Chamber and committees

Neonatal clinical outcomes data is gathered from neonatal units in Scotland and routinely published by Public Health Scotland on their Scottish Pregnancy, Births and Neonatal Data Dashboard. The National Neonatal Audit Programme run by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health also provides a further level of detailed comparable neonatal clinical outcomes data for units in England, Scotland and Wales on their Data Dashboard, and in their annual reports.

Maree Todd: The Scottish Government recognises the import role parents and carers play in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. Because of this, we continue to invest in a range of initiatives to give parents and carers the confidence and skills they may require to support their children while looking after their own wellbeing.

The Scottish Government’s Parent Club web resource, and associated marketing campaigns, provide parents and carers with tips, advice and links to further information on how to support their children’s mental health and wellbeing from birth to teenage years. The website also gives information on how parents and carers can support their own mental wellbeing and maintain resilience. https://www.parentclub.scot/topics/mental-health-wellbeing

Parents and cares in Scotland can also access, free, online courses, expertly designed for parents, carers and grandparents on supporting the emotional wellbeing of their children. These courses are provided by NHS Education for Scotland, in partnership with the Solihull Approach. https://inourplace.co.uk/scotland/

In addition, since 2020, we have provided local authorities with over £50 million to develop and deliver Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services, for children, young people and their families, with a further £15 million committed for 2024/25. The services are focused on prevention and early intervention and, where appropriate, offer an alternative to CAMHS by providing support in a community setting.

Community supports and services are available in every local authority area, with more than 300 now in place across the country. Local authorities have advised that over 58,000 people used the supports and services in the first half of 2023. This includes parents and carers who have received advice and assistance on supporting their children’s mental health and wellbeing through; mentoring services, digital services, whole-family supports, counselling services and spaces for peer learning and advice.

Our latest tackling child poverty progress report against our delivery plan ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’, highlighted £2.9 billion investment targeted at low income households. Actions include our unique Scottish Child Payment which we have increased to £26.70 per week and is now benefitting around 330,000 children, further investment through our No One Left Behind approach to strengthen our employability offer to parents and investment of Whole Family Wellbeing Funding which aims to deliver transformational change to improve holistic whole family support.

'Getting it right for every child' (GIRFEC) is the Scottish Government's commitment to provide all children, young people and their families with the right support at the right time. The GIRFEC approach recognises that children, young people and their families need to know who they can contact when they require support. The named person, or equivalent role, provides a clear point of contact within universal services for information, advice or help.

The Scottish Government is also investing £12 million this year in free income maximisation, welfare and debt advice services, helping to ensure people are aware of their rights and entitlements, tackle problem debt and reduce poverty.

We are also proud that we have the Scottish Welfare Fund providing emergency support and a lifeline to people in need, through Crisis Grants to help meet immediate short-term needs arising from exceptional circumstances and Community Care Grants to help eligible people establish or maintain a home. We have protected investment in the fund of £41 million this year. Statistics show that in 2023-24, 96% of Crisis Grant applications were processed within the target of the end of the next working day.

Scotland is also the first nation in the UK to publish a Plan that works towards ending the need for food banks. The plan includes a £1.8m Cash-First Programme to strengthen urgent access to cash in a crisis and reduce the need for food parcels, delivered collaboratively with advice and support to strengthen people’s incomes and help prevent future hardship.

The WFWF budget has not been adjusted for inflation. Rather, we are taking funding decisions based on evidence and engagement with our partners about need, and our collective understanding about how to support transformational change. We have continued to prioritise the £50m funding for Whole Family Wellbeing to maintain the programme of activity which has been established across Children’s Services Planning Partnerships. This maintains our multi-year commitment of £32m to transform holistic family support services in communities.

We recognise that further support is required to sustain positive change beyond the lifetime of this funding. We continue to evaluate and listen to our partners to understand the realities of delivering our shared ambitions and intended outcomes for children, young people and families in practice.

The Scottish Government acknowledges the importance of transparent and comprehensive reporting on integration performance indicators as highlighted in the Accounts Commission’s report, Integration Joint Boards' Finance and performance 2024. The four national performance indicators that have not been finalised for reporting are:

• Indicator 10: Percentage of staff who say they would recommend their workplace as a good place to work.
• Indicator 21: Percentage of people admitted to hospital from home during the year, who are discharged to a care home.
• Indicator 22: Percentage of people who are discharged from hospital within 72 hours of being ready.
• Indicator 23: Expenditure on end of life care.

These indicators are not currently reported on because there is not yet a nationally agreed definition or the necessary national data is either unavailable or not sufficiently robust.

Robust data and digital infrastructure will be a key enabler of both our Data Strategy and the National Care Service. The Scottish Government continues to identify and invest in innovative digital and data solutions to support improvements in social care, and integrated care, such as the integrated social care and health record.

Work is ongoing to develop the integrated social care and health record, including extensive co-design as part of the wider NCS programme, with those who will use the record – such as individuals in receipt of care and frontline staff – at the centre of that design.

The Scottish Government has allocated £20,000 per annum to support the Makar since 2021.

The First Minister recently met with Kathleen Jamie at Bute House to mark her term and thank her for her stellar work over the last three years as Scotland’s fourth modern Makar, as an ambassador for poetry, in Scotland and overseas.

The next National Makar will again be appointed by the First Minister. The Scottish Government is considering the process and will share more detail in the coming months.

The Scottish Government undertook and published an Equality Impacts Assessment and Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment, as part of the amendment regulations made as payment reform. Further detail can be found at:

Supporting documents - NHS dental payment reform: equality impact assessment record - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

A Health Inequalities Impact Assessment would not ordinarily form part of the policy process in Scottish Government.

The rate of stillbirth in Scotland has dropped from 5.7 stillbirths per 1000 births (live and still) in 2003 to 3.7 per 1000 births (live and still) in 2023, what this means is that 125 fewer babies were stillborn in 2023 than 2003. However, we recognise that there is still more work to do to improve stillbirth rates, and the Scottish Government is committed to participating and funding key initiatives to reduce the incidence of stillbirth in Scotland.

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) perinatal improvement programme, established in 2013 has the specific aim of reducing stillbirth. Scotland continues to fund and participate in UK-wide audits including Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries – UK (MBRRACE-UK), which undertakes surveillance on stillbirth and makes recommendations for improvement, which we consider carefully with an expectation NHS Boards will review their local data and act on emerging themes. We also expect all Boards to use the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool to review all perinatal deaths in a systematic and consistent way to ensure, where possible lessons are learned to improve care.

We provide NHS Boards with information leaflets for pregnant women which include advice on important ways to help reduce the risk of stillbirth, including side sleeping, not smoking and monitoring baby’s movements. This information is also set out in Ready Steady Baby, a comprehensive guide to pregnancy, labour and birth and given to pregnant women in the ante natal period.

The Scottish Government commissioned research to evaluate the current public awareness of Face, Arms, Speech, Time (FAST), stroke symptoms and risk factors, which has now been completed. The results of this research are informing our plans for future work.

Scottish Government, Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland and Stroke Association all support the continue used of FAST. The current evidence base does not support a move to the use of BE FAST, but we will regularly review this position based on the best available evidence.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care asked the Specialty Adviser to the Chief Medical Officer for Stroke to review stroke recognition education for clinical staff. This review has informed the development of an education package, funded by the Scottish Government, to be delivered to staff in GP practices, Emergency Departments and the Scottish Ambulance Service. Although focusing on FAST, this education will also cover the less common presentations of stroke.