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Through the Borderlands Inclusive Deal the Scottish Government have allocated up to £5 million to assess the benefits and challenges of extending the Borders Railway. That funding will be released on the achievement of agreed milestones, in line with the usual business case and governance processes that apply to all growth deal projects. As this is a joint funding commitment, the Scottish Government are currently awaiting the outcome of internal UK Government discussions on governance procedures to be able to align advice to partners and move things forward.

The Scottish Government has recently announced a new set of ambitious targets to eliminate long waits, with an initial focus on long waits over two years for new outpatients by August 2022 and for inpatients and day case procedures by September 2022.

We have recently stepped down the Clinical Prioritisation Framework that was in place since November 2020 to help Boards prioritise waiting lists throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

This move is a return to pre-pandemic approach of treating patients on an urgent and routine basis, giving Health Boards and clinicians full flexibility to manage waiting lists with a focus on eliminating long waits, as well as continuing to treat the most clinically urgent patients.

There are 91 locations providing A&E services across Scotland. Of these, 30 are classed as Emergency Departments - larger A&E services that typically provide a 24 hour consultant led service.

The requested data on the number of mental health workers in A&E departments is not centrally collected. Data such as the number of staff in post or vacancies is collected for specific mental health professional groups in the NHS, but cannot be broken down by settings such as A&E.

Under Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-27, an additional 179.2 whole time equivalent mental health posts have been created in A&E departments.

There are additional treatment options for selected groups of people with COVID-19 who are thought to be at high risk with a prioritised clinical condition, as well as those taking part in registered clinical trials related to COVID-19. The high risk group does include those with rare neurological conditions such as:

• multiple sclerosis
• motor neurone disease
• myasthenia gravis
• Huntington’s disease

The decision on whether to prescribe a medicine for a patient is entirely for their clinician. Information on the arrangements for direct access to COVID-19 treatments in Scotland can be found at: Coronavirus (COVID-19): Treatments | NHS inform .

High risk individuals who have been diagnosed with chronic neurological disease are now included in the clinical risk group of the autumn/winter booster programme as advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The following groups will be offered an additional booster dose from Sept 2022:

• residents in a care home for older adults and staff working in care homes for older adults
• frontline health and social care workers
• all adults aged 50 years and over
• those aged 5 to 49 years in a clinical risk group, including pregnant women
• those aged 5 to 49 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression
• carers aged 16-49 years

Letters will be sent out to the first eligible groups next month with appointments beginning in Sept. Discussions on the details of the delivery timetable are underway with health board partners. More information will be made available in due course.

The Scottish Government expects NHS Boards to provide the best possible care for those who have experienced a stroke, including thrombolysis where considered clinically appropriate.

The Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme (SSIP) report, published on 28 June and available at: https://www.strokeaudit.scot.nhs.uk/index.html , notes a clear effect of the waves of COVID-19 on hospitals.

Stroke admission numbers often fell during the early waves of the pandemic, with patients possibly avoiding seeking medical attention due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and this may help explain the increase in stroke admissions between 2020 and 2021. The trend of increased stroke admissions between 2020 and 2021 is not unique to NHS Lothian and was observed across Scotland.

The proportion of patients who received thrombolysis in NHS Lothian in 2021 (8.9%) was broadly in line with the proportion of stroke patients who received thrombolysis across Scotland (9.1%).

As of 19 July 2022 we had issued 79 letters to people receiving Personal Independence Payment to let them know the transfer of their award to Adult Disability Payment has begun. These cases were selected as part of our small Personal Independence Payment to Adult Disability Payment pilot. Once Adult Disability Payment launches nationally on 29 August, we will begin selecting large numbers of Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment awards for transfer.

We have also developed and are delivering a strategic communication and engagement plan for case transfer. This includes a series of stakeholder roadshows to key stakeholders as well as stakeholder newsletters. We have also included case transfer messaging in our Adult Disability Payment communications such as media releases, opinion pieces, social media posts on Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland channels and paid for marketing campaigns that have run in the pilot areas. Paid for activity has covered radio, social media, digital and print. We will continue implementing this communication and engagement plan as the case transfer process continues.

Regular open and constructive engagement with the early learning and childcare sector continues to be a vital part of our approach to policy development. This includes engagement with the sector representative bodies, and through the Childcare Sector Working Group, which last met on 16 June 2022.

Scottish Government and Education Scotland’s ‘Realising the Ambition – Being Me’, the national practice guidance on supporting young children’s learning, was published in 2020. Private providers contributed to its development via sector representative bodies and through a series of consultation events held across Scotland in order to seek the views of practitioners working in the public, private, third and childminding sectors.

We have undertaken significant engagement with people who have lived experience of energy limiting conditions and organisations which represent them. Adult Disability Payment has been designed to be inclusive and accessible for people with energy-limiting conditions. Applications can be made through a choice of channels and the questions are relevant to people with fatigue and fluctuating conditions. Social Security Scotland makes entitlement decisions based on the individual’s account of the impact of their disability or condition and other supporting information, including from people’s wider support network. This is particularly helpful for people who may have difficulty accessing a diagnosis or treatment.

Consultations between a client and a health and social care practitioner employed by Social Security Scotland will only be held when necessary. Examinations, such as asking clients to touch their toes, will not be used as they do not provide reliable information, especially in relation to energy-limiting conditions. Social Security Scotland case managers also stringently apply the reliability criteria. This means that entitlement decisions must take into account the full impact fatigue has on individuals when completing activities, including any recovery time needed afterwards.

On 24 June it was confirmed that all Temporary Covid Policies (including Special Leave) will be removed ( https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/dl/DL(2022)21.pdf) and that from 1 September 2022, NHS Scotland colleagues who are absent due to COVID-19 will revert to contractual sick leave entitlement (Section 14 – Sickness Absence https://www.msg.scot.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/AfC-Handbook-Master-Scottish-Copy-2021-Revamp.pdf ).

All NHS colleagues benefit from the Once for Scotland Attendance Policy ( https://workforce.nhs.scot/policies/attendance-policy-overview/attendance-policy/ ) which aims to encourage attendance and support employees, where health issues impact on their ability to be at work.

At present, support for people with Long COVID in Scotland is underpinned by the full range of NHS services, including local primary care teams, community based rehabilitation services and referrals for secondary care investigation where needed.

To ensure care continues to be resourced and delivered across Scotland in the most appropriate way, we are investing an initial £3 million from our Long COVID Support Fund over this financial year to support NHS Boards and key partners to take forward a range of projects to improve care and support for people with Long COVID.

This will provide resource to enable Boards to design models of care tailored to the specific needs of their local populations, which may involve strengthening the co-ordination of existing services, or establishing dedicated services where appropriate.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08833 on 14 June 2022. 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 .