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We have made an initial £3 million available from our £10m long COVID Support Fund over this financial year to provide NHS Boards and partners with additional resource to respond to the needs of people with long COVID in their areas.

Territorial NHS Boards’ 2022-23 funding from the long COVID Support Fund has been split into two tranches. The first tranche (70%) was provided to NHS Boards in June. The second tranche (30%) will be made later in the financial year following progress reporting.

This is a well-established practice for the allocation of health board funding to account for any slippage in programme delivery, and is used across a range of policy areas.

The following table outlines the organisations to which funding has been made available for 2022-23, and the associated amounts. The full amount spent for 2022-23 will only be known at the end of the financial year.

The development of the National Digital Platform (NDP) is a core commitment from the joint SG/COSLA Digital Health and Care Strategy (2018). This strategy was refreshed in 2021. NHS Education for Scotland (NES) was commissioned as the lead delivery partner.

Information on this important work is available via the website: www.nationaldigitalplatform.scot .

Up to 31 March 2022, a total of £6.838m was spent on the design, development and support for the NDP. NES accounts for spend during 2022-23 financial year have yet to be finalised and so associated costs for the NDP in this financial year cannot be provided as part of the answer.

Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland indicate that as of the end of November 2022, a total of 3,444 referrals have been made to the charity’s long COVID Support Service since its inception in February 2021.

Scottish Government funding of £156,924 has been made available to Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland to support the continuation and development of the service over 2022-23. This funding has not been drawn from the long COVID Support Fund.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12895 on 16 December 2022. 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 answer to this question is set out in Paragraph 48 of the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill Policy Memorandum. This can be accessed at: https://www.parliament.scot/bills-and-laws/bills/national-care-service-scotland-bill/introduced

We are in the process of commissioning expert pensions advice in relation the National Care Service proposal. We have received bids and hope to award the contract shortly. Once the contract is in place full details will be made publicly available.

Provisions related to Anne's Law are included within the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill.

The method for the geographical and membership makeup of care boards will be considered as part of the collaborative design work with people who access and deliver health and care support, stakeholders and partners.

Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) / Cabinet Office Statement of Practice (COSOP) principles will apply if the delivery of services is transferred from local authorities to care boards. If that is the case, the TUPE process would be followed. Decisions on whether any staff transfers take place will depend on decisions taken at a local level. Legal advice will be sought as required and external legal advice commissioned as necessary.

The Scottish Government are aware of the severe pressures that exist in our health and social care system and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care has established the Ministerial Advisory Group to ensure that we collaborate effectively to meet the challenges. Scottish Care are represented on this group.

Many of the policy and economic levers that would alleviate pressures on care homes and other businesses are reserved to Westminster and the Cabinet Secretary recently wrote to the UK Government (and the other UK nations) to again raise these matters. Within our remit, we are increasing our support for SMEs by investing £300,000 to expand the capacity of the Business Energy Scotland advice service, and doubling the energy efficiency cashback element of the SME Loan Cashback scheme to £20,000. The Scottish Government has also set out £600 million of total investment to support winter resilience across our health and care system. This includes £144 million to support the December 2021 uplift to £10.02 per hour, as well as a further £200 million to increase the minimum rate of pay to £10.50 per hour for adult social care workers in commissioned services.