Chamber and committees

All funding for NHS Boards as set out in the budget agreed by the Scottish Parliament is allocated to NHS Boards accordingly.

Since the integration of health and social care, the Scottish Government has directed that an element of funding within the settlement for NHS Boards is invested in Integration Authorities. This has taken additional support available for Health and Social Care Integration to almost half a billion in 2017-18, and goes towards delivering the Scottish Government’s commitment on the living wage for adult social care workers.

The requested information is not held centrally. Consultant assessment panels are convened pursuant to the National Health Service (Appointment of Consultants) (Scotland) Regulations 2009; the process is overseen by the Royal Colleges on behalf of the Scottish Government. Relevant information on the number of panels convened and cancelled in any given year is published in annual reports that are accessible via the Scottish Academy website:

http://www.scottishacademy.org.uk/who.php.

Staffing data on school nurses is published by ISD Scotland and is held at NHS Board level.

Due to a number of changes in the recording and collection of school nursing data, figures published by ISD Scotland are not directly comparable between 1999 and 2017 and have been split accordingly:-

• Information on school nurses from 1999 can be found on the workforce statistics web site at: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Historic-Data/WFE01_HB_REG.xls

• Further information on school nurses from 2007 onwards can be found on the statistics web site at: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2012-11-27/Nursing_and_Midwifery_SIP_S2012.xls?52391154

• Information on school nurses from 2013 onwards can be found on the statistics web site at: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2016-09-06/Non-Medical_Trend_J2016.xls

• Information on school nurses from September 2015 onwards can be found on the statistics web site at: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2017-09-05/Nursing_and_Midwifery_SIP_J2017.xls

Scotland's approach continues to be to promote best clinical practice based on current evidence as outlined by Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guidelines. SIGN No. 148 Acute Coronary Syndrome makes recommendations on the use of appropriate diagnostic tests for cardiac events.

The cMyC test is currently the subject of research that will contribute to the emerging evidence base, which is in its early stages. Consideration of the introduction of new diagnostic tests is informed by advice and evidence-based recommendations made by the Diagnostic Steering Group, working in partnership with Healthcare Improvement Scotland, the Scottish Health Technology Group and Scottish Medicines Consortium.

The Scottish Government is committed to creating a modern, inclusive Scotland which protects, respects and realises internationally recognised human rights, and is working with the whole of Scottish society to deliver a shared vision for a Scotland where everyone can live a life of human dignity. The Scotland Act 1998 requires that all Scottish Parliament legislation and all acts of members of the Scottish Government must be compatible with core ECHR rights (“the Convention rights”). In addition, the Human Rights Act 1998 ensures that every public authority in Scotland is obliged to act compatibly with the Convention rights and enables human rights cases to be taken in domestic courts.

Scottish mental health and incapacity legislation is based on rights and principles. We believe that the 2003 Act is fully compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The 2003 Act has never been found, in part or in whole, by the European Court of Human Rights to be not compliant with ECHR.

During the passage of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 2015, the Scottish Government committed to undertake a review to determine whether the provisions of the 2003 Act fulfil the needs of people with learning disability and autism. Alongside the review, there is also the ongoing work relating to the Adults With Incapacity legislation and a full formal consultation will launch later in the year. It would therefore be inappropriate to consider wider changes to mental health legislation until these pieces of work have concluded.

The Standards of Care for Dementia in Scotland (2011) include the standard that people with dementia have the right to be treated in line with the law. Through implementation of our dementia workforce framework Promoting Excellence, we are continuing to support alternative interventions other than medication to manage stress and distress. The framework also details the knowledge and skills all health and social services staff should aspire to achieve in relation to the role they play in supporting people with a diagnosis of dementia, and their families, and carers. The framework should be used at a personal, service provider and organisational level in a number of ways, and for a range of purposes. Part of that includes understanding that legislation exists to protect the rights of people with dementia and safe guard them against any potential risk or harm. Systems must be in place to ensure that capacity to consent to treatment is considered and that appropriate documentation is in place when required.

Our legislation follows a rights based approach and the Code of Practice which accompanies the Adults with Incapacity Act (2000) explains that the use of covert medication is permissible in certain, limited circumstances e.g. to safeguard the health of an adult who is unable to consent to the treatment in question, where other alternatives have been explored and none are practicable. Practitioners are also referred to guidance documents covering Consent to Treatment and Covert Medication.

I also refer you to the answer to S5W-11345 on 27 September 2017. 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.

Improving care and support for people with dementia and those who care for them has been major ambition of this government. Over the last decade, dementia services have been transformed, with excellent contributions from staff working across health and social care, the public, third and independent sectors. In June 2017 we published Scotland's third National Dementia Strategy maintaining a focus on improving the quality of care for people living with dementia and their families.

The National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan will strengthen and harmonise workforce planning practice, take full account of the future demand for safe and high quality services for Scotland’s people and help to more accurately identify and address gaps in supply.

The Plan consists of three distinct Parts:-

• Part 1 focuses on NHSScotland workforce planning and was published on
  28 June 2017.

• Part 2, covering the social care workforce, will be published jointly with COSLA later this year.

• Part 3, covering the workforce in primary care, will be published following the conclusion of GMS contract negotiations.

These important steps will enable different health and social care systems to move together towards publication of a second full Health and Social Care Workforce Plan in 2018 and beyond.

As disclosed in response to parliamentary question S5W-09441 on 23 June 2017, health resource consequentials received and allocated between 2011-12 and 2016-17 are set out in the following table.

This shows that the Scottish Government has delivered its commitment made in 2010-11 to pass on health resource consequentials in full, with further investment over and above consequentials made by the Scottish Government in 2015-16.

Figures prior to the period outlined above are not available on a basis which is directly comparable between the Department of Health and the Scottish Government health portfolio. An example of this is the inclusion of spending on adult social care within figures for the Department of Health.

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.

From 1 January 2016 to 1 January 2017, the latest date to which figures are published, a total of 53 calls were made to the Whistleblowing Alert and Advice Lines Services (formerly the NHSScotland Confidential Alert Line). This figure comprises 40 public interest cases (whistleblowing) and 13 private cases (contractual).

Due to the independent and confidential nature of the service, the Scottish Government does not hold a breakdown of the total number of cases by NHS Board. Of the public interest cases, where individuals identify the Board they work for, the Board is advised directly in a format which cannot compromise the identity of the member of staff. This is done on a 6 monthly basis.

Figures are provided in 6 monthly periods then published online at the following link. Please note that the figures until 31 July 2017 will be published shortly.

The information requested is not held centrally at this level of detail. Specific local Information may be available from individual NHS Boards.

Information on Administrative Services staff (including support to Clinical staff), broken down by NHS Board, is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following link:-