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We have commissioned NHS National Services Scotland to establish a long COVID Strategic Network. This has a multi-disciplinary working group focussed on children and young people, which has worked to develop a clinical pathway to support the appropriate assessment, referral and management of children and young people with long COVID symptoms.

This pathway was completed in June 2024 and disseminated to territorial NHS Boards. Following the dissemination of the pathway, the working group has conducted a survey of NHS boards to identify the routes through which they are providing support to children and young people with long COVID. A report summarising the responses from NHS boards is being developed, after which appropriate next steps will be identified by the group.

The Scottish Education Exchange Programme is a priority action within Scotland’s International Education Strategy and as such, progress is regularly discussed by IES Governance Group which is chaired by the Minister for HE/FE and includes representatives from colleges and universities. The minutes of these meetings are published online at International Education Strategy Governance Group. Updates to the programme are also published online at Scottish Education Exchange Programme: Test and Learn project - gov.scot and Scottish Education Exchange Programme: - Test and Learn: funded projects - gov.scot

As year 2 of the SEEP comes to a close at the end of March 2025, an external evaluation of the first 2 years of the programme has been commissioned and will be published this summer.

Officials spoke with Glasgow City Council on 27 February 2025 following the decision to retract the proposal to close the Glasgow School of Sport. The Scottish Government understands that the proposal is no longer under active consideration.

During the Roundtable meeting I held in Parliament on 4 February, I advised members of my intention to provide an update on the public’s response to the consultation as soon as possible. However, this will depend on the time required to review the considerable number of responses received.

The 12-week consultation period ended last month with over 1,400 responses received.

This feedback, which is now under active consideration by Transport Scotland, will help inform the Scottish Government’s final decision on how best to take forward improvements to the A96 whilst also balancing the demands of the challenging economic climate and the climate emergency.

Extensive research was undertaken on the impact of the first 30 minute reduction of the working week for Agenda for Change staff. This included its impact on maintaining system performance, meeting legislative requirements around safe staffing and the delivery of planned initiatives to support service recovery.

On review of this research it was clear that, to avoid unacceptable levels of risk to service resilience and patient safety, introducing the remaining hour on 1 April 2026 would be the most appropriate option. This also upholds the Scottish Government's commitment made in the 2023-24 Agenda for Change pay deal.

The Scottish Government does not hold data centrally on the numbers of people with transfusion-dependent thalassaemia or sickle cell disease.

The question of how many might be eligible for exagamglogene autotemcel treatment, if it were available, would be a matter for individual clinicians following all guidance on eligibility and any required testing to ascertain this.

Bursaries for independent schools are a matter for the proprietors of each institution. Scottish Government does not collect this information.

The Scottish Government encourages anyone to contact their GP or diabetes clinical team to discuss the use of Ozempic or any other medication as part of their treatment for type 2 diabetes. They will be best placed to recommend any medicines or treatments based on their own individual circumstances.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer is taking the issue of illegal online medicines seriously. She has met with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS), Police Scotland and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) to discuss this.

The GPhC published updated guidance on 4 February 2025 regarding buying medicines safely online and Healthcare Improvement Scotland is considering how to improve the general awareness of these medicines, as well as establishing clear expectations for their safe and appropriate use within the independent healthcare sector.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer is also considering communications for healthcare professionals in Scotland on how to report known or suspected illicit prescribing of Ozempic.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all students with a disability, long term medical condition or additional support needs are able to access further and higher education and are fully supported throughout their studies.

It is for institutions to make decisions on their intake but they are required under the Equality Act (Scotland) 2010 to provide equal opportunities and prevent discrimination.

It is worth noting that the retention rate for this group of students, which in the last four years has been above the sector average, is currently (in AY 2021-22 into AY 2022-23) 91.8% for FTFD Scottish Domiciled Entrants.

PERSISTENT INEQUALITIES

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are currently working together to enhance the SFC’s leadership and oversight role in tackling persistent inequalities in the tertiary system.

Through this, SFC and EHRC have established a set of National Equality Outcomes (NEOs) for the tertiary education sector through their Persistent Inequalities work. Disability, as a protected characteristic, is included as part of this work, and the following National Equality Outcomes related to disabled students:

• Disabled students report feeling satisfied with the overall support and reasonable adjustments received, including from teaching staff, while on their course.
• Disabled staff and students report feeling safe in the tertiary system.
• Where representation is not proportionate to the relevant population, increase the representation of disabled staff in the workforce and on college Boards and university Courts.

SFC will be reviewing progress made by the sector through the upcoming Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) reports as part of SFC’s Outcome Framework and Assurance Model.

DSA

The Scottish Government (via the Scottish Funding Council and the Student Awards Agency Scotland) provides various funding mechanisms in the form of the Additional Support Needs for Learning Allowance, the Access and Inclusion Fund, and the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA).

This vital support ensures that those with a disability or additional support needs are able to access further and higher education and continue to be well supported throughout their studies.

In 2023-24 the number of full-time students with disabilities or additional support needs who were supported by DSA increased to 5,855. This totals £14.1 million in support, an 18.4% increase.

Data also shows that we now have a record number of students at university with a recorded disability or additional support need (6,765).

HIV transmission elimination is funded as part of the wider Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus (SHBBV) budget. Many of the interventions which support this have wider impacts on sexual health improvement and blood borne virus elimination.

Prior to the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan 2023-26, the SHBBV Framework was supported by approximately £2 million, to support delivery of the outcomes between 2018 and 2021. This funding came to an end in March 2021.

Due to the pandemic, during 2021-22 interim arrangements were made for third sector organisations to continue to receive funding under the Framework from an SHBBV budget of around £0.8 million, with an additional £0.5 million allocated as part of COVID-19 planning to support recovery actions.

The SHBBV budget is approximately £1.7m per year since 2023-24. This supports delivery of the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan 2023-26, including a range of projects focused on HIV transmission elimination (details of which were published with the Plan).

Other specific projects the Scottish Government has funded include the national HIV anti-stigma campaign (£250,000 in 2022-23), the development of an ePrEP clinic (£400,000 in 2022-23), emergency department opt-out testing pilots (£145,000 in 2023-24), online postal self-sampling for sexually transmitted infections and HIV (£119,000 in 2023-24 and £300,000 in 2024-25), the Terrence Higgins Trust HIV self-test service (around £120,000 per year) and a workforce education project led by Waverley Care to reduce stigma in health and social care settings (£95,000 in 2024-25).