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Under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 education authorities in Scotland have a statutory duty to consult and plan on delivery of early learning and childcare (ELC) ( part 6 section 50 ) and on the delivery of day care and out of school care ( part 8 section 55 ) in their local area, at least every two years. Locally-led consultation and service planning is essential to ensuring funded ELC offers that meets local demand and circumstances.

In addition, the Scottish Government has undertaken a number of research exercises to understand parents’ and carers’ needs and preferences at a national level. Over the last three years these include:

• Parents' views and use of early learning and childcare , published in August 2018, in which findings were drawn from an online survey and a telephone survey of parents. The study explored the views and experiences of parents and carers with children under the age of six across Scotland, to inform the expansion of ELC in Scotland. The report found that at the time, nearly 9 in 10 parents (88%) used some form of funded provision and that most combined this with paid and/or informal provision.
• Annual questions about use and affordability of childcare in the Scottish Household Survey for households with a child aged under 11 years old on. The latest report, Under Use of Childcare, published in September 2020, found 79 per cent of households with a child aged two to five years used some form of childcare in 2019.
• Out of school care parent survey , published on 30 August 2019. The report found that use of out of school care was similar across both term-time and the school holidays, with more than half of parents using term-time care (58%) and holiday care (61%). Half of all parents (50%) used both, while 23% used neither.
• Most recently, the Financial Sustainability Health Check of the childcare sector in Scotland, which was published on 31 August, collected information from providers on demand for their services. At the time of the survey (May 2021) overall levels of demand (measured as occupancy levels) were lower for all types of service compared to March 2020. The largest reduction in demand had been in school age childcare (SAC) only services. However, the report also found that demand had generally held up better for services delivering funded ELC than for non-funded services. More detailed information on reported demand can be found in Section 2 of the supporting Analysis and Evidence paper.

No households have had their replacement oil or LPG boilers or heating systems cancelled as a result of the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party shared policy programme commitment to immediately end public subsidy for oil and LPG boilers.

All Warmer Homes Scotland and Home Energy Scotland Loan applications with committed offers signed prior to 6 September 2021, for either replacement oil/LPG boilers or heating systems, will have these honoured and receive their installations/loans. No local council has reported plans to install an oil/LPG boiler or heating measure as part of their Area Based Scheme.

Home Energy Scotland ended recommendations and referrals to Scottish Government schemes for the replacement of oil and LPG boilers from 6 September 2021. From this date, customers will receive advice on lower-carbon alternatives to oil and LPG that are suitable for their homes.

Warmer Homes Scotland surveys ended the recommendation of oil and LPG systems on 6 September 2021. As a result, no further letters offering either replacement oil or LPG boilers or heating systems were sent from 6 September 2021.

Table one shows the total number of patients seen and number that waited over 18 weeks to be seen for orthopaedic treatment in NHS Highland, from January 2020 to June 2021.

NHS Scotland's staffing levels are at a record high, with 25,000 more whole time equivalent staff members working in our NHS under this Government.

Supporting our National Health Service is a central part of the Scottish Government’s programme of work. This is backed by record investment of over £16 billion this year which includes funding to support wellbeing and capacity across our NHS workforce.

On supporting staff in relation to mental health issues: for the financial year 2021-22 the Scottish Government has announced an increased budget of £8 million - an increase of £3 million on last year - to provide ongoing support for the mental health and wellbeing of health and social care workforce across Scotland. This includes targeted support to the primary care and social care workforces of £2 million.

On staff wellbeing and safety, our Health Recovery Plan, published on 25 August, outlines that recovery of staff is intrinsic to our collective ambitions for renewing services. Investment in support for staff wellbeing is therefore an essential and vital component of the recovery plans.

On staffing issues, to support recruitment and free up capacity in the short term we will provide £2 million of financial support to NHS Boards to increase capacity within their recruitment teams and support international recruitment.

We will invest £11 million over the next 5 years in new national and international recruitment campaigns and establish a new national Centre for Workforce Supply. International recruitment of healthcare workers will build capacity in our health workforce and complement existing routes into NHS Scotland.

Work has been undertaken throughout the pandemic with national Regulatory Bodies to ensure that as many former nurses, doctors and allied health professionals who wish to return to work in NHS Scotland are able to do so. We will also support the aims of the Young Person’s Guarantee by increasing opportunities for young people to access employment in NHS Scotland and will explore a range of new initiatives, links with schools and increasing apprenticeships.

Further to the answer to question S6W-01792, the Scottish Government invests £862 million in general medical services, and a further £250 million in support of general practice through the Primary Care Fund.

Specific details of actual expenditure would require to be requested directly from individual NHS Boards .

Special Advisers in the Scottish Government are bound by the Special Adviser Code of Conduct and the standards of integrity and honesty required of all civil servants as set out in the Civil Service Code. The Scottish Government has accepted the Hamilton Report proposal to give further consideration to matters relating to Special Advisers. We will cooperate with the Independent Advisers on taking this forward as part of any wider revisions to both the Ministerial Code and the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers that might be required.

We fully support the pig sector in Scotland and understand the difficulties created by Covid-19 and the knock-on impact this has had on exports to China. The Scottish Government are running a £715k Pig Producers Hardship Support Scheme to support the sector by assisting the producers who supplied the abattoir between 8 February and 31 March. I recognise the strain that the loss of the export licence to China in particular has placed on the sector as a whole. While we are doing what we can to push for relisting, the decision to relist UK sites for exports is ultimately a decision for the Chinese government.

Scottish Government has been working with heath boards most likely to be impacted by COP26 and have put in place measures to support provision of health services to official delegates and others visiting Scotland during the summit period.

Hosting this event does place an additional demand on our NHS and we continue to work closely with Scottish and UK partners to mitigate potential impact on NHS services and staff workload.

Public Health Scotland hold and publish data at consultant or speciality level, which means, for dementia clinical assessments and clinical treatments, old age psychiatry. Those consultations are not broken down by condition or illness.

The Scottish Government draws on extensive actual and estimated data to support local dementia service, workforce and resource planning, including data on estimated dementia prevalence and annual estimated diagnosed incidence, as well as estimated annual spend on dementia by Integration Joint Boards

Strategic national action on dementia to support local service design and delivery is informed by extensive national data, both actual and estimated. We commissioned and published in 2016 the first national report on estimated annual diagnosed dementia incidence, designed to show the estimated annual flow of new diagnoses into the health and social care system, specifically to help local workforce planning and resourcing around dementia post-diagnostic support, and to enable local and national measurement against the national dementia post-diagnostic commitment. This report will be re-commissioned this year.

Local systems collect and hold diagnosis data when individuals with a dementia diagnosis are referred for post-diagnostic support.