Chamber and committees

As was announced in the programme for government, we will open a Scottish Government office in Copenhagen next year to increase Scotland’s economic and cultural visibility in the Nordic region. In this parliamentary session, we will also open an office in Warsaw, as part of our continued commitment to enhancing our external reach and voice.

We anticipate that the new offices will be similar in budget and staffing numbers to existing Scottish Government overseas offices. The budget for these additional offices will be established as part of ongoing planning processes and upcoming budget considerations.

The Scottish Government welcomes the report on Non-Communicable Disease Prevention published on 6 September and recognises that its recommendations are in line with the Government’s own approach, based on the World Health Organisation strategies of reducing Affordability, Availability and Attractiveness of alcohol, tobacco and unhealthy foods.

We are committed to supporting individuals and local communities by delivering measures to target harmful health behaviours early and provide access to holistic and person-centred treatment when needed.

The Scottish Government are making paper copies of the consultation paper available on request. We have a dedicated mailbox: [email protected] for any individual/organisation who wants a copy posted to them. We also have a dedicated telephone number for people without digital access to call to request a paper copy. The National Care Service Consultation automated telephone number is 0300 244 2425.

We are still in the early stages of development in relation to the Carbon Neutral Islands project, and are engaging relevant stakeholders to ensure that the voices of islanders are fully heard. It is therefore too soon to determine how much funding will be allocated.

Our consultation on the National Care Service is very wide ranging. We are aiming to capture as many experiences of care as possible from across the whole population of Scotland. We particularly want to hear from people who access social care now, their families and friends, unpaid carers and social care workers as well as people who will access social care in the future.

We have had around 200 responses to the consultation so far on our digital consultation hub. We are also holding open digital consultation events as well as a wide range of other events and meetings with organisations and groups. We do not have information on how many of the people taking part in our consultation events or responding to the consultation are older people.

All responses to the consultation, whether received through our consultation hub or via other means, including at the events and meetings and paper copies of responses, will be carefully analysed together with contributions to our engagement events and we will publish this analysis.

To relieve some pressure on acute services, NHS Highland took the decision to pause their orthopaedic elective programme through August, and the board are continuing to treat patients on the basis of their clinical urgency and in line with the Clinical Prioritisation Framework.

Last year the Cabinet Secretary for Health and sport published a national Clinical Prioritisation Framework for Supporting Elective Care across NHS Scotland. This Framework sets out the key principles that NHS Boards should follow when considering decisions around prioritising cases on their elective care waiting lists during the COVID-19 pandemic. The expectation is that NHS Boards will follow these principles to categorise patients based on their particular clinical needs, ensuring patients with the greatest need are treated quickest.

We are working proactively with health boards to manage pressures and take rapid action to support increased capacity, including expedited recruitment, flexible deployment of existing staffing and supporting mutual aid across the system.

Moving forward, our NHS Recovery Plan sets out commitments over the next 5 years, backed by over £1 billion of funding, to support an increase in inpatient, daycase, and outpatient activity to address backlogs, which will be supported by the implementation of sustainable improvements and new models of care.

As set out in the answer to S6W-02758 on 21 September 2021, The Scottish Government are making paper copies of the National Care Service consultation available on request.

As set out in the answer to S6W-02759 on 21 September 2021, we are engaging with a wide variety of organisations including care providers and third sector, voluntary and charitable organisations to make sure that we capture the views of those with lived experience in the consultation. If requested, we will provide paper copies of the consultation and any other supporting material that is needed to make the consultation accessible.

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 .

To date, the Scottish Government has provided more than £2 billion to NHS Boards and Integration Authorities, with NHS Western Isles receiving £7.7 million, to address pressures arising from Covid-19.

We will continue to assess the impact of Covid-19, and its financial implications for our health service, in order to ensure that frontline services receive the support that they need throughout the pandemic.

By developing Carbon Neutral Islands that attract jobs and investment, the project aims to retain and bring more people to Scottish islands. It will be informed by the development of the Islands Bond policy and align with Strategic Objective One of the National Islands Plan which states that we will address population decline and ensure a healthy, balanced population profile.

A public consultation on the draft Framework for Chronic Pain Service Delivery is expected to begin this Autumn. We are grateful for the input provided to date by people with lived experience, clinical, third-sector and other stakeholders in helping us to shape this draft and welcome further feedback as part of the public consultation in order to help us improve services and support for people with chronic pain in Scotland.