Chamber and committees

The First Minister announced on 30 th March 2020 that work will begin to transform the Scottish Exhibition Centre in Glasgow into a temporary hospital.

The NHS Louisa Jordan will increase capacity in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This will be an NHS hospital, staffed and operated by the National Health Service. It will have beds for 300 patients initially with capacity to take over 1000 patients.

NHS Scotland currently has 13,105 staffed beds in acute specialties.

The Scottish Government is providing an additional £45 million to local authorities for the provision of awards from the Scottish Welfare Fund. £22 million of that will be distributed immediately using the current SIMD model as set out in the following table. The remaining £23 million will be distributed later and targeted where it is needed most:

Scottish Welfare Fund allocations to local authorities

The Scottish Government is in regular dialogue with Energy UK and individual energy companies to understand the impact of the Covid 19 on their operations and on energy consumers.

There has been ministerial and official engagement with suppliers and Ofgem focused on the difficulties that vulnerable customers may be facing at this time, and measures being taken to encourage customers to engage early with their supplier(s). In order to address these impacts, suppliers have agreed to a number of actions including deferring payments wherever possible and taking additional steps to identify consumers at risk.

There has been no substantive discussion with suppliers on energy tariffs themselves, albeit we have recently been made aware of early engagement suppliers are taking forward with UK Ministers in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on these matters as well as business impacts on the sector, given legislative and regulatory powers currently sit with UK Ministers and the UK Parliament, as a consequence of provisions of the Scotland Act (1998).

The Scottish Government is making available £350 million of funding to support local government, the third sector, communities and people during this unprecedented public health emergency. This coherent, substantial package of funding and support will address the financial, social and geographical vulnerability of individuals and communities.

The additional funding includes £50 million to support local authorities with their own resilience and hardship plans; £45 million for the Scottish Welfare Fund; £50 million to help meet additional demand on the Council Tax Reduction scheme; a £70 million Food Fund to support families and older people who would otherwise be unable to access food; £40 million to help communities respond to local needs and challenges ; £48 million enabling support for national and local action by the third sector to reach the most vulnerable groups; and £20 million for third sector organisations who need capital to tide them over.

It will ensure that people facing financial hardship as a result of the economic impact of social distancing and self-isolation measures have access to direct financial help; that local authorities have additional resource to respond to local need; that charities, third sector, community and social enterprise organisations remain resilient and able to meet new demand with effective and local level solutions; and that no-one faces food insecurity as a result of Covid-19.

The Scottish Government is working closely with the UK Government, a range of organisations and sectors to ensure that individuals facing financial difficulties as a consequence of the Covid-19 outbreak are supported. I announced on 18 March in Parliament that the Scottish Government has introduced a £350m package of funding and coordinated support for individuals and communities affected by COVID-19. I will continue to ensure that the Parliament is kept informed as we continue to support communities and individuals across Scotland.

The Scottish Government issued guidance on 26 March that provides further information to support education authorities and schools in their considerations and plans in relation to vulnerable pupils, including those with complex additional support needs, whilst schools are closed.

On 23 March the Health Secretary, Jeane Freeman confirmed that local authorities have been asked to increase support for care at home, nursing homes and care homes to reduce delayed discharges and free up hospital beds. The Health Secretary confirmed to CoSLA that, subject to expenditure being aligned to local plans, the Scottish Government will meet additional costs to increase support and staff capacity in social care.

All pregnant women will continue to receive high quality care from maternity professionals throughout the period when we are dealing with COVID-19. This is a fast moving situation and there are currently significant pressures on staffing across NHS Health Scotland and maternity care, both in acute and community settings remains a priority service. We are looking to deliver services in different ways, including using phone or telehealth consulting where appropriate. Service provision is being evaluated daily, with the aim of continuing to provide choice of place of birth as far as possible, whilst recognising the staffing pressures. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, supported by the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, have published guidance for healthcare professionals and pregnant woman available at https://www.rcog.org.uk/en/guidelines-research-services/guidelines/coronavirus-pregnancy/

The Scottish Government is doing everything it can to ensure we have sufficient numbers of staff on the ground who are well supported in these challenging times.

NHS Education for Scotland has created a new Health and Social Care Covid19 Accelerated Recruitment Portal. The Portal is accessible through the NHS Careers website at:

https://careers.nhs.scot/coronavirus-covid-19-recruitment/

The portal is the gateway to accelerated employment across health and social care. It will enable those with relevant skills and experience to come forward and support health and social care services at this time of national emergency. It will apply to those who are registered, whose registration has lapsed, or who are enrolled on a healthcare profession qualification with a university or a college.

The Welfare Funds (Scotland) Regulations 2016 allow for more than 3 awards in a rolling 12 month period where the local authority considers there are exceptional circumstances. We have written to local authorities to remind them of this, to make it clear that we consider the current circumstances exceptional and to advise them to suspend the 3 award maximum.

Individuals may also apply for a Community Care Grant to meet needs that arise out of exceptional pressure on the applicant or a member of their family. Local authorities have discretion as to how they assess the degree of that pressure in terms of its effect on the individual family as well as the type of pressure, or how common it is.

Officials are in regular contact with local authority colleagues to monitor issues as they arise and to identify any areas where further help or flexibility is needed.