Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held centrally. Statistics on patients waiting for pulmonary rehabilitation are not held by Public Health Scotland (PHS). Waiting times statistics relating to specific conditions are not held centrally by the PHS Waiting Times Team.

Initial data from our local authority partners shows that 3,101 childcare settings and 116,293 eligible children are registered to the Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme out of around 7,822 total childcare settings in Scotland.

Please see the following table:

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) Guideline 161 provides guidance on managing the long-term effects of COVID-19 including signposting people to rehabilitation services where required.

In addition the Implementation Support Note , which has been developed in consultation with people with lived experience, third sector organisations, and healthcare professionals, provides primary care teams with practical information on identifying, assessing and helping people with long COVID to access the services relevant to their individual needs.

We continue to promote registration so more children can benefit from milk and a healthy snack. We are working in close partnership with COSLA and Local Authorities via an Implementation Group. We will shortly be expanding the remit and membership of this Group to include wider stakeholders and to ensure the scheme is meeting the needs of children and settings as we look ahead to scheme Year 2 and beyond.

The Bank has been established to be administratively independent from Government. While Ministers set the Missions, the Bank’s Board determines its investment strategy and investment criteria. Any investment the Bank makes is assessed rigorously by the Bank’s experienced investment team and must deliver both commercial returns and mission impact returns that support at least one of the missions. It must also meet the Bank’s subsidy control permissions, including assessing whether the Bank is at risk of crowding-out private investment.

There is potential for a substantial and growing market for natural capital and nature-based solutions to climate change emerging in Scotland, and for these in turn to have positive benefits for local communities. The Bank’s investment supports Gresham House in a new sustainable forestry fund venture which is focused on new and diverse planting in Scotland. It represents a new investment proposition which mainstream investors have yet to fully embrace. The Bank’s cornerstone investment is designed to encourage other investors to follow the Bank into this new type of forestry fund.

Key to the spring 2019 review was that projects should continue to be designed at a grass roots level but that a more strategic approach to funding was needed to deliver lasting behavioural change.

We are providing a vehicle for communities to come together and engage in collective climate action through the development of a network of regional climate action hubs and climate action towns. These initiatives will empower communities to identify the actions that are most appropriate to their needs.

They will address the findings of the review by developing an integrated network of support that can build capacity for climate action across all communities. They will provide tools and resources to support community-led groups to take action commensurate with our climate commitments and allow for a wide r exchange of knowledge and best practice.

We are also taking steps to better integrate climate objectives into wider SG community initiatives to promote the mainstreaming of climate action, deliver increased value for money and ensure funding delivers on both climate and wider policy outcomes .

The two pathfinder regional community climate hubs were launched on 6 September: The Northern Highlands and Islands Climate Action Hub will be delivered by Thurso Community Development Trust, and the North East Scotland Climate Action Network (NESCAN) Hub will build on the work of Aberdeen Climate Action.

Clear outcomes have been set allowing us to bring learning into the wider network as it evolves.

Our Health Recovery Plan, published on 25 August, outlines that recovery of staff is intrinsic to our collective ambitions for renewing our NHS.

The Scottish Government is providing £8 million this financial year to support the mental health and wellbeing of the health and social care workforce. This includes targeted support to the primary care and social care workforces of £2 million.

We will continue to work with partners, including doctors and their representatives, to provide support for, and evolve, local wellbeing resources while also maintaining and improving nationally-led initiatives. The national resources available to doctors and other health and social care professionals include:

• The National Wellbeing Hub, https://www.nationalwellbeinghub.scot/ ), which provides a range of self-care and digital resources;
• The National Wellbeing Helpline ((0800 111 4191), which provides a 24/7 service to those who require psychological support and can offer advice, signposting and onward referral to local services where required;
• Coaching for Wellbeing, a free-to-access digital coaching service accessible via the National Wellbeing Hub;
• The Workforce Specialist Service, which offers confidential mental health assessment and treatment for regulated health and social care professionals in Scotland; and
• Additional capacity within Boards to provide psychological therapies and interventions to support staff mental health.

We will offer further support for the physical and emotional needs of the workforce - this will include additional funding for rest areas, guidance to promote effective wellbeing conversations, new opportunities for staff to reflect on the emotional aspects of their work and further resources so staff at all levels can access peer support.

This work will inform the development of a new National Wellbeing Programme to be implemented from autumn 2021. The totality of this work, coupled with our work on leadership and culture, seeks both to prevent burnout, distress and suicide among doctors, and reduce the stigma associated with doctor burnout and mental health.

National statistics (UK) released on 17 June show that 10,660 hectares of new woodland was created in Scotland in 2020/21, the equivalent of over 21 million trees in the ground and around 80% of all trees planted across the UK

However COVID restrictions, combined with heavy rain and snow across most of Scotland in March, resulted in unavoidable delays to planting. Despite this we achieved 89% of the woodland creation target in 2020-21 and the remaining 11% was planted during the remainder of the planting season in April, May and June, during the first 100 days

The combined sewer network is designed to spill during heavy rainfall to protect homes from flooding. The reported 40% increase in sewage spills in the last five years is primarily due to increases in total annual rainfall and rainfall intensity which are related to climate change. The Scottish Government is committed to reducing sewage spills into rivers and seas across Scotland.

We have introduced legislation through the Urban Waste Water Treatment (Scotland) Regulations 1994 and the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 to minimise the impact of sewage discharges on the water environment.

We are working closely with Scottish Water and SEPA to prioritise investment to reduce sewage spill frequency and impact on the water environment. As part of a long-term strategy, Scottish Water is aiming to transform its waste water services to meet the challenges presented by the impacts of climate change and population growth.