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The three regional cancer networks continue to make operational improvements to service provision across Scotland to reduce ovarian cancer surgery waits. Improvements taken to date include increasing surgery provision, by increasing surgical teams and theatre capacity; improving theatre scheduling and joint working across surgical teams; and expediting pathways to expand capacity for these complex, multidisciplinary surgeries.

According to the most recent published data (October-December 2024), 98.4% of women are receiving their first treatment for ovarian cancer within 31 days of a decision to treat. The maximum wait during this quarter was 43 days, a decrease from 90 days in the same quarter in 2023. This may be a range of treatments, including surgery.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing a long-term strategic approach to skills and careers in the culture and creative industries sectors across all roles. In 2020 the Culture Strategy for Scotland was clear that if we are to harness Scotland's creative talents and support a diverse talent pipeline to support the future of the sector, it is important we increase access.

Creative Scotland has a wide programme of work focussed on increasing access to culture and creativity, supporting both those who want to engage with activity as audience members and participants and those who want to work in the sector. An external EDI Advisory Group supports this work, which includes:

• partnering with sector organisations to support accessibility to Creative Scotland funds on a localised/sector/network level;
• clarifying eligible costs for personal and project access in funded projects to remove barriers related to disability/communication difference, caring responsibility, mental health and wellbeing;
• partnership working across the UK Arts Councils to develop the All In access card; and
• addressing key driver of inequality and exclusion through work on health and mental health, including the Participatory Arts and Mental Health Fund.

Creative Scotland also monitors the success rates of those applying to its funds, including those accessing their access support services, and evaluated key development work, such as their 'Create:Inclusion' Fund.

The Scottish Government’s long-standing investment of over £150 million since 2007 in programmes such as the Youth Music Initiative and Sistema has made a huge impact helping young people across Scotland access music-making opportunities and develop their wider skills and learning, encouraging and equipping them to enter the talent pipeline if they wish.

Youth Music Initiative has helped young people in all 32 local authorities access music-making with every pupil offered a year’s free music tuition by the end of primary school. It tackles inequalities by providing music making experiences and wider cultural opportunities to children across Scotland, and particularly to those who otherwise would not be able to participate in these activities. Youth Music Initiative received a 3 per cent uplift in 2025-26, which takes the Scottish Government’s annual investment to £9.78 million. Sistema runs Big Noise education programmes across six communities in Scotland and received a 3 per cent uplift in 2025-26, which takes the Scottish Government’s annual investment to £2.68 million. As part of the Fairer Funding Pilot, the Scottish Government has also committed to fund Youth Music Initiative and Sistema at existing levels in 2026-27, further strengthening their sustainability and the talent pipeline.

In assisting individuals to move on from secondary education and further into the talent pipeline for creative industries, the regular skills assessments in the creative industries from Skills Development Scotland identify the specific skills required for various roles and help organisations and individuals understand areas of expertise and potential gaps. These assessments can be used to inform education and training programs, improve workforce development, and support individual career pathways.

The music talent pipeline is already supported through a very significant offer across Scotland’s Colleges at NC, HNC and HND level covering performance, production, sound engineering, music business and event management. There is also increased specialisation at degree level across Scotland’s Higher Education sector, covering classical, contemporary and traditional music disciplines.

More broadly, Creative Scotland plays a major role in talent development and supporting the creative talent pipeline through the National Lottery funded Open Fund for Individuals which offers early career funding to emerging artists. In 2023-24, the Open Fund made 164 awards totalling £4.2 million for leadership training and professional development.

Through their Targeted Routes and organisations funds, Creative Scotland support organisations and events such as Wide Days, the Scottish Alternative Music Awards, Showcase Scotland at Celtic Connections and Made In Scotland Expo, which provide opportunities and mentoring for young acts. Bursaries such as VACMA and the Stephen Palmer Travel Bursary Fund connected visual artists with peers and development opportunities. Go See Share helps creatives explore and share insights from international creative business models.

In the Screen sector, industry training initiatives supported by Screen Scotland include bursaries for the Edinburgh TV Festival, TRC's SuperSizer, Film FastTrack, and Reset 2023, alongside NFTS Scotland’s paid trainee programme and STV Studios’ Screw training scheme in 2023-24, which supported underrepresented entrants into HETV production.

GMAC Film’s Little Pictures and Short Circuit's Sharp Shorts provide vital support for emerging filmmakers. In 2024, Rising Stars Scotland highlighted new film talent, Screen Fringe fostered collaboration between stage and screen industries, and the YFF Skye Screenwriting Residency offered mentorship to aspiring screenwriters.

Supported by the recent uplift in Grant-in-Aid funding from the Scottish Government delivering the largest budget ever available to Creative Scotland, more than £200 million in support, across a broad spread of creative disciplines, is to be provided to 251 organisations over the next three years. The organisations funded through the Multi-Year fund support individuals in many ways – as employees, commissioned artists, programming of work, audiences and participants.

Organisations like Fèisean nan Gidheal and Fèis Rois create access to music opportunities, Alchemy Film and Arts ‘Film Town’ programme provides a year round programme of community filmmaking, skills development and creative learning, from their base in Hawick. Organisations like Shetland Arts and Eden Court, in Inverness, work with the Education sector to deliver educational courses, alongside other opportunities for artists and participants.

In addition The National Culture Strategy Action Plan updates on work to better understand local authority support for culture and explore future models of collaboration between local and national bodies. Research undertaken by Creative Scotland in partnership with Community Leisure UK and SportScotland was published in August 2024 and will further strengthen Creative Scotland’s efforts to work better together in partnership with local authorities, developing a wider understanding on all aspects that contribute to a healthy cultural ecosystem at the local level. Creative Scotland is now planning their next steps for this work, including a programme of engagement with local authorities.

Creative Scotland’s development work also supports various initiatives across Scotland targeted to the needs of the area. For example:

• Through Targeted (Place Partnership) and Open project National Lottery funding, Creative Scotland continues to support the work of the Creative Arts Business Network (CABN) in the Scottish Borders, which aims is to develop the professional creative sector in the Scottish Borders through a diverse programme of support, including mentoring, showcasing and funding; and
• Culture Collective is a Scottish Government supported programme where organisations, artists and communities work together, providing employment opportunities for creative practitioners and actively engaging people in shaping the future cultural life of their community. The programme initially ran from 2021-2024, and £4 million has been included in the 2025-26 budget to continue the programme.

The Scottish Government has no role in reviewing how additional support needs team allocations are determined within local authority secondary schools.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act (2004) places duties on Education authorities to identify, make provision for, and review provision for the additional support needs of children and young people for whose education they are responsible.

Funding is provided to Local Authorities by means of a block grant to allow them to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-37609 on 27 May 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Scottish Government recognises that diagnosing brain cancer can be challenging as symptoms are wide-ranging and often vague, contributing to presentations in emergency settings. We continue to work with primary care to improve the earlier diagnosis of brain cancers.

A clinical review of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer has just concluded to help ensure the right person is on the right pathway at the right time. For the first time, the review has ensured the inclusion of a nationally agreed non-specific symptoms referral guideline, as well as an update to the guidance for urgent referral for suspected brain tumours. Publication of the reviewed guidelines is expected this month.

A new primary care cancer education platform, Gateway C, was launched in April 2024. Gateway C provides tailored information to support earlier cancer diagnosis and enable effective decision-making. This platform is accessible to all primary care clinicians and includes a brain tumour course specifically aimed at assisting the effective assessment and management of patients with a potential brain tumour.

A new National Headache Pathway has also been published by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery. This pathway, based on presentation at General Practice, clearly lists red flag symptoms that indicate the need for urgent and/or emergency assessment to exclude a secondary cause, such as a brain tumour.

Education authorities are responsible for identifying and meeting the additional support needs of their pupils. They have responsibility for securing appropriate resources, including teaching and support staff, to meet children and young people’s long or short-term needs.

All teachers are responsible for supporting pupils with additional support needs, not just those teachers whose role is specifically related to additional support for learning.

The number of secondary school teachers by main subject is published on the Scottish Government website here: see https://www.gov.scot/publications/teacher-census-supplementarystatistics/.

Statistics on school support staff are published on the Scottish Government website here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-support-staff-statistics/

We have established the National Oncology Coordination Group to provide a coordinated and collaborative response to immediate and foreseeable service pressures. This group provides rapid real-time assessment of highest risk services and proactively develops risk mitigation proposals, in line with the overall strategic aim for cancer. Officials also meet with Boards’ Cancer Management Teams monthly to identify immediate challenges, explore solutions and share best practice.

The Scottish Government has mobilised an ambitious Oncology Transformation Programme and are working closely with NHS Board and regional leaders from across the country to address longer-term pressures. We have also committed to further funding for Chemotherapy and Acute Oncology services using a phased approach to ensure we build a sustainable workforce. The funding will reach up to £10 million per annum and will support increased regional working, workforce recruitment and maximise capacity across the existing workforce. £6.6 million has been provided in 2025-26 and will support NHS Boards to develop sustainable plans.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have and are continuing to take action to simplify scheduling of these complex cases. Following updates provided by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde on 19 February and 9 June, I will be meeting with members of the board and clinicians in September 2025 to seek further clarity in terms of progress made.

The South East Scotland Cancer Network (SCAN) continue to focus on reducing waiting times and improving outcomes for people diagnosed with ovarian cancer. They have made recent innovations in both the pre-diagnosis and post-diagnosis parts of the pathway:

• Pre diagnosis: patients referred with suspected ovarian cancer automatically receive a CT scan appointment and should the scan show any suspicious features, the multi-disciplinary team will review and an action plan will be formalised. They report that this has significantly decreased waiting times.
• Post diagnosis: 10 dedicated advanced ovarian cancer surgery lists are offered each week supported by the specialist gynae-oncology team and the colorectal and hepato-biliary surgery teams, as appropriate, aiming to improve post-surgery outcomes including survival rates.

It is a matter for Health Boards to consider the implementation of any new medicine to meet the needs of their local population. However, in response to concerns raised regarding access to givinostat in Scotland, the Cabinet Secretary has met with the four health boards who provide regional services across Scotland for children and adults with neuromuscular disorders, including Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). He has asked them to set out their timelines and approaches to the families who have children with DMD, and this is now underway. In addition, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO) has been assured that the consultants have reviewed all those who eligible to ensure fair and equitable access across Scotland.