Chamber and committees

Some key workers, such as pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, are included in the top priority groups, and already eligible for a vaccine, but other pharmacy staff including drivers and medical home care delivery drivers who deliver medication and equipment to patient homes are not included in the priority list.

The decision is to not prioritise other pharmacy staff for the following reasons:

• Criticality of service is not an indication for priority vaccination because clinical risk is the overriding concern. This is influenced most greatly by age, not occupation.
• Currently there is no sectoral prioritisation of any workers other than frontline health and social care workers.
• Individual staff will be called forward for vaccination according to their position on the priority list, if they are eligible within the JCVI Cohorts.

Our prioritisation decisions have been, and will continue to be, informed and guided by the independent expert advice from the JCVI.

Key workers including pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, are included in the JCVI priority groups, and are already eligible for a vaccine under cohort 2.

The full JCVI priority list is currently:

• residents in a care home for older adults and their carers

• all those 80 years of age and over, and frontline health and social care workers

• all those 75 years of age and over

• all those 70 years of age and over, and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals

• all those 65 years of age and over

• all those aged 16 to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality

• all those 60 years of age and over

• all those 55 years of age and over

• all those 50 years of age and over

To save lives it is essential that vaccination be given to the first priority groups as set by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), these being residents in a care home for older adults and their carers, people over the age of 80, and frontline health and social care workers.

Some key workers, such as Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians, are included in the top priority groups, and are already eligible for a vaccine. But Pharmacy drivers and Medical Home Care delivery drivers who deliver medication and equipment to patient homes are not included in the priority list.

Prioritisation by sector is not being considered for the following reasons:

• Criticality of service is not an indication for priority vaccination because clinical risk is the overriding concern. This is influenced most greatly by age, not occupation.
• Currently there is no sectoral prioritisation of any workers other than frontline health and social care workers. This is because we don’t know if the vaccine prevents spread, but it does reduce the harm to those most at risk should they catch the virus.
• Individual workers will be called forward for vaccination according to their position on the priority list, if they are eligible within the JCVI Cohorts regarding their age and/or underlying medical conditions (e.g. All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality).

Decisions to prioritise one population group over another are not taken lightly, nor are they straightforward. That is why our prioritisation decisions have been, and will continue to be, guided by the independent expert advice from the JCVI.

The Joint committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) initial advice is focussed on preventing severe illness and loss of life, first and foremost and this is why it focusses on older people and health and social care workers.

Home Care workers are considered Patient facing, Frontline health care staff, and are therefore prioritised for a COVID-19 vaccination.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-S5W-33989 on 29 January 2021. 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 .

Personal assistants employed in the adult social care sector by the person they support will be in scope of the pro rata £500 payment being made to those NHS and adult social care staff who have been employed since 17 March 2020.

As part of our work to support delivery of this national programme we have modelled vaccination workforce requirements and shared this information alongside a workforce modelling tool to assist Health Boards with local delivery.

Arrangements have been made to supplement the core vaccination workforce involved in delivering our seasonal flu programme with professionals from the fields of general practice, pharmacy, dentistry and optometry. A new National Protocol will also enhance the role that Health Care Support Workers can play. We have directed NHS Education for Scotland to refer all applicants remaining on the Health and Social Care Accelerated Recruitment Portal to territorial Health Boards for consideration and we have written to Regulatory bodies including the GMC and NMC regarding the deployment of those on emergency registers as we work to deliver the biggest vaccination programme ever seen in Scotland.

Further detail is set out in the Vaccine Development Plan published on the 13th of January 2021.

Following a number of detailed discussions, the distribution mechanism for the £10 million grant funding has been agreed with the Scottish FA. This has now been communicated to clubs and affiliated national associations to allow this this urgent emergency financial support to be distributed as soon as possible.

The emergency funding levels were agreed between the Scottish Government and the Scottish FA following analysis of the impact of spectator absence and the remaining costs and income streams in each league. The funding will be used to support ongoing football related operations including protecting jobs and maintaining essential infrastructure.

The Scottish Government knows how difficult the Covid-19 Pandemic has been on autistic people, their families and carers. That’s why we have provided over £300,000 worth of funding to national Autism Organisations for the delivery of vital front line support including online social groups, a national advice line for autistic people, their families and carers and a coaching and counselling service.

Along with Autistic Led People’s Organisations and Autism Organisations we have provided around £250,000 worth of funding to provide a national post diagnostic support pilot for autistic people and their families, which will run till May 2021 and be independently evaluated to determine future delivery of a national service.

Winter funding of around £90,000 has just been awarded to autism and learning disability charities to address isolation over the winter months.