Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to progressing all of the ten recommendations contained in the Making Maths Count report.

Education Scotland's National Numeracy and Mathematics Hub provides a platform to share effective practice of learning and teaching in the subject. The Hub is an interactive, virtual learning environment which offers practitioners:

• professional learning in different aspects of numeracy with a focus on progression, numeracy and mathematics skills, numeracy across learning, assessment and moderation, and teaching;

• career-long professional learning opportunities in various forms including broadcasts, professional reading and action research; and

• an easy-to-use environment where they can share and work with colleagues from across Scotland.

Hub 'Champions' representing each local authority meet together and share practice 3 times a year.

The Hub has been supported by Scottish Government investment of £1.3million since 2014.

The number of patients prescribed medication that could lead to dependence in the 3 month period between September and November in 2017 and 2016 is 512,153. Examples of medicines which fall into this category include:-

• antihistamines, hyposensitisation, and allergic emergencies;

• hypnotics and anxiolytics;

• drugs used in nausea and vertigo;

• analgesics;

• antiepileptic drugs; and

• drugs used in substance dependence.

Using the same time period, the number of patients prescribed medication that could lead to withdrawal effects is 497,682. This category includes those medicines used to treat depression.

The figures are presented separately as anti-depressants are not clinically considered to be addictive, but may cause withdrawal symptoms in some patients.

The figures includes the number of patients in two separate time periods prescribed at least one item from a list of medicines considered to be potentially addictive or causing withdrawal symptoms, and could potentially include patients prescribed medicines from both categories. The analysis shows the most recently available three months data for community prescribing from the Prescribing Information Systems datamart (1 September – 30 November 2017) and the equivalent period from the previous year.

This approach is intended to exclude those patients being prescribed medication to treat short-term conditions where the number of items prescribed is low and likely to represent a low risk of addiction and/or withdrawal symptoms, in line with best clinical practice.

The figure also includes patients for whom long-term prescribing is entirely clinically appropriate, for example those being treated with anti-depressants and analgesics for long-term conditions such as chronic pain and palliative care.

All medicines carry some element of risk. However, the Scottish Government expects clinicians to seek to limit the harm caused by medicines by reducing over-diagnosis and over-treatment, and to manage risk proportionately in active partnership with their patients.

The Scottish Government welcomes the Commissioner’s discussion paper on Retention, Outcomes and Destinations, which sets a timely challenge to the sector to do more to tackle the barriers faced by students from Scotland’s most deprived communities.

We have been clear that the end goals of graduation and positive destinations are central to our thinking as we move forward in the delivery of the Commission on Widening Access’s recommendations - and are a key focus and priority for the Government going forward.

The Scottish Funding Council’s Widening Access and Retention Fund provides £14.7m of funding in 2017-18 to help students remain in higher education. This is allocated to universities that have the highest intake of access students. Through the Outcome Agreement process for 2018-19, universities are not only expected to set more ambitious and challenging targets for access, but to also agree improvements in retention, attainment, and outcomes.

Through the Access Delivery Group, which I chair, I will discuss with key education stakeholders what more can be done to improve the outcomes and retention rates of our most socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

The Scottish Government recognises that teachers are doing an excellent job in classrooms across Scotland. We are committed to tackling bureaucracy and addressing excessive teacher workload.

Teacher absences and the causes of these absences are matters for individual local authorities as employers. Each authority is responsible for supporting its employees' health and well being at work and will have locally agreed systems in place for managing this.

The Scottish Government takes the issue of Mental Health seriously and last spring we published our 10 year Mental Health Strategy for tackling mental health. Our vision for the Mental Health Strategy is of a Scotland where people can get the right help at the right time and to work on achieving parity between mental and physical health.

I would like to point out that the recognised rail industry standard for reporting performance is the Public-Performance-Measure (PPM). Accordingly, 88.8% of the 33 daily services arriving at the southernmost end of the Edinburgh-Tweedbank line in 2017, arrived within five minutes of their timetabled arrival time.

There are occasions when train services need to allow more time to allow those with disabilities or impairments, or parents with prams, to board the trains. With this in mind, the PPM measure offers a balanced and sensible view of train performance.

It is disappointing that ScotRail’s performance has declined in recent months. You may be aware that ScotRail has appointed a railway industry expert to undertake an independent review of train service performance across the network and propose steps for improvement.

I welcome this independent review as part of ScotRail’s recovery measures. The sooner performance can be addressed the sooner customers can enjoy the level of service they desire and deserve.

In addition ScotRail is developing a plan to identify actions targeted towards delivering improved performance in the areas which have particularly contributed to the recent problems with performance.

The second generation baby box will be procured by open tender via Public Contracts Scotland.

A link to the Prior Information Notice, which issued to suppliers on 10 January is attached for your information:

https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JAN305992

The procedures will mirror those in place for the first generation Box. This will include a requirement for compliance with British and European Safety standards across all items, additional specific safety accreditations in relation to the box and the baby wrap.

Further information on these standards can be found on the Scottish Government’s Parent Club Website:

The second generation baby box will be procured by open tender via Public Contracts Scotland. Any supplier, SME, Scottish or otherwise, who is registered on the portal can submit a response to the tender.

Our appointed contractors, APS (Scotland) Group will ensure appropriate balance is struck between locally manufactured items and maintaining best value.

The Prescribing of medicines is managed by clinicians in discussion with patients within the context of their long-term recovery. It should be in line with good practice, reviewed regularly to achieve the best possible health outcomes and on-going support should be provided to patients who are prescribed medicines that are known to be addictive.

The Scottish Government has recently discussed with NHS 24, the information and support available through NHS inform and the telephone 111 service, for people with prescribed drug dependence.

In addition to this the Scottish Government are introducing a range of measures to help tackle this problem including:

• committing to continuing the development of a Single National Formulary to reduce unwarranted medicine variation, increase patient safety while ensuring a person-centred approach.

• liaising with Public Health England to consider if its review of prescribed medicines addiction could extend to include Scotland.

• refreshing the polypharmacy strategy to tackle inappropriate practice

• developing a chronic pain strategy that aims to tackle the issue of over-treatment and highlight the issue of high strength opioid medicines misuse.

• refreshing the drug treatment strategy to meet the wide-ranging health and social needs of those at risk as a result of their substance use.

Linked in to the aims of Realistic Medicines, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s strategy document Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care, published in August last year, commits us to considering how pharmacists can make better use of tools and interventions to assist people in using their medicines safely and effectively.

Scottish Government has no plans to introduce mandatory child health training for GPs, but is working with key stakeholders on areas of practice to enhance the training of GPs to better meet patient needs, as outlined within the report of the UK Shape of Training Steering Group published on 11 August 2017.

General Practice Specialty Trainees (GPST) undergo high quality training and education which enables them to fulfil and pass all requirements specified within the the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) curriculum which is approved and overseen by the GMC as regulator for the profession.

Qualified GPs have a professional obligation to undertake continuous professional development to meet identified learning and professional development needs, and the RCGP and NHS Education for Scotland provide a selection of courses and learning resources to support the further development of GPs in matters of child health.