Chamber and committees

Every public information campaign has a unique set of objectives and associated target audience.

The Scottish Government carries out research to ascertain the most effective strategy and messaging for all public information campaigns.

In some cases, a well-known public figure can deliver a message in a more compelling way thus increasing the potential impact of the campaign. Where that is the case, the Scottish Government consider various options recommended by their rostered agencies based on the personality and profile of the celebrity required and appointments are made based on suitability, availability and level of budget (if any) required.

A new protocol is being created and put in place by the Scottish Government to improve the approach to vetting public figures used in campaigns. This protocol will improve the sharing of knowledge between public sector bodies and the Scottish Government central communications function regarding the use of public figures.

We will work closely with The Promise Scotland and partners across local government, social justice, health, the third sector, and with children and families to design and deliver the Fund. Further details will be provided in due course.

The commitment to investing at least £500m over the life of this Parliament to create a Whole Family Wellbeing Fund is significant. This will enable transformational change by building services which are universal, holistic support services available in communities across Scotland giving families access to help when and where they need it, and help Scotland #KeepThePromise.

Our ambition is that, from 2030, we will be investing at least 5% of all community-based health and social care spend in preventative whole family support measures that will enable us to continue to #KeepThePromise and create a Scotland where more children will only know care, compassion and love.

There are a number of reasons why a referral may not be accepted which include: insufficient information, does not meet the health board provider referral criteria, service unavailable, consent issues, patient refused service. This data is not consistently collected by all Health Boards. A new core dataset, the CAMHS and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND) is currently being developed by Public Health Scotland. Public Health Scotland are working with all Health Boards to ensure this data collection is of sufficient quality to report on in full.

Children and young people whose referral is not accepted by CAMHS are sensitively and appropriately signposted to a more suitable service within their community. The Scottish Government accepted all of the recommendations in the 2018 Audit of Rejected Referrals Report 2018.

In addition, we have implemented a National CAMHS Service Specification, which sets out the standards of service that children, young people and families can expect from CAMHS across Scotland and have provided funding to support Boards to implement the specification. The specification includes a clear expectation that services should have appropriate re-engagement policies in place.

Spaces for People (SfP) schemes are the responsibility of individual local authorities. It is therefore for local authorities to determine the length of time SfP measures should remain in place and to take decisions on their removal. Sustrans has provided support and advice to local authorities intending to make SfP infrastructure permanent.

The Spaces for People programme provided local authorities with funding to deliver temporary active travel infrastructure. As local authorities are fully responsible for the delivery of SfP measures, they hold information on installation and removal costs for individual interventions.

A total of £38.9 million was awarded to local authorities, Regional Transport Partnership (RTPs), the National Health Service (NHS) and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) via Spaces for People as set out in the following table:

Certification provides a targeted and proportionate means to reduce risk while maximising our ability to keep open certain settings and events where transmission is a higher risk. If the choice is between sectors and settings being closed and a limited certification scheme being used to keep them open, we believe that it is right to make a choice in favour of a limited certification scheme. We are working closely and at pace with sectors to finalise a proportionate, effective and robust scheme for each setting before implementation. There are a number of operational and logistical issues which we are working through together. All software, apps and paper copies of certificates will be free to use. Businesses will be able to use an app free of charge to scan the codes used on all certificates and there will be options for venues to integrate the verifier functionality into their own systems, as the source code is open source. Relevant impact assessments, including a BRIA (Business & Regulatory Impact Assessment), will be published when we lay the regulations.

Our draft Heat in Buildings Strategy notes that communities, large and small, will play an important role in driving forward the transformation of the nation's building stock. An Islands Communities Impact Assessment is being finalised alongside the Strategy and will help inform the final Strategy. We are currently analysing responses from our consultation on the draft strategy and will publish a final version in due course.

In addition, as set out in our Strategy, our new CARES programme will focus further on supporting communities to work together to address and champion heat decarbonisation on a local level. Through CARES we will work to understand further the models and solutions most appropriate for communities in Scotland.

Building on these approaches, we will work with stakeholders to ensure there is an evidence based, tailored service for islands and remote locations, and will set out more detail in our forthcoming Islands Energy Strategy.

All our current advice and support services are already open to those in rural /island locations. Home Energy Scotland (HES) provides free, impartial advice including specialist bespoke advice on home renewables. HES is also the gateway to loans and grants programmes from Scottish Government for energy efficiency improvements and zero emissions heating in homes in Scotland, for example the HES loan which covers up to 100% of the cost of measures and offers cashback of up to 45% on energy efficiency measures and 75% for renewables measures.

The National Partnership for Culture established a Measuring Change Group in August 2020. The Group has met on several occasions since then, most recently in August 2021.

We announced the launch of the new Just Transition Commission and confirmed Professor Jim Skea as returning Chair on 15 September. Further announcements on the wider membership will be made in due course.

Our response to the previous Just Transition Commission’s report was published alongside Programme for Government and set out our ambitious agenda to achieve a fairer, greener future for all. We are determined to get this right for the people of Scotland, bringing all affected communities with us while learning from unjust transitions in our recent history.

The previous Commission called on the Scottish Government to pursue an orderly, managed transition through the creation of Just Transition Plans for high-emitting industries. In our response, we set out our approach to just transition planning across the Scottish economy and I want the new Commission to play a crucial role in this.

Our new Commission will be delivery focused. It will support (and scrutinise) the production and delivery of Scottish Government-led transition plans.

Specifically, the Commission will be tasked with:

• Providing scrutiny and advice on the ongoing development of Scotland’s Just Transition Plans, including the application of the planning framework, as they are developed;
• Advising on the most suitable approaches to monitoring and evaluation;
• Supporting the Scottish Government’s ambition to be a leader in the international community and to take decisions informed by international best practice;
• Meaningful engagement with those most likely to be impacted by the transition; hearing from a broad range of representative voices to help shape just transition planning in Scotland;
• Publishing an annual report to reflect on Scotland’s progress.

The UK Government has been working with United Nations to provide COVID-19 vaccines to COP26 delegates that would otherwise not be able to access them. All those who expressed an interest in vaccination to either arrange appointments or set out next steps, have been contacted. For those delegates receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, first doses have already started. Second doses will follow four weeks later. For those receiving the single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine, vaccination will start shortly. Delegates in countries identified as having a viable in-country option, have been contacted. UK embassies are supporting these delegates with access, where required.

We believe that Naloxone should be available to anyone who might witness an overdose. Our overall aim is to widen the access to it as much as possible.

Since the inception of the NNP the Scottish Government has commissioned Public Health Scotland (PHS) to report on take-home naloxone (THN) kit distribution using monitoring data supplied by NHS Boards, this report is produced quarterly. The last report (covering 1 January to 31 March 2021) stated that coverage was now estimated to be 57.47% (an increase of around 1.5% compared to the previous quarter – 56.04%).

International evidence suggests that focus should not only be on the distribution but also on encouraging carriage and accessibility of Naloxone.

To improve awareness of naloxone, and to ensure people would recognise the signs of a drug overdose, we launched a nationwide marketing campaign on International Overdose Awareness Day (31 August), in partnership with Scottish Drugs Forum.