Chamber and committees

Scotland’s new Forestry Strategy 2019-2029 sets out a strategic framework for action including increasing the use of Scotland’s forests and woodlands to improve people’s health and wellbeing.

Urban woodlands in particular play an important part in improving the quality of life of people in our towns and cities. They reduce air pollution and provide green spaces for recreation which have been shown to be particularly beneficial for people’s mental well-being. In recognition of this, the Scottish Government has signed the Woodland Trust’s statement promoting urban forestry.

The Scottish Government provides specific grants to target woodland creation and access in urban areas and works in partnerships, such as with NHS Greenspace to improve access at health board sites. Furthermore, the Scottish Government provides around £950k per annum to the Central Scotland Green Network Trust (CSGNT) to support the co-ordination of delivery of the CSGN. Planned woodland creation in the CSGN area is now at its highest level since 1999.

Forest Enterprise Scotland (FES) acts as a responsible manager of access across Scotland’s National Forest Estate. It currently welcomes 10 million visitors annually, a figure which is growing. Visitors tale access to the Estate for a range of physical activities ranging from easy access trails and dog walking through to more challenging activities and sports such as mountain biking.

Opportunities exist across the Estate including in some key urban areas such as the Clyde Gateway where Cunnigar Loop Woodland Park is proving very popular with all age groups seeking the opportunities which woodlands and recreational facilities offer to improve physical fitness and mental wellbeing.

Details of the facilities and opportunities for enjoying access to Scotland’s National Forest Estate are currently promoted though the FES website, on social media and a range of leaflets and other media outlets. A new website will be launched for the new Forestry and Land Scotland Agency on 1 April 2019.

The Scottish Government recognises the value of the Branching Out programme that uses forests to help to improve the health and wellbeing of people with mental health problems across Scotland. The Scottish Government remains committed to continuing the programme and will announce in due course plans to develop the programme further in 2019-20.

As part of the 2017-2020 National Dementia Strategy, we continue to take national action to support local partnerships to improve the quality of post-diagnostic support in line with the national LDP Standard, to train the workforce, innovative and improve the consistency of the service and access to it.

We recently commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to lead work on a new locality-based project to test the delivery of home-based post-diagnostic services to a high volume to clients with a high level of additional care needs. This will involve innovations in terms of service design, professional roles and technology. A test site will be selected in coming months.

In addition, we have extended by 12 months the projects in East Edinburgh, Nithsdale and Shetland to test the re-location of post-diagnostic services in primary care. We also continue to deliver post-diagnostic training as part of the national Promoting Excellence dementia skills and knowledge framework.

Integration Joint Boards are responsible for planning, commissioning and delivering dementia post-diagnostic services.

Work is underway to develop a comprehensive plan to help address some of the recruitment and retention challenges faced by our health and care sector. We have already published workforce plans covering the NHS, Primary Care and Social Care.

We intend to publish our integrated health and social care workforce plan this year, as the Health Secretary made clear when she updated parliament in November. We are also currently taking our safe staffing legislation through the Scottish Parliament – the first multidisciplinary workforce and workload planning legislation in the UK.

Workforce supply pressures are compounded by the impact of Brexit, and we will undertake additional international recruitment activity in this financial year to promote the resilience of NHS Scotland as a result of EU Withdrawal.

We are working across the wide range of public services to harness the broadest range of opportunities to improve the population's mental health. Our PfG announced an additional £250 million of investment in mental health over the next five years, to introduce a package of measures to improve services for children, young people and adults, and embed support for good mental health across our public services.

We expect NHS Boards to work with their Integration Authority, local government, third sector and other partners to deliver fit for purpose mental health services and support that meets the needs of their local population, including women in this age group.

As part of the 2017-2020 National Dementia Strategy, we continue to take national action to support local partnerships to improve the quality of post-diagnostic support, to train the workforce, innovative and improve the consistency of the service and access to it.

Many people are diagnosed in very old age with other chronic or terminal conditions and for some their dementia support – including in residential or acute settings– will be an addition to existing care packages and not reflected in the post-diagnostic figures. Others will not wish to take up the service straight away while they process their diagnosis. We are doing more work to understand the array of reasons individuals might not complete the service.

Integration Joint Boards are responsible for planning, commissioning and delivering dementia post-diagnostic services. The Scottish Budget delivers additional resource funding of almost £730 million (5.5%) for health and care services. Our budget includes £160 million of additional health and care investment in local authorities – which will support social care and mental health measures, including those delivered by Integrated Joint Boards.

Over the long term life expectancy and healthy life expectancy have increased. However, it is difficult to pinpoint the cause of changing trends. The issues are complex and relate to an ageing population, inequalities, deprivation and poverty.

We remain focused on addressing the underlying causes that drive health inequalities. Our alcohol prevention framework and our diet and healthy weight strategy are among the measures designed to help tackle some of the key issues.

Over the long term life expectancy and healthy life expectancy have increased. The latest data are of concern. We have a range of strategies to address inequalities in health and their underlying drivers. Health inequalities are a symptom of wider income inequality. That is why we have taken action such as setting in statute our ambition to eradicate child poverty, and outlining concrete action to make progress on this goal through our first Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan.

Over the long term life expectancy and healthy life expectancy have increased. However, it is difficult to pinpoint the cause of changing trends. The issues are complex and relate to an ageing population, inequalities, deprivation and poverty.

We remain focused on addressing the underlying causes that drive health inequalities. Our alcohol prevention framework and our diet and healthy weight strategy are among the measures designed to help tackle some of the key issues.

The main purposes of ultrasound scans are to date pregnancy, chart the growth of the baby and provide antenatal screenings. Then at the more detailed scan at 20 weeks, to assess for any possible health problems. Gender scans are not carried out by the NHS as there is usually no clinical reason to find out the sex of the baby. At some scans the sonographer may be able to identify the sex of the baby, it is entirely at the Health Boards’ discretion whether they give out this information. We do not collect data on which Boards provide this information. There are no plans to change this policy at this time.