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The Scottish Government is committed to supporting school leavers and return learners to access career support services to fulfil their potential. The national all age careers service, led by Skills Development Scotland, ensures that everyone has access to quality careers information and advice that supports individuals to make informed decisions regarding career options.

Local authorities are responsible for the recruitment and deployment of teaching staff. The Scottish Government will continue to support local authorities to assist them in being able to recruit to their teaching workforce, including teachers of Physical Education.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring safe and equitable access to screening for the eligible population. In collaboration with NHS National Services Scotland, NHS Scotland, and representatives from the third sector and academia, the Equity in Screening Strategy 2023-2026 was published in July 2023. The strategy commits to exploring opportunities to offer a greater variety of service provision, including appointments outwith core hours and in a variety of locations. An action plan is currently in progress, and a group has been established to take the recommendations within the Strategy forward.

In addition, the Breast Screening Modernisation Board is taking forward recommendations from the Major Review of the Breast Screening Programme , published in 2021. This includes increasing the convenience of appointments, such as providing more regular evening and weekend appointments for those who find it hard to adjust weekday commitments or rely on support from others.

Most cervical screening is performed within GP practices, and therefore the appointment times are dependent on their opening hours. However, the Scottish Government is committed to exploring the potential for implementing self-sampling in the home for cervical screening and acknowledges that it has the potential to increase uptake levels and reduce barriers to cervical screening.

The introduction of self-sampling within cervical screening is dependent on a recommendation by the expert UK National Screening Committee (NSC), based on an assessment of the available evidence. We are aware that the UK NSC is currently considering this actively.

The Community Hospital group has met in its current format since June 2023. The membership comprises professional advisors, NHS and HSCP clinicians, managers and leaders, and Scottish Government officials. It last met on 24 January 2024. The attendees discussed ongoing improvement work in different health board areas, and time was allocated for collaboration and networking to facilitate sharing of experience and good practice across Scottish community hospital settings.

The Scottish Government works closely with the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to support delivery of improvement programmes, including the Urgent and Unscheduled Care collaborative, to ensure sustainable ways of delivering services, improving access for patients, and reducing unnecessary demand for services. While we monitor progress through discussion with CFSD and NHS Boards, we will provide updates on progress against specific pathways in our NHS Recovery Plan annual update.

Following open competition, the Picker Institute has been awarded the contract to evaluate the Redesign of Urgent Care pathway. The cost of the project was £90,000 and final report will be published on the Scottish Government website in the summer.

Patient safety is of paramount concern and the Health Board has been clear that the interim ICU plans, first announced in February 2023, are to ensure adequate consultant medical cover; thereby maintaining the safety and sustainability of local critical care services.

Working with the other UK governments, the Scottish Government is introducing packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) from October 2025. Packaging EPR will see producers taking financial responsibility for the full net cost of responsible management of their packaging, including plastic packaging, at end-of-life. This will create a strong incentive for producers to reduce their use of packaging and drive more sustainable design choices.

As part of this process, the four governments meet regularly with industry representatives, including retailers, to discuss their perspectives on these proposals. A new packaging EPR Scheme Administrator Steering Group has been set up, with retailer representation, recognising industry’s significant role in delivery of the scheme; the first meeting of this group was on 2 February 2024.

The Programme Delivery Board last met on 31 January 2024. The Board discussed the Programme’s progress to date, including an update on the status of the NCS Bill and subsequent planning across the programme for 2024.

The Scottish Government is working with the other UK governments to legislate to introduce extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging. Among other benefits, this will create a strong incentive for producers to reduce their use of packaging and drive more sustainable design choices.

The main legislation for packaging EPR will be a Westminster SI, with supporting legislation in Scotland where required. The draft text of this SI was made available for public consultation from 28 July 2023 to 9 October 2023 and is available online at the following link: Draft producer responsibility obligations (packaging and packaging waste) regulations - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk

The NCS TOM reference group last met on the 19 May 2022. The meeting was a workshop focused on review of the current system and potential options for future systems. Consideration was given at this meeting to the potential approaches for the structure of the NCS.

The NCS COM reference group last met on the 19 May 2022. The meeting was a workshop focused on review of the current system and potential options for future systems. Consideration was given at this meeting to the potential approaches for the structure of the NCS.