Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29407 on 10 June 2020. 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 .

There are several strands of work that are currently underway to strengthen the information about people living and working in care homes and also others who receive social care support.

These include: the Indicator Of Relative Need Tool (IORN); the development of the safety huddle tool which will provide information about capacity, staffing, testing and number of residents who have COVID -19; the data, analysis and research group, which has been established to improve our knowledge and understanding of the care home population and their needs, including in relation to Covid-19. The group comprises a range of key organisations and academics, including the Care Inspectorate, Scottish Social Services Council and Public Health Scotland.

Before the onset of COVID, work was under way to examine data across the social care sector, including on care homes, with a specific remit to examine process, outputs and outcomes data. Work was also progressing on capturing data at client level for those who receive social care and linking this to health data which has enormous potential in allowing us to understand the health status of those receiving support, including, long term conditions. It also enables us to examine pathways across health and social care. We would expect to restart work on data and evidence shortly as part of remobilisation.

Scotland already has an excellent programme of community surveillance, which allows us to monitor actively trends in the pandemic, both nationally and more locally. On 16 July I confirmed we will be undertaking specific surveillance in respect of schools and children/young people as part of my statement at the First Minister's Press Briefing. This will draw on Covid related information from a range of sources and will cover all school ages and the ELC phase.

Data published on criminal proceedings in Scotland is available online at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/criminal-proceedings-scotland-2018-19/
‎ Information on convictions under the Emergency workers act is available here. (please see Supporting Files tab > Additional Tables - EWA 2018-19)

The data shows that 170 people were proceeded against and 160 convicted under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act in 2018-2019. This figure is down from 2017-2018, when 194 people were proceeded against and 190 convicted.

We are committed to improving NHS staff safety and ensuring that all instances of violence and aggression are reported correctly so that perpetrators are held to account.

The Scottish Government is taking a number of actions to communicate clearly and regularly with those who have been asked to shield. A variety of methods are used to inform the shielded group of any significant changes to policy that will affect them. This includes; letters, online guidance, social media posts and messages sent through the SMS Shielding Service. Where possible, we provide information before changes are due to come into effect so that those shielding have time to prepare and adapt and published a shielding route map on 9 July that detailed all the changes we are expecting to make throughout July. A dedicated correspondence team is also in place to respond to any shielding-related enquiries from members of the public as well as MSPs or MPs.

We have also worked closely with key stakeholders to develop guidance that provides all local authorities (LAs) and third sector partners with the most up-to-date information which they can use to advise shielding citizens with accurate services and information. Similarly, every grocery package/box delivered to the shielded group includes a letter containing advice on relevant issues such as how to contact their local authority for further support with groceries, how to stop or re-start the boxes and how to sign-up for priority supermarket online delivery slots. The SMS Shielding Service is also used to communicate with people receiving weekly groceries: most recently to let them know that the service will stop on 31 July 2020 if shielding is paused, as expected, from 1 August.

Blood cancer patients cover a wide spectrum of risk, some are on monitoring only with minimal additional risk, to those where there is clear evidence that developing COVID-19 can have very severe consequences.

Those who are clinically extremely vulnerable, including some people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma have been written to by the Chief Medical Officer and recommended that they follow shielding measures. We have worked with local authorities and key partners to provide a comprehensive package of support to enable people to shield, which includes an SMS system and local phone lines to access free deliveries of food and household items, delivered to people’s doorstep, as well as priority delivery slots from supermarkets and delivery of prescriptions.

Not everyone living with blood cancer is required to shield. Some of those living with blood cancer who aren’t required to shield are still at an increased risk from severe illness from COVID-19 and should be particularly stringent in following physical distancing measures along with hand washing and cough hygiene.

The Scottish Government has worked closely with specialist advisory groups to develop specific guidance around cancer during the pandemic. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.scot/groups/national-covid-19-cancer-treatment-response-group/ .

We have also produced condition specific guidance, including for cancer, available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-tailored-advice-for-those-who-live-with-specific-medical-conditions/ .

Guidance is regularly reviewed as evidence changes and our user research gives us patient feedback and insights into usage.

The development timetable for the new Edinburgh Cancer Centre has not been impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic. We are in regular contact with the centre project team, with officials meeting them on 22 July 2020.

The Initial Agreement for the Re-Provision of the Edinburgh Cancer Centre is currently going through the NHS Lothian governance process. They intend to submit the Initial Agreement to the Scottish Government Capital Investment Group in October 2020.

The shortened midwifery programme was a pilot designed to meet short term workforce shortage in the North of Scotland. This is only one of the education programmes which supplies newly qualified midwives to the North of Scotland. Our latest workforce projections suggest that it is unnecessary to commission a third cohort at this stage and we will continue to monitor the progress of the current two cohorts on the pilot programme. This will be kept under review as we work in partnership with our health and care services and universities to assess midwifery workforce requirements and pre-registration education provision across Scotland in the coming months.

Midwifery is a controlled subject and in December 2019 we announced an increase to student intake of 5% in 20-21 bringing the commissioned number for 20-21 to 270. This is over 65% greater than the commissioned number in 2014, and almost 50% more than in 2016, the year in which students who most recently entered the workforce commenced their studies.