Seòmar agus comataidhean

In the interest of time, I will provide the answer to the RAAC question to the committee in writing. We are aware of the situation in the health service and we support boards in relation to the immediate mitigations and the remedial works that are required.

I take the issue of net zero very seriously. It can be both a capital and a resource revenue investment opportunity. Again, I would be happy to provide in writing some information on the areas that we are looking at. I am exploring that issue right now, particularly on the revenue side, and I would be happy to provide more detail in writing to the committee, when that can be published.

I do take that seriously, and I recognise why Mr Whittle raises that question. He has a far more illustrious athletics background than I do. My athletics career was cut short although, even still, I do not think that I would have been as fast over 400m as Mr Whittle was.

Seriously, I very much recognise the point that he is making. I want to make sure that the opportunities that were afforded to us to access sporting and leisure services are afforded to my children. I have set out to colleagues across the committee my recognition of the impact of investment that is beyond what we would deem to be health and social care spending and is preventative. That can be in our sporting and leisure facilities and in our cultural estate. I recognise the point that the member is making.

I will come back to Mr Whittle on the active healthy lives funding and the sport funding, so that he gets greater clarity on our intention and how we are providing support to sporting organisations and those who provide the phenomenal opportunities that exist across the country. That is something that he and I witnessed at the most recent sports awards, where we saw incredible dedication, from community and grass-roots level, right up to elite level in Scotland. We should be incredibly proud of that and continue to support it.

I will provide more information for Mr Whittle on that.

Yes, I am happy to provide that in writing. That budget line is used to ensure that flexibility is available across the year. I cannot remember the exact reason why there has been a reduction, but the overall position for the health boards that we fund is clearly up.

Perhaps Alan Gray can provide more detail.

Yes, that is still where we seek to go. From a cash perspective, we have provided an increase to mental health spending. As Mr Sweeney outlined, there are two areas: the direct spending that is provided by Government and the service provision that is provided by our boards. We are confident that the investment that we are providing via our boards, as well as from Government, will ensure that we meet the needs of the people of Scotland.

Of course, there is a significant area of challenge, particularly after Covid, in people who present with increased and more acute mental health issues. That has been particularly stark in child and adolescent mental health services; however, particularly in those services, there has been a good story to tell for Government and boards, in that there has been a significant reduction in waiting times, and significant investment. Funding has doubled and there has been a near 50 per cent increase in staffing over the period, which has resulted in greater capacity.

Issues still exist in regional areas, and we are working with them to ensure that they meet the wider Scottish standard. The most recently reported figures on child and adolescent mental health services are the best on record and have provided a significant improvement on where we have been, which is a good news story.

We have issues with consultant psychiatric staffing. In those areas, we are working with NHS Education for Scotland in an attempt to provide the required capacity for acute in-patient support as well as support for general practices to provide mental health support from our community mental health practitioners.

There is a range of intervention in the mental health space, because we recognise that it is a growing challenge. That is borne out from the most recent census data, which demonstrates the challenge that people feel with their mental health.

That is a very good question. That is done by negotiation and discussion and by recognising where demand will be. By the way, the £2.2 billion that is coming from my portfolio is an increase of £160 million—I think—that will go into social care. That is taking us beyond the commitment that we made previously to increase social care spending by 25 per cent over the course of this parliamentary session. We have gone beyond that by £350 million. The allocation comes through discussion, predominantly between the finance secretary, who also has responsibility for local government, and me. As I and Alan Gray have set out, there is an increased baselining of local government funding to include social care spending. I am happy to provide greater clarity on that in a follow-up letter.

Yes. All potential capital projects that have been on the stocks will be part of that consideration, as well as anything new that has come through. Clarity on all that will be provided at that time.

We are adopting innovation that is coming through the academic sphere, the private sector and our staff. There is incredible innovation, particularly on clinical pathways and clinical governance, to do things in a more efficient way. Our staff are doing fantastic work there, including through the skill projects and the Scottish infection prevention and control education pathway.

AI provides a particular opportunity, as does the digital side. We have already seen the beneficial outcomes of that from a radiography perspective in the cancer space. We need to make sure that we get that right, and that we do it in a safe and ethical way, but I go back to my earlier point about embracing innovation that can free up clinical time, so that our clinicians can deliver more human-to-human caring, which is so important.

The chief scientific officer for health, Dame Anna Dominiczak, is working incredibly hard in the Triple Helix Group, which brings together industry, the health service, Government and academia to make sure that our health service and our economy get the maximum benefit of the innovation that is coming through.

I point the committee to Dame Anna’s work as something that addresses some of Emma Harper’s queries. There is a huge opportunity before us, and I am determined to ensure that our health service is better able to embrace and support the innovation that is coming through and those who are investing in innovative technologies so that they can be adopted more quickly in the health service. That involves a cultural shift, as well as a practical and structural shift, in the way that the health service operates. I am, however, determined to do that, because I cannot see us having successful reform and improvement without adopting greater innovation. It has to be central to the plan.

Good morning, convener and colleagues. I am very pleased to be here to talk about the health and social care aspects of our proposed Scottish budget.

The budget sees record funding for health and social care, with more than £21 billion for the portfolio. The budget will help to deliver progress for Scotland’s health and social care services, as well as lay the foundations for longer-term reform and improvement.

It is a budget for delivery that directly addresses the issues that people are most concerned about and that will support our services, ensuring that they are effective, efficient and sustainable. The budget will empower our reform programme to make those crucial services fit for Scotland’s future.

The significant budget allocation includes an increase in our capital spending power of £139 million from 2024-25, as well as a commitment of almost £200 million to reduce waiting list numbers and delayed discharge. We will continue to focus on the reform and improvement of the performance of our services by deploying existing resources more efficiently and effectively, and we will continue to take decisive action to support delivery against the reform vision, which I outlined to the Scottish Parliament in June.

The budget will support measures to improve population health and early intervention preventative measures that will be delivered through effective primary and community care services. As such, we will prioritise and increase access to and capacity in primary care, including by supporting services in general practice, and we will enable the use of measures to sustainably treat more patients in community settings. That includes support for the expansion of hospital at home; immediate investment in general medical services to support critical services; general practice stabilisation and other primary care enhancements; additional support for general practice; a critical dental workforce and training package; and a community eye care programme that will transfer patients from waiting lists.

Central to the operation of our health service are the health boards, which will receive more than £16.2 billion in total from the proposed budget. That sum includes funding to honour commitments to fair pay settlements for our health workforce.

As outlined in the budget document, our commitment to renew and reform our national health service means that we will seek to start work in 2025-26 on delivering a series of new acute care facilities.

The formula is under review, and we continue to review it. It is a very complicated financial system, and unpicking it could have unintended consequences, so we need to ensure that, if we change it in any way, we deliver improvement rather than detriment.

I do not have a timescale for when we expect to publish any commentary on the NRAC formula or reach a decision on whether we change it. The important principle in the budget is that the budgets for all boards are within 0.6 per cent of the NRAC formula, so there is no detriment to any territorial board across the country. All of them have parity in being able to deliver services, and we will keep the NRAC formula under review.

Yes, they were taken to address all those things. I thank Emma Harper for her reflection on the investment that we are making in predominantly rural and island boards. The national resource allocation committee formula recognises the increased challenges and costs that are associated with delivering services in those areas. Ensuring that the funding allocation for every board in Scotland is within 0.6 per cent of the NRAC formula ensures that there is parity across all boards and that boards that have challenges in delivering services, predominantly in rural and island settings, are able to deliver them. The discussions that I have had with board chairs and chief executives show that there is enthusiasm about what they can do with the increased funding and what they can deliver.

I have clear priorities on expanding primary care and general practice, in particular, and on reducing delayed discharge and waiting times. Those are clear areas of investment in the budget, because I recognise that that is what people need to see from health and social care services in the coming year. We have put our money towards our priorities.