A new National Post Diagnostic Support Service pilot was launched on 1 December 2020. This has now been extended until end of March 2023.

Post Diagnostic support is provided by seven organisations, where, following a diagnosis of autism, individuals, parents and carers living across Scotland are routed to appropriate support to understand and embrace their identity as an autistic person.

The Scottish Government has provided funding for Post Diagnostic Support which totals £500,000 in financial year 2020-21 and £544,000 in financial year 2021-22.

The Scottish Government is piloting Adult Neurodevelopmental Pathways to support Boards to implement a single diagnostic pathway that will include ADHD and Autism. The pilot started in January and will last for 12 months. The results of this work, including a final report, will be available next year.

The Learning Disability and Autism team meets Health and Social Care Partnership leads on a regular basis and since October last year, has met individually with 21 of the 31 HSCPs to discuss their local work on learning disabilities and autism.

In addition the team attends the regular meetings of the relevant Social Work Scotland sub group at which all HSCPs are represented.

Dates and Partnerships met with are:

Since Scotland’s Redress Scheme was launched in December 2021, 1468 survivor applications and 88 next of kin applications have been received. All applications are reviewed within six weeks of receipt and this review identifies those requiring further information and those ready for verification prior to sending to Redress Scotland for determination.

189 redress applications have been passed to Redress Scotland for consideration and of those, 136 have had an initial determination made.

Each application varies in complexity, with survivors and applicants requiring differing levels of support to complete the application and a dependency on other organisations to complete the required verifications around care settings and any previous relevant payments made.

We recognise that, for some applicants, the process is taking longer than they expected. We continue to work with them, and partners, to look at ways to improve the scheme and remain committed to ensuring it continues to be swifter and less adversarial than taking court action.

Circulars to enact the 4.5% pay uplift for NHS Medical and Dental staff were published on 5 August 2022.

This pay uplift will be backdated to 1 April 2022.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information you request regarding defibrillators in schools. Decisions on whether to install defibrillators in schools are a matter for local authorities, in light of local circumstances and priorities.

The Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy 2021- 2026 sets a clear aim of increasing the number of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests which have a defibrillator applied before the ambulance service arrive from 8% to 20%. Work is ongoing to build the evidence base on the location of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Scotland, and the existing locations of defibrillators. This will support the strategic placement of defibrillators across Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to early diagnosis which is why we continue to invest in our £44 million Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme. In 2021-22, DCE funded the North Cancer Alliance to support community pharmacy in the identification of patients with symptoms suspicious of cancer and, where necessary, prompt referral to an urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) pathway.

Learnings from this early work will be shared with the Early Cancer Diagnosis Programme Board and help inform possible wider roll-out across NHS Scotland.

A new early cancer diagnosis vision is under development as part of Scotland’s new cancer strategy, due to be published Spring 2023, and will consider the role of community pharmacies in supporting earlier diagnosis efforts.

Our case transfer processes have been developed in line with our case transfer principles, which were developed with input from our experience panels, others with lived experience and wider stakeholders. We have worked and continue to work with existing benefit recipients, other key stakeholders including the Disability and Carer Benefits Expert Advisory Group, and the Department for Work and Pensions to develop and test our case transfer processes, including to ensure they deliver against these principles.

We have delivered roadshows over spring and summer focusing specifically on the detail of the case transfer process for people in Scotland who will see their awards move to Adult Disability Payment. We have included case transfer messaging in all 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 including radio, social media, digital and print. We are also providing a stakeholder toolkit which will include specific fact sheets, video content and FAQs. We are also producing a specific leaflet to explain the differences between Disability Living Allowance and Adult Disability Payment and signposting individuals on where to seek independent advice, consistent with the recommendation of the Scottish Commission on Social Security.

We will continue to communicate, engage, and work closely with stakeholders as we near the national launch of case transfer for Adult Disability Payment to ensure those currently in receipt of adult disability benefits in Scotland, and those that support them, have a solid understanding of how their awards will transfer to Social Security Scotland.

Case transfer guidance, which provides people with further information on the case transfer process to Adult Disability Payment is available at: https://www.mygov.scot/browse/benefits/benefit-transfer .

The Public Health Scotland COVID-19 Shielding Programme impact and experience survey which was published in March 2022 reported that 81% of respondents still make decisions that are mainly influenced by fear of COVID-19 infection, and 36% still try to minimise all physical contact with other households. While this data relates to a survey completed between 25 October 2021 and
‎ 7 November 2021, we know there are still people who continue to limit activities and contacts with other households.

Whilst prevalence of COVID remains high this is not translating into severe illness and deaths in the same way as earlier in the pandemic due largely to vaccination. So we would encourage everyone who is eligible to take up their boosters as soon as these are offered to ‘top up’ their immune response. The autumn booster vaccination will be offered to people aged over 50 and those at highest risk aged 5 and over – this will include people with a chronic neurological disease.