Chamber and committees

We appreciate how difficult it has been for people who have had procedures or treatments postponed due to the pandemic. Putting the NHS on an emergency footing has meant the focus has initially been on urgent and essential care including for acute and persistent pain.

We expect patients to be seen within the most appropriate timescale for their condition following a clinical assessment and remain committed to ensuring that the full range of pain services will be available as quickly as it safe to do so. To support this on 24 September we published the COVID-19 Recovery Framework for NHS Pain Management Services, which was developed in conjunction with a wide range of stakeholders across the clinical community, third sector and patient groups.

In addition to this the Programme for Government 2020-21 commits to developing and improving the current Scottish Model for Chronic Pain, and to publish a new Framework for Chronic Pain Service Delivery in 2021. This work will also take forward a number of the recommendations of the Scottish Access Collaborative report on chronic pain which aims to sustainably improve waiting times for services. Together it is intended that this work will lead to less variation in the quality and availability of services for people with chronic pain, support the sharing of best practice and ultimately contribute to more prompt access to specialist support and services to improve people’s health and wellbeing.

Scotland can be proud of being the first nation to create and update our concussion guidance. Our medics and sporting bodies continue to work with sport scotland and the Scottish Government to ensure we have access to the most up to date global research.

The Scottish Government are in regular contact with our sporting bodies, whose medics remain heavily involved in the development of treating head injuries. Officials are also part of the Concussion Ed think tank, which is facilitated by the University of Edinburgh and brings together medics, academic research and policy makers from across Scotland.

It is the statutory responsibility of the City of Edinburgh Council to manage its school estate.

The Scottish Government works with local authorities to provide additionality to their own investment plans and Phase 2 of the Learning Estate Investment Programme will be announced by the end of 2020.

A range of new national data collection has been undertaken to inform our response to COVID19. This is addition to a wide range of Health Board level data collection, including some on secondary breast cancer.

There is work ongoing to develop systems for the routine collection of secondary cancer data, including secondary breast cancer. However, validation of these systems would require clinical time that we need to be focussed on seeing patients as we continue to prioritise cancer in the NHS. Any national system would produce results after several years, so is on a longer timeframe than the cancer recovery plan.

This will not affect a range of new actions in the plan, which responds to input we have received from patients, and representatives such as Breast Cancer Now. We will include specific national actions to address concerns raised by people with secondary breast cancer about being able to easily access the NHS again after treatment.

The plan will also include other key actions to improve patients’ experience of and access to cancer services throughout Scotland. We anticipate that many of these will have specific positive impacts for people with secondary breast cancer.

The Scottish Government provides funding for the independent cinema sector though Screen Scotland, the dedicated public sector agency for the film and television industry in Scotland.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government recognised the impact on independent cinema and provided £3.5 million of support through the Independent Cinema Recovery and Resilience fund, administered and delivered by Screen Scotland. This will provide vital support to 30 fixed venues, 2 touring cinemas in Scotland.

Throughout the year, Screen Scotland operates a number of support schemes for independent cinema. Since August 2019 we have provided £1,310,207 to 46 organisations Most recently on 30 June 2020, Screen Scotland announced £491,285 funding to 24 organisations from the Cinema Equipment Fund. This funding will be used to improve the cinema going experience in rural areas throughout Scotland giving more people access to the cinema, including a travelling yurt cinema group and mobile cinema equipment for 11 Hebridean islands.

For 2018-21 Screen Scotland provided over £12 million of Regularly Funded Organisation (RFO) funding to 9 independent cinemas including the Centre for the Moving Image, Glasgow Film, Regional Screen Scotland and Alchemy Film Festival.

Independent cinemas have also benefited from Film Festivals funding, Distribution and Exhibition funding and Targeted Audience Development funds. These funds have allowed independent cinemas to improve film festivals taking place at their venues, and they recently supported the replacement of the Screen Machine's tractor and the Drive-In cinema initiative delivered by INDY Cinema Group in partnership with local cinemas.

Detail on mental health spending and the NHS budget is made available each year as part of the annual NHS Costs Book publication and the Scottish Budget.

The Scottish Government is determined to work to support the festivals in the face of the 2020 festival cancellations. Since COVID-19 restrictions have been in place, we have worked closely with our festival partners and Creative Scotland to explore ways to strengthen festival resilience, including ensuring that as many existing commitments with artists and freelancers as possible are honoured.

To achieve this, at the start of the pandemic we immediately repurposed £3m from our PLACE and EXPO major festival funding schemes. Since then, all festivals, including the Edinburgh festivals, have been able to apply for the Pivotal Enterprise Recovery Fund, and those that did not apply for Pivotal Enterprise Recovery Fund were able to apply for the Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund. The Edinburgh International Film Festival have also been able to access support via the Independent Cinema Recovery and Resilience Fund.

In addition, the Scottish Government provided a £1m interest-free loan to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society to mitigate the significant losses incurred as a result of this year’s festival not going ahead as planned. Furthermore, the artists and freelancers who rely on festivals for their careers and livelihoods have been able to access funding via: Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund, Grassroots Music Venue Stabilisation Fund, Youth Arts Fund, Bridging Bursaries Fund, Sectoral Hardship Fund, Hardship Fund for Creative Freelancers, and an enhanced Creative Scotland Sustaining Creative Development Open Fund.

The Scottish Government, Creative Scotland and our festival partners continue to work together to provide additional support measures that can be offered to our festivals and artists to ensure that we can continue to enjoy our vibrant and world-class cultural sector once it is safe to do so.

Prior to 2008-09 the grant for flood protection was allocated to approved projects on a project-by-project basis and paid to local authorities as those projects progressed. From 2008-09 a number of ring-fenced grants, including the Flood Prevention and Coast Protection grant, were rolled up into a single General Capital Grant. However, the following flood protection schemes continued to receive funding as the Scottish Government had approved them prior to 2008.

We are continuing to work with Health Boards throughout the COVID19 pandemic and beyond to ensure patients are seen and treated based on their clinical priority. Guidance and direction has been provided to boards to help prioritise cancer, including all breast cancer treatments, throughout the pandemic and the Framework for the Recovery of Cancer Surgery continues to be implemented across Scotland.