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Under The Strategic Framework for a Cyber Resilient Scotland , the Scottish Government works closely with our delivery partners to improve the cyber resilience of Scottish businesses.

Between January 2021 and July 2022, 3,410 businesses that received the Scottish Government Business Gateway Digital Boost Programme funding undertook a Cyber Health Check, where qualified assessors performed a pre-assessment of their critical technical controls, in line with Cyber Essentials (considered a national standard by the National Cyber Security Centre).

The Scottish Government does not currently hold this information.

Following the publication of Guidance on the provision of wheelchairs on short term loan in March 2021 ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/guidance-provision-wheelchairs-short-term-loan/ ) Scottish Government officials engaged with individual Health and Social Care Partnerships to initially gauge what progress had been made in implementing the guidance. However, due to the pressures of the pandemic, a full review was not carried out as planned.

That engagement established that there were nine services who were providing a short term wheelchair loan service in house. These were Fife, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde – Acute division.

Following a public consultation we plan to issue revised guidance on the provision of equipment and adaptations. Alongside short term wheelchair provision, this guidance includes extensive advice on the effective and timely provision of community equipment and housing adaptations. Accompanying the guidance is a range of good practice guides and self evaluation tools, which we will support services to utilise and evaluate how they are performing against the Key Actions contained in the guidance.

The majority of spend relating to the Enhanced Psychological Practice programme relates to salaried posts in NHS Health Boards, creating additional capacity within the workforce and enabling delivery of evidence based psychological interventions at enhanced level. The allocated spend to date is as follows (please note numbers of learners/practitioners are cumulative and there are ongoing discussions with partners about the programme for future years):

2021-22 - £377,446

• £224,538 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for 20 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
• £152,908 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, eLearning development, teaching support and consultancy, learning resources

2022-23 - £2,193,767*

• £1,925,908 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for up to 81 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
• £267,859 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, teaching support and consultancy, eLearning development, SQA fees and learning resources

*salary costs included in this figure are based on 2021-22 Agenda for Change rates and will need to be amended on confirmation of the Pay Award for 2022-23.

This Government has delivered the highest school spending, and has more teachers per pupil, than any other UK nation. Our pupil teacher ratio is just 13.2 – its lowest level since 2009 - compared to 18 in England and 18.5 in Wales.

In our Budget we have sought to protect Councils by providing over £13.2 billion in the Local Government Settlement for 2023-24. This funding package represents a real terms increase compared with 2022-23 and enables the continued delivery of high quality education for our children. As part of this, we will continue to provide local authorities with specific funding of £145.5 million per year to support the school workforce.

The Scottish Government is committed to advancing gender equality in Scotland, and since 2018 has introduced a range of legislative and other measures to implement the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Scotland.

This includes introduction of the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 to ensure access to free period products, introduction of the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Act 2021 to provide for consistent access to healthcare and forensic medical examinations without first making a report to police, publication of the Women’s Health Plan in 2021 to improve women’s health outcomes, and the expansion of free early learning and childcare provision. In addition, the Scottish government is committed to introducing a new Human Rights Bill which will incorporate CEDAW into Scots Law, as far as possible within devolved competence, andwill consult formally on proposals this year. Through incorporation of CEDAW the Scottish Government will enhance our efforts to eliminate the discrimination, traditional gender roles and stereotypes faced by women and girls. It will ensure a focus on fulfilling their human rights and development.

The UK’s 9th periodic report on the implementation of CEDAW is due to be submitted to the UN CEDAW Committee by the end of March 2023. In addition to contributing to the periodic report, the Scottish Government will publish a standalone Scottish Position Statement in 2023, reporting on progress made since 2018 under each of the articles of CEDAW.

Scottish Government is not currently considering the introduction of a home delivery service for Community Pharmacy. A large number of community pharmacies provide a free home delivery service and where they don't, patients are encouraged to use approaches such using a 'flu friend', when family, friends or neighbours are able to collect medicines on their behalf.

While the Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality healthcare, it is for each NHS Board to decide best how to utilise funding, facilities and staff while taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs.

We will develop a Remote and Rural workforce recruitment strategy by the end of 2024. This will support employers to ensure that the Health and Social Care needs of people who live in remote and rural communities are met.

As part of the Scottish Government’s work to develop a sustainable healthcare workforce, we continue to look for opportunities to increase levels of recruitment and retention of healthcare staff in rural areas.

The number of doctors in training is also up 24.3% under the SNP - or 1,295.6 WTE (from 5,336.1 WTE as at September 2006 to 6,631.7 WTE as at Sept 2022). And we have now created the biggest ever expansion of medical training posts – 152 places at £37m over the next four years to help future-proof our NHS. This equates to 2.5% increase in WTE workforce of 6,100 trainees – who make up 42% of doctors in hospitals. This brings the total number of additional places created by Scottish ministers to 725, since 2014.

In all areas of NHS Scotland, a great deal of effort is going into ensuring that services have sufficient capacity to deal with COVID-19, manage other risks and resume planned services as safely and effectively as possible. This includes ensuring that there are sufficient levels of consultant, including general surgeons.

The Scottish Government remains committed to introducing a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service in Scotland. As a result of the Emergency Budget Review, the thrombectomy service was not reduced, rather the expansion of the service was paused.

The budget for thrombectomy and development of a refreshed stroke improvement plan has been increased from £8.6 million for 2022-23 to £12.5 million in 2023-24. Prior to the 2023-24 budget announcement, the delivery of a national thrombectomy service had already received over £16 million of investment.

Work is ongoing to establish the most effective means of further expanding access to thrombectomy, including how the increased budget will be best used in recruiting staff to maximise the number of patients able to benefit from this treatment.

We are also in discussions with National Services Division, to ensure that decisions taken on potential expansions of the thrombectomy service consider the wider access requirements of patients across Scotland and ensure access is as equitable as possible.

The Scottish Government values all NHS Scotland staff, at every level and in every profession. The latest pay offer we have made is significantly more generous than the 2022-23 pay settlements which have been put in place in the rest of the UK and was negotiated through a partnership process with the input of all recognised Agenda for Change Staff Side organisations. Depending on the grade, under this pay deal Clinical Psychologists will earn anywhere between £53,513 and £112,673 per annum.

The Scottish Government is proud that our Agenda for Change staff are the highest paid in the UK. This applies to both starting salary and people at the top of their Band. It may be helpful to contrast the latest pay offer in Scotland against the settlements which have already been implemented in England and Wales for Band 8 and 9 staff. This information is set out in the following table.

Within the financial year 2022-23, we’ve made available an initial £3 million from our £10 million long COVID Support Fund to provide NHS boards and partners with additional resource to deliver the best local models of care for assessment, and support for the treatment or management of symptoms.

Anyone who is at risk of homelessness as a result of long-COVID or any other reason can contact their local authority for advice and support. Additionally home owners with a mortgage are encouraged to engage with their lenders at an early stage to discuss their options and tenants should contact their landlord. Other organisations such as Shelter Scotland and Citizen Advice Scotland are also able to provide advice and support.

Supported by Scottish Government funding, the Money Talk Team service is delivered by the Citizens Advice Network in Scotland and provides an income maximisation service, including advice on welfare reform and debt to help clients save money, access benefits and grants they are entitled to and deal with debt problems.