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The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) are working together with Health Boards to support their planning and the safe delivery of monkeypox vaccination to support the response to the current outbreak.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has recommended offering the vaccine to people who are at higher risk of coming into contact with monkeypox to help reduce the spread.

There is currently a limited global supply of existing MVA vaccine which Scotland has secured its share of. Vaccination is underway and it is currently being offered to those at highest risk first.

Additional supplies are expected in September, and people will be offered a first dose in priority order as soon as it becomes available.

The National Mission has been set out for the five years of this Parliament and with it comes a commitment to fund the MAT standards. I have previously given Parliament and delivery partners assurance that funding is to be used for Alcohol and Drugs Partnerships and front-line services to support local areas in meeting the MAT standards. Initial funding of £6 million was provided to Health Boards on 1 March 2022 following discussions with Integration Authorities on the appropriate amount required to deliver the initial set of objectives.

Funding requirements for meeting the MAT standards for 2022/2023 and beyond was agreed with ADPs between January and April 2022 as being over £10 million per year for the next 4 years, to supplement the initial £6 million. The formal notification letter for 2022-23 was sent out to Integration Authorities and Health Boards in June 2022. Health Boards will draw down additional funding for 2022-23 as and when the initial funding has been utilised.

The information that has been requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Official statistical reports relating to the Scottish Ambulance Service can be found on the following link.

Public Health Scotland

Procurement of the MVA vaccine is being managed by UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on a 4 nations basis. Scotland has secured a limited supply of 3,000 doses so far and will have access to more stock once it becomes available.

UKSHA have procured a further 100,000 vaccines that will be arriving in September. Date of arrival and details on Scotland’s share are still to be confirmed.

The Scottish Government previously provided a response advising where the £12 million to support the wellbeing of people working in health, social care and social work was allocated and what was spent. https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers/question?ref=S6W-08799

A breakdown of the funding provided by the Scottish Government for each service is as follows;

In the financial year 2021/22, £12 million was allocated to support the wellbeing of people working in health and social care of which £11.5 million was spent. We allocated £1,145,895 to the Workforce Specialist Service to deliver psychological and psychiatric support to regulated practitioners who provide care to others. £921,029 was allocated on formal psychological interventions that formed the Workforce Development Programme and £366,650 was allocated to the NES Coaching for Wellbeing service. To ensure staff have access to support when they need it, £138,666 was allocated to the National Wellbeing Helpline and £175,142 on the National Wellbeing Hub.

The Workforce Wellbeing fund was set up to support staff who work in adult social work and social care. This fund has been managed outwith the Scottish Government by Inspiring Scotland and the total allocated on this wellbeing initiative was £1,100,000. In addition, £12,332 was allocated to Programme Support and £93,525 in further wellbeing services which include CRUSE Grief and Loss Counselling, Elite Training, Awesome Postcards and a workforce respect marketing campaign. A total of £7,561,432 was directly allocated to Boards and HSCPs. This money was to be spent on, but not limited to, spiritual care, psychological first aid, catering and rest facilities to further support the wellbeing of the workforce.

We continue to work with boards and stakeholders to evaluate the impact of funding and how it meets the needs of the workforce.

We are actively working with local authorities and partners, including Education Scotland, to support local authorities to identify and meet the additional support needs of pupils arriving from Ukraine.

Education Scotland are currently engaging with each local authority to understand their current plans to support these children and young people. We will work with authorities to ensure that teachers can continue to access appropriate professional learning and development to support the needs of pupils, including wellbeing support.

Education Scotland already have a range of resources to support refugee and migrant children, including Supporting child refugees and their families and specific resources on welcoming families from Ukraine. There is also Beginner’s English for Ukrainian Families , as part of the national e-learning offer.

I intend to signpost these and other resources further in a letter to all Directors of Education later this month.

All territorial health boards were invited to submit a gap analysis providing an assessment of care and support available to people with long COVID and areas identified for future development.

Returns were discussed during a meeting of the Strategic Network’s Service Planning Group on 14 April 2022, to enable Health Board representatives to reflect on priorities identified by other Health Boards, identify any services that could be delivered collaboratively, and make best use of the £3million funding across Scotland. The meeting also enabled NHS Board representatives to hear priority issues put forward by organisations representing people living with long COVID.

Boards were requested to use the insight from this process to develop and submit an application for funding, outlining initiatives they planned to undertake over 2022-23 supported by their Resource Allocation formula (NRAC) share of the available long COVID Support funding.

Thirteen applications were received by Health Boards by the Strategic Network by 28 April 2022 and were discussed during a meeting of the Network’s Strategic Oversight Board on 3 May 2022.

No applications had to be resubmitted due to rejection by the Strategic Network’s Oversight Board before funding allocations were confirmed, on 19 May 2022.

Local authorities can claim a general tariff of £10,500 per Ukrainian Displaced Person (UDP) arriving on the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Local authorities will also receive additional education funding for Ukrainian Children and Young People under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. The education tariff depends on the age of the child, to align with providing ELC, primary or secondary education. The agreed annual rates for this funding are as follows:

• early years (ages 2 to 4) - £3,000

• primary (ages 5 -11) - £6,580

• secondary (ages 11-18) - £8,755

These tariffs include support for children with Additional Support Needs. Both the general and education funding streams should be used to help ensure Ukrainian families are supported as they settle into a new area, and can help meet specific needs that arise in relation to accessing education, including having English as an Additional Language.

This education tariff funding is to be provided by the UK Government. The details of how this funding will be transferred to local authorities is still being resolved with UK Government and we are working intensively with them to release this funding as soon as possible.

Asylum is reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office. This includes provision of support and accommodation for people seeking asylum. The Home Office Interpreter Language Services Unit (ILSU) holds overall responsibility for the delivery of interpreting and translation services on behalf of the Home Office.

Asylum seekers living in Scotland can access translation and interpretation support when engaging with services in Scotland on the same basis as other residents, including resettled refugees.

Translators are not provided to individual refugees and asylum seekers when they arrive. Translation and interpretation support is provided at the point of need or service access. Funding and provision are therefore managed across different public services and organisations to enable people to engage with services and support.

The Scottish Refugee Council is working with the Scottish Government to deliver the Warm Scottish Welcome scheme for displaced people arriving from Ukraine. This includes translation and interpreting services. The Scottish Refugee Council have received funding from the Scottish Government to recruit additional advisors for their Refugee Integration Service, including Ukrainian speakers, as part of their work to deliver the Warm Scottish Welcome scheme.

We recognise that translation and interpreting services for displaced people arriving in Scotland from Ukraine are extremely important. The Scottish Refugee Council has asked that anyone wishing to offer assistance in this area contact them to discuss what support they can offer.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone in Scotland whose first language is not English can contribute to Scotland’s future and the society they live in. Having support to learn English is key for many refugees and people seeking asylum, enabling them to participate in learning in schools, colleges and universities; engage within communities; and pursue their employment goals. The Scottish Government’s aim is to support high quality, relevant, appropriate and accessible ESOL provision that meets learner need. The Scottish Government’s ESOL funding is currently provided through colleges as part of the grant allocated to the Scottish Funding Council. Colleges are instructed to work with Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) to determine the level of need for provision and agree with partners how this need can be met.

ESOL courses are delivered through colleges and community organisations. The Scottish Refugee Council website also has information on ESOL courses available across Scotland.

A key action within the recently launched Adult Learning Strategy for Scotland is to undertake a review with ESOL learners and practitioners on the impact of the ESOL Strategy. It will produce recommendations on next steps for ESOL within the context of the Adult Learning Strategy.

English as an Additional Language for school aged children is available through Education Scotland’s Parentzone .

All Ukrainian refugees living in Scotland are entitled to access free NHS dental care. The Scottish Government has issued guidance to Health Boards explaining this policy, a copy of which can be found at: https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/publications/nhs-scotland-services-ukraine.pdf .