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There are no jobs related to the National Care Service which are being recruited by Scotland Excel at this time.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07488 on 25 April 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 Scottish Government acknowledges the importance of the Growing Up in Scotland Study (GUS) longitudinal study which allows us to track the health and wellbeing of Scotland’s children and young people over an extended period of time. We also note with concern the initial findings from the most recent GUS ‘Life at Age 14’ report published on 15 February 2022.

The report, which is based on data collected in 2019/20, aligns with our understanding of the need to ensure that all children and young people are able to access the right support for their mental health and wellbeing as early as possible, without stigma.

That is why we continue to prioritise building and improving mental health and wellbeing support services for children and young people and continue to invest significantly in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our children and young people. In the 2021-22 financial year this included: Investing £40 million in improving Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, £16 million on our commitment for all secondary schools in Scotland to have access to a mental health counsellor, £15 million on provided to local authorities to fund over 230 new and enhanced community supports and services for children and young people and over £160 thousand to provide enhanced digital resources on mental health and wellbeing available via the Young Scot 'Aye Feel’ website, Scottish Youth Parliament ‘Mind Yer Time’ websites.

In addition we have invested in a range of resources to support parents, cares and adults working with children and young people to ensure they are fully equipped with the tools and knowledge needed to make a difference to children and young peoples lives. This includes investing in a suite of resources for all school staff , developed by our Mental Health in Schools National Working Group, and providing a range of advice and resources for parents and carers, available through ParentClub.scot , including specific resources for parents of teenage children .

The regulations for foods for special medical purposes are one of the categories covered by the foods for specific groups legislation. Retained Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 on Foods for Specific Groups replaced the former Foods for Particular Nutritional Uses approach and begun a new EU phased process to review and update the composition and labelling for each category. As part of this process, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/128 was introduced and has applied to businesses since 2019.

This, now retained Regulation, lays out the compositional, labelling and notification requirements of foods for special medical purposes. These foods are a category of Foods for Specific Groups , specially processed or formulated and intended for the dietary management of patients and to be used under medical supervision.

These foods are intended for the exclusive or partial feeding of patients with a limited, impaired or disturbed capacity to take, digest, absorb, metabolise or excrete ordinary foodstuffs or certain nutrients contained therein or metabolites. They are also intended for use by patients with other medically-determined nutrient requirements, whose dietary management cannot be achieved only by modification of the normal diet, by other foods for particular nutritional uses, or by a combination of the two.

The powers to enforce the requirements in Scotland are contained within The Foods for Specific Groups (Scotland) Regulations 2016 (as amended).

We engage with the UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on a range of issues.

We are not working with DHSC on this particular matter.

Information on the number of Clinical Nurse Specialists by specialist cancer fields is not held centrally.

However, we recognise the scale of the challenge facing Health Boards across Scotland. We are working closely with partners to accelerate domestic and international recruitment to Scotland. New investment of £300m has helped services deal with system pressures over winter and the NHS Recovery Plan, backed by over £1bn, has introduced a range of direct workforce investments and new measures to support Boards’ capacity for both domestic and international recruitment.

Overall NHS staff and nursing staff levels are currently at a record high, following ten consecutive years of NHS Scotland workforce growth. We are investing £11m over the next five years in new national and international recruitment campaigns and have established a national Centre for Workforce Supply to provide labour market intelligence. We are also recruiting at least 200 registered nurses from overseas, with funding of £4.5m available to Health Boards to take this forward.

Our latest DCE lung cancer campaign entitled - ‘Settling In’ – was launched in May 2021 with the aim of increasing awareness of the early signs of lung cancer and encouraging people with possible symptoms to contact their GP practice. Almost two-thirds (64%) of those who saw the campaign did something as a result, including looking out for symptoms and deciding to go to their GP practice with possible signs. As committed to in our NHS Recovery Plan, a new early cancer diagnosis vision for Scotland is also being developed to direct early diagnosis efforts over the coming years, including that of lung.

We know that the recent increases in energy prices we have seen will be concerning to many consumers including those using mobility scooters. Whilst the Scottish Government does not have powers over the setting of energy prices, we have looked to provide assistance where we can.

As part of our wider £290m package of funding announcements made to tackle the cost of living crisis, we have committed a further £10m to continue our Fuel Insecurity Fund from April to help households at risk of self-disconnection, or self-rationing their energy use, due to unaffordable fuel costs.

We are also making financial support for disabled people and people with long term health conditions more straightforward to access. Through the introduction of Adult Disability Payment, we are providing a new, simplified, compassionate system that will treat people with dignity, fairness and respect. The application process has been designed with disabled people to make sure it is as clear as possible. People can apply in the way that’s best for them, either online, by post, over the phone or face-to-face.

The Scottish Government fund a core module in the long running Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, which includes questions on public attitudes to the health service. Fieldwork for the most recent survey was carried out from 21 October 2021 to end March 2022 and the final report will be published in late 2022. Due to COVID restrictions, the survey was not run in 2020. The last published findings are from 2019 ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-social-attitudes-2019-attitudes-government-political-engagement/ )

Changes in methodology necessitated by the COVID restrictions unfortunately mean that the 2021 data may not be directly comparable with previous years. The exact timing, methodology and content of the next iteration is currently being discussed.

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) which runs annually asks participants how satisfied or dissatisfied they are with local health services, which contribute to understanding public attitudes to the NHS and social care specifically. Results from the most recent SHS were published in January 2022. As with the SSAS, due to the change to a telephone survey for 2021, the latest data may not be comparable with previous years:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-household-survey-2020-telephone-survey-key-findings/

SHS data collection is ongoing, with 2022 data currently being collected. 2021 data is being processed and is due to be published later in the year.

Guidance is regularly reviewed and updated based on clinical evidence. Scottish Government Officials and clinicians continue to work with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) Scotland, as has been done throughout the pandemic, to review protective measures within adult and older people care homes.

Self-isolation, testing, outbreak management and infection prevention and control measures are currently under review with any updates to guidance anticipated in May.

The last formal review prior to this took place in March, with updates to guidance implemented from April.

NHS 24 has recently completed an initial review of the cancer specific information on NHS Inform, to ensure it is clinically safe and any out of date information has been removed. Meanwhile NHS 24 is in discussions with a third sector organisation on the potential for an API (Application Programming Interface) to facilitate the sharing of information through enabling information to be systematically gathered and displayed on NHS Inform.