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As is stated in The Strategy for Our Veterans, published in 2022, the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring all armed forces personnel and veterans who serve and live in Scotland are able to access the best possible care and support, including safe, effective and person-centred healthcare.

NHS inform includes pages about Health rights for veterans in Scotland , which provide guidance on medical and practical support available for veterans. This information is reviewed and updated regularly.

The Scottish Government recently launched a General Practice Armed Forces and Veterans Recognition scheme. This scheme will help increase understanding, among staff in general practice, of the health issues faced by veterans and armed forces families as a result of military service and includes some of the support services that may be available. General Practices who wish to be part of the Scheme can contact gp-afv@gov.scot for more information.

All Scottish NHS health boards are signatories to the Armed Forces Covenant, which states that members of the veterans and armed forces community should face no disadvantage when accessing and receiving treatment for health problems as a result of service to their country. The Scottish Government meets regularly with NHS Armed Forces and Veterans Champions to support them in meeting their duties under the Covenant.

The Scottish Government understand the importance of sport and physical activity and the positive impact that it has, not only on physical, mental, and social health but on wider social outcomes.

We are committed to ensuring that all children in primary schools receive at least two hours of physical education each school week, and all young people in secondaries 1 to 4 receive at least two 50-minute periods of physical education each school week.

Alongside opportunities to be physically active in physical education, sportscotland works in partnership with all 32 local authorities to invest in and support Active Schools. Active Schools is dedicated to developing and supporting the delivery of high quality sport and physical activity opportunities to all children and young people taking an inclusive approach and providing targeted opportunities where there is a need.

Data published by sportscotland shows significantly increased participation levels across the past academic year (2022-23), with 4.6 million visits to Active Schools sessions, a rise of 34% on 2021-22.

We have committed to ensure that sportscotland’s Active Schools programme is free for all children and young people by the end of this Parliament.

In addition we are funding the Active Play Development Project which provides children with the opportunity to develop physical skills in their early years and to encourage a long-term, positive relationship with physical activity. The programme targets areas of disadvantage and will support more children from areas of higher deprivation, to develop the skills and confidence to enjoy being more physically active.

Scotland’s two iconic national parks were established in 2000 as Non-Departmental Public Bodies and their governance arrangements were set down in Designation orders thereafter.

NDPBs operate at arms lengths from Scottish Government and are wholly accountable to the Scottish Parliament. The relationship with government is set out in a Framework Agreement between the body and Scottish Ministers, both national parks have these agreements in place.

Scottish Ministers regularly meet both National Parks to discuss a range of matters, including governance.

The 2021 Programme for Government included a commitment to review Allied Health Professions (AHP) Education in 2022. To deliver on this, the Scottish Government worked in collaboration with a wide range of partners including the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, the professional body for Speech and Language Therapists in the UK. The Review has now been completed and recommendations were published reporting a number of short, medium and long terms actions needed to address workforce and education challenges, including the development of ‘earn and learn’ routes to become an AHP in Scotland.

An advisory group has been established to oversee the effective implementation of the recommendations and the first meeting was held on 9 October 2023. The group will be chaired by Carolyn McDonald, Chief Allied Health Professions Officer who will report progress towards the implementation of the recommendations to the Chief Nursing Officer and Scottish Ministers as required.

In Scotland, under current water quality legislation, the decision to introduce fluoridation of drinking water supplies lies with local NHS Boards. There are currently no known plans to fluoridate the public water supply in Scotland and any decision to do so would be the responsibility of individual NHS Boards in consultation with the public and Scottish Water. There have been no formal discussions with NHS Boards regarding water fluoridation.

We are currently working with the Scottish Advisory Group for Relationships and Behaviour in Schools to develop a national action plan which we expect to be published early in the new year.

We will update parliament on the action plan in due course.

We committed in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy to put appropriate governance arrangements in place to oversee implementation and track progress. We will therefore establish a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leadership Board during the first year of the Delivery Plan that will:

• Provide national leadership and strategic oversight of priorities.
• Ensure activity delivers clear benefits, aligned with the Strategy’s vision, outcomes and principles.
• Provide constructive support and challenge to ensure progress against actions set out in the Delivery Plan.
• Play a key role in evaluating the impact of interventions and sharing learning.

As we have set out in the Delivery Plan (published November 2023), we intend for membership of the Leadership Board to include representation from a range of Scottish Government portfolio areas, Local Government, NHS Boards, Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) and the Third Sector.

The Scottish Government is undertaking a range of work to improve social care provision across Scotland, including for rural communities.

The Self Direct Support (SDS) Improvement Plan 2023-2027 has been developed to make sure that work taking place to improve SDS is more coherent and better coordinated and focuses on the right priorities. The “Golden threads” of the Improvement Plan are areas that all activity related to SDS improvement should consider in implementation. This includes the needs of rural, island and remote communities as a priority.

We are also committed to building a National Care Service to improve the quality and consistency of social care across Scotland. We understand there is often a need for a different approach for people living in rural communities and the National Care Service will help ensure that is delivered.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23491 on 19 December 2023. 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 is currently considering the findings of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research and outputs from the relationships and behaviour summits which, will inform the actions that are included in the national action plan. This will include consideration of what further support local authorities may require. The national action plan will be developed in collaboration with the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools and we expect it to be published early in the new year.