Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-24411

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 January 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 18 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether local authorities have the flexibility to allow three-year-olds to take up a place at a local authority nursery after the term has started.

Question reference: S6W-23723

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to offering school teaching staff access to school counsellors, in light of similar provisions being implemented in Wales.

We value our teachers and education professionals and are committed to understanding their needs and providing them with the right support. Since October 2020 we have invested more than £2 million specifically in supporting wellbeing in the education workforce.

This year we are providing £200,000 to offer free wellbeing coaching to teaching staff and educational professionals across Scottish schools and early learning facilities.

We are also funding the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland to deliver an Education Workforce Support Project, to gain a comprehensive understanding of current practice about how we support the wellbeing of our education workforce.

Question reference: S6W-23725

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 5 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to extending the NHS perinatal treatment period to two years.

Over the last 4 years we have seen a big expansion in specialist perinatal mental health services in Scotland so that all 14 Health Boards now have specialist perinatal mental health services to support women and babies. We have also developed enhanced Mother & Baby Unit provision and established new infant mental health and Maternity and Neonatal Psychological Interventions services across Scotland.

Currently provision within inpatient and community perinatal mental health services spans pregnancy and the first postnatal year. There may be some circumstances where patients may be seen beyond the 12 month period. This decision rests with the local perinatal mental health team and should be based on what a patient needs and what the service can realistically provide given current caseload, waits, and capacity.

It is important to identify the service which is most helpful for the patient, which may sometimes be a Community Perinatal Mental Health Team but could also be an infant mental health service, Maternity and Neonatal Psychological Interventions (MNPI) or adult mental health services. We are committed to taking an integrated approach to service provision, so that there are no barriers to ensuring that women and infants get the most appropriate service for their needs and can easily transition between services as that need changes.

Question reference: S6W-23724

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 5 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what evaluation it has undertaken of any online mental health support and resources available to school pupils.

The mental health and wellbeing of children and young people is an absolute priority for the Scottish Government.

We support our local authority partners with £16 million in funding to ensure that every secondary school has access to counselling services. All school pupils aged 10 and above have access to in person school counselling services.

Local authorities currently provide six monthly reports on school counselling services which include information around number of children accessing the service, improved outcomes, counsellor numbers and the types of issues young people are presenting with. A summary of the reports can be found at: Access to counsellors in secondary schools and children and young people’s community mental health services – summary reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government has also provided revised guidance and professional learning for school staff to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.

Question reference: S6W-23726

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 29 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of the effectiveness of current handover practices between community midwives and health visitors.

The formal transfer of care from a midwife to a health visitor will usually happen between 10-14 days after birth. Scotland's Universal Health Visiting Pathway (UHVP) also directs health visitors to utilise the antenatal contact (between 32-34 weeks of pregnancy) to commence the transition process and to initiate a joint visit with a midwife where additional need is identified.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken specific analysis of the effectiveness of these practices. However, a Scottish Government commissioned evaluation of the full UHVP (2021) found evidence that some health visitors and parents viewed the antenatal contact as crucial in building trusting relationships with families and enabling early identification and response to health needs.

Question reference: S6O-02935

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what protection is available to victims of domestic abuse when harassment and exclusion orders expire.

Question reference: S6O-02868

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider carrying out an analysis of the potential impact of renewable energy and the associated infrastructure on farmland and food production in Dumfriesshire.

Question reference: S6W-22969

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 29 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that affordable, reliable and patient-centred hospital transport services are available for residents in Dumfries and Galloway who are receiving treatment outwith their NHS board.

The Scottish Government expects that most patients will be seen and treated locally, where possible and appropriate, based on clinical need and operational effectiveness. It may not always be possible for Health Boards to provide access locally for all patients and for all services where Health Boards are, for example, constrained by geography or specialist services.

All Health Boards are expected to consider patient transport needs when they plan and deliver services. The Scottish Government acknowledges that, whenever patients are referred out with their usual Health Board area for treatment, their condition may sometimes make it difficult for them to travel. Ministers expect Health Boards to be mindful of this, to discuss patients’ difficulties with them, and make suitable arrangements to ensure that the necessary treatment can be provided in a patient-centred way.

The Scottish Ambulance Service Patient Transport Service (PTS) supports those patients who have a medical or mobility need for transport to be able to access scheduled hospital appointments. If the Service feels a patient does not have a clinical need for PTS they will be signposted to information regarding alternative transport providers.

Question reference: S6W-22806

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 22 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what efforts have been made to improve the process of collecting supporting information for Child Disability Payment applications.

The way Social Security Scotland delivers disability benefits is fundamentally different to the UK – people are treated with dignity, fairness and respect.

A significant change is that Social Security Scotland will collect information to support someone's application if needed. Under the DWP, people are forced to do this themselves.

To support faster decision making on applications, listening to feedback from clients and third parties, improvements include

improved wording on the application to help clients understand what supporting information to supply,
early phone engagement with clients who have submitted applications without supporting information to establish if they have readily available information to allow a decision to be made,
improved communication with health and social care professionals and introducing a payment to support third sector organisations who provide supporting information at the agency’s request.

Question reference: S6W-22805

Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 22 November 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it expects to see a reduction in the waiting times for Child Disability Payment experienced by families of children with health conditions, including those with cancer, and what efforts are being made to reduce waiting times.

Social Security Scotland know some people have waited too long for a Child Disability Payment decision to be made, including some of those with cancer. Urgent improvement action has been taken by Social Security Scotland to speed up processing times. The latest published figures show around 25% more applications were processed in the last quarter than any other since the benefit launched. Social Security Scotland expect further impact of our improvement work to reflect in the coming months.

Social Security Scotland has a fast-track process for people who are terminally ill, called Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI), they aim to make decisions within seven working days of receiving a completed SRTI application and Benefits Assessment for Special Rules in Scotland (BASRiS) form.

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