Chamber and committees

The First Minister responded to the STUC Black Workers' Committee's open letter on 3 June, outlining some of the work that is ongoing to understand and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on minority ethnic communities.

The Scottish Government is deeply concerned by reports indicating that ethnic minority communities are disproportionally affected by COVID-19, and it is an issue we are taking extremely seriously.

We have been working to establish and understand the data and evidence in Scotland, and on 20 May we published additional information from Public Health Scotland (PHS), which included preliminary analysis of COVID-19 cases among minority ethnic communities. Although the data is very limited, the current information in Scotland appears to show that there is not a higher level of COVID-19 cases than would be expected, given the size of our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic population.

We are committed to continuously deepening our understanding of the risk factors and improving our analysis. To support that, analytical partners across the Scottish Government, National Records of Scotland (NRS), PHS and the NHS continue to work together to consider how we can better understand the impact of COVID-19 on people from all minority ethnic communities. We have asked PHS to undertake a review of the available evidence, which will inform future action. NRS are working towards producing an analysis similar to that recently published by ONS for England and Wales.

Also, to support the Scottish Government in making the best possible decisions, informed by appropriate expertise, an Expert Reference Group is being convened on 10 June to challenge and shape our approach moving forward. We are also committed to listening to stakeholder organisations, and the people they support, to ensure that concerns are heard and addressed.

The Scottish Government remains committed to playing its part to eradicate racism, inequality, and injustice, and to build a better, fairer Scotland for everyone.

HM Treasury has indicated that consequentials will be passed to the Scottish Government, and this will be confirmed later in the year at the UK Supplementary Estimates.

Local Authorities have the statutory duty for the provision of education and as such are responsible for the school-initiated engagement with pupils during this COVID19 lockdown. Individual schools have undertaken that contact in line with this duty.

Education Scotland’s Senior Regional Advisors have gathered intelligence on the way in which Local Authorities have responded to the crisis through their ongoing contact with council officers. This has included examples of the way in which schools have engaged with learners.

Glow is the national online service funded by Scottish Government and provided by Education Scotland. This learning environment provides learners and educators across Scotland with access to a wide set of innovative digital tools and resources designed to enhance learning and teaching across the whole curriculum. As the provider, Education Scotland undertakes regular monitoring and analysis of the use of the service.

Prior to the COVID-19 lockdown this analysis was carried out monthly. Since March, Education Scotland have asked their supplier, RM Education, to provide daily figures for the use of Glow. These indicate that there has been very significant increase in the use of Glow – from 3.7 million sessions in February 2020 to 12.4 million in May.

Education Scotland also meet regularly with Glow Key Contacts from all local authorities. Since COVID-19 these meetings have been increased to weekly. The meetings report on progress with issues, discuss any new problems and consider suggestions for improvement, changes or additions. The meeting also consider the enquiries received by Education Scotland and its suppliers to determine any trends or wider impacting issues.

The Scottish Government has, on a daily basis, been monitoring the number of settings/schools/hubs that are open for children and young people of keyworkers and/or vulnerable, and how many children and young people have been attending these since schools closed.

Research and survey activity is also being undertaken by a range of external stakeholders (such as academic institutions, private and voluntary organisations, etc.) which cover the UK as a whole, but some which only focusses on Scotland. These studies gather evidence directly from children and young people, in light of the current covid-19 situation, with regards to their thoughts, feelings and experiences during this period (including the impact of school closures and home schooling), and contributes to the evidence base on which the Scottish Government draws to inform and monitor the impact the current situation is having on the lives of children and young people.

Scottish Rugby, supported by the Scottish Government, undertook a comprehensive health and safety risk assessment which took into account the wellbeing of staff, spectators, stewards and hospitality staff who were in the Murrayfield complex before, during and after the match against France.

Following the assessment, Scottish Rugby implemented a number of measures, overseen by their Threat Management Group. This included cancelling conferences/events which were booked into the Stadium in the week leading up to the game, stopping all non-essential transport in and out of the complex, employing extra staff to assist spectators with hygiene, purchasing hand sanitisers and making them available to all in the ground. Scottish Rugby also assisted with the Chief Medical Officer making a hand washing video which was broadcast on the large screens. Scottish Rugby also produced signage and social media content to promote the Scottish Government’s public health and hygiene messages.

On match day, Scottish Rugby posted medical staff on entry points into the ground to be able to speak to spectators on arrival. They also set up a quarantine zone where spectators could go and seek medical advice should they feel unwell on arrival or throughout their time in the Stadium Complex.

These actions were also rolled out in other stadiums which hosted other Scotland matches, Scotstoun and Netherdale.

On 2 June 2020 the Cabinet Secretary for Health & Sport made a statement to the Scottish Parliament concerning the on-going delivery of NHS services as part of the Scottish Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this statement she indicated that work is being undertaken with dental teams to prepare for a phased introduction of dental services over the course of this month.

The Chief Dental Officer for Scotland wrote to all dental contractors providing NHS dental services on 20 May with details of the remobilisation plan which is now to be implemented as circumstances permit.

Remobilisation of NHS dental practices is an extremely complex process. We need to be mindful of the oral health needs of patients balanced against the wider situation with COVID-19, and the essential requirement that we reduce the risk of community transmission and protect both patients and dental teams. When making the decision on reopening dental practices in Scotland we will take into consideration the added risk of aerosol generating procedures on COVID-19 transmission and the availability of appropriate PPE.

We are working with NHS Boards on the development and implementation of robust mobilisation plans. These plans set out how Health Boards and their partners will maintain COVID-19 resilience, whilst safely and incrementally resuming services which have been paused and ensuring sufficient capacity to accommodate the expected increase in activity in those urgent areas that were protected as part of the emergency response. A key part of this work is to assess what plans need to be put in place for winter. Consideration of the local plans will be informed by Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design: The Framework for NHS Scotland , which was published on 31 May.

The level of PPE that police officers and police staff must use to fully comply with the Health & Safety aspects of operational policing is a matter for the Chief Constable of Police Scotland to decide. Police Scotland advises that officers can risk assess whether or not to use a surgical mask for routine policing activities where there are no symptoms or other indications of Covid-19 but where it may be difficult to apply social distancing measures. If there is a requirement for police support at an incident of suspected or confirmed COVID-19, wherever possible trained officers in full PPE kit will be deployed to attend. This kit comprises of:

• FFP3 Face Masks
• Disposable Suit EN14126 Standard
• Indirect Vent Goggles
• Long cuff Nitrile Gloves
• Surgical masks

Whilst the NHS remains on an emergency footing, we continue to work closely with all NHS Boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, to ensure that their local mobilisation plans remain as robust as possible; and consistent with the Scottish Government’s ‘Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design: The Framework for NHS Scotland’, published on 31 May.

Longer term work on the future of health and social care services will be taken forward under the Government's Renewal programme. A key part of this programme will be to meaningfully engage with the public and our workforce to establish what a safe, sustainable, high quality health and social care system will look like in the future, rooted in individual and staff wellbeing.