Chamber and committees

There are no immediate plans to make any changes, the resource will be kept under continual review and we intend on evaluating its effectiveness this summer.

The Scottish Government allocated £5 million in the financial year 2020-21 to support the wellbeing of people working in health, social care and social work. This money was allocated to the following services;

• Coaching for Wellbeing
• Digital Resources
• Formal Psychological Interventions
• Workforce Specialist Service

It is critical staff wellbeing is looked after and they are able to take the rest breaks and leave to which they are entitled, as well as being given time to access national and local wellbeing resources at work. That is why we made £12 million available in 2021-22 to support the mental health and wellbeing of the workforce.

Our National Workforce Strategy, published on 11 March 2022, highlights that the wellbeing of our health and social care workforce, wherever they work, remains an essential priority.

Throughout the pandemic, the Scottish Government have emphasised to Boards, Health and Social Care Partners and Local Authorities the on-going need to promote both the physical and the psychological wellbeing of everyone working in health and social care.

The NHS Recovery Plan highlights our ambitious plans to expand and grow the workforce, in particular to assist with the additional procedures we intend on undertaking through our NTC's.

Significantly, we are recruiting more staff throughout the NHS so our ambitious recovery can be fully realised, with this plan outlining our commitment to:

Recruit 1,500 new clinical and non-clinical staff for National Treatment Centres by 2026 .

We use a range of measures to monitor the wellbeing of the workforce taking into account the diverse nature of the workforce operating in a range of roles and geographies, the broad spectrum of wellbeing needs at both a professional and personal level and different reporting arrangements across sectors.

We continue to actively listen to colleagues across Health and Social care to understand where the current pressures are, and what actions can be taken to mitigate their impact on staff.

Within the Scottish Government funding of health research falls under the remit of the Chief Scientist Office.

Following an independent expert review process, 9 projects were funded through the CSO's Long-term effects of COVID-19 call Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

One of these projects (COV/LTE/20/26) is specifically addressing neurological aspects of long-COVID

A second project (COV/LTE/20/28) is studying inflammatory, vascular and cardiac biomarkers in the context of long-COVID in people with Diabetes

The CSO's Translational Clinical Studies Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research Committees each meet twice per year to consider funding applications. Details of the application process are published on the CSO website.

Grant Funding – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

Applications on immunology, virology, haematology, and neurology research in the context of long-COVID may be submitted to the CSO funding committees. In common with all other applications, these would go through the CSO's standard independent peer review process.

The Scottish Government recognises that physical bank branches provide an important service for many individuals and businesses across Scotland. The closing of branches in Scotland raises concerns around access to cash and banking services - particularly for rural communities, vulnerable individuals and digitally excluded customers

I engage regularly with the banking sector through bilateral ministerial meetings and the Financial Services Growth and Development Board, engagements in which concerns around the ability for consumers to access cash and banking services are raised. Following the Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) announcement in March to shut 19 Bank of Scotland branches, I met with LBG representatives to discuss their decision and Governments concerns on the potential impacts on affected communities.

The responsibility for the regulation of the financial services industry is reserved to the UK Government and Scottish Ministers are unable to intervene in the commercial decisions made by banks. HM Treasury announced their intention last year to legislate on “access to cash” and in the Queen’s Speech on 10 May 2022, “ensuring continued access to cash across the UK” is referenced as an intended outcome of the Financial Services and Markets Bill.

The Scottish Government is ready to work constructively with the UK Government on this matter to ensure that Scotland’s communities have fair access to convenient, local cash and banking services.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance on the extended use of face masks and face coverings in hospitals, primary care and wider community healthcare was updated on April 14th 2022 to reflect the change from legislation to guidance for the wider use of face masks and face coverings in public spaces, and to align with the updated Scottish Winter (21/22 Respiratory Infections in Health and Care Setting Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Addendum.

The updated guidance for staff and patients/visitors reaffirms the continued use of face masks in healthcare settings. Staff (in hospital, primary care and community healthcare) providing direct care are strongly recommended to continue to wear Type IIR fluid resistant surgical masks (FRSMs) at all times while on shift.

Staff in non- clinical areas are strongly recommended to wear a FRSM (or their own face covering) when not seated at a desk.

Out- patients and visitors are strongly recommended to wear a face covering when attending health and community healthcare settings. Face masks are provided at the entrance to hospitals for any individual who requires one.

Section 5.1.5 of the Scottish Winter (21/22 Respiratory Infections in Health and Care Setting Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Addendum sets out the current recommended PPE requirements for Healthcare workers across the NHS (hospital, primary care and community healthcare).

The safety of staff in health and social care settings is our top priority and spending decisions on pandemic PPE are, at every stage, led by clinical need and current guidance. Work on implementing a joined-up public sector procurement arrangement which will provide Scotland with a resilient and secure pandemic PPE supply for the long term is being taken forward at pace.

Crown Estate Scotland (CES) and the Scottish Government have different but related responsibilities with regard to ScotWind. As such, correspondence between organisations is considerable and recent requests were deemed manifestly unreasonable. Any new request for information under FOI/EIR would, of course, be considered on a case by case basis. A previous request for similar information was addressed at Gov.scot

Following the outcome of the Round 4 auction, CES informed the Scottish Government that it would undertake a rapid review of the ScotWind Option fees. That review concluded on 24 March 2021, with the changes outlined by Crown Estate Scotland .

The Discussion Document (2018) was prepared by Crown Estate Scotland, who also administered the engagement process and review of responses. The Scottish Government was provided with a summary of responses but do not hold information on individual responses. As per S6W-08311 on 16 May 2022, the Crown Estate Sponsor Team did not provide any comment on the topic of option fee agreements in this early engagement document.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Under the terms of the framework agreement with Scottish Government and Crown Estate Scotland (CES), CES are required to obtain approval from the Crown Estate Sponsor Team, within Scottish Government, for any “novel, contentious or repercussive proposals.” Scotwind, being the first offshore wind leasing process in Scotland for ten years and the first run by CES, was classed as novel and the Sponsor Team were notified of the Discussion Document. No comments on the fee or “applicant valuation” were provided. A summary of the responses received by CES was published on crownestatescotland.com