Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to creating a fairer Scotland for all, including minority ethnic people in Scotland. This includes all racial and ethnic groups protected under the Equality Act 2010, which defines race as colour, ethnicity, nationality and citizenship. This definition of minority ethnic includes Polish people.

Over the last four years, we have allocated over £6m to support organisations working with minority ethnic people in Scotland, including those belonging to White minority ethnic communities. Our new Equality and Human Rights Fund, which was launched on 22 February 2021, is open to applications from any organisation working to advance race equality, including those from organisations representing Polish people.

The Scottish Government works closely with NHS 24, Public Health Scotland and third sector partners to ensure key public health information on COVID-19 is available in multiple languages and accessible formats via the NHS Inform website, which is Scotland’s central repository for public health information.

Key COVID content is available in 14 different languages and formats via the NHS Inform website.

In addition, the NHS Inform COVID helpline provides interpreter services to support conversations with people whose first language is not English. The NHS Inform website utilises metadata associated with all alternative language formats, which aids searching for content in these languages.

The COVID-19 National Door Drops that have been sent to all homes in Scotland for Covid-19, Test and Protect and COVID-19 Vaccines were produced in multiple languages and accessible formats. These additional formats were made available on gov.scot and NHS Inform.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-35051 on 11 March 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The cervical screening programme was paused on 30 March 2020 due to the impact of Covid and resumed on the 30 June 2020. During July and August 2020, participants who receive more frequent screening because of a past result and who had not received their invitation or reminder due to the pause in screening were prioritised and sent their invitations first.

From September 2020 invitations began being issued for routine appointments. The programme continues to face challenges as a direct result of Covid-19. However diagnosing and treating cancer early remains a priority. The Scottish Government has provided just under £1 million to support capacity in sample-taking and colposcopy. This was agreed following extensive consultation with Health Boards and primary care.

There are no plans to issue HPV self-testing kits nationally at this time. This is because the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) has not yet recommended that self-sampling should be incorporated into the cervical screening programme. It continues to gather and evaluate the evidence on this matter, and it is not possible to say when this will be complete. However, Scotland is playing an active part in supporting this work, and will also begin taking the necessary steps to ensure that we can roll it out as soon as possible once a recommendation is made. At all times, ensuring patient safety will remain key, and we will not act until we are assured it is safe to do so.

A pilot is currently being carried out by NHS Dumfries and Galloway which involves sending all screening participants aged 25-64 years of age who have never attended for cervical screening or who have defaulted on their most recent appointment a self-sampling kit. Findings from this pilot will inform our work going forward.

Plans in early 2020 to establish a Working Group to lead a wider project to contribute to this evidence base had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, these plans are now progressing, and the working group convened for the first time in February 2021. Their remit will be to develop a work programme that will ensure a range of evidence on different self-sampling use cases, so it can be gathered and evaluated, to understand what changes will be needed to the current programme to allow widespread roll-out in the future.

The JCVI’s initial advice is focussed on preventing severe illness and loss of life, first and foremost and this is why it focusses on older people and health and social care workers.

As we roll out vaccinations in Scotland, initially, there will be a limited supply of vaccine available and as such it is crucial we make the best use of what we do receive.

Decisions to prioritise one population group over another are not taken lightly, nor are they straightforward. That is why our prioritisation decisions have been, and will continue to be, guided by the independent expert advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The JCVI priority groups are based on either vulnerability to COVID-19, or on interacting with (and therefore possibly spreading to) people who are vulnerable to COVID-19.

The Scottish Government is pleased that a final judgement has been reached by the Supreme Court in the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Business Interruption test case . The judgement was good news for many small businesses. The Financial Conduct Authority has identified 370,000 policyholders as holding 700 types of policies issued by 60 insurers that may be affected by the outcome of the test case.

This is an extremely worrying time for business owners and having claims settled quickly will bring much needed support at a time of continued uncertainty. That is why I recently wrote to the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the FCA highlighting this issue and the need for claims to be settled timeously. I have also asked to be informed if any delays are anticipated and provided with detail on when claims are expected to be settled.

The Scottish Government welcomes the FCA and insurers work to communicate to all impacted policyholders what this judgement means for their claim. The FCA has set out its expectation that insurers should move quickly to resolve claims as determined by the judgement, making interim payments wherever possible.

Each Year, The Scottish Government provides half a million pounds direct to voluntary youth work organisations through the National Voluntary Organisations Support Fund. This funding is used to help build capacity throughout the voluntary youth work sector. The Scottish Government has increased flexibility for this fund to be used to help third youth work sector organisations during the pandemic. We have also extended the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) fund to 31 March 2022 to bring stability to national third sector organisations. These funds support a variety of national third sector youth work organisations across Scotland by providing core funding.

In addition to this and in recognition of the contribution made by the youth work sector, The Scottish Government have invested £3m in Youth Work to support young people most disproportionately affected by the pandemic. This investment will allow services to build on this contribution by providing interventions to support education recovery, based on an assessment of local and individual needs. This £3m investment brings the Scottish Government’s total investment in youth work in‎ 2020-21 to, at least, £12.5m – an increase of 30% compared to 2019/2020.

Public Health Scotland publish referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). The most recent publication in December 2020 covers data for the quarter ending 30 September 2020. These statistics continue to inform actions under the Scottish Government’s Mental Health Transition and Recovery, published in October 2020.

We want to make sure anyone who has been identified as needing support can access services that are appropriate to their needs. CAMHS continue to support children and young people in need of specialist support, although there will be adjustments in how that is delivered to accommodate coronavirus restrictions. Boards have responded creatively to continue to treat significant numbers of children and young people, their priority has been to ensure that emergency and urgent cases are seen. CAMH services are now working hard to return to previous activity levels and to deal with any backlogs that have developed. We see this reflected in the most recent waiting times figures - CAMHS activity is higher now than in the same period last year, following a decrease during lockdown in the last quarter.

We continue to monitor surveys, research and referral rates to provide us with an understanding of how children and young people are feeling during the coronavirus pandemic to ensure that the right help and support is available.