- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS boards are required to collate numbers of bronchiectasis diagnoses, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer
NHS Boards do not currently collate numbers of bronchiectasis diagnoses over and above the usual coding of patients that happens as standard at local level. We do recognise the importance of data in understanding and improving respiratory care in Scotland, and improving access to respiratory data is a key commitment in our Respiratory Care Action Plan. One of the three priority areas for year 1 of the Plan’s implementation is data and a sub-group has recently been established to progress this commitment. The first task for this group will be to determine what data should be collected in order to improve respiratory care. This will include consideration of which individual conditions would benefit from additional data collection.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many people it estimates currently have a bronchiectasis diagnosis.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of the repair costs for maintaining the Forth Road Bridge in (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21.
Answer
In 2019-2020 the Scottish Government spent £15,849,263.61 in 2020 (1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020) and £11,106,352.64 in 2020/21 (1 April 2020 – 31 March 2021) on the maintenance of the Forth Road Bridge.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it chose March 2023 as the date by which waiting lists for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and psychological therapies will be cleared, as set out in the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026, and whether it will publish the data and evidence that it has to support this decision.
Answer
The date of March 2023 was chosen to drive progress with NHS Health Boards, reflecting the importance of reducing waiting times and meeting the standard that 90% of patients begin treatment within 18 weeks of referral, while also recognising the operational challenges that Boards have faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This date was chosen as a challenging target, based on regular engagements with Boards and evidence on performance, published on a regular basis by Public Health Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland .
We are working with Boards closely and will continue to monitor their performance against the waiting times standard.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what interim targets it has set to clear (a) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and (b) psychological therapies waiting times by March 2023, as set out in the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not set interim targets towards meeting the standard that 90% of patients start treatment for CAMHS and Psychological Therapies within 18 weeks of referral by March 2023.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether clearing the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and psychological therapies waiting times by March 2023, as set out in the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026, is referring to meeting the target for (a) 90% of people referred to CAMHS and psychological therapies to be seen within 18 weeks or (b) no person having to wait longer than 18 weeks to start treatment, or whether it is referring to another measure.
Answer
We are committed to meeting the standard that 90% of patients start treatment for CAMHS and Psychological Therapies within 18 weeks of referral by March 2023.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how the reported £40 million it invested in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to improve services and reduce waiting times has been (a) allocated and (b) spent.
Answer
The investment of around £40 million to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in 2021-22, through the Scottish Government’s Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund, was calculated and allocated to NHS Boards using the agreed National Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula. It is NHS Boards’ responsibility to ensure funding is used locally in a way that will best deliver required outcomes. Mental Health is a priority for operational planning and recovery, as such, CAMHS is a priority in the NHS Recovery Plan . Funding was split into two phases – Phase 1 was allocated as full-year effect to NHS Boards in May 2021, and Phase 2 was allocated as part-year effect to NHS Boards in September 2021. The funding was allocated as follows:
CAMHS Phase 1 | Full-year effect allocation 2021-22 (£m) |
CAMHS Service Specification | 16.4 |
CAMHS up to age 25 | 8.5 |
CAMHS backlog | 4.25 |
Total | 29.15 |
CAMHS Phase 2 | Part-year CAMHS Phase 1 | Full-year effect allocation 2021-22 (£m) | CAMHS Service Specification | 16.4 | CAMHS up to age 25 | 8.5 | CAMHS backlog | 4.25 | Total | 29.15 |
effect allocation 2021-22 (£m) |
CAMHS Neurodevelopmental Standards and Specification | 3.06 |
CAMHS Intensive Psychiatric Care Units (IPCU) | 1.65 |
Intensive Home Treatment Teams | 2.0 |
Learning Disabilities, Forensic and Secure CAMHS | 0.7 |
Out of Hours unscheduled care | 1.17 |
CAMHS Liaison Teams | 1.75 |
Data gathering, research and evaluation | 0.5 |
Total | 10.83 |
Expenditure by NHS Scotland on mental health in Scotland is reported through the Scottish Health Services Costs book published by Public Health Scotland. NHS Board spend in 2021-22 is scheduled to be published later in this financial year. The Scottish Government continues to monitor delivery through regular engagement with NHS Boards.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the commitment in the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland to recruit 320 additional Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) staff, how many such staff it has recruited in 2022 to date; whether it has set a timeline for this commitment to be fulfilled; how this interacts with targets to clear both CAMHS and psychological therapies waiting times by March 2023, and what specific targets it has in place to recruit these workers.
Answer
Responsibility for the recruitment of CAMHS staff lies with NHS Boards. In the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026 , the Scottish Government committed to provide sufficient funding for around 320 additional staff in CAMHS over the next 5 years, with the potential to increase capacity for CAMHS cases by over 10,000.
The additional funding for CAMHS from the Scottish Government’s Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund is designed to provide sufficient support for Boards to increase capacity, reduce long waiting lists and improve CAMHS services. The delivery expected includes implementation of the National CAMHS Service Specification, increasing age range for CAMHS services from 18 to 25, and clearing waiting list backlogs by March 2023.
NHS Education for Scotland (NES) publishes quarterly statistics on the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) workforce . The most recent publication on 7 June 2022 shows data from quarter ending 31 March 2022. These statistics show, as of 31 March 2022, there were 1172 whole time equivalent (WTE) CAMHS staff employed. This compares to 1078 WTE CAMHS staff employed in March 2021, prior to the 2021-22 additional investment of around £40 million to CAMHS from the Scottish Government’s Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund. Therefore, following investment in 2021-22, the CAMHS workforce increased by 94 WTE in 2021-22. Specifically, in the final quarter of 2021-22, the CAMHS workforce increased by 73 WTE.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 June 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is on track to meet the target to clear (a) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and (b) psychological therapies waiting lists by March 2023, as set out in the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026.
Answer
The Scottish Government remain committed to meeting the standard that 90% of patients start treatment for CAMHS and Psychological Therapies within 18 weeks of referral by March 2023.
There have been obvious operational difficulties caused by Covid-19 and the restrictions necessarily put in place over the pandemic. However, latest statistics for both CAMHS and Psychological Therapies (PT) published on 7 June 2022, Publications - Public Health Scotland , for the latest quarter ending 31 March 2022 show that there has seen an all-time high number of children and young people beginning treatment for CAMHS. It is also the highest number of children beginning treatment within 18 weeks under this measure since quarter ending June 2016. It is also encouraging to see significant progress with Psychological Therapies waiting times with a significant decrease in long waits over one year and a decrease for those waiting over 18 weeks.
This reflects the effects of the Scottish Government’s improvement work with Health Boards and the additional investment – which is growing the workforce and reducing backlogs resulting in shorter waiting times and a better experience for individuals and families supported by our NHS.
We are working with Boards closely and will continue to monitor their performance against the waiting times standard.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 29 June 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when the rural affairs secretary last met with Crown Estate Scotland.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 29 June 2022
