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The integration of care across emergency and community mental health services is vital to ensure that anyone in crisis receives continuous, compassionate care.

At the end of last year, the Government appointed the former chief executive of Penumbra, Nigel Henderson, as National Lead for suicidal crisis responses, with responsibility for driving forward the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG)’s recommendations on suicidal crisis responses. The NSPLG’s recommendations did not prescribe a fixed model for crisis support, but highlighted the need for people in crisis to receive Time, Space and Compassion wherever they present – be that in statutory services, front line services, and across our communities.

In taking forward this work, the National Lead has established an action group, which includes a range of statutory and third sector partners, including Penumbra; he is also engaging with statutory partners and communities. This engagement is focussed on identifying models of good practice (including pathways between services), that reflect the diversity of people and places in Scotland, This learning will inform a Scotland wide programme to further embed compassionate crisis responses right across our communities.

The Edinburgh crisis centre is an example of an established crisis support service. There are other community based services, such as the recently established Neuk in Perth. A Ministerial visit has not taken place to either service, however good engagement is happening at official level to ensure learning is shared.

Finally, the Government’s national Distress Brief Intervention programme is a world-leading example where compassionate support is provided for people in distress within their communities; with direct referrals from emergency services, where appropriate. The Government’s investment in alternatives to emergency care will also ensure that every GP practice has access to a mental health and wellbeing service by 2026, with 1,000 additional roles.

Guidance is regularly reviewed and updated based on clinical evidence. Scottish Government Officials and clinicians continue to work with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) Scotland, as has been done throughout the pandemic, to review protective measures within adult and older people care homes.

Self-isolation, testing, outbreak management and infection prevention and control measures are currently under review with any updates to guidance anticipated in May.

The last formal review prior to this took place in March, with updates to guidance implemented from April.

Scottish Water’s Board is responsible for setting charge levels with approval from the Water Industry Commission for Scotland. Scottish Water takes both maintaining critical services, and affordability, into account when setting charges.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting people facing issues paying their water bills. The maximum discount for the water charges reduction scheme (available to households which are in receipt of council tax reduction) has increased to 35% - up from 25% and I refer the member to the answer to S6W-06329 on 10 March 2022 for further information on measures to assist domestic customers.

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

Scottish Government policy towards local authority spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant as part of the annual local government finance settlement.

It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them (including any funding for arts and culture).

Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) who are the National Development Body for the Scottish museums sector, distribute funding on behalf of Scottish Government.

Details of the grants awarded by MGS are provided below however please note that their grant processing sytem only provides details of the grants awarded since 2015.

a) Aberdeen City Council Area

The remaining Covid-19 specific legal requirements have been removed, but regulators will continue to engage to support businesses in managing their risks and applying any relevant guidance. While Covid-19 specific spot checks may no longer be carried out, pre-existing regulations are still in place, for example on fresh air/ ventilation and cleanliness. Regulators will be conducting inspections as they would have before the pandemic. As part of these visits, Covid-19 risks and adaptations may be discussed.

The Scottish Government fund a core module in the long running Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, which includes questions on public attitudes to the health service. Fieldwork for the most recent survey was carried out from 21 October 2021 to end March 2022 and the final report will be published in late 2022. Due to COVID restrictions, the survey was not run in 2020. The last published findings are from 2019 ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-social-attitudes-2019-attitudes-government-political-engagement/ )

Changes in methodology necessitated by the COVID restrictions unfortunately mean that the 2021 data may not be directly comparable with previous years. The exact timing, methodology and content of the next iteration is currently being discussed.

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) which runs annually asks participants how satisfied or dissatisfied they are with local health services, which contribute to understanding public attitudes to the NHS and social care specifically. Results from the most recent SHS were published in January 2022. As with the SSAS, due to the change to a telephone survey for 2021, the latest data may not be comparable with previous years:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-household-survey-2020-telephone-survey-key-findings/

SHS data collection is ongoing, with 2022 data currently being collected. 2021 data is being processed and is due to be published later in the year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07488 on 25 April 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

Information on the number of Clinical Nurse Specialists by specialist cancer fields is not held centrally.

However, we recognise the scale of the challenge facing Health Boards across Scotland. We are working closely with partners to accelerate domestic and international recruitment to Scotland. New investment of £300m has helped services deal with system pressures over winter and the NHS Recovery Plan, backed by over £1bn, has introduced a range of direct workforce investments and new measures to support Boards’ capacity for both domestic and international recruitment.

Overall NHS staff and nursing staff levels are currently at a record high, following ten consecutive years of NHS Scotland workforce growth. We are investing £11m over the next five years in new national and international recruitment campaigns and have established a national Centre for Workforce Supply to provide labour market intelligence. We are also recruiting at least 200 registered nurses from overseas, with funding of £4.5m available to Health Boards to take this forward.

Our latest DCE lung cancer campaign entitled - ‘Settling In’ – was launched in May 2021 with the aim of increasing awareness of the early signs of lung cancer and encouraging people with possible symptoms to contact their GP practice. Almost two-thirds (64%) of those who saw the campaign did something as a result, including looking out for symptoms and deciding to go to their GP practice with possible signs. As committed to in our NHS Recovery Plan, a new early cancer diagnosis vision for Scotland is also being developed to direct early diagnosis efforts over the coming years, including that of lung.

The Scottish Government acknowledges the importance of the Growing Up in Scotland Study (GUS) longitudinal study which allows us to track the health and wellbeing of Scotland’s children and young people over an extended period of time. We also note with concern the initial findings from the most recent GUS ‘Life at Age 14’ report published on 15 February 2022.

The report, which is based on data collected in 2019/20, aligns with our understanding of the need to ensure that all children and young people are able to access the right support for their mental health and wellbeing as early as possible, without stigma.

That is why we continue to prioritise building and improving mental health and wellbeing support services for children and young people and continue to invest significantly in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our children and young people. In the 2021-22 financial year this included: Investing £40 million in improving Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, £16 million on our commitment for all secondary schools in Scotland to have access to a mental health counsellor, £15 million on provided to local authorities to fund over 230 new and enhanced community supports and services for children and young people and over £160 thousand to provide enhanced digital resources on mental health and wellbeing available via the Young Scot 'Aye Feel’ website, Scottish Youth Parliament ‘Mind Yer Time’ websites.

In addition we have invested in a range of resources to support parents, cares and adults working with children and young people to ensure they are fully equipped with the tools and knowledge needed to make a difference to children and young peoples lives. This includes investing in a suite of resources for all school staff , developed by our Mental Health in Schools National Working Group, and providing a range of advice and resources for parents and carers, available through ParentClub.scot , including specific resources for parents of teenage children .

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The Scottish Government and SPS are committed to continuing work on modernising and improving the prison estate which includes the construction of a new Women’s National Facility, 2 Community Custody Units and replacement prisons for HMP Barlinnie and HMP Inverness.

Since the commencement of the SPS Estates Development Programme, 75% of the prison estate has either been replaced or modernised. in line with relevant guidance and standards for building accessibility. The completion of these further major infrastructure investment projects will represent another significant step in improving accessibility across the prison estate.

SPS establishments also continue to work collaboratively with local NHS Health Boards to put in place care plans which may include utilising services and aids to improve accessibility, for individuals who require additional support.