Seòmar agus comataidhean

As part of the wider Managing Our Waste national campaign, we partnered with Zero Waste Scotland to create communication material encouraging the use of reusable face coverings and appropriate disposal of disposable face coverings and gloves. This includes information on how to make reusable face coverings and how to clean them.

As part of its wider COVID-19 related communication strategy, Scottish Government has created tools, including a video , on how to make your own face covering. Our Coronavirus (COVID-19): public use of face coverings guidance includes information on how to care for reusable face coverings.

As outlined in the answer to S5W-34910 on 12 February 2021, as part of the wider Managing Our Waste national communication campaign we have partnered with Zero Waste Scotland to encourage the appropriate disposal of disposable face coverings and gloves.

We are absolutely clear in our messaging, littering of any kind is unacceptable and there is no excuse for this behaviour.

We continue to discuss ongoing and future communications in relation to face coverings, and wider littering challenges, through our COVID-19 waste sector forum, including with Zero Waste Scotland, COSLA, local authorities and SEPA.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Scottish Government’s Coronavirus (COVID-19): public use of face coverings guidance includes information on the appropriate disposal of face coverings. Additionally, messaging on correct disposal of face coverings is available on the Zero Waste Scotland website as part of the wider Managing our Waste campaign.

We recognise that Covid-19 has impacted the amount of waste created in Scotland, and disposable face coverings contribute to this as they cannot be recycled. Therefore, we recommend that members of the public wash and reuse their own face coverings. Disposable face coverings should be disposed of in residual (black bag) waste or litter bins.

Throughout this crisis, the impact on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing has been at the forefront of our minds.

We have worked closely with Education Scotland to ensure that advice and guidance including sources of quality support from external organisations is available. This has been delivered through the Mental Health and Wellbeing Wakelet which includes support and resources for parents and carers as well as children and young people. It also includes the Mind yer time and Aye Feel resources for children and young people and the Clear your head resource for both adults and young people which provide sources of support and information.

Education authorities and schools are providing support to children and young people and their families. These include a wide range of approaches such as telephone helplines, education psychology support, bespoke support packages and resources and virtual and telephone counselling, as well as whole-school approaches such as trauma informed and nurture. Our local authority partners have made excellent progress during the school closures and have confirmed that access to counselling support services are also in place across Scotland.

More than £15 million is being distributed to local authorities to support the mental wellbeing 5-24 year olds. Of this, £11.25 million is for services in response to the pandemic and the remaining £3.75 million will fund new and enhanced community mental health and wellbeing services. We expect all new supports to be in place by the end of March. We will be providing a further £15 million in April, assuming services are fully in place.

We recognise that this remains an exceptionally challenging time for many families, including those with young children, and we are working across the public and third sector to ensure that support is there for anyone who needs it. For households with caring responsibilities (for a person of any age) there are exemptions to restrictions on household visiting and travel to provide care or support to a vulnerable person. Informal childcare rules also apply, where there is an essential childcare need. Further guidance on this is on the ParentClub website.

In terms of support bubbles, currently two households can form an extended household if one of the adults lives alone, or lives alone with children under 18 years old; or if two adults are in a relationship and they do not live together. For social support up to two people from two separate households can meet outdoors for social interaction. Children under the age of twelve from these households do not count towards the total number of people permitted to gather outdoors, so a parent can still meet another parent with their babies and any other children under 12. The Scottish Government does not intend to revise the extended household rules to include all parents with a child under the age of 1 at this time, due to the ongoing prevalence of the COVID-19 virus.

There are, however, measures in place to ensure that families, particularly new parents, continue to get access to the support that they need. This includes access to universal services, such as maternity services and health visiting, to further aid access to any local community supports. The new national Family Support Directory , available on ParentClub, also provides access to further sources of information for parents and direct support on a broad range of issues, such as support on childcare, mental health and wellbeing and family relationships.

In recognising the particular needs of babies and young children, the Coronavirus (COVID-19): organised activities for children supplementary guidance was updated on 5 January 2021 for the safe running of organised activities for children and young people during lockdown. The guidance sets out the maximum number of adults who can attend parent/baby or toddler groups (under 5s) and associated organised activities at any one time, to provide more flexibility in this age group.

As outlined to Parliament on 25 November, lateral flow devices will be used to offer testing to designated care home visitors on the day of their visit. This will be rolled out to 14 early adopter care homes across five Local Authorities by 7 th of December, learning from this will be used to inform wider rollout. Testing kits will start to be delivered to care homes across Scotland from 14 December. It is possible that not all homes will be able to start lateral flow testing before Christmas, therefore PCR testing will also be available over the festive period.

Twice weekly testing using lateral flow devices will be rolled out to healthcare professionals who visit care homes from the beginning of December, as part of a wider extension of routine testing including all patient-facing NHS Staff in hospitals, in the Scottish Ambulance Service and in COVID assessment centres. From 11 January this will be extended to non-NHS staff including independent contractors or statutory body staff who attend care homes or provide care at home at least twice per week and have to be within 1 metre of residents, clients or patients.

Testing is only one measure of protection against COVID-19, alongside a strong emphasis on robust infection prevention and control measures, including the use of PPE, the extended use of face masks, physical distancing and good hygiene.