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Corporate governance and accountability arrangements for public bodies are in place and built around an established series of statutory and administrative mechanisms. These ensure consistent processes and parameters, based on the principles in the Scottish Public Finance Manual, within which public bodies are required to operate in terms of the stewardship of public money, propriety and ethics.

This is supplemented by framework agreements that Scottish Government has in place with most public bodies setting out respective roles and responsibilities, including requirement for bodies to set plans which contribute to achievement of the National Performance Framework outcomes, including tackling poverty. These activities and the sponsorship and relationship arrangements the Scottish Government has with public bodies helps ensure that Scottish Ministers priorities are delivered.

Scottish Government funding to local authorities is allocated using a relative needs-based formula, taking into account disadvantage and various other considerations, including levels of deprivation. While local authorities decide how to spend their available finances they are guided by a set of national and local outcomes, with the Equality Act and associated specific duties providing a framework to help local authorities pay due regard to equality issues.

Specifically, local authorises, and other certain public bodies, in Scotland are subject to the Fairer Scotland Duty, which places a legal responsibility on them to actively consider how they can reduce inequalities of outcome caused by socio-economic disadvantage, when making strategic decisions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26524 on 23 April 2024. 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 NHS Scotland Youth Academy aims to enhance opportunity for Scotland’s young people to join the health and social care workforce. It is currently engaged in developing learner pathways, raising awareness of career opportunities and creating connections between schools and employers.

The Youth Academy is bringing together local partners from public and third sector organisations to further opportunities for young people in Health and Social Care. A key focus of work includes the delivery, in collaboration with Skills Development Scotland (SDS), of a new pathway pilot qualification. It will prepare and inspire senior secondary school pupils for entering into careers in health and social care. The pathway pilot is running during the 2023-24 academic year across Highland, Tayside and Clydebank (NHS Golden Jubilee). Additionally, the Youth Academy is supporting the relaunch of the Future Nurse Programme. This aims to raise awareness of nursing careers with primary-aged young people in the Highlands and Clydebank initially.

Land and Assets is one of the three main areas of focus for the Anchors workstream of the Place and Wellbeing Programme. All NHS Boards submitted Anchor Strategic Plans in October 2023 setting out how they will maximise their footprint as owners of land and assets, for the benefit of their local population. NHS Boards have also submitted baseline metrics on their anchor activity, including the proportion of successful assets transfers to date relative to the number received.

We will use this feedback, working with NHS Scotland and the community sector, to understand what further support or guidance we can put in place at a national level to enable more community organisations to use, lease or take on NHS assets for the benefit of local communities.

Tackling health inequalities and improving population health remain clear, ongoing aims of the Scottish Government. Through the Place and Wellbeing Programme we are supporting local action to tackle health inequalities by: supporting health boards to operate as effective anchor institutions; supporting community and voluntary organisations; and ensuring they and public sector partners have the support and resources to take positive action locally.

Working alongside Public Health Scotland, the Scottish Government Anchors workstream within the Place and Wellbeing Programme is supporting NHS boards to act as effective anchor institutions and build greater prosperity in our local communities. All NHS Boards have now submitted Anchors Strategic Plans setting out how they are planning to maximise their footprint as employer, procurer and owner of land and assets, to channel greater wealth into local communities, which in turn will help contribute to reducing health inequalities.

Community and voluntary organisations play a key role is supporting the health and wellbeing of local communities. We are working with them to provide fairer funding processes and increase access to resources that can support them to work locally alongside the public sector to help reduce inequalities.

NHS Lanarkshire is responsible for the delivery of primary care services in Lanarkshire.

The headcount of GPs in Scotland is now sitting consistently at over 5,000, with an increase of 271 additional GPs since 2017 towards our 800 target. Training new GPs is key to our approach, and this takes time. We have expanded GP Specialty Training, adding 35 places this academic year and a further 35 places next year. As a result there are currently just over 1,200 trainee GPs in Scotland.

GP training programmes in Scotland have been filling at a very high level since 2019, with 99% posts filled in 2022 and 100% filled in 2023. 2023 is the first year in which GPST has filled at 100% in Scotland, with all 343 posts having filled.

We also invest over £1m per annum in a range of recruitment and retention initiatives so that becoming a GP remains an attractive career choice.

The Scottish Government is committed to unlocking the potential of scientific and technological innovation to transform lives, increase healthy life expectancy and reduce health inequalities across Scotland.

The Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) pathway has been established to provide a national approach to the identification and adoption of research proven scientific and technological innovations. The ANIA pathway is led by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, hosted by NHS Golden Jubilee. It is a collaborative venture that also draws on the expertise of NHS National Services Scotland, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Public Health Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland.

The ANIA pathway is governed by an Innovation Design Authority (IDA). This brings together senior Scottish Government and NHS leadership to support improved partnership working, provide system leadership and take joint decisions on the progression of innovations through ANIA stage gates.

Following recommendations from the IDA, the Scottish Government has:

• Invested £1.8 million in a national digital dermatology programme to prioritise the most urgent referrals, quickly offer advice for those who do not require a face-to-face appointment, prevent unnecessary anguish and reduce late-stage skin cancer diagnosis.
• Invested £350,000 in a new national team based within NHS Golden Jubilee to accelerate the distribution of Closed Loop Systems for people living with Type 1 Diabetes, increasing effective glycaemic control, and reducing the likelihood of complications, which at their most serious can include blindness, renal failure, and amputations.

There are a range of further innovations currently being evaluated within the ANIA pathway. Scottish Ministers will consider investment in these programmes following any recommendation by the IDA.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery is responsible for driving clinically-led service redesign and transformation in care across NHS Scotland. It consists of a number of national improvement programmes which are focussed on individual Scottish Government strategic priority areas.

The Programme Team workplans for 2024-25 are still in the process of being finalised and will be approved by Scottish Government.

A summary of the CfSD national programmes of work are as follows:

Modernising Patient Pathways (MPP) Programme: The MPP team deliver national improvements in planned care and support front line clinical teams to develop and implement sustainable improvements in service delivery. A key focus of the team is on developing national clinical pathways and supporting boards to increase the use of Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT) and Discharge Patient Initiated Review (PIR).

National Elective Coordination Unit (NECU): The NECU team supports improved access to care by providing a consistent approach to national demand and capacity assessment and allocation as well as providing waiting list validation to ensure lists are up to date.

Unscheduled Care Programme: The Unscheduled Care Programme delivers support and develops improvement tools to help Boards to manage urgent and unscheduled care capacity and capability, including Optimising Flow Navigation Centre (FNC) services, hospital-at-home models and developing pathways to support care home access to urgent care.

Cancer Improvement and Earlier Diagnosis Programme: The Cancer Improvement and Earlier Diagnosis team drives NHS Scotland’s cancer strategic priorities and plays a key role in delivering Scotland’s 10-year cancer strategy, including working with Boards to ensure the Framework for Effective Cancer Management (FECM) is embedded.

National Endoscopy Programme: The National Endoscopy Programme supports Boards to deliver the Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan. This includes supporting the deployment of the new Endoscopy Reporting System and working with NHS Scotland Academy to promote and maximise training opportunities around non-medical endoscopy and cystoscopy.

Innovation Programme: The Innovation team manages the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) Pathway, which is designed to identify and support national adoption of high-impact innovations at pace.

National Green Theatres Programme: The Green Theatres Programme supports NHS Boards to meet the net zero commitments for NHS Scotland through reducing the carbon footprint of theatres and delivering more environmentally sustainable surgery.

Planned Care Programme: The Planned Care Programme is responsible for monitoring planned care performance across all NHS Scotland Boards. It also leads national improvement work around Trauma and Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology and Radiology.