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The Scottish Government publishes weekly data on the number of care home staff tested in each Board area:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-additional-data-about-adult-care-homes-in-scotland/

It is not possible from the data to provide a breakdown of the number of staff who can access drive through facilities.

Health and social care workers in Scotland continue to be the top priority for testing and all health and social care workers who have symptoms can be tested through their local NHS board. Each health board will offer a variety of options for testing, these can include providing transport to test centres or access to mobile testing units. Regular testing every 7 days is also now being extended to all care home staff, regardless of symptoms.

Number of “excess” deaths which occurred by day between 20 April 2020 and 31 May 2020 compared with “what would normally have been expected” based on the previous 2 years.

In accordance with the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 the responsibility for the delivery of education rests with individual local authorities. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on outdoor learning, on the basis of local needs and priorities.

The majority of authorities’ education funding is provided via the General Revenue Grant. However, additional funding is provided via the £750 million Attainment Scotland Fund which includes Challenge Authorities funding, an additional schools programme and Pupil Equity Funding. This funding can be used flexibly to achieve equity in education. This can include spending on outdoor learning experiences.

In addition, in May 2020 the Scottish Government announced funding of £159,000 to expand Living Classroom’s Virtual Nature School programme across the country. This work will provide professional training and learning materials to early learning and childcare practitioners looking to take learning outdoors.

The Scottish Government has also provided funding to support the development of the ‘Going Out There’ and ‘Out To Play’ guidance documents. These documents provide educators with a comprehensive guide to all the practical and legal considerations needed to take learning outside and beyond the learning estate.

Following the closure of schools and to assist with planning for the blended learning approach, Education Scotland has also developed an outdoor learning ‘Wakelet’. This provides educators with access to resources, guidance and advice relating to outdoor learning.

Scottish Government officials met with a number of third sector organisations including Scouts Scotland; Girlguiding Scotland; The Boys’ Brigade; and the Outward Bound Trust on Friday 29 May 2020 . The meeting focused on challenges that third sector run outdoor education centres have encountered during lockdown. During that meeting third sector organisations put forward an idea of how to help upskill school staff in providing outdoor learning.

We are currently considering the challenges and opportunities raised during the meeting of the 29 May and we are committed to keeping Scouts Scotland; Girlguiding Scotland; The Boys’ Brigade; and the Outward Bound Trust informed of next steps.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29289 on 17 June 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

There is potential for outdoor settings to be utilised more often as schools reopen. The outdoors provides greater space for education to be delivered whilst physical distancing is in place.

In light of this, Scottish Government officials have held discussions with a number of organisations within the outdoor learning sector and this includes organisations that run outdoor residential centres. Those discussions have covered the potential for residential centres to be used to help schools deliver learning at a safe physical distance and for the experienced staff at centres to help teachers to effectively deliver learning in an outdoor environment. We continue to engage with the sector.

Decisions relating to school trips, whether to residential centres or other settings, rest with schools and local authorities. This approach allows guidance to be developed which best fits local circumstances.

Scottish Government officials have been involved in recent discussions with organisations that offer residential outdoor experiences. The Scottish Government is considering a proposal from the residential providers to develop guidance on accessing these facilities in the future and we will update relevant partners in due course.

The following numbers of items of eye protective equipment have been issued to the NHS and social care in response to the Covid 19 outbreak between 1 March and 31 May 2020, including the Tiger eyewear product which was recalled on 9 May:

Scotland is not a member country of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UK is, so that limits the engagement at formal levels. The Scottish Government has kept very close to the WHO briefings, publications, guidelines and advice through a variety of routes. Personal connections, online viewing of the briefings, summaries of WHO work and advice. The 4 nations Senior Clinicians Group call, which takes place twice a week, receives information from international sources, including the WHO, to add to its deliberations and advice.

Dr David Nabarro, WHO's special envoy for Covid-19, has been positive about our approach to the pandemic. He said that we are tackling it carefully and logically, thinking through how we make sure people are safe and how we make sure the economy can restart, layering these two concerns together. And I hope that most would agree with him when he said that we are levelling with the people of Scotland about what we are trying to work through as we deal with this crisis.

Global supply chains for PPE have been put under immense pressure due to the pandemic, and some Personal Assistants will be needing to use or access PPE for the first time. That is why we set up supplies from the national stock to top up existing supply routes of PPE for social care.

Part of this was the establishment of local PPE Hubs in every Health and Social Care Partnership area for onward distribution or collection of supplies by social care providers.

These Hubs expanded their provision at the end of April to support the whole social care sector with all of its PPE needs where normal supply routes fail; including unpaid carers and all employers of social care Personal Assistants/home carers. SPAEN confirmed the system was working well in their contact with us on 18 May.

Personal Assistants or their employer can find out the details of their local Hub on the Scottish Government website . We have been in regular contact with SPAEN about this topic and they helped to pass on these details to their members when the arrangements were put in place.