Paul Sweeney (Glasgow) (Scottish Labour Party): To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of how the £16 million of funding for access to counselling services in all secondary schools will be allocated in 2024-25.

S6W-27958

Jenny Gilruth: All allocations in the Local Government Settlement are published on the Government Website at: 4 Tables and Interactive Dashboard - Scottish Local Government Finance - Green Book: 2024-2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The allocations for school counselling services for 2024-25 is as follows:

Paul Sweeney (Glasgow) (Scottish Labour Party): To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of how the £16 million of funding for access to counselling services in all secondary schools will be allocated in 2024-25.

S6W-26155

Jenny Gilruth: All allocations in the Local Government Settlement are published on the Government Website at: 4 Tables and Interactive Dashboard - Scottish Local Government Finance - Green Book: 2024-2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The allocations for school counselling services for 2024-25 is as follows:

Paul Sweeney (Glasgow) (Scottish Labour Party): To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of how the £16 million of funding for access to counselling services in all secondary schools will be allocated in 2024-25.

S6W-27962

Jenny Gilruth: All allocations in the Local Government Settlement are published on the Government Website at: 4 Tables and Interactive Dashboard - Scottish Local Government Finance - Green Book: 2024-2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The allocations for school counselling services for 2024-25 is as follows:

Paul Sweeney (Glasgow) (Scottish Labour Party): To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of how the £16 million of funding for access to counselling services in all secondary schools will be allocated in 2024-25.

S6W-26155

Jenny Gilruth: All allocations in the Local Government Settlement are published on the Government Website at: 4 Tables and Interactive Dashboard - Scottish Local Government Finance - Green Book: 2024-2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The allocations for school counselling services for 2024-25 is as follows:

Paul Sweeney (Glasgow) (Scottish Labour Party): To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown by local authority of how the £16 million of funding for access to counselling services in all secondary schools will be allocated in 2024-25.

S6W-26861

Jenny Gilruth: All allocations in the Local Government Settlement are published on the Government Website at: 4 Tables and Interactive Dashboard - Scottish Local Government Finance - Green Book: 2024-2025 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The allocations for school counselling services for 2024-25 is as follows:

The Digital Prescribing and Dispensing Pathways (DPDP) programme, is scheduled to replace the current paper prescription in Scotland with a digital approach by the end of this parliamentary term.

The business case which sets out the proposal for the next phase, and associated funding, for the programme are currently under consideration.

We do not know the numbers of children affected because the information has not been collected historically.

In response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review (IMMDSR), the Scottish Government commissioned Public Health Scotland (PHS) to establish a medicines in pregnancy surveillance asset. This resource will support monitoring and reporting to progress improvements in the safe use of valproate and other teratogenic medicines in Scotland. Its first output is due to be published by PHS in April 2024 and will include prescribing data and trends for valproate and other anti-seizure medicines.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) naloxone programme was launched in February 2022, backed with investment of £89,000 from Scottish Government. The programme aims to establish a network of fire officers who will carry naloxone and be trained to administer it in the event of an emergency.

Since then, all SFRS staff have been invited to complete online training to learn more about drug deaths in Scotland and how naloxone can help someone in the event of an opioid overdose. To date, 3,379 out of all 7,619 staff have voluntarily completed the training.

There is additional training for Flexi Duty Officers (FDOs) who have volunteered to carry naloxone and there are now 31 trained FDO volunteers within SFRS who are able to do this. It is expected that over the next 6 weeks a further 130 FDO volunteers will be trained and equipped to carry and administer naloxone.

The carrying and administering Naloxone is considered by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) to be a form of emergency medical response which currently sits out-with the role map of firefighters. SFRS has a desire to broaden the role of firefighters which would incorporate emergency medical response but this is dependent on reaching agreement with the FBU.

SFRS and Scottish Government are determined to fully implement this programme and will continue to work closely with all parties, including representative bodies, to overcome any barriers to its full implementation.

The Scottish Government will await the view and any decisions by the UK Government in relation to redress for anyone who was affected by exposure to valproate.

As set out in our letter to MSPs, this is because the recommendations on redress the UK Government is considering may involve a new agency and schemes that would be funded via a levy on manufacturers of medicines and medical devices and the Scottish Government has only limited powers under the devolution arrangements to impose levies.

We will of course update the Parliament about any important developments.

Patient related experience and patient outcome measures will be recorded through NHS Boards’ use of the C-19 YRS digital screening tool. The provision of heath data through this tool will assist in understanding the provision and effectiveness of long COVID services. Where possible, the data will be disaggregated by age, gender, ethnicity, and deprivation quintile. This will support understanding of any inequitable variation in service provision, experience and outcomes which may need to be addressed through service changes.

The Strategic Network has contracted the University of Leeds to support the initial evaluation of long COVID services in Scotland, using data from the C19-YRS tool. The outputs of the evaluation are expected following the end of the financial year.