Chamber and committees

We want to balance protection with empowering people to make their own decisions about what is right for them. We have introduced extra protection level advice (click here for table of extra advice )to protect people with the highest clinical risk, aligned to the 5 protection levels within the Strategic Framework. As the levels in a local area change, the protection advice for people on the shielding list in that area will change as well. People at highest risk should still follow the advice for the general public as a minimum, but these levels provide additional advice for areas like work, schools, shopping and contact with others.

We are encouraging people to adapt this advice to make it right for them. It is a personal decision how to balance the benefits of protection with quality of life. To support this and to assist those with specific health conditions, we sent (week commencing 7 December), everyone on the shielding list a booklet called Balancing the risks of daily activities during coronavirus ’. This will also be published on-line at mygov.scot.

Our aim is to provide the information, advice and tools to enable and empower those who are on the shielding list to make their own decisions about their day to day activities and interactions. This new advice and guidance will sit alongside a range of information and support including:

• SMS Text Alert Service
• PHS dashboard data on neighbourhood infection levels
• Information on specific conditions
• Individual workplace risk assessment tool
• Information on how to shop safely
• Online priority shopping slots
• National Helpline (0800 111 4000)
• Local Authority and Third Sector support
• Mental and Physical Health and Wellbeing support
• Offer of Vitamin D over the winter months

Throughout drafting our National Cancer Recovery Plan, we have had extensive engagement with our third sector partners, such as the Scottish Cancer Coalition (SCC). The SCC’s membership includes charities such as Blood Cancer UK, Myeloma UK and Anthony Nolan, who are able to convey the issues facing blood cancer patients. Alongside this engagement, Myeloma UK and Anthony Nolan were kind enough to share recent patient survey results with us, for consideration and integration into the recovery plan.

These survey results helped us identify the need for more emotional and practical support, which we aim to address through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme (TCC). Through TCC, we are funding a £18 million joint partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, which aims to provide cancer patients with a specialised nurse contact, who can provide emotional, practical and financial support.

Our actions around a single point of contact for cancer patients will also help with improved patient communication and navigation through diagnostic and treatment pathways- also identified as a key issue for blood cancer patients.

Additionally, Rapid collaboration is key to accessing medicines for blood cancer patients. We have asked that, as part of the recovery of cancer services, Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s (HIS) Medicines and Pharmacy Team, reframe the Off-Label Cancer Medicines (OLCM) programme in order to support the recovery and ongoing delivery of cancer services in Scotland. This is being taken forward through the National Cancer Medicines Advisory Programme (NCMAP), hosted within HIS Medicines and Pharmacy team and supported by a national group of key experts and stakeholders. This work will build on the existing benefits of the OLCM programme, such as improving patient outcomes, reducing unwarranted variation and improve equity of access, improving service efficiency and effectiveness, and improvement in the quality of assessment of treatments.

Alongside this, the NCMAP will reduce duplication of review and assessment beyond OLCM within regional prescribing groups and streamline implementation procedures.

This is a matter for the Office for National Statistics who is conducting the survey on behalf of the Scottish Government.

The COVID-19 Infection Survey began as a pilot survey in England with fieldwork commencing on 26 April, initially inviting 20,276 English households to participate. The first results for England were published on 14 May. Fieldwork began in Wales on 29 June and the first results for Wales were published on 7 August. Fieldwork in Northern Ireland commenced on 26th July, and the first results including Northern Ireland were published on 25 September.

The Scottish Government announced on 17 August that, as part of its Testing Strategy, Scotland would be opting into the now UK-wide COVID Infection Survey with the aim of testing 15,000 individuals per two week period. Fieldwork commenced in Scotland on 21 September and has been ongoing since then. The first results for Scotland were published on 23 October on the Scottish Government website and on the ONS website alongside results for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Department of Health and Social Care announced on 19 th August that the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey would be expanded to 400,000 people in England.

Decisions behind the timing of Scotland opting into the survey were affected by whether or not the survey would be expanded in England, increasing the scale and analytical potential of the survey in each of the four nations of the UK.

Recruitment into the survey commenced in September, with letters inviting households to participate in the survey reaching the first Scottish households on 18 September. Field work started on 21 September, with survey teams starting to visit participant households from that date. The initial target for individuals swabbed per fortnight in Scotland was 15,000 with the aim of reaching this target as quickly as possible, and maintained within ±10% of this target. The timeframes for achieving this were based on registration data from the survey in England. In practice, these initial predictions on uptake in Scotland were underestimated and participant registration levels were significantly higher than those observed in England. Therefore, in order to not overshoot the target, recruitment was slowed down.

The increased number of participants recruited earlier in the study allowed more samples to be processed by an earlier date than expected, thus increasing the amount of data available and allowing analysis to be carried out sooner than anticipated for Scotland. It was originally planned that the first results for Scotland would be published on 6 November, however this was brought forward by two weeks to 23 October.

The Department of Health and Social Care fund the survey in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. In-kind support is provided by the Scottish Government.

The cost of the survey is a matter for the Department of Health and Social Care. The information requested is not held centrally.

Figures published on 26 November show that the total number of eligible individuals in households that have registered for the study for each country in the UK up to 21 November, which ONS recommend can be used as the study sample size. It is important to note that each country joined the study at different times, and as Scotland was the last country to join the study, the Scottish sample size has had the least time to expand.

Management information provided below shows data on the number of scheduled, completed and missed visits to participant households there have been in each week since the survey began, from 21 September to 27 November. Data relate to non-unique household visits.