Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government notes the position from the British Social Attitudes survey (BSA) which asks members of the public to rate how satisfied they are with “the way in which the NHS runs nowadays”.

We recognise that the NHS has been under significant pressure in recent years, in particular due to pressures arising from COVID-19.

The ongoing impact of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that many health services had to be suspended or reduced in scope and scale. This has affected almost all aspects of NHS planned care and as a result of this there are many people who are waiting longer for the care they need. Addressing the backlog of care, while continuing to meet the ongoing urgent health and care needs of the country, is a top priority for the Scottish Government.

We continue to prioritise investment in our NHS to support remobilisation and reform and to deliver world-class, sustainable services for the whole of Scotland. This is underlined by our latest Budget which provides £18 billion for Health and Social Care and takes forward our commitment to increase spending on the NHS in Scotland by at least 20% over the course of this parliament.

As part of our 100 days commitments, we published an NHS Recovery Plan in August 2021 which commits more than £1 billion of targeted investment for the recovery and renewal of our health service. This sets out our plans and key ambitions to address the backlogs of care by March 2026, which includes supporting an increase in capacity to deliver inpatient and day case procedures, outpatient activity, and diagnostics, which will be supported by the implementation of sustainable improvements and new models of care.

Alongside this, NHS Scotland staffing levels are at a record high and have increased for ten consecutive years. However, we recognise that our NHS has experienced unprecedented pressures since the Covid-19 pandemic. Our £300m of new support to help services deal with system pressures over recent months along with the £1bn-backed NHS Recovery Plan introduced a range of direct workforce investments and new measures to enhance Boards’ capacity for both domestic and international recruitment. Various commitments from these plans, such as the recruitment of 1,000 additional healthcare support workers, have already been achieved. We are continuing to implement vital workforce investments at speed.

In terms of the wider situation in Scotland, the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (SSAS) asks similar, but not identical, questions to the BSA and is due to report in Autumn this year. The SSAS did not run in 2020 due to COVID restrictions and was run in 2021 as a telephone survey which means that results for the 2021 SSAS may not be directly comparable with the previous SSAS findings from 2019.

Other sources reporting information of this kind are the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) and the Health and Care Experience survey (HACE).

The most recent Scottish Household Survey asked participants to rate satisfaction with “local health services”. Whilst this question does not exclusively focus on the NHS, satisfaction was generally positive in Scotland with around 88% of those surveyed reporting they were satisfied with the quality of local health services in 2020. Also from the SHS, 93% of adults trusted “the Health System”, making it the institution that adults were most likely to express trust in. Similarly to the SSAS, the SHS ran in 2020 as a telephone survey, meaning that results for 2020 may not be directly comparable with previous SHS findings.

Scottish Household Survey data collection is ongoing, with 2022 data currently being collected. 2021 data is being processed and is due to be published later in the year.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-household-survey-2020-telephone-survey-key-findings/

The Health and Care Experience survey (HACE) asks people to rate their experience of using Health and Care services in Scotland which is not the same as asking about people’s attitudes towards health and care services. Similar to the SSAS, the HACE was last run in 2019 with results published in October 2020. The next set of results from the 2021-22 HACE survey will be published in May 2022.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/health-care-experience-survey-2019-20/

From 18 April, we are no longer asking the general public to test themselves regularly if they are asymptomatic. This change is possible because of the progress we have made in our ability to protect Scotland’s population from the most severe harms of COVID-19 through our widespread vaccination coverage and access to new Covid treatments.

Covid testing in hospital settings for emergency admissions and elective patients will continue to be available, helping to protect vulnerable individuals in high risk settings and ensuring patients receive the most effective treatment.

Health and social care workers should continue to test themselves regularly to reduce the risk of spread of infection in higher risk settings; as should care home and hospital visitors. All ongoing testing in higher risk settings will be kept under regular clinical review.

As required under the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002, the scheme of charges will be set by Scottish Water’s Board, with approval from the independent economic regulator the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS). The scheme is subject to the cap across the 2021-27 period (CPI+2%) imposed by WICS’s Final Determination of charges and must be consistent with meeting the Ministerial Objectives.

Data from the Business Ventilation Fund has not yet been published. In line with all previous funds, the Scottish Government will publish data on the Business Ventilation Fund. This is planned for May.

Scottish Water’s Board is responsible for setting charge levels with approval from the Water Industry Commission for Scotland. Scottish Water takes both maintaining critical services, and affordability, into account when setting charges.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting people facing issues paying their water bills. The maximum discount for the water charges reduction scheme (available to households which are in receipt of council tax reduction) has increased to 35% - up from 25% and I refer the member to the answer to S6W-06329 on 10 March 2022 for further information on measures to assist domestic customers.

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

The Scottish Government is committed to the creation and improvement of Nature Networks across Scotland.

Nature Networks will be developed and delivered through local partnerships, and will support ecological connectivity within and between National Parks, Protected Areas, and other biodiversity-rich areas through the creation of habitat corridors and ‘stepping stones’. To be effective, Nature Networks will require development and management over the long term. We are therefore working with NatureScot and other delivery partners to develop a co-design and delivery process.

Nature Networks will be a crucial mechanism to deliver the vision set out in our new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and will form a key plank of the associated Delivery Plan. Our approach will take into account the wider policy framework at national, regional and local levels. Regional Land Use Partnerships are being piloted across five areas of Scotland to test inclusive approaches that facilitate collaboration at a regional level. They are looking to take a natural capital approach to maximising the contribution that our land makes in addressing the twin nature and climate crises. In developing our approach to nature networks we are considering how RLUPs can form a part of delivery. Nature networks have been embedded within the draft NPF4, to ensure that nature has the space to adapt to Scotland’s changing climate through linking areas which are important for biodiversity in urban, peri-urban and rural settings.

We know that the recent increases in energy prices we have seen will be concerning to many consumers including those using mobility scooters. Whilst the Scottish Government does not have powers over the setting of energy prices, we have looked to provide assistance where we can.

As part of our wider £290m package of funding announcements made to tackle the cost of living crisis, we have committed a further £10m to continue our Fuel Insecurity Fund from April to help households at risk of self-disconnection, or self-rationing their energy use, due to unaffordable fuel costs.

We are also making financial support for disabled people and people with long term health conditions more straightforward to access. Through the introduction of Adult Disability Payment, we are providing a new, simplified, compassionate system that will treat people with dignity, fairness and respect. The application process has been designed with disabled people to make sure it is as clear as possible. People can apply in the way that’s best for them, either online, by post, over the phone or face-to-face.

This data is not centrally available; aggregated data for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Waiting Times is sent to Public Health Scotland (PHS) from each NHS Board. It does not contain explicit information on the type of assessment or treatment children and young people are waiting for. It reports on the number of referrals for young people to CAMHS; numbers waiting to start treatment and total waiting; not accepted for treatment from referral and Did Not Attend status numbers for 1st contact appointments; and the time between referral and first treatment.

The CAMHS statistics capture children and young people who meet the CAMHS criteria. Children and young people who are waiting for a neurodevelopmental assessment but do not meet the CAMHS criteria are not reported in these statistics.

PHS are developing a patient-level dataset to provide detail for these aggregate CAMHS statistics. This Child, Adolescent and Psychological Therapies National Dataset (CAPTND) will contain reason for referral to CAMHS

The Scottish Government is committed to working with Boards to implement both the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Service Specification. The National Neurodevelopmental Specification was published in September 2021 and the CAMHS Service Specification was published in February 2020. These set out service standards that all children’s services should follow, to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland.

Scottish Government policy towards local authority spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant as part of the annual local government finance settlement.

It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them (including any funding for arts and culture).

Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) who are the National Development Body for the Scottish museums sector, distribute funding on behalf of Scottish Government.

Details of the grants awarded by MGS are provided below however please note that their grant processing sytem only provides details of the grants awarded since 2015.

a) Aberdeen City Council Area

The Scottish Government’s understanding is that the wellbeing assessment tool being piloted by South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership called the Autism Resource Co-ordination Hub (ARCH), is a support service for children, young people, adults and their families. It is not intended to replace services already provided by health, education or social work with regard to assessment, diagnosis or treatment of neurodevelopmental conditions.

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People, published in September 2021, which specifies service standards that all children’s services should follow, to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland. The ARCH service complements existing services and the Principles and Standards set out in the Neurodevelopmental Specification by providing the support provided by universal services, and the neurodevelopmental assessment pathway provided by NHS Lanarkshire community paediatrics and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

To support improvements across Scotland, £3.06 million was allocated to NHS Boards in 2021-22 to build professional capacity within Boards to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs.

In March 2022, Scottish Government also provided over £750,000 to five local authority areas to run tests of change on the implementation of the Neurodevelopmental Specification. These tests will run over the next six months and will provide learning and evaluation to be shared across other local authorities and health board areas to inform and assist national implementation of the Specification.