- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to provide patients who have been hospitalised with COVID-19 with a structured, multidisciplinary rehabilitation package that includes specialist psychological services in both hospital and community settings.
Answer
Last year, the Scottish Government commissioned Dr Nadine Cossette, a liaison psychiatrist, to examine the mental health needs of people hospitalised due to COVID-19. Dr Cossette’s report was published on Friday 2 October and is available online .
Work is well underway to implement the recommendations from Dr Cossette’s report. Funding of £4.5 million has been approved to enable Health Boards to set up local networks of mental health clinicians across Scotland, supported by a national strategic advisory group offering clinical expertise and guidance. These local networks will proactively contact all patients who have been hospitalised as a result of COVID-19. At this stage it is anticipated that roughly 3,000 people will benefit directly from treatment.
We are also working to implement our ‘Framework on recovery and rehabilitation from COVID-19’, which puts in place clear principles, priorities and objectives to support planning to meet increasing demand and provide high quality person-centred rehabilitation in different settings. We will develop and implement a rehabilitation pathway that will ensure everyone who requires rehabilitation will be able to access it.
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 November 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 24 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to help tackle the reported affordable housing crisis in Edinburgh.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 24 November 2021
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 September 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 7 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure the future workforce can have access to vocational skills training, in light of the current staff shortages in certain sectors.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 7 October 2021
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 27 September 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 28 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports of staffing shortages at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital leading to health professionals warning about patient safety.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 28 September 2021
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 16 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Scotland's Mental Health First Aid is reportedly not running any training courses at present.
Answer
Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid programme is delivered as a face-to-face training event. In order to comply with the Scottish Government’s COVID-19 guidance and to protect public health, the delivery of these training courses was paused by Public Health Scotland (PHS), which holds the licence for this training to operate in Scotland. A range of online resources was made available by PHS and NHS Education for Scotland throughout the pandemic. In recognition of the changing context, PHS is working to ensure that the delivery of the Mental Health First Aid programme can resume safely. These courses will restart in November 2021.
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to reimburse payments made by local authorities and assessment centres to the SQA for exam-related services that were not provided in academic year 2020-21.
Answer
Charges for National Qualifications have remained unchanged since 2012-13 despite changes in costs. While charges contribute towards the cost of awarding National Qualifications they do not cover the full costs. In addition, 2020 and 2021 late entry fees have been waived and there have been no charges for appeals. There are therefore no plans to reimburse National Qualifications payments.
For 2021, SQA estimates that the costs of providing certification for national qualifications was £41.7m, while income from local authorities, colleges and independent schools is expected to be £30.5m. The remaining cost is covered by SQA’s grant in aid budget from the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 September 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the use of face-to-face GP appointments.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2021
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether the current service provider submitted a bid for the new contract for the provision of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments and, if so, whether the bid it submitted was higher or lower in value to the bid submitted by the provider that has been selected.
Answer
ACER UK Limited was one of three companies to submit a tender for the contract for phase two delivery of the national standardised assessments in Scotland – incorporating both the Scottish National Standardised Assessments and their Gaelic equivalent, the Measaidhean Coitcheann Niseanta airson Foghlam tron Ghidhlig.
ACER’s tender did not progress to the Price Analysis stage of the evaluation as it did not achieve the minimum requirements for the Quality Analysis stage. Cost comparisons with the successful tender cannot therefore be drawn.
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment was made, prior to determining the new contract for the provision of Scottish National Standardised Assessments, of whether there were any risks associated with a change of provider, including whether there was any risk of disruption to schools or additional costs.
Answer
As the contract for delivery of phase one of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments is due to expire in July 2022, the Scottish Government was legally required to compete the ongoing service.
Returning to the market to compete public contracts enables us to maximise value for money and secure the benefits of technical (and in this case education, assessment, psychometric and accessibility) developments over the period since the last contract was awarded. In conducting a regulated procurement exercise the Scottish Government is required under procurement legislation to treat all potential suppliers equally and without discrimination. Tenders are evaluated on the basis of the information contained therein, and no other factors.
The contract for phase two delivery of National Standardised Assessments for Scotland effectively combines two existing contracts, for phase one delivery of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments and their Gaelic equivalent, the Measaidhean Coitcheann Niseanta airson Foghlam tron Ghidhlig respectively. As such, there is no one current provider and a transition of services would have been required whatever the outcome of the procurement evaluation. The risks and opportunities associated with that transition have been carefully assessed and will be closely monitored and managed through the governance structures established for the National Improvement Framework Programme. Outgoing service providers are contractually obliged to support the smooth transition of services to a new service provider.
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 August 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of the (a) assessment criteria used, and (b) weighting of the submitted bids, in relation to the process to determine the new contract for the provision of Scottish National Standardised Assessments.
Answer
The Evaluation Guide and Award Criteria published as part of the Invitation to Tender determined the Quality: Price ratio for the evaluation process as 75:25. The emphasis placed on quality reflects the importance the Scottish Government attaches to delivering a high quality assessment resource to schools, and recognises the requirement for a range of technical, educational and psychometric expertise to deliver the complex and multi-faceted Services associated with the Contract.
The Award criteria for the Quality Analysis element of the evaluation identified a series of questions across a range of areas, including Assessments and Reporting; Technical; Service Management; Security; and Transition, Implementation and Business as Usual. Some of these questions were identified as mandatory, requiring a minimum score of 2 in order for the tender to progress to the Price Analysis. The rationale for this approach is that if suppliers are unable to fulfil particular aspects of the service, the service would not be viable, irrespective of cost. Mandatory items are clearly identified within the published Evaluation and Award Criteria.
The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 Statutory Guidance (amended 2021) states that regulated contracts must be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender. The Guidance clarifies that this means contracts cannot be awarded on the basis of lowest price or lowest cost alone.
