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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-31811

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 23 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will produce specific guidance for people with learning disabilities living in supported accommodation or care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the 21 August, Health Protection Scotland published COVID-19 - information and guidance for social, community and residential care settings. This guidance covers supported accommodation settings and can be found at https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/web-resources-container/covid-19
-information-and-guidance-for-social-community-and-residential-care-settings/

It was announced on the 3 September, for community and social outings – in care setting that are not registered as being for older adult residents - day and overnight visits may resume, following local individual assessment of the person’s need for this and an individual risk assessment of the visit. We recognise that some care homes may need to liaise with health protection teams to assess what may take place at a local level.

This guidance can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19
-adult-care-homes-visiting-guidance/

The Scottish Government has no plans to produce specific guidance for people with learning disabilities living in supported accommodation or care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the care home guidance and Health Protection Scotland guidance cover these settings.

Question reference: S5W-31808

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 23 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether individual risk assessments are being carried out for people with learning disabilities living in supported accommodation or care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, or whether it is blanket guidance that is being applied.

Guidance issued by the Scottish Government recommends that care homes and supported accommodation carry out individual risk assessments to ensure all residents, including those with learning disabilities, are safe. The guidance also outlines that potential application of any of the recommendations of national guidance should always take place on consideration of the individual facts and circumstance of residents, and on consideration of these against the wider risks posed to the other care home residents from the virus. In doing so, a full and robust risk assessment should be carried out.

Assessments should take the individual’s needs into account to ensure services can be adapted in line with relevant guidance and approaches agreed with local NHS Boards, Health Protection Teams and the Care Inspectorate.

From 7 September, in care settings not registered as for older adults, day and overnight visits may resume following an individual risk assessment of the person’s need for this and an individual risk assessment of the visit.

Question reference: S5W-31809

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 23 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether parents can be considered part of the care team for people with learning disabilities living in supported accommodation to enable them to visit and be subject to the same restrictions that apply to care home staff.

Scottish Government is actively considering ways to open up further visiting options for people living in care homes and hopes to publish plans in the near future. These actions will need to support a balancing of risks from infection being brought into care homes and of reduced contact with family members. Proposals are currently in development and are likely to include options for longer and more participative visits with loved ones.

Question reference: S5W-31810

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 23 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when it will produce guidance to allow people with learning disabilities living in supported accommodation or care homes to resume outdoor visits.

On 25 June, the Scottish Government announced that care homes should allow outdoor family and friends visiting with one visitor from 3 July and this guidance was updated on 8 August to recommend outdoor visiting with a maximum of 3 visitors from up to two households in homes where it has been 28 days since a resident or member of staff displayed any COVID symptoms.

On 3 September, it was announced that in care setting that are not registered as being for older adult residents - day and overnight visits may resume following local individual assessment of the person’s need for this and an individual risk assessment of the visit.

Question reference: S5W-31664

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 23 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to reopen NHS pain clinic services to allow for people with chronic pain to resume treatment.

We appreciate how difficult it has been for people who have had procedures or treatments postponed due to the pandemic, and in particular, for those living with chronic pain, whose quality of life may have been affected.

Health Boards are continuing to remobilise services in line with the ‘Remobilise, Recover and Re-design Framework’ which we published on 31 May. We remain committed to ensuring that the full range of pain services will be available as quickly as it safe to do so. To support this, tomorrow we will publish a COVID-19 Recovery Framework for NHS Pain Management Services which was developed in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders across the clinical community, third sector and patient groups.

Question reference: S5O-04609

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 September 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to provide the outdoor learning and youth work sector with the financial support required to prevent the permanent closure of outdoor residential centres.

Question reference: S5F-04412

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 September 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 September 2020

To ask the First Minister for what reason the Scottish Government will not meet its target of helping 38,000 people back into employment through the Fair Start Scotland programme.

Question reference: S5W-30962

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 July 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 21 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many COVID-19 contact tracers are employed by each NHS board, also broken down by how many (a) have been hired from outwith the NHS and (b) are former NHS employees.

Prior to the formal launch of the Test and Protect system, we asked all NHS Scotland boards to collectively make available up to 2,000 staff to participate in contact tracing activity. As acknowledged at the time, the resource was provided substantially from existing workforce and it was recognised that not all would be required at any one time. We keep contact tracing capacity under active review, in line with modelling undertaken by Public Health Scotland, with all boards required to maintain a total national capacity commensurate with demand.

In management information collated on the 10 September 2020, approximately 874 staff capable of undertaking contact tracing activity, were available for deployment across NHS Scotland territorial boards and the National Contact Tracing Centre, a summary of this information, broken down by board, is set out in the following table. The Scottish Government does not hold data centrally on the proportion of these staff who are newly recruited or redeployed; the recruitment and deployment of staff is a matter for the board. The recruitment position within boards is subject to on-going change, in line with the national modelling picture, and where local service composition changes as a result of the mobilisation of other NHS services.

Recruitment to the National Contact Tracing Centre (NCTC) is on-going, in addition to existing staffing, further recruitment to the centre for 85 WTE started in week commencing 07 September 2020. We continue to make use of the pipeline of candidates identified through national recruitment, with 300 shortlisted applicants currently concluding the interview process. Additionally, a further 25 staff are being recruited by early October to focus on work to follow-up with people who are quarantining after arriving into Scotland from abroad from non-exempt countries.

Board	Trained Staff Available for Deployment – Return of 10 September 2020.
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	72
NHS Borders	33
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	19
NHS Fife	36
NHS Forth Valley	42
NHS Grampian	55
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	191
NHS Highland	19
NHS Lanarkshire	31
NHS Lothian	96
NHS Orkney	6
NHS Shetland	13
NHS Tayside	53
NHS Western Isles	12
Public Health Scotland & NSS – National Contact Tracing Centre	196
Total	874

Question reference: S5W-31661

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 17 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing for mental health services and charities that are required to provide vital assistance to people virtually as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Scottish Government is supporting a range of services and charities to provide assistance for those with Mental Health needs during the pandemic. This includes £3.8 million of additional funding to expand NHS 24’s Mental Health Hub and Breathing Space telephone services as well as online mental health CBT services. The Scottish Government has also invested £1.24 million to support territorial health boards to scale up the use of ‘Near Me’ video consultation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding has provided infrastructure, national guidance, training and local equipment, underpinning the rapid expansion of the Near Me Service across NHS Scotland, and enabling the delivery of thousands of virtual consultations every week. Mental Health services have seen some of the biggest uptake of the Near Me Service.

The Scottish Government has provided funding support to the Third Sector in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-28037 on 14 April 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S5W-31601

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 September 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 16 September 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether the COVID-19 mobile testing units will test young people under the age of 18.