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The Scottish Government is committed to introducing a thrombectomy service and recognises that thrombectomy procedures can significantly improve outcomes and quality of life for some people who have suffered an ischaemic stroke by avoiding or reducing the level of disability.

That is why the Programme for Government 2019/20 commits to ensuring that a national planning framework is in place for a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service.

Directors of Planning are currently developing a national framework for thrombectomy through the Thrombectomy Advisory Group, which the Scottish Government supports.

In order to support the work of the Thrombectomy Advisory Group and help deliver a thrombectomy service in Scotland, the Scottish Government has awarded over £800,000, including funding for the development of the necessary training programme in NHS Tayside. Investment will continue to be made available as the service is developed. We expect a thrombectomy service to be available in the North of Scotland region by Autumn 2020, with thrombectomy services based in Edinburgh from 2021, and rolling-out across Scotland from 2022.

Performance monitoring, data collection and measurement will be part of the Scottish Stroke Care Audit.

The Scottish Government's Route Map Phase 3 update provided clarity that personal/close contact retail services including businesses in the beauty, spa and wellness sector can reopen from 22 July.

The Scottish Government's Route Map Phase 3 update provided clarity that personal/close contact retail services can reopen from 22 July. This includes beauty, spa and wellness services.

In Scotland, overall responsibility for the quality of education and securing continuous improvement sits with the local authority. There is a three-level approach to evaluating and improving education: schools have a responsibility to evaluate their performance; local authorities have responsibility for the quality of education in their area; and the third level is external scrutiny activity carried out by HM Inspectors of Education.

Schools are selected for inspection each year on a proportionate basis, using a sampling approach and predetermined set criteria rather than a cyclical approach.

The sampling criteria takes account of the context and characteristics of the school; the type of school; deprivation; and balance across local authorities. Other factors including local circumstances as well as the length of time since the last inspection are also considered.

The timing of inspections of the remaining 53 schools within Aberdeenshire Council will be considered in line with the sampling approach that is used to determine which schools will be inspected in Scotland.

Education Scotland has significantly strengthened its scrutiny functions and increased the number of school inspections it carries out. In the academic year 2018-19 Education Scotland completed 252 school inspections, an increase of over 30% on the previous year. It has considerably increased the number of primary school inspections carried out in an academic year in the last five years, as shown below.

The Scottish Government is engaging with BAME Health and Social care staff through staff networks, to evaluate how risk assessments for minority ethnicity staff are implemented and perceived. This is critical to ensuring that our policies are developed alongside those that they affect and that compliance is fully measured to address health inequalities.

We have convened an Expert Reference Group on COVID-19 and Ethnicity bringing together academics and other experts to advise on the Scottish Government response, to address disproportionate impacts from COVID-19 on Minority Ethnic people.

We have always been clear that all staff should have the confidence to raise concerns, no matter what that may be, and that these are treated seriously and investigated appropriately. We have placed dedicated Whistleblowing Champions in each health board, and implemented a national Whistleblowing Policy , and an independent alert and advice line , so that all concerns are fairly and appropriately investigated and to ensure that individuals do not suffer any repercussions.

Professor Martin Dennis was appointed as Speciality Advisor for stroke on 31 March 2020. This appointment is for a period of three years, with a time commitment of two days per week. Dr Fiona Wright has also been also appointed as Deputy Speciality Advisor for stroke, based on a time commitment of 1 day per week, again for a period of three years.

Both Advisors are progressing the commitments in the Programme for Government 2019-20:

• Review and improve the current stroke care bundle to improve outcomes for patients
• Collaborate across government on stroke prevention and raising awareness of the signs of stroke;
• Begin work to scope out and define what a progressive stroke unit looks like
• Ensure that a national planning framework is in place for a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service.

The Scottish Government is aware of financial challenges faced by the Scouts and the Boys’ Brigade both in terms of costs associated with running their outdoor education centres and their wider youth work. In response we have alerted both organisations to the fact that Social Investment Scotland have up to £5m available in fully flexible, 0% interest loans starting at £50,000. This is in addition to providing £1.2 million during 2020/21 through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund to youthwork organisations including the Scouts and the Boys’ Brigade. Furthermore, the Scottish Government is pursuing a package of non-financial support aimed at ensuring that organisation such as the Scouts and Boys’ Brigade can resume normal business as quickly as possible following the lifting of lockdown. We have committed to:

• Working with YouthLink Scotland, to develop sectoral specific guidance for community learning and development. This is being developed in conjunction with local authority, third sector organisations and union representatives. We hope to launch this guidance in the coming weeks to safeguard the health and wellbeing of volunteers, staff and young people as restrictions are eased further.
  

• Commissioning the Scottish Advisory Panel on Outdoor Education (SAPOE) to set up a sub-group tasked with developing detailed guidance for schools and local authorities on ‘post covid’ visits to outdoor education centres, such as those run by the Scouts and Boys’ Brigade. SAPOE will also collate and communicate evidence of the educational value of visits to outdoor education centres.

• Facilitating a meeting between representatives of outdoor education centres and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES). This meeting will give outdoor education centres access to strategic decision makers within local authorities and will provide a platform from which outdoor education centres can discuss the potential for:

- experienced outdoor education centre staff to support local authority employed educators to take learning outdoors during the education recovery phase;

- outdoor education centres to be used to provide space for learning at a safe physical distance; and

- the use of outdoor education centres to provide immersive, fun and curricular relevant outdoor experiences that can improve the physical and mental wellbeing of young people transitioning from lockdown.

We recently published our framework for re-mobilising our health services, Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design. The framework sets out how Health Boards will follow national and local clinical advice to safely and gradually prioritise the resumption of some paused services over the coming weeks and months, as well as retaining sufficient capacity for COVID-19.

As services are restarted, patients will be seen on the basis of their clinical need, and NHS Boards will take account of all national guidance and policy frameworks, including those relating to infection prevention and control, testing and the provision of PPE, to ensure the safety of all patients.

However, coronavirus will be with us for some time to come, and restarting paused services have to be measured against the need to keep the virus under control, continuing to protect the NHS, and save lives.

On 4 June 2020, I announced the Framework for Recovery of Cancer Surgery to assist NHS Scotland prioritise those most in need of cancer treatment. The Framework sets out how health boards should prioritise cancer surgery as NHS Scotland resumes more services following the pandemic.

We are also utilising capacity within the Private Sector to provide a safe and secure COVID free environment for cancer surgery.

The Scottish Government is doing everything it can to ensure we have sufficient numbers of staff on the ground who are well supported in these challenging times.

Alongside setting up a Health and Social Care Covid-19 Recruitment Portal, accessible through the NHS Careers website, we are taking the following mitigating actions:

• re-introduction to the workforce of those leaving the medical and nursing practitioner registers in the last 3 years;

• redeploying existing staff from non-clinical areas to clinical roles where possible.