Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has updated its advice on vitamin D supplementation for ages 6 months and over in line with the new Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition recommendations on vitamin D. The revised guidance is set out in full at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Healthy-Living/Food-Health/vitaminD

It is important that we ensure that people are aware of the importance of vitamin D. The Scottish Government is currently considering how best to raise awareness of the new recommendations amongst the general public, particularly those most at risk of vitamin D deficiency. Healthcare professionals play an important role in raising awareness of the importance of vitamin D and we will work to ensure that they are fully aware of these new recommendations.

In addition, the Scottish Government will offer free vitamins, which contain the recommended daily dose of vitamin D, to all pregnant women from Spring 2017.

The Scottish Government continues to provide national funding to NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to increase specialist dementia training and increased capability for social care staff supporting people with dementia in care homes.

Specialist dementia training offered by NES to care home workers covers areas such as stress and distress, cognitive stimulation therapy and palliative and end of life care. SSSC has developed of a network of over 1,000 Dementia Ambassadors, the majority of which work in care homes and are committed to increasing their knowledge and skills about dementia. There was a 50% rise in the number of Ambassadors in
2015-16.

The SSSC will also provide appropriate support to the Care Inspectorate in their Spotlight on Dementia inspection programme – 150 dementia-focussed inspections in care homes in 2016-17, with a report to be published in 2017.

It is the responsibility of the NHS Health Boards to provide services appropriate to the needs of their local population.

Currently, NHS Ayrshire and Arran are taking forward a proposal for a secure forensic Mental Health inpatient unit for young people to develop an application for consideration by the National Professional Patient and Public Reference Group and the National Specialist Services Committee in early 2017.

The Scottish Government is funding a report into a 5 year survey of need for mental health inpatient care for children and young people in Scotland with Learning Disability and/ or Autism; this is in progress.

Recommendations regarding ward managers are for the NHS Health Boards to respond to.

It may be clinically judged to be more appropriate to admit young people to adult wards or the young person and their family may have a preference for an admission to a local adult ward. Most of these admissions will be young people aged 16 or 17.

It is the responsibility of the NHS Health Boards to provide services appropriate to the needs of their local population.

Work has previously been carried out on behalf of NHS Directors of Planning and the conclusion was that CAMHS IPCU capacity should be developed at regional level. We expect the NHS Health Board regions to deliver on this.

Recommendations regarding availability of age-appropriate activities are actions for NHS Health Boards to respond to.

The Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 introduced improved rules on social and environmental matters. Public bodies are able to include relevant social and environmental characteristics as part of the procurement process, this can include factors directly linked to the production process.

In addition the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 introduced a sustainable procurement duty, which places sustainable and socially responsible purchasing at the heart of public procurement processes. The duty includes a requirement for public bodies to consider how in conducting the procurement process it can improve the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of their area.

Whilst the Scottish Government has implemented the legal framework, it is for individual public bodies to determine, on a case by case basis, what selection and award criteria are relevant and proportionate, in order to assess the capacity and capability of bidders to deliver the public contract.

The Healthier, Wealthier Children (HWC) model is being rolled out through our commitment to enable NHS Scotland to support income maximisation because it is known that many families with young children and pregnant women are not aware of the benefits they are entitled too.

Through the Early years collaborative a number of Community Planning Partnerships including Edinburgh, Scottish Borders, Inverclyde and the Lanarkshires are testing income maximisation support involving midwives signposting pregnant women and families with young children to local advice about welfare and benefits. NHS Highland is spreading this activity throughout its midwifery services. This work is now part of a coordinated spread plan.

In addition, NHS Health Scotland has pledged working in partnership with NHS Boards to develop national referral pathways between NHS services and local advice services to maximise the income of patients by 2018. To aid these commitments NHS Health Scotland have developed a new eLearning module on child poverty health and wellbeing which was launched this month. The module is particularly relevant to health visitors and midwives and is a good example of ways to help raise the awareness of child poverty - and the impact it has on children’s health and wellbeing.

Also, a key aspect of the support for this kind of activity is the expansion of community Links Workers nationally which shares the same principles as the HWC programme. We will have 250 Links Workers in place by the end of the Parliament.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-02962 on 7 October 2016. 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

As was noted in the Parliamentary debate on Employability Services on 5 October 2016, the Scottish Government believes that devolved employment services will be better if they are voluntary, an approach consistent with other devolved skills and employability support. We have now been advised twice by DWP Ministers that this is a matter for the Scottish Government in relation to both our employability services in 2017 and those in the future. We will continue to press the UK Government for confirmation that their benefit conditionality requirements won’t impact on voluntary engagement on devolved services.