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Tackling health inequalities is a key part of the preventative care role for school nurses, general practice nurses and health visitors and is aligned to public health priorities to improve health and wellbeing outcomes, particularly for women and children. District nurses have a role in disease management in populations affected by health inequalities, delivered in community settings, and support people to stay healthy at home.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the collection and use of data in health and social care, ultimately to improve outcomes for people.

For example:

a) We have set up the Social Care Data and Intelligence Programme Board (SCDIPB) to support and optimise the development and analysis of social care data. The Board is working to implement the recommendations of the Care Home Data Review (https://www.gov.scot/publications/care-home-data-review-full-report/) to streamline and improve the collection and use of social care data. Changes to TURAS Care Management have also reduced the data burden on care homes, providing a picture of available beds, occupancy and pausing duplicate data collections.

b) We have made significant progress in the data made available to General Practice, such as the collection of weekly capacity and pressures data provided by NHS Health Boards, and monthly activity data published by Public Health Scotland (PHS). We have also commissioned NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) to develop a Primary Care Data and Intelligence platform for March 2026, which will provide a single point of controlled access to general practice data.

c) In addition, we continue to improve NHS data collections by developing new diagnostic activity statistics and new data on Hospital at Home. This is being undertaken in collaboration with PHS and NHS NSS as set out in Scotland’s Data Strategy for Health and Social Care, published in February 2023. The Strategy sets out our commitments to improve the collection, use and sharing of data, more information can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/data-strategy-health-social-care-2/.

As referred to in the Royal College of Nursing’s report, The Nursing Workforce in Scotland 2025, published on 6 May 2025, the Scottish Government published the Ministerial Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce report in February 2025.

The report includes 44 recommendations to tackle all barriers to recruitment and retention of nursing and midwifery staff, beyond pay, terms and conditions. Phase 2 has commenced and a Ministerial Oversight and Implementation Group have been established to develop a detailed workplan which will be agreed shortly to take forward the agreed recommendations. Members of the Taskforce acknowledged that implementation will take time and investment to ensure genuine change for our nursing and midwifery staff.

As outlined in the response to S6W-32069 on 6 January 2025, the Scottish Government expects all NHS Boards to provide maternity services that are delivered as close to home as practicable, balanced with ensuring the safety of mother and baby. Within the policies we set, it is for NHS Boards to determine the model of service delivery best suited to meet the needs of their local areas and population.

All decisions about care throughout pregnancy, including around place of birth, should be made by women in discussion with their clinical team. These decisions will take account of their individual needs and circumstances. To support this, in February 2025 we published the new Pathway for Maternity Care. This sets out the core care that women and their babies should receive under a whole-person, individualised care approach which takes account of their specific circumstances. We also published the new Birthplace Decision leaflet to provide women with the up-to-date information they need to make informed decisions about where they would like to give birth.

Women will be given advice when they contact maternity triage services in labour to help them make decisions about when to travel to hospital, and on pain relief options available to them.

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

NHS Dumfries and Galloway has confirmed that all pregnant women in Wigtownshire continue to receive all of the maternity care that they require. Antenatal and postnatal maternity care, including maternity scanning is delivered by midwives locally via the Oaktree Family Centre in Stranraer. Women can also choose a home birth and will be supported by local midwives. Women who require more complex care may require some of their antenatal and postnatal care at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and will be advised to birth there.

Although widespread across all ages and demographics, data tells us that disabled people, young people (16-24), people over 75 and those on low incomes are now the most at risk of social isolation and loneliness. To support the delivery of our Social Isolation and Loneliness Delivery Plan, we are providing £3.8m over three years to 53 community projects across Scotland through the Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund that is providing opportunities for people to connect. At the end of year one projects reached 11,293 individuals with a focus on priority groups most at risk of social isolation and loneliness. We also provide funding to Befriending Networks, who support befriending services across Scotland, and currently have 118 Scottish members.

We recognise that being physically active is one of the very best things we can do for our physical, social and mental health and we want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to be active, regardless of their circumstances.

Our Physical Activity For Health Framework, published in October 2024, describes our evidence-based approach to achieving our vision of a Scotland where more people are more active, more often. Participation in walking sport is one way in which people can be more active and we recognise the important role of Walking Football Scotland in providing walking football opportunities across Scotland.

Maternity services continue to be provided for women in Wigtownshire, including local antenatal and postnatal care, scanning and the option of midwife-supported home birth for women who choose to birth locally. Women who require more complex maternity care continue to be supported by the full clinical team at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary. Responsibility for the design and delivery of local services lies with NHS Boards and Integration Joint Boards in line with their duties to deliver safe, effective and sustainable care. The findings and rationale behind the IJB’s decision not to reopen the birth unit in Stranraer are publicly available on the Dumfries and Galloway Health and Social Care Partnership’s website: Integration Joint Board Meetings 2021-2025 – Dumfries & Galloway Health & Social Care. Like all Boards, NHS Dumfries and Galloway is expected to continually assess risk and outcomes as part of routine clinical governance.

The Scottish Government recognises the heightened risk of social isolation in rural areas. To support the delivery of our Social Isolation and Loneliness Delivery Plan, we are providing £3.8m over three years to 53 community projects across Scotland through the Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund that is providing opportunities for people to connect. At end of year one projects reached 11,293 individuals with a focus on priority groups most at risk of social isolation and loneliness. We continue to support the National Rural Mental Health Forum to build the confidence of rural organisations to deliver mental health support to their members and networks. We also provide funding to Befriending Networks, who support befriending services across Scotland, and currently have 118 Scottish members; of which approximately 1 in 4 members are independent community organisations operating in rural areas.

The Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery (PNM) student financial support review is currently ongoing. This review will take time, as it is important that we clearly understand how we can support our PNM students to complete their studies. The options for consideration will be presented to the me before the end of the year. An equalities impact assessment will be published once the review has concluded.