Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-37237

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 14 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with (a) Aberdeen City Council and (b) hydrogen suppliers regarding securing alternative fuel supplies for the hydrogen-bus project while life-extension works are carried out at Kittybrewster and Cove, and what the outcomes were of any such discussions.

Question reference: S6W-36090

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, what steps it will take to ensure that mental health services consistently involve families and carers, especially in discharge planning and crisis planning processes.

NHS Boards have duties under the Carers Act to involve unpaid carers in decision making and planning the return from hospital of the person they care for (or will care for). More specifically, the Core Mental Health Quality Standards state that a person’s support network should be involved in their care if they wish. Progress on implementing the standards is measured by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

To support Boards in discharging these duties we have funded NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to develop three training modules for the health and social care workforce to help them identify, include and support unpaid carers including young carers. In 2025 and 2026 NES will promote and support the use of these training resources across the health and social care workforce. We are also funding NES to develop carer awareness training for staff in mental health services.

Question reference: S6W-36092

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, what progress it has made with Community Justice Scotland to pilot post-custody outreach services, including the timelines for implementation.

We recognise the importance of support for individuals on release from custody. While we are not currently pursuing a pilot on post-custody outreach, we are improving support for these individuals by introducing a new national voluntary throughcare service, Upside, which offers one-to-one support for men and women leaving short sentences and periods of remand. This service, which launched on
1 April 2025, will assist people with the immediate challenges they face post-custody, including accessing housing, healthcare and social security, while also linking them to the wider support services they may require, such as mental health or substance use services.

In addition to this, through the Getting It Right For Everyone (GIRFE) model, we are supporting Health Boards to provide a package of care and support in a joined-up, holistic manner across various services and agencies. This will also support people with their needs on release from prison.

Question reference: S6W-36097

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, what investment has been made in assertive outreach services to support any individuals with complex co-occurring mental health and substance misuse issues, and how the outcomes of any such investment are evaluated.

The Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) Standards set out what people should expect from substance use services. MAT Standard 3 sets out that people at high risk of drug-related harm should be proactively identified and offered support, while MAT Standard 9 sets out that all people with co-occurring drug use and mental health issues should receive mental health care. Implementation of the MAT Standards is supported by multi-year funding of £10.3 million per year over the life of the Parliament. Implementation of the MAT Standards is assessed by Public Health Scotland (PHS) via annual Benchmarking Reports.

Question reference: S6W-36088

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, how it plans to improve coordination between NHS boards, social care, social work, and forensic services to support individuals with complex co-occurring mental health and substance misuse issues.

Extensive work is ongoing to improve coordination of public services as part of our commitment to public service reform. We will support all areas to follow the Getting It Right for Everyone model of person-centred services (GIRFE). This model brings the person, their families, carers and all service providers together to devise a package of care and support in a joined-up, holistic manner across various services and agencies to achieve the best outcomes for individuals. In December 2024 we published the GIRFE toolkit and Health Boards are now required to set out how they will embed the GIRFE principles and toolkit in NHS Annual Delivery Plans for the organisation and delivery of their services. In addition, we are establishing the new National Care Service Advisory Board to improve social care, social work and community health services.

More specifically to support individuals with complex co-occurring mental health and substance use issues we commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to create a gold-standard protocol that sets out how these services should work together, which has now been published. HIS are now working to support areas across the country to develop and implement their own protocols. We are also supporting Mental Health Officers (MHOs), who assess and support individuals with mental health conditions and are pivotal to integrated health and social care services. Actions underway include undertaking workforce planning initiatives to address shortfall in MHOs, developing a pilot exercise to reduce administrative burden, and developing a scheme to harness the potential of AI powered tools to support reporting and reduce associated workloads.

Question reference: S6W-36089

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 29 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, whether it will ensure investment in assertive outreach services for any individuals at high risk of non-engagement with mental health and substance misuse services, and if so, what form this investment will take.

The Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) Standards set out what people should expect from substance use services. MAT Standard 3 sets out that people at high risk of drug-related harm should be proactively identified and offered support, while MAT Standard 9 sets out that all people with co-occurring drug use and mental health issues should receive mental health care. Implementation of the MAT Standards is supported by multi-year funding of £10.3 million per year over the life of the Parliament.

Question reference: S6W-36093

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, what steps it has taken to ensure that NHS boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships consistently follow good practice in risk assessment and discharge planning, and how it will monitor compliance.

It is for Health Boards to ensure that they are consistently following good practice in risk assessment and discharge planning, however Scottish Government regularly engages with Boards at official level to ensure they are providing a safe, high-quality service to patients. In addition to this, the Mental Welfare Commission follows up with Boards/HSCPs to ensure they implement any recommendations made in their reports.

Question reference: S6W-36096

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, what steps have been taken to ensure that any disagreements within multidisciplinary teams regarding compulsory treatment orders are formally recorded, escalated appropriately, and addressed through second opinions where necessary.

Question reference: S6W-36094

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, what progress NHS boards have made in implementing training to improve the identification and management of any risks relating to violence, substance misuse, non-engagement, and non-compliance among patients in mental health services.

The Scottish Government provide funding to NHS Education for Scotland (NES) who are responsible for developing and delivering healthcare education and training for NHS, the health and social care sector and other public bodies. We provided NES £30 million in 2024-25 to deliver multidisciplinary mental health education, training and workforce expansion for staff supporting adult and children mental health and psychological wellbeing.

This includes mental health training resources on risks relating to suicide, substance use, non-engagement and offending behaviour, as well as our trauma-informed and trauma responsive programme. These resources support implementation of the Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards and Core Quality Standards for Mental Health.

Question reference: S6W-36095

Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 28 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Investigation into the care and treatment of Mr TU, published in March 2023, what progress has been made in improving the involvement of families and carers in discharge planning within mental health services, and how improvements are measured.

NHS Boards have duties under the Carers Act to involve unpaid carers in decision making and planning the return from hospital of the person they care for (or will care for). More specifically, the Core Mental Health Quality Standards state that a person’s support network should be involved in their care if they wish. Progress on implementing the standards is measured by Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Local assessments were circulated in 2024 and responses are currently being analysed.

Seòmar agus comataidhean