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The Vaccination Transformation Programme (VTP) reforms the delivery of vaccination services by supporting locally designed and delivered services by all NHS Boards and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) in Scotland.

The VTP allows individual Health Boards the flexibility to determine and implement a delivery model that best suits their local population and needs. This would ensure that vaccination services are patient centred, locally and easily accessible and tailored ensuring equitable access across Scotland.

Though the vaccination services delivery models would change as per the needs and requirements of local area. The VTP ensures consistent management of National Immunisation programmes and applicability of national standards ensuring that high standards of vaccination delivery are duly met.

The Vaccination Transformation Programme (VTP) covers all routine immunisations that are delivered in Scotland. GP practices no longer provide any vaccinations under their core contract from 1 April 2022. Health Boards have assumed overall responsibility for the delivery of vaccination programmes, which are being facilitated through national digital solutions.

Health Boards developed their plans, tailoring these to meet their local population needs, while providing a safe and effective vaccination and travel health service.

Health Boards have determined how best to deliver all vaccination programme, with models varying across Scotland to align with local requirements. Health Boards may continue to utilise GP premises to provide vaccination services, with their own staff delivering vaccinations. This allows Health Boards the flexibility to arrange mass vaccination centres at community venues, delivering through existing health teams (such as Midwives or Community Pharmacies), or establish new clinics to meet local needs.

The Scottish Government continues to support Health Boards on their transfer of routine vaccination delivery from GPs under the VTP.

We are committed to supporting Scotland’s just transition to net zero by 2045, a target that was agreed by parliament. It is vital that, as we transition our society and economy towards a low-carbon future, no individual, community or region is left behind.

We are also clear that oil and gas are part of our energy mix right now - and will continue to be so during the transition. With the North Sea continuing to play an important role now and in Scotland’s future. However the way to accelerate the transition to net zero - which is not just for environmental imperatives but to increase energy security and reduce energy costs - is to that we must end our dependence on oil and gas. We need to move away from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. This has been recognised by oil and gas companies who are now investing in renewable energy.

We are already investing in the oil and gas sector’s transformation. In addition to our expanded, £75 million Energy Transition Fund and £100 million Green Jobs Fund, our £500 million Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray – which we have called on the UK Government multiple times to match - will support the North East and Moray become one of Scotland’s centres of excellence for the transition to a net zero economy, with our investment supporting transformation across the region.

We are meanwhile undertaking in-depth analysis work to better understand Scotland’s energy requirements as we transition to net zero, ensuring an approach that supports and protects our energy security and our highly skilled workforce whilst meeting our climate obligations. The Programme of Work's evidence base and some of its initial outputs will feature in the Scottish Government's draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) which will be published in Autumn 2022. The ESJTP will consider the whole energy system as part of the strategy and indicate the change required in electricity generation, heat, transport and all energy demand across Scotland.

The Scottish Government fully supports the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) in its efforts to meet the needs of children and young people with additional support needs. Every child’s individual needs are considered by SCRA, based on information provided by other agencies and professionals. SCRA has, for a number of years, worked on support and assistance for neurodiverse children and families. They are creating sensory spaces in their hearings centres, the first of which opened in March this year, and have updated information material and internal guidance to staff in conjunction with the charity Reach for Autism. They are currently working on plans to develop a network of local neurodiversity champions to further promote and address the specific needs of children and families in Children’s Hearings.

The new SCRA digital case management system, now in its second full year of operation, is capable of recording specific data relating to protected characteristics and SCRA are considering how this can be used to the greatest effect.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with COSLA to find a way forward on the introduction of a Scottish Recommended Allowance for foster and kinship carers.

Data on outcomes is currently published at national level. From our latest publication ( May 2022 ), 5,224 (31%) of the 16,859 people that started receiving support under No One Left Behind between April 2019 and December 2021 entered employment. Of those entering employment, 2,722 (52%) were supported by a subsidy to do so (this includes ERIs) and 832 (16%) started a Modern Apprenticeship.

Data on people receiving employability support delivered under the No One Left Behind strategic approach are currently published as experimental statistics which means they are still going through a process of development. Scottish Government analysts are working closely with Local Government partners to further develop these data, ensuring alignment with the Shared Measurement Framework, and will continue to review the content of what data and breakdowns are released in the future as part of the process to move towards official statistics status.

The UK Department of Health and Social Care has recently established an expert panel to provide advice to the UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) on which patient cohorts should be eligible for access to COVID-19 treatments, including whether changes should be made to which patient cohorts are currently eligible for direct access to antivirals to reduce the risk of hospitalisation. More information about the Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel, including how to submit an enquiry to the panel can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/covid-19-therapeutics-clinical-review-panel .

The original eligibility criteria were developed - using an evidence-based approach - by an independent expert working group commissioned by the UK Department of Health and Social Care. The current criteria are set out in a UK-wide clinical commissioning policy . The policy targets those higher risk individuals who have the potential to both be least likely to generate a material immune response to vaccines and be at highest risk of disease progression, hospitalisation and death.

COVID-19 oral antiviral treatments are also being evaluated through a study called PANORAMIC, run by the University of Oxford. The study is testing whether these antiviral treatments may benefit a wider group of patients than the current eligibility criteria. The results from the first part of the study are due to be published later this year.

General information on the arrangements for direct access to COVID-19 treatments in Scotland can be found on NHS Inform .

NHS Boards are required to provide regular updates to the Scottish Government on the status and progress of National Treatment Centre projects. NHS Lothian is currently refreshing the Outline Business Case for the Edinburgh Eye Pavilion replacement project and will subsequently submit a Full Business Case to Scottish Government. Recent progress includes work to develop a Briefing Pack and Exemplar Design which will incorporate requirements to meet the NHS Assure process; Net Zero Carbon legislation; site location; learnings from the Covid-19 pandemic and impact on Clinical Pathways and outputs of the ‘NHS Lothian: Strategic Review of Ophthalmology Services’ completed in 2021. NHS Lothian has also appointed a Health Planner to further develop the Clinical Brief and associated Schedule of Accommodation, based on the outline clinical strategy produced in 2021.

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.

The Scottish Government welcomes any activity that can lead to a positive impact on the health of our veteran community.

As the armed forces are subject to the reserved responsibility of the UK Government, the Veterans’ Health Innovation Fund is open to applications from Scottish projects as well as projects from the rest of the UK.

It is a one-off fund being administered by the Defence and Security Accelerator on behalf of UK Office of Veterans’ Affairs and is open to projects – including in Scotland – that will drive forward innovation in techniques and pathways for meeting veterans’ physical and mental health needs. It aims to ensure treatment is informed by the latest research and developments in clinical care.

The Scottish Government is a member of the fund’s steering board. The steering Board will determine which projects are successful against set criteria and be put forward for UKG ministerial approval.