- Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-01931 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 August 2021, who identified which schools would receive virtual school visits by the OECD, and who determined focus group attendees.
Answer
I refer Mr Mundell to the answer to S6W-01932 on 25 August 2021.
The OECD’s Independent Review of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) was conducted using their Implementing Policies: Supporting Change in Education Framework.
The OECD had responsibility for its programme of virtual school visits and the arrangement of focus groups, and was supported by both Scottish Government officials and the Scottish Practitioner Forum.
Details of how the OECD conducted their independent review can be accessed at Independent+Review+of+Curriculum+for+Excellence+-+Remit.pdf (www.gov.scot)
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
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what the current guidance is on NHS ear irrigation services, when it was introduced, and how it was communicated to patients.
Answer
Current guidance for ear irrigation services is that patients should speak to their pharmacist for minor problems and patients with particularly troublesome symptoms should contact their GP to discuss the most suitable treatment. This guidance is available online at NHS Inform and was last updated on 22 December 2020.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that patients in NHS Lanarkshire are unable to access ear irrigation services, what the reasons are for any such issues, and whether any individuals who have had to pay for private treatment will be reimbursed.
Answer
How to treat ear wax is a clinical decision: ear syringing is not the current preferred procedure and is no longer routinely provided by clinicians.
NHS Lanarkshire has continued to provide services to patients throughout the pandemic. However, due to the pressures of the pandemic some routine condition management needed to be paused but only in those instances where it is safe to do so.
Patients who have sought private treatment will not be reimbursed.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the STUC Women's Committee campaign that calls for universal, free school meals to be expanded to all nursery, primary and secondary school pupils.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises how important healthy meals are for boosting children’s energy, concentration and behaviour which, in turn, leads to improvements in academic attainment.
All children in primaries 1 to 3 have benefitted from access to free school lunches since January 2015, and from this month all children in funded early learning and childcare are receiving a free meal in every session. Ministers are now committed to going further by expanding free school meals to all pupils in primary and special schools during the course of this parliamentary session, as well as introducing free year-round breakfast and lunch provision to support children outside of the school term. We are also committed to piloting approaches to universal meal provision in secondary schools.
To start delivering on this commitment, we have provided local authorities with funding of £49.75 million to enable them to provide support to families who are eligible for free school meals during the school summer holidays, and to expand the provision of free school lunches during school term-time to all children in primaries 4 and 5, throughout the course of this school year. Further expansion of universal free school lunches will be delivered for children in primaries 6 and 7 by August 2022.
In addition to the free meal commitments, the Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme launched on 1 August 2021 replacing the existing UK Nursery Milk Scheme in Scotland. All pre-schoolers who spend two hours or more a day in eligible childcare settings registered with the scheme will be entitled to a serving of fresh milk. Unlike the UK scheme, a piece of fruit or portion of vegetables will also be offered and children who cannot drink cow’s milk for medical, ethical or religious reasons will be offered a specified non-dairy alternative.
This is a major programme of change during this Parliament that will deliver benefits for hundreds of thousands of children.
- Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will review the fees paid to optometrists and, in light of these last increasing 12 years ago, what its position is on introducing a regular review mechanism.
Answer
Both General Ophthalmic Services fees paid to optometrists and any mechanism for reviewing these fees is currently under consideration.
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment was made, prior to determining the new contract for the provision of Scottish National Standardised Assessments, of whether there were any risks associated with a change of provider, including whether there was any risk of disruption to schools or additional costs.
Answer
As the contract for delivery of phase one of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments is due to expire in July 2022, the Scottish Government was legally required to compete the ongoing service.
Returning to the market to compete public contracts enables us to maximise value for money and secure the benefits of technical (and in this case education, assessment, psychometric and accessibility) developments over the period since the last contract was awarded. In conducting a regulated procurement exercise the Scottish Government is required under procurement legislation to treat all potential suppliers equally and without discrimination. Tenders are evaluated on the basis of the information contained therein, and no other factors.
The contract for phase two delivery of National Standardised Assessments for Scotland effectively combines two existing contracts, for phase one delivery of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments and their Gaelic equivalent, the Measaidhean Coitcheann Niseanta airson Foghlam tron Ghidhlig respectively. As such, there is no one current provider and a transition of services would have been required whatever the outcome of the procurement evaluation. The risks and opportunities associated with that transition have been carefully assessed and will be closely monitored and managed through the governance structures established for the National Improvement Framework Programme. Outgoing service providers are contractually obliged to support the smooth transition of services to a new service provider.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government on what date NHS stakeholders will meet to discuss a pathway to the delivery of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT); who will be at the meeting, and whether the (a) papers and (b) minutes of the meeting will be published.
Answer
NHS Scotland stakeholders will meet in late August 2021. Included within the invitees to this clinically focused meeting are representatives from the specialties of neurology and haematology as well as the commissioners of specialist healthcare NHS National Services Scotland, National Services Division. My officials would be happy to meet with Ms Baillie, once this meeting has taken place.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-01536 by Humza Yousaf on 6 August 2021, how many calls to the Scottish Ambulance Service have been responded to (a) within (i) under 10, (ii) 10 to 29, (iii) 30 to 59 and (iv) 60 to 120 and (b) over 120 minutes in each month of 2021-22 to date, broken down by triaged category of call.
Answer
Please find the requested information set out in the following table.
Emergency Incidents Attended, 01-04-2021 - 31-07-2021 | |
| | | | | |
| | 2021 - 2022 | 2021 - 2022 | 2021 - 2022 | 2021 - 2022 |
| | April | May | June | July |
Purple | | 1027 | 1203 | 1162 | 1130 |
Purple | 10-29 Minutes | 340 | 477 | 483 | 519 |
Purple | 30-59 Minutes | 8 | 17 | 20 | 11 |
Purple | 60-120 Minutes | | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Purple | >120 Minutes | | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Red | | 4144 | 4566 | 4966 | 5152 |
Red | 10-29 Minutes | 2320 | 2980 | 3406 | 3877 |
Red | 30-59 Minutes | 86 | 185 | 228 | 252 |
Red | 60-120 Minutes | 12 | 23 | 28 | 18 |
Red | >120 Minutes | 2 | 4 | 9 | 6 |
Amber | | 4135 | 4029 | 3837 | 3526 |
Amber | 10-29 Minutes | 9816 | 10763 | 10861 | 10458 |
Amber | 30-59 Minutes | 1974 | 3025 | 3602 | 3965 |
Amber | 60-120 Minutes | 258 | 634 | 1005 | 1153 |
Amber | >120 Minutes | 16 | 129 | 133 | 255 |
Yellow | | 2475 | 2253 | 1736 | 1835 |
Yellow | 10-29 Minutes | 6307 | 5397 | 3990 | 3770 |
Yellow | 30-59 Minutes | 4315 | 3696 | 2999 | 2842 |
Yellow | 60-120 Minutes | 3322 | 3549 | 3023 | 2704 |
Yellow | >120 Minutes | 1801 | 3256 | 3912 | 4599 |
Green | | 66 | 90 | 73 | 53 |
Green | 10-29 Minutes | 25 | 44 | 32 | 21 |
Green | 30-59 Minutes | 13 | 33 | 20 | 13 |
Green | 60-120 Minutes | 16 | 31 | 25 | 14 |
Green | >120 Minutes | 7 | 18 | 17 | 11 |
SAS launched its New Clinical Response Model (NCRM) in November 2016, based on a detailed clinical analysis of around half a million 999 calls. Since then, following triage, 999 calls are coded to one of five categories based on the likelihood of serious outcomes or the requirement for specific interventions:
Purple: where a patient is identified as having a 10% or more chance of cardiac arrest.
Red: where a patient is identified as having a likelihood of cardiac arrest between 1% and 9.9%,or having a need for resuscitation interventions such as airway management above 2%.
Amber: where a patient is likely to need diagnosis and conveyance to definitive care.
Yellow: a patient who has a need for emergency care but has a very low likelihood of requiring life-saving interventions. For example, patients who have tripped or fallen but not sustained any serious injury.
Green: a patient does not fit the above categories and there is potential for an alternative care pathway.
With regard to the three purple incidents identified in the data as being over 120 minutes, reviews were undertaken into each of the incidents. These incidents were triaged as non life-threatening emergency calls and upgraded due to the caller later advising a change in condition of the patient. When this occurs, the response time is counted from the time of original call rather than when the call is upgraded. On clinical review, there was no clinical detriment to patients due to the delay.
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of the new contract for the provision of Scottish National Standardised Assessments, including details of any differences that exist between the new contract and the previous contract.
Answer
The new contract will see the continued provision of online assessments for children and young people in P1, P4, P7 and S3. The Specification of Requirements published as part of the Invitation to Tender identified the areas in which continuity of provision is required (general assessment principles, presentation policy and coverage; reports coverage; training coverage; branding), and highlighted some areas around which enhancements were sought. The primary difference between the phase 1 contracts and the phase 2 contract is that rather than continuing to deliver two online systems through two separate contracts, phase two will see the establishment of a single assessment platform, which will provide access to both the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA) and their Gaelic Medium Education equivalents, the Measaidhean Coitcheann Niseanta airson Foghlam tron Ghidhlig (MCNG).
- Asked by: Katy Clark, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what catch-up plans it has put in place for children who have missed swimming lessons due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answer
The Scottish Government is in discussion with key stakeholders involved in the provision of swimming lessons and water safety education. We recognise the importance of swimming lessons in helping to build water confidence and learning to be safe in and around water, as well as the benefits swimming provides to physical and mental health. We would encourage parents/guardians to contact their local swimming lesson provider to discuss when their children are able to attend lessons.