Seòmar agus comataidhean

NatureScot, in conjunction with the Scottish Government, and in their capacity as Scotland’s Nature Agency has recently launched a pilot community deer management scheme at Creag Meagaidh National Nature Reserve. Creag Meagaidh is managed by NatureScot and is a 4000 hectare property at Kinlochlaggan, Newtonmore.

The pilot scheme brings together a number of local people who are involved in the design of a community scheme to deliver sustainable deer management, which will include access to deer stalking opportunities. The scheme was advertised locally in May 2022 and has been offered to those resident in local Community Council areas.

A number of local people who noted interest in the trial are now in the process of assisting NatureScot in final co-design of the scheme and the trial is likely to commence fully in the Autumn. Whilst details are still to be confirmed, the intent of the scheme is to offer those who have appropriate qualifications and are competent the opportunity to undertake deer stalking. This will support the delivery of site management objectives through the sustainable management of deer with the associated biodiversity and climate benefits of doing this.

They are also developing the approach so that those interested but with little or no experience in deer stalking will be supported by a training and experience pathway to allow them to progress to harvesting wild food for their own consumption.

This scheme will be supervised by NatureScot staff and will ensure full compliance with Wild Deer Best Practice Guidance, ensuring animal welfare, firearms safety and public safety.

In the face of the substantial increase in demand placed on the service by the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS 24 continues to provide a highly effective, safe triage system to the people of Scotland.

As a result of this increased demand, and changes to service delivery, the Scottish Government increased funding to NHS 24 by over £20m last year for additional recruitment.

This additional funding has supported the additional recruitment of 575 full time equivalent call handlers and 140 full time equivalent clinicians to date, including through the recently established 24/7 mental health hub.

It has also supported the opening of two new NHS 24 call centres in Dundee and Glasgow, which opened in December 2021 and May 2022 respectively.

We continue to work with NHS 24 to support improvement in the performance of the 111 service, including engaging with partners and stakeholders through the national Redesign of Urgent Care programme.

The Scottish Government is meeting regularly with key stakeholders such as the poultry industry, captive/wild bird association representatives (including those from the gamebird and environmental NGO’s sector) and other UK administrations to discuss the risks posed by avian influenza and the associated impacts, including significant impacts for our seabird populations as a whole including gulls, terns, auks and shearwater, and potentially devastating impacts on some species which were already considered to be at risk, such as great skua and northern gannet, as well as potential impacts on the upcoming shooting season.

NatureScot are leading a Task Force to co-ordinate activity to monitor and minimise the impact of avian flu on wild bird populations in Scotland. The task force will continue to monitor the avian influenza outbreak and develop recommendations for managing and mitigating the impacts.

As at 1 October 2021, there were 922 GP Practices. This data was published on 14 December 2021 – ( GP Workforce and practice list sizes 2011 - 2021 - Publications - Public Health Scotland )

The Scottish Government does not hold a global figure for the percentage of practices with dedicated mental health professionals. However, at 31 March 2022, nearly 80% of GP practices across Scotland had access to a Mental Health Worker under the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF) and Action 15 alone. Further detail is set out in the latest PCIF data which was published on 21 June 2022 - ( Primary Care Improvement Plans: Summary of Implementation Progress at March 2022 ).

In total, 259.9 WTE mental health workers have been recruited under the PCIF as at March 2022. Under Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-27, an additional 356.1 WTE posts were recruited to GP practices by the end of the commitment. Further detail is available in the quarterly performance update on Action 15 implementation published on 12 July 2022 ( Mental health workers: quarterly performance reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ).

There are also mental health professionals directly employed by GP practices in addition to those employed under the PCIF and Action 15. Mental health professionals employed directly by GP practices are not separately identifiable within the published GP in-hours workforce survey results . However, we expect numbers to be relatively small.

UCAS published acceptance statistics from 9 August for the 2022 Cycle, UCAS does not publish data broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Government Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Existing High Rise Domestic Buildings includes a template and advice on carrying out a fire risk assessment of the building. The outcome of this assessment will give an idea of the relative risk of the premises and what mitigations might be helpful.

The Scottish Government worked with key partners including the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate for Scotland when drafting the guidance. The guidance was widely consulted on setting out the reasoning for the approach taken.

The following table shows the number of valid card holders in the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme as of close of business 1 August 2022 in the Perth and Kinross and Fife local authorities. This information is based on live data as of 1 August 2022 and will exclude those who have turned 22 or exited the scheme since its launch.

This information was supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO). NECPO support the 32 local authorities by assisting with the integration of various national and local public services on the National Entitlement Card (NEC) and are the joint controller with local authorities of this data.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care attends regular meetings with his counterparts in the UK and other Devolved Administrations to ensure that the Scottish Government is represented in relation to public health incidents which require a coordinated 4 Nations response.

Additionally, Public Health Scotland (PHS) are leading on the response in Scotland and are working with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Public Health Wales and Northern Ireland HSC Health Protection Agency to ensure a coordinated response to monkeypox in the UK. Where appropriate, Scottish Government officials are also represented on 4 nations groups established to support these coordination efforts.

In 2021 Play Scotland published its progress review of Scotland’s Play Strategy which identified eight broad recommendations for next steps on play in Scotland, including that government and others should “maintain a focus on playful learning and play in schools”. Play Scotland’s progress review is available at: https://www.playscotland.org/resources/progress-review-of-scotlands-play-strategy-2021/.

In 2020 the Scottish Government and Education Scotland published ‘Realising the Ambition: Being Me – Practice Guidance for Early Years in Scotland’. This national guidance for staff working with children and families from pre-birth until the end of Primary 1 and beyond, draws on research, evidence and theory and includes guidance on play pedagogy across the early level of Curriculum for Excellence. On 27 July 2022, Education Scotland launched an updated and strengthened version of the Early Level Play Pedagogy Toolkit, available at: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/early-level-play-pedagogy-toolkit/.

Individual school inspection reports consider play pedagogy alongside the variety of early level pedagogical approaches adopted by schools. They report on outcomes for learners and make reference to the quality of children’s experiences.

The costs of temporary accommodation in hotels for displaced people from Ukraine are split into a number of components. There is a fixed rate per room, this does not vary based on occupancy. However, the cost of food and beverage will vary based on the number of guests in each room. Laundry and other incidentals can be charged per person or per occupancy, dependent on the hotel operator.