Chamber and committees

Free school meals are a vital support to thousands of children and young people across the country - ensuring that children have access to a free, healthy and nutritious meal on every day they are in school and are ready to engage in learning.

The Scottish Government and our local authority partners have reached agreement to introduce universal free school lunches, during school term-time, for children in primaries 4 and 5 during the course of the current financial year. Universal provision for all children in primary 4 will begin in August 2021, whilst universal provision for all children in primary 5 will begin in January 2022.

We are providing local authorities with £28 million in this financial year to deliver this commitment, which will see around 90,000 additional children become newly entitled to receive free school lunches during the course of the forthcoming school year.

We will continue to work with our partners in local authorities over the coming months to ensure that our commitment to expanding the universal provision of free school lunches to include all primary school children, during term-time, is delivered by August 2022.

The self isolation support grant(SISG) is designed to encourage eligible individuals who have tested positive for Covid 19 to self isolate for the required period to stop onward spread. The SISG will be available for as long as required, subject to budget availability, with no plans at this time to withdraw that support.

The Self Isolation Support Grant (SISG) is a demand driven grant with one overall budget that is not allocated by period or location. We have committed to providing funding for both the programme and administration costs for these payments. Local authorities are reimbursed for each award paid.

I appreciate how difficult postponement of treatment has been for people with chronic pain. We want to ensure people with chronic pain can access appropriate support, however we are aware of the challenges facing specialist pain services as they continue to remobilise during the pandemic.

We remain committed to ensuring that Health Boards resume a full range of specialist pain services as quickly as it is safe to do so and in September 2020 we published the COVID-19 Recovery Framework for NHS Pain Management Services to support Boards in this process. As set out in the Framework, we recognise that pain has a significant impact on people’s quality of life, and Health Boards are expected to triage cases locally based on clinical need and in line with advice from expert clinical organisations, including the Faculty of Pain Medicine and the British Pain Society. Furthermore, the Framework for Clinical Prioritisation published in November 2020 outlines that people awaiting treatment who are experiencing worsening or existing pain should be considered for prioritisation in line with the principles of active waiting list management.

I appreciate how difficult postponement of treatment has been for people with chronic pain. This includes those who may have had their normal treatment paused, including injections to manage acute pain, owing to clinical concerns related to an increased risk of COVID-19 infection or severity during the pandemic. We have taken a number of steps to provide advice and support to people with chronic pain during the pandemic, and remain committed to ensuring that Health Boards resume a full range of specialist pain services as quickly as it is safe to do so.

Last summer we published a national resource for people with chronic pain to provide information which was developed in partnership with a range of stakeholders including clinical advisors and third sector partners and is regularly reviewed. This guidance referenced advice on the safety of steroid injections from the Faculty for Pain Medicine (FPM) which clearly highlighted the potential risk to providing these interventions during the pandemic and states: ‘As with all pain management procedures a risk benefit balance has to be reached in discussion with the patient. Each case is unique and no guidance will cover all eventualities.’

It is important to understand that it is not appropriate, nor is it the case, that Scottish Government officials or Ministers make or influence treatment or prescribing decisions, such as those related to the provision of pain procedures, as these are entirely for clinicians in charge of a patient’s care to make. When taking these decisions we expect clinicians to be aware of relevant guidance and to take into account the impact of pain on people’s quality of life and any safety considerations.

In order to ensure Health Boards prioritised remobilisation of their pain services, in September 2020 we published the COVID-19 Recovery Framework for NHS Pain Management Services to support them in this process. As set out in the Framework, we recognise that pain has a significant impact on people’s quality of life, and Health Boards are expected to triage cases locally based on clinical need and in line with advice from organisations, including the FPM and the British Pain Society. The Framework also stated the Government’s expectation that people awaiting treatment should be contacted to advise them about their support options should the services they attend be disrupted.

Evidence-based caution is at the forefront of our decision-making, and we will continue to work with Health Boards to remobilise the NHS in the safest possible way, while also supporting Boards to prioritise elective activity on the basis of clinical urgency. As set out in the Framework for Clinical Prioritisation, people awaiting treatment who are experiencing worsening or existing pain should be considered for prioritisation in line with the principles of active waiting list management. However, the number of patients who can be seen, diagnosed and treated may be reduced by the continuing and necessary infection prevention and control measures. Any decisions to scale back elective activity will be taken on an evidence basis and where the need to support COVID-19 patients exceeds capacity for elective care.

The Scottish Government takes seriously the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of all individuals, including those experiencing chronic pain. That is why we have published the Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan which outlines our response to the mental health impacts of COVID-19.

The Scottish Government has made a commitment within the Transition and Recovery Plan to ensure that those who need mental health support as a result of delayed treatment of their physical health services are identified and directed to the appropriate support and care. This is part of our wider approach to ensure that people with a long term condition are also given support for their mental health and wellbeing and are involved in decisions affecting all aspects of their care.

An independent review of Adult Disability Payment will commence in summer 2023. We will consult with stakeholders on the specific details of undertaking the review, including on the appropriate duration, and will provide an update in due course.

Following a delay due to Covid-19, officials are continuing work with Local Authorities to develop both the secondary legislation required to allow them to enforce the National pavement parking prohibition as well as the Parking Standards Guidance which will underpin the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019. Additionally we will need to consult with the public on some areas contained within those secondary legislations and Local Authorities will need around 12 months to undertake an assessment to consider whether they wish to exempt, subject to certain criteria, any areas of pavement from the prohibition.

As such, the majority of the secondary legislation is likely to be in place by 2022. Some aspects however, such as the appeals process for those who wish to appeal a ticket issued for pavement parking, may not be in place until 2023. It is therefore envisaged that local authorities will be in a position to enforce the National pavement parking prohibition by summer 2023.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6T-00019 on 26 May 2021. The answer is available on the Parliament's website at: Official Report - Parliamentary Business : Scottish Parliament .

Glasgow City Council received additional discretionary funding of £769,000 to further help businesses affected by the increased period of level 3 restrictions from 17 May. Grants have already been paid and over 2000 businesses received additional support through this fund.

We continue to keep our vaccination programme under review in accordance with JCVI advice. By adhering to JCVI guidance we ensure that we are vaccinating as efficiently as is possible. The Chief Medical Officer issued a letter to all health boards and public authorities on 7 May 2021 clarifying the position regarding good clinical practice in relation to vaccinations.