Chamber and committees

We are working across the Common Travel Area to ensure that the vaccination certification scheme recognises people who were vaccinated in other countries in the Common Travel Area with a Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved vaccine. We will put in place, before the scheme goes live, an interim process to enable Scottish residents who have had a dose outside Scotland to have their vaccine record updated. People will be able to get a record of their vaccination from whichever country they were vaccinated in – this will be accepted in Scotland for entry purposes.

Our consultation on the National Care Service is very wide ranging. We are aiming to capture as many experiences of care as possible from across the whole population of Scotland. We particularly want to hear from people who access social care now, their families and friends, unpaid carers and social care workers as well as people who will access social care in the future.

We have had around 200 responses to the consultation so far on our digital consultation hub. We are also holding open digital consultation events as well as a wide range of other events and meetings with organisations and groups. We do not have information on how many of the people taking part in our consultation events or responding to the consultation are older people.

All responses to the consultation, whether received through our consultation hub or via other means, including at the events and meetings and paper copies of responses, will be carefully analysed together with contributions to our engagement events and we will publish this analysis.

Work to establish the Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 Delivery Group is currently in progress. Membership will be announced shortly.

A total of 761 applications were received for ICF Round 1 in June 2019. Of those, 276 were approved and 485 were unsuccessful

The following table shows the number of ICF applications approved and rejected broken down by local authority area

The Scottish Government is committed to ensure everyone with a neurological condition has timely access to care and services in all regions of Scotland. That is why we published a Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action in December 2019 . We are investing £4.5 million of funding to implement the Framework’s aims and commitments. The aims include improving the provision of co-ordinated health and social care and support, developing sustainable workforce models and ensuring high standards of person-centred care.

Since 2015, the Scottish Government provides £2.4 million annually to improve specialist nursing services. NHS Boards make the decision on where to prioritise this funding based on local need. NHS Boards are expected to ensure that patients, including those who require epilepsy services, have access to a range of professionals to provide the appropriate management of their condition.

The Scottish Government launched its NHS Recovery Plan on the 25 August, which sets out our key headline ambitions and actions to be developed and delivered now and over the next 5 years. The plan is backed by more than £1 billion of investment over the next five years.

By the end of this year, we will publish a National Workforce Strategy that supports the delivery of the NHS Recovery Plan , specifically its key workforce targets. The strategy will set out the strategic framework through which we will design, develop and deliver training programmes in partnership with NHS National Education Scotland and the NHS Academy, offering new routes into the NHS, and broadening opportunities. In addition, it will provide NHS Boards a framework for assessing nationally the role of Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS). The NHS will gain additional 500 Advance Nurse Practitioners (ANP) over the next five years and we will be working closely with neurology services to identify areas of need for both ANPs and CNS capacity to better meet patient need.

A recent report published by the Chief Nursing Officer Directorate made a number recommendations regarding CNS roles. This work is being taken forward in Neurology (and epilepsy specifically) by a group with representation from Chief Nursing Officer Directorate, NHS Education Scotland, Centre for Sustainability Delivery as well as strong Epilepsy CNS Representation.

The impact of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that many health and social care services had to be suspended or reduced in scope and scale. This has affected almost all aspects of NHS care. Addressing the backlog of care, while continuing to meet the ongoing urgent health and care needs of the country, is a priority for this Government.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery continues to work closely with Neurology services in all Health Boards. In particular work on Active Clinical Referral Triage aims to ensure patients who require appointments most urgently are seen as soon as possible, while those who may not benefit from a Consultant appointment are returned to the GP with advice and guidance; and Discharge Patient Initiated Review aims to avoid unnecessary return appointments, again supporting access for those patient who need to be seen in a timely manner.

The Scottish Government does not collect statistics on private or fee-paying schools, including on the destinations of their leavers. Scottish Government statistical collections focus on publicly funded and Grant Aided schools for which it provides funding.

In the National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan, we set out our approach to measuring the poverty related attainment gap with 11 key measures identified to assess progress. We have plans to formally review the 11 NIF measures with partners to ensure they are comprehensive, as we recognise that national data needs to provide an accurate understanding of the wide range of learners’ achievement. Local authorities and school leaders are also able to use local knowledge and data to ensure support is targeted towards the children and young people who require it most.

Scottish citizens, who have had their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine out with Scotland, and 8 or more weeks have past, will be able to receive their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in any of our available vaccination centres.

We have made the vaccine as accessible as possible such as having drop in clinics are available throughout mainland Scotland and also the option to phone the national COVID-19 Vaccination helpline on 0800 030 8013.

As set out in the answer to S6W-02758 on 21 September 2021, The Scottish Government are making paper copies of the National Care Service consultation available on request.

As set out in the answer to S6W-02759 on 21 September 2021, we are engaging with a wide variety of organisations including care providers and third sector, voluntary and charitable organisations to make sure that we capture the views of those with lived experience in the consultation. If requested, we will provide paper copies of the consultation and any other supporting material that is needed to make the consultation accessible.

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 Scottish Government has not made an assessment of the revenue levels generated by Police Scotland, through the activities of its International Development and Innovation Unit, as the management of all financial matters in relation to Police Scotland, is the responsibility of the Scottish Police Authority.