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Significant policy review in relation to neurodevelopmental disorders including autism and attention deficit disorder (ADHD) was undertaken through the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Taskforce which reported in 2019. The Taskforce recommended that the Scottish Government should develop a neurodevelopmental service specification for use across services in Scotland. The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Programme Board and the subsequent Joint Delivery Board took responsibility for developing these principles and standards of care.

In September 2021, the Scottish Government published the National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People which sets out seven standards for service providers to ensure that children and young people who have neurodevelopmental profiles with support needs receive the support that they require.

The Specification is purposefully inclusive and includes support for those who may be identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

The Specification states that comorbidity and coexistence of a range of neurodevelopmental needs is common and that all children and families should experience joined up support, based on the single child’s plan, with professionals from different agencies working together to provide the range of support the child or young person needs.

Information on the value of Chinese inward investments into Scotland can be found in the publicly available report Businesses in Scotland, which shows that there are currently 15 Chinese owned businesses in Scotland, with an estimated employment of 1,770 and a turnover of £1.25 billion. The Scottish Government does not carry out further analysis on inward investment by specific countries on a sectoral basis.

The Scottish Government works with its enterprise agencies to ensure robust due diligence and proper consideration of human rights is undertaken on inward investments from China as well as from any other country. Additional safeguards are provided by the National Security and Investment Act 2021, which protects against acquisitions within sensitive areas of the economy that could cause harm to the UK’s national security.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13903 on 24 January 2023. 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 .’

The wellbeing of firefighters is a priority set out in the Scottish Government’s Fire and Rescue Framework 2022. The Scottish Government is willing to consider and discuss any emerging issues and proposals from research on this issue with both SFRS and the FBU.

Our Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan , published on 30 November 2021, is backed by £70m investment and focuses on recovery of services, including Workforce Training and Development.

The National Endoscopy Training Programme (NETP) was established in September 2021 and has recruited staff to deliver endoscopy training to a wide range of learners from different professional backgrounds. This supports the upskilling of practitioners from across Health Boards through a range of courses, including immersion training.

We have also established training programmes for Nurse Endoscopists, Advanced Urology Practitioners and Healthcare Support worker.

In 2021-22 funding of £91.4k was allocated to NHS Education for Scotland to support the Centre for Workforce Supply. The amount to be allocated in 2022-23 will be clarified at the financial year end.

The Scottish Government is working in conjunction with NES to support the identification of emerging technologies to assist the gap between service demand and capacity within the health and care system, particularly around staff training to enhance skills. Examples include:

• Online training provision within the Scotland Deanery.
• Train-the-trainer for “simulation” training across a number of specialties and in specific procedures, such as in cystoscopy.
• Virtual reality pilots for communications training in handling stressful situations in pre-hospital emergency care and mental health tribunals.
• Mental health simulation training.
• Virtual reality simulators, including six endoscopy simulators in 6 different health boards, alongside a national introductory course covering cancer diagnosis.
• A national urology simulator and learning programme.

The Scottish Government has engaged directly with representatives from NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to develop, deliver and subsequently assess workforce, finance and service plans in 2022-23. Scottish Government guidance on the production of three-year workforce plans, issued in April 2022, set out expressly how and where medium-term workforce planning should make assessments of changing local service demand as part of analysing any local staffing gaps and pressure points, alongside setting out the actions that health boards and health and social care partnerships are taking to address identified issues.

The Scottish Government has worked alongside Higher Education Institutions, NHS Boards, NHS Education Scotland, the Scottish Ambulance Service, and the Scottish Funding Council to agree controlled intakes for nursing, midwifery and paramedic science programmes and those discussions included multi-year intakes. An announcement on the details of the commissioned intakes for these subjects will be made shortly.

Humza Yousaf: ‘Progress has been made with delivery of this commitment, stage one of the design of the portal has been completed and NHS Education Scotland have been commissioned to bring together staff equality networks across NHS Scotland to discuss proposed content, in connection with sharing resources, information and support.’