Chamber and committees

There is potential for outdoor settings to be utilised more often as schools reopen. The outdoors provides greater space for education to be delivered whilst physical distancing is in place.

In light of this, Scottish Government officials have held discussions with a number of organisations within the outdoor learning sector and this includes organisations that run outdoor residential centres. Those discussions have covered the potential for residential centres to be used to help schools deliver learning at a safe physical distance and for the experienced staff at centres to help teachers to effectively deliver learning in an outdoor environment. We continue to engage with the sector.

Decisions relating to school trips, whether to residential centres or other settings, rest with schools and local authorities. This approach allows guidance to be developed which best fits local circumstances.

Scottish Government officials have been involved in recent discussions with organisations that offer residential outdoor experiences. The Scottish Government is considering a proposal from the residential providers to develop guidance on accessing these facilities in the future and we will update relevant partners in due course.

In accordance with the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 the responsibility for the delivery of education rests with individual local authorities. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on outdoor learning, on the basis of local needs and priorities.

The majority of authorities’ education funding is provided via the General Revenue Grant. However, additional funding is provided via the £750 million Attainment Scotland Fund which includes Challenge Authorities funding, an additional schools programme and Pupil Equity Funding. This funding can be used flexibly to achieve equity in education. This can include spending on outdoor learning experiences.

In addition, in May 2020 the Scottish Government announced funding of £159,000 to expand Living Classroom’s Virtual Nature School programme across the country. This work will provide professional training and learning materials to early learning and childcare practitioners looking to take learning outdoors.

The Scottish Government has also provided funding to support the development of the ‘Going Out There’ and ‘Out To Play’ guidance documents. These documents provide educators with a comprehensive guide to all the practical and legal considerations needed to take learning outside and beyond the learning estate.

Following the closure of schools and to assist with planning for the blended learning approach, Education Scotland has also developed an outdoor learning ‘Wakelet’. This provides educators with access to resources, guidance and advice relating to outdoor learning.

Scottish Government officials met with a number of third sector organisations including Scouts Scotland; Girlguiding Scotland; The Boys’ Brigade; and the Outward Bound Trust on Friday 29 May 2020 . The meeting focused on challenges that third sector run outdoor education centres have encountered during lockdown. During that meeting third sector organisations put forward an idea of how to help upskill school staff in providing outdoor learning.

We are currently considering the challenges and opportunities raised during the meeting of the 29 May and we are committed to keeping Scouts Scotland; Girlguiding Scotland; The Boys’ Brigade; and the Outward Bound Trust informed of next steps.

Global supply chains for PPE have been put under immense pressure due to the pandemic, and some Personal Assistants will be needing to use or access PPE for the first time. That is why we set up supplies from the national stock to top up existing supply routes of PPE for social care.

Part of this was the establishment of local PPE Hubs in every Health and Social Care Partnership area for onward distribution or collection of supplies by social care providers.

These Hubs expanded their provision at the end of April to support the whole social care sector with all of its PPE needs where normal supply routes fail; including unpaid carers and all employers of social care Personal Assistants/home carers. SPAEN confirmed the system was working well in their contact with us on 18 May.

Personal Assistants or their employer can find out the details of their local Hub on the Scottish Government website . We have been in regular contact with SPAEN about this topic and they helped to pass on these details to their members when the arrangements were put in place.

The following numbers of items of eye protective equipment have been issued to the NHS and social care in response to the Covid 19 outbreak between 1 March and 31 May 2020, including the Tiger eyewear product which was recalled on 9 May:

Scotland is not a member country of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UK is, so that limits the engagement at formal levels. The Scottish Government has kept very close to the WHO briefings, publications, guidelines and advice through a variety of routes. Personal connections, online viewing of the briefings, summaries of WHO work and advice. The 4 nations Senior Clinicians Group call, which takes place twice a week, receives information from international sources, including the WHO, to add to its deliberations and advice.

Dr David Nabarro, WHO's special envoy for Covid-19, has been positive about our approach to the pandemic. He said that we are tackling it carefully and logically, thinking through how we make sure people are safe and how we make sure the economy can restart, layering these two concerns together. And I hope that most would agree with him when he said that we are levelling with the people of Scotland about what we are trying to work through as we deal with this crisis.

There are 6 drive-through testing centres in Scotland as part of the UK Government’s Expanded Testing Programme. These are located at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen airports, the Highlands and Islands University campus’ in Inverness and Perth, and Prestwick Airport. Capacity at each site is split between employer referral, self-referral and the citizens portal to ensure key workers retain priority access.

As at 10 June, the maximum sampling capacity each day is as follows:

Aberdeen – 1100

Edinburgh – 1300

Glasgow – 1300

Inverness – 1100

Perth - 1100

Prestwick - 1100

National Records Scotland (NRS) are responsible for publishing the Scottish drug death statistics on an annual basis. The last publication made by NRS was in July 2019.

We are currently awaiting details from them with regards to the date of publication for the 2019-2020 drug death statistics, which will include information on the number of recorded drug-related deaths during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Drug Death Taskforce (DDTF) and officials are in regular contact with Police Scotland around suspected drug deaths during this time.

NHS Lothian was selected to develop proposals for the national Adolescent Learning Disability (LD) Unit following a tendering process.

The LD Service proposal was considered by the Corporate Finance Network and NHS Board Directors of Finance in November and December 2019. The proposals have now been submitted to NHS Board Chief Executives and they have noted the request for designation of the inpatient units, giving their approval in principle.

There are still several planning and approval processes to complete before the capital and other support for the LD Unit is established.