them skills to respond.

Finally, having provided £11.25 million to local authorities to respond to the mental health impact of the pandemic on children and young people in Financial Year 20/21, since January 2021, we have provided significant additional funding enable them to deliver further mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people in their communities. This new investment totalled £15 million in Financial Year 21/22 and we are committed to doubling the funding for community mental health supports over the lifetime of this Parliament. In 2021-22 this funding included £2.87 million to local authorities within NHS Grampian, which has enabled a range of services including ‘Fit Like’ Family Wellbeing Hubs in Aberdeen, digital mental health support in Aberdeenshire and whole family support in Moray.

Scottish Ministers are still considering the wealth of information provided through the recent National Care Service (NCS) public consultation.

In that consultation we sought views on a remit for the NCS to develop and manage a National Commissioning and Procurement Structure of Standards and Processes for ethical commissioning and procuring of social care services and supports. We will develop the approach to national and local level ethical commissioning and procurement with partners, stakeholders and those who deliver and receive care.

Local authority and other public service social care provision will remain important in delivering social care.

The Scottish Government appointed Dr Colin Church to act as Chair of the Independent Review of the Role of Incineration in the Waste Hierarchy in Scotland. As independent Chair, Dr Church determined the Review process, including seeking evidence from stakeholders through a written Call for Evidence and commissioning further research to inform the Review. Dr Church also held a series of public stakeholder events, which were attended by representatives from the waste industry as well as community groups, local authorities, non-governmental organisations and members of the public. Following these events, which were open to any individual or organisation who wished to attend, Dr Church held invitation-only roundtable discussions, one of which focused on representatives from industry and trade bodies.

Scottish Ministers are still considering the wealth of information provided through the recent National Care Service (NCS) public consultation.

In that consultation we sought views on a remit for the NCS to develop and manage a National Commissioning and Procurement Structure of Standards and Processes for ethical commissioning and procuring of social care services and supports. We will develop the approach to national and local level ethical commissioning and procurement with partners, stakeholders and those who delivery care and receive care.

Local authority and other public service social care provision will remain important in delivering social care.

Safeguarding our democracy is of upmost importance to the Scottish Government. This includes being an open, accessible and transparent government. Public officials, including Ministers, MSPs and councillors, are subject to Code of Conducts which provide a clear set of principles and standards for their behaviour, including how to avoid undue interference from external actors. We believe the public should have trust in those they elect.

Scottish Ministers are still considering the wealth of information provided through the recent National Care Service (NCS) public consultation.

In that consultation we sought views on a remit for the NCS to develop and manage a National Commissioning and Procurement Structure of Standards and Processes for ethical commissioning and procuring of social care services and supports. We will develop the approach to national and local level ethical commissioning and procurement with partners, stakeholders and those who deliver and receive care.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07563 on 22 April 2022. 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.

Safeguarding our democracy is of upmost importance to the Scottish Government. This includes being an open, accessible and transparent government. Public officials, including Ministers, MSPs and councillors, are subject to Code of Conducts which provide a clear set of principles and standards for their behaviour, including how to avoid undue interference from external actors. We believe the public should have trust in those they elect.