Seòmar agus comataidhean

As set out in response to S6W-29551, the Scottish Government continues to engage with the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance and other international climate initiatives as part of wider ongoing engagement with a range of organisations and stakeholders. Ministerial engagements at COP29 will be published in the usual manner in due course.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29551 on 17 September 2024. 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.

Public Health Scotland’s report, published on 18 June 2024, presents a high-level overview of the number of statutory-funded residential rehabilitation placements between April 2021 and March 2024. This includes statutory-funded placements approved by:

• local Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs)
• the Scottish Government, using funds that are managed centrally for some residential rehabilitation placements (e.g. under the Prison-to-Rehab pathway). These placements are reported as National Mission-funded in this report.
• Ward 5 of the Woodland View mental health facility and community hospital in NHS Ayrshire and Arran. Ward 5 is a residential unit for Ayrshire and Arran residents who have an alcohol or drug problem and mental health 5 issues. Ward 5 offers detoxification followed by a four-week residential programme.

Public Health Scotland’s experimental core minimum dataset for the residential rehabilitation programme will include information on three core elements: client characteristics, client outcomes and the residential rehabilitation service pathways (including duration of placements and costs).

Further to the answer to S6W-24007 on 4 June 2024, Scottish Government officials regularly meet Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and have reiterated the need for effective co-operation on these matters in order to ensure that any negative impact on people receiving Scottish social security benefits can be mitigated.

The Scottish Government has consistently opposed the Work Capability Assessment reforms as proposed by the previous UK Government, and will continue to call on the current UK Government to choose to protect people's incomes and not implement the proposed changes.

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 Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland have worked collaboratively with stakeholders to establish an experimental core minimum dataset to support the monitoring and evaluation of the residential rehabilitation programme. It is expected that the first extracts will be published in December 2024, which will allow us to gauge the current status of the research gaps identified in 2022 and address those remaining as appropriate.

Further detail on the research gaps identified in the 2022 literature review can be found in pages 27-30 of the report. The report recommends further research in several areas, including impact on specific demographics and the differences between residential rehabilitation models.

For the development of the national specification for alcohol and drug services, initial engagement has begun with representative groups covering service commissioners, service providers and people who use, have used or could use the services.

We have invited relevant stakeholders to be part of the national specification and overarching guidance reference group which we will continue to engage with during development. This includes stakeholders with lived experience.

No changes have been made to the National Mission.

The National Mission was established to improve and save lives of people impacted by drugs. However, many service improvements supported by the Mission, such as residential rehabilitation, addressing stigma and improving the workforce, address both alcohol and drug issues. Meaning the work of the National Mission has consistently saved and improved the lives of people impacted by alcohol as well as drugs.

NHS boards, local authorities and local Alcohol and Drug Partnerships are long standing partners in our work on harmful alcohol and drug use and they have recognised that many aspects of the National Mission are bringing benefit to people impacted by both drugs and alcohol.,

The Residential Rehabilitation Development Working Group defines residential rehab as facilities offering programmes which aim to support individuals to attain an alcohol or drug-free lifestyle and to be re-integrated into society, provide intensive psychosocial support and a structured programme of daily activities, and which residents are required to attend over a fixed period of time.

The Scottish Government recognises that diversity of treatment options is important to empower individuals to have more choice and to meet the needs of individuals seeking different types of recovery, and this includes taking a person-centred approach to the duration of treatment.

It is the responsibility of the bodies responding to Public Health Scotland to ensure that reporting of residential rehabilitation placements meets this definition.