The SPCB provides the staff cost provision to enable Members to employ up to the equivalent of 4 full time staff. Individual Members have flexibility to decide how to use their staffing budget, including setting staff salaries within the agreed pay ranges and overall capped provision limit set by the SPCB. It is for Members as the employer to decide how they employ their staff so long as it is within the rules of the Scheme and the job families and salary ranges set out by the SPCB. Members also set their own hours of work.

There are no plans at present to consult with SPS staff about the potential introduction of a four-day working week (32 hours), at no loss of pay.  However, parliamentary officials have held informal discussions with the trade unions about the 2021/22 pay award for SPS staff and are aware that this is an issue which trade unions are raising with the public sector.  The SPCB recently agreed to instruct parliamentary officials to enter into formal pay negotiations with the TUS with both sides committed to securing and communicating a deal as soon as possible. 

In June 2017, Healthcare Improvement Scotland published their report on the Review of Ayrshire Maternity Unit, University Hospital Crosshouse, NHS Ayrshire & Arran (Adverse Events).

Recommendation seven said that NHS Scotland should develop and agree a list of mandatory skills and competencies for maternity services to support ongoing training programmes in NHS boards . NHS Education for Scotland facilitated a short life working group which identified a package of core mandatory update training for midwives and obstetricians. In December 2018 Scottish Government requested all NHS Boards ensure that midwives and obstetricians undertake the core mandatory update training required.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic it has not been possible for staff to undertake face to face training, including elements of the package of core mandatory training, and staff time to undertake training has been significantly curtailed. Boards are actively looking at ways to take forward training in a COVID safe way, and many of the training packages have moved to virtual platforms to mitigate restrictions as a result of COVID.

As routine business is remobilised we expect Boards to move forward with completion of the package of Core Mandatory Training.

The updated guidance regarding the extended use of face masks and coverings in hospitals, primary care, wider community care and adult care homes was published after consultation with numerous stakeholders, including Scottish Social Services Council, Scottish Care, Fair Work in Social Care Group, COSLA and GMB Scotland.

The guidance relating to residents wearing face masks in specific situations in care homes contained in the updated version (Version 3) guidance, published on 7 June 2021, was also contained in Version 2 of the guidance published in October 2020. Scottish Care, COSLA and the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS) were given the opportunity to comment on this earlier version of the guidance.

The Scottish Government listened to feedback on the recent update and worked in partnership with representatives from the sector to rapidly review the language and information relating to social care within the guidance. As a result of this review, social care guidance has been separated from hospital and primary care settings and has been updated to ensure it accurately communicates that residents are not required to wear a Fluid Resistant Surgical Mask (FRSM) or face covering within the care home. which is first and foremost their own home. It is a resident's choice whether to wear one.

The updated guidance on the use of face masks within social care settings including adult care homes was published on 23 June and is available at the following link

Coronavirus (COVID-19): use of face coverings in social care settings including adult care homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Chief Nursing Officer and Scottish Government officials met with representatives from Scottish Care and Erskine Care Homes on 9 June 2021 to discuss the updated extended use of face masks and face covering guidance in hospitals, primary care, wider community care and adult care homes.

The guidance for social care settings was previously contained within the Coronavirus (COVID- 19): guidance on the extended use of face masks and face coverings in hospitals, primary care, wider community care and adult care homes, which was updated on 7 June 2021.

The Scottish Government listened to feedback on the recent update and worked in partnership with representatives of the sector to rapidly review the language and information relating to social care within the guidance. As a result of this review, social care guidance has been separated from hospital and primary care settings and has been updated to ensure it accurately communicates that residents are not required to wear a Fluid Resistant Surgical Mask (FRSM) or face covering within the care home, which is first and foremost their home. It is a resident's choice whether to wear one.

The updated guidance on the use of face masks within social care settings including adult care homes was published on 23 June and is available at the following link

Coronavirus (COVID-19): use of face coverings in social care settings including adult care homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government welcome the Audit Scotland report, and we are pleased that it recognised the swift actions of Scotland’s public sector partners to respond to the significant and unprecedented challenges presented by Covid-19. The Scottish Government agrees with Audit Scotland that we need to learn from this pandemic and bring that learning both into planning for future pandemics, and into our long term procurement strategy. This work is already underway. Officials are working across the public sector including with the NHS to learn the lessons and take them into future PPE procurement.

To address environmental concerns surrounding PPE, the Scottish Government has funded a Small Business Research Initiative £310,000, with Transport Scotland providing additional funding, to assess and evaluate prospective reusable PPE solutions and technologies to assist in decontaminating PPE. This initiative, led by NHS Tayside on behalf of the Scottish Government, supports companies to develop more environmentally-friendly PPE by providing funding to enable them to undertake vital research and development of their prospective solutions.

The Scottish Government has also established a PPE Innovation Working Group with partners across Scotland. The purpose of this Group is to oversee the implementation of positive changes to the provision of clinical PPE in Scotland. As part of this work, the Group will consider potential work streams and opportunities which surround the environmental impact of PPE and how manufacturers with innovative PPE solutions can better collaborate with NHS Scotland in the future.

The Scottish Government is working with Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) and ferry operators to develop and deliver a programme of major and small vessel replacements. Detail of the current programme is included in Annex D of the Infrastructure Investment Plan.

A National Mission with Local Impact: Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland 2021-22 to 2025-26 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Most recently, CMAL provided an update on the new vessel for Islay with the first phase tender process scheduled to take place during the summer 2021.

CMAL Caledonian Maritime Assets LtdPROCUREMENT OF NEW ISLAY FERRY GETS UNDERWAY - CMAL Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (cmassets.co.uk)

The Scottish Government maintains up to date COVID-19 safety guidance for Early Learning and Childcare settings. This guidance is developed in consultation with public health experts on both the Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children’s Issues, and in Public Health Scotland.

The Advisory Sub-Group for Education and Children’s Issues has now provided further advice, specifically on whether groups of parents should be permitted to attend ELC settings for outdoor events such as nursery graduations. Their advice is that groups of parents and carers should not attend end-of-year events in Early Learning and Childcare settings in this academic year, whether indoors or outdoors.

The guidance seeks to minimise the number of contacts that children and staff have, to keep them safe and to reduce the risk that children and staff need to self-isolate in the event of someone in the setting testing positive.

Our guidance is also in place to keep children in learning, and essential childcare settings open to support families now and over the summer. This has been a difficult decision that carefully weighed up the risks against the benefits.

I am grateful to settings that have found safe ways to allow children to celebrate with their friends and key workers and found creative ways to share this with parents and carers. I encourage other settings to find ways to ensure that parents can share in their child’s experience with, for example, videos and photos.

Our Statement of Intent on Biodiversity was published in December 2020 and highlights the need to create new locally driven projects to improve ecological connectivity across Scotland. We have made an ambitious, voluntary commitment to protect 30% of Scotland’s land for nature by 2030, in advance of the new Global Biodiversity Framework. We are commissioning advice from NatureScot on how best to achieve this - and whether we can go even further, given that we have already achieved 37% protection of Scotland’s marine environment - including through identification of Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures. The 30x30 project will advance ecological restoration across the whole of Scotland, on a scale much greater than the existing National Park area in Scotland.

The Cairngorms National Park has a significant part of its area under ecological restoration (sometimes called rewilding). This includes the area of Cairngorms Connect, NTS Mar Lodge, and a number of other private estates. The area of the Cairngorms National Park which is currently under ecological restoration measures is approximately 20%, or around 100,000 hectares.

Within Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, 8.6% of land is a designated Site of Specific Scientific Interest. This figure does not include Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) or Special Protected Areas (SPAs), which would bring the total area of land under ecological restoration, and covered by a statutory designation, to around 12%. Including National Nature Reserves (NNRs) would increase this figure to around 21%.

The current Cairngorms National Park Partnership Plan and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Partnership Plan sets out the policy frameworks within the National Parks, which support and underpin the ecological restoration being undertaken.

Early medical abortion at home, and the changes adopted in March 2020, has been an important measure to ensure abortion services have continued to be delivered throughout the pandemic, without delays. 

The Scottish Government launched a public consultation on the future arrangements for early medical abortion at home on 30 September 2020, which closed on 5 January 2021. An independent analysis of the consultation responses has been published today and can be found at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781800048560.

The report shows very differing views among respondents, particularly in relation to whether the current approach is sufficiently safe. In order to ensure robust evidence is available, the Scottish Government is taking steps to commission an independent evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the current approach, including in relation to safety. Scottish Ministers will consider future arrangements once this evaluation has been completed.

The current March 2020 approval will remain in place while this evaluation is undertaken. This will continue to allow patients to take both mifepristone and misoprostol at home (following a telephone or video consultation) while coronavirus continues to pose a serious and imminent threat to public health in Scotland and a doctor, or a nurse under the direction of a doctor, considers that it is not advisable or possible for the person to attend a clinic. In line with the Scottish Abortion Care Providers guidelines, both drugs should only be taken at home where it is considered clinically appropriate for the patient, and where the patient wishes to do so.