Chamber and committees

Following the urgent roundtable meeting I chaired on 4 November, I met with partners and representatives from across the sector on 8 December. The key outcomes were a focus on training and prevention, with the Violence Reduction Unit supporting Police Scotland and Night Time Economy Partners to continue to roll out bystander training to raise awareness for staff to help keep people safe.

Police Scotland’s Strategic Gold Command continues to monitor the situation, and are working closely with third sector and partner organisations, looking into further protective and preventative measures to combat drink spiking, including a public awareness campaign focused on bystanders and perpetrators. We want people to report if they see something suspicious and to step in if they think someone may be at risk or see someone behaving suspiciously.

I would encourage anyone who believes they have had their drink spiked or been assaulted in this way to contact Police Scotland on 101 or in an emergency 999.

The Scottish Government has commissioned National Services Division (NSD) to undertake a programme of activity to assist in identifying the capacity needs of NHS Boards and staff in delivering safe, effective and person-centred support for people with long COVID.

As part of this activity, a Short Life Working Group on managing the long-term effects of COVID-19 was set up. The Short Life Working Group identified the need to establish a Strategic Network to support the delivery of the policy framework outlined in ‘Scotland’s Long COVID Service’, which includes exploring how a care co-ordination model might be able to enhance the way in which primary, community and secondary care services work together in order to meet the needs of people living with complex needs as a result of long COVID.

The Strategic Network will then support experts, clinicians and lived experience and will have a key role in identifying and ensuring that the £10m long COVID Support Fund is targeted at areas where this additional resource is most needed and can make the biggest impact.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05094 on 5 January 2022. 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 .

The lead investigators on the 9 projects funded through the long term effects of COVID-19 infection call were notified on 22nd December 2020 that their projects had been successful in obtaining funding.

Provisional funding letters were issued in January 2021, with the start of transfer of funds as per the payment profile dependent on the receipt by the Chief Scientist Office of a Start Certificate issued by the host institution Finance Office.

Start certificates were returned for all 9 projects, with confirmation of start dates for individual projects of between 01-02-21 and 01-05-2021.

Post award monitoring is through 6 and 12 month progress reports. In addition, a final report for each project is to be submitted on completion of the project. These final reports will be made publicly available on the Chief Scientist Office website.

The end dates for the 9 projects are:

COV/LTE/20/04 HUNT

28.02.2023

COV/LTE/20/06 PELL

28.02.2023

COV/LTE/20/08 SCULTHORPE

31.03.2023

COV/LTE/20/10 BERRY

31.01.2023

COV/LTE/20/15 SHEIKH

28.02.2023

COV/LTE/20/26 CARSON

31.03.2023

COV/LTE/20/28 LINDSAY

31.01.2023

COV/LTE/20/29 COOPER/DUNCAN

30.04.2023

COV/LTE/20/32 TORRANCE/GRANT

28.02.2023

For reference, details of the 9 above projects are available from the Chief Scientist Office website

Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

Identifying and ensuring that the £10m long COVID Support Fund is targeted at areas where this additional resource is most needed will make the biggest impact for those people with long COVID. That is why a Strategic Network is being set up to support the delivery of the policy framework outlined in ‘Scotland’s Long COVID Service’.

We have published Coronavirus (COVID-19): face covering and masks guidance which includes information on wearing face covering and masks including exemptions. It is the responsibility of each individual business to apply the guidance to their own circumstances.

Following the publication of the Framework for supporting people through Recovery and Rehabilitation during and after the COVID-19 , the rehabilitation programme has undertaken a significant scoping exercise through a self-assessment tool to understand the current status of rehabilitation services in Scotland, from the perspective of the staff working in them.

The report on the findings ( Rehabilitation Framework Self-Assessment Tool: Analysis of Survey Responses ) was published on 9th December 2021.

The findings from the self-assessment tool, along with demand and capacity data and guidance from the National Advisory Board on Rehabilitation, will inform the development of a national programme of improvement work to deliver a ‘Once for Scotland’ rehabilitation pathway that will ensure everyone who requires rehabilitation will be able to access it.

We will continue to work with NHS Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships and the third sector to deliver this.

We have invested more than £460,000 to enable Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland to deliver its long COVID Support Service. We have raised awareness of the service through:

• The Implementation Support Note which we have developed for clinicians supporting people with long-term effects of COVID-19 and has been disseminated to all NHS Boards. This resource includes information on the support available through Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland’s long COVID Support Service and how it can be accessed.
• The Decision Support Toolkit which was developed with the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre to incorporate key information from the Implementation Support Note, including details of Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland’s long COVID Support Service, https://www.signdecisionsupport.uk/ . Available via both a web-based platform and a mobile app, the toolkit presents clinicians with current evidence and helpful recommendations on assessment, investigations and referral, planning care, management and follow up for people experiencing long-term effects of COVID-19.
• The NHS Inform website which provides information, guidance and signposting for patients experiencing long-term effects of COVID-19.
• Our marketing campaign in October and November 2021 which included a marketing toolkit sent to more than 3,000 contacts across the NHS and third sector. This marketing toolkit contained information on Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland’s long COVID Support Service.

We are committed to ensuring that this service can be easily accessed by those who wish to do so, and we will continue to work with Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland to support this as appropriate.

Details (including individual project funding allocations) of the 9 research projects funded through the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) long-term effects of COVID-19 infection call are available from the CSO website Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk) .

The Scottish Government is committed to providing clear information and support for people with long COVID. To help raise awareness of symptoms and signpost people to appropriate support, a marketing campaign ran in October and November 2021. The campaign budget was invested in: print and production of campaign posters for display in community pharmacies and GP surgeries across Scotland, language translations, social media posts and a campaign toolkit sent to 250 direct partner contacts with additional distribution of approximately 3,000 contacts.

The campaign directed people to the long COVID microsite hosted by NHS Inform, accessible at www.nhsinform.scot/long-covid . The microsite had nearly 86,000 users during the campaign period.