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In the June response we committed to establishing a new Mental Health and Capacity Reform Programme to co-ordinate and drive further change and improvement over time in line with the Scottish Mental Health Law Review ambitions. This Spring, we intend to publish an initial delivery plan setting out the key actions being taken forward against priorities identified under the Programme.

The Scottish Government commissioned Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is playing a central role in working with Health Boards to ensure that they are able to continually identify new ways to increase capacity, and to respond to demand through service innovation and redesign.

CfSD programmes have developed strong clinically-led Specialty Delivery Groups (SDG), including one for Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT), which promote multidisciplinary team working, and support local adoption of service improvement programmes. These groups are now well established and have supported several new and innovative pathway developments to free-up additional capacity in the NHS system, many of which are now being successfully scaled up across Scotland. For ENT this includes Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT), Discharge Patient Initiated Review (PIR) and Opt-In Pathways.

We know there is more to do but we are making progress; since the introduction of our long wait targets in July 2022, ENT waits over two years have reduced by 93% for new outpatient appointments and by 54% for inpatient and day-case patients.

The NHS Scotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy 2022-2026 contains a number of actions linked to resource use, including management and reduction of waste, in line with Scottish Targets. Walking aids are included within this, and a number of Boards have trialled and put systems in place to take-back, test and re-use items subject to warranty and liability.

Scottish Government’s guidance on the provision of equipment and adaptations states “partnerships and their equipment and adaptation service providers should ensure they maximise the potential benefits from recycling of all equipment”. In line with this guidance, we are currently engaging with Health Boards to gather a national picture of what action is being taken on this matter, and to ensure the timely provision of equipment to support people to live safely within their own home and community.

Digital technology is an important aspect of any modern education system. To support continued development and use of digital technology to enhance teaching and learning, the Scottish Government is developing a new digital strategy for education.

The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is part of the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (SCTS). As such, operational decisions regarding power of attorney applications are the responsibility of SCTS under the leadership of its independent board headed by the Lord President.

The Scottish Government has provided SCTS with additional funding since 2021 to support OPG recovery and further additional funding last year to support the replacement of the Office of the Public Guardian IT system.

Work on the new OPG IT system, which is expected to reduce processing times for power of attorney applications, is progressing as planned and it is expected that the first phase of the work will be completed this year.

The Scottish Government typically meets OPG once every 3-6 months to discuss ongoing business matters, including registration of powers of attorney.

In recognition of the ongoing pressures on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, including the Office of the Public Guardian, additional funding for SCTS in 2024-25 was prioritised. The 2024-25 budget provides an additional £9.7 million resource and £3.9 million additional capital budget . As a non-Ministerial public body, d ecisions on the allocation of these additional resources are for the judicially-led SCTS Board.

Since 2013 the Scottish Government has provided local authorities and third sector partners with funding of over £50m in support of the implementation of the 1+2 languages approach in schools.

The Scottish Government has regular discussions with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service on a wide range of matters, which includes battery storage facilities to ensure the service is able to respond to incidents with the appropriate resources.

The assessment of all hazards and the equipment needed to deal with incidents is an operational matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The Scottish Government holds regular discussions with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service on a wide range of topics and is assured that the Service is sufficiently equipped and has the ability to deploy a range of resources which can be utilised by the highly skilled crews to bring all incidents to a safe conclusion.