Providing free tuition for Scottish domiciled and EU students is a core policy of the Scottish Government and it ensures that education in Scotland remains about the ability to learn and not the ability to pay. Students coming to study in Scotland from the rest of the UK would be expected to pay a tuition fee rate of up to £9,250, which is consistent with the rates charged for study in England. The tuition fee rate for both international students and postgraduate study are not set by the Scottish Government.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are autonomous bodies with responsibility for managing their own affairs. The Scottish Government and Scottish Ministers cannot intervene in internal matters such as decisions relating to the reducing of tuition fees for international students and those from the rest of the UK.

I am aware that the Stirling Council has recently decided to assume responsibility for the management of the Wallace Monument. Stirling District Tourism, which currently operates the building, contacted me in September 2019 about discussions over the future of the building, which were then ongoing. While I was sympathetic and hopeful that a sensible and reasonable outcome could be achieved, I said that there was no remit for the Scottish Government to intervene as the Council is the legal owner of the Monument.

We have not had any discussions to date with Stirling Council about its future plans for the Wallace Monument. The legacy of William Wallace is an important part of Scotland’s history and the Monument makes a vital contribution to the heritage and tourism offer in Stirling and in promoting Scotland’s story, domestically and internationally. I hope, under the local authority’s control, that this will continue.

The Scottish Government is committed to introducing a thrombectomy service in Scotland. That is why the Programme for Government 2020 reaffirms our commitment to ensuring that a national planning framework is in place for a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service.

The pilot in the North of Scotland Thrombectomy service will commence in autumn 2020, with a fully operational service in NHS Tayside anticipated by 2023.

Information on thrombectomy procedures in England can be found at: https://www.strokeaudit.org/ .

The Scottish Budget for 2020-21 commits record levels of investment in Health and Social Care services with portfolio investment in 2020-21 reaching over £15 billion for first time.

The majority of funding is provided as baseline budget and NHS Boards have the discretion to direct this funding to local priorities including stroke care. We have set out the wider policy within which NHS Scotland is expected to deliver services, and expect all NHS Boards to provide high quality care that is safe, effective and person-centred, taking into account up to date evidence based guidelines.

The Scottish Government are committed to ensuring that people who have had a stroke receive the best possible care as quickly as possible to enable them to live longer, healthier independent lives.

We are continuing to implement our Stroke Improvement Plan which sets out our priorities and actions to deliver improved prevention, treatment and care.

We expect NHS Boards to appropriately plan and deliver high quality, safe effective services and to regularly review services to maintain high level of quality and safety that people in Scotland expect and deserve. We continue to support the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme as key to informing and driving improvement across stroke care.

The Scottish Government has provided funding to Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland to refresh the Stroke Training and Awareness Resources (STARS) on line training modules. These include modules on stroke rehabilitation. A new module to provide training to deliver hyperacute stroke care was launched on 17 July. These can be found at: https://www.chsselearning.org.uk/

The Programme for Government (PfG) 2019-20 commits the Scottish Government to ensuring that improvements are made to stroke pathways and services, including prevention, treatment and care.

Setting the Scottish Budget is a year-round process and, as part of this, funding is provided to NHS Boards. The NHS Scotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula is a method to ensure the fair and equitable allocation of funds between Boards, taking into account key determinants in the variation of healthcare need in populations. The latest target shares are available through this web link https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Finance/Resource-Allocation
-Formula/resource-allocationlatest.asp

The majority of funding is provided as baseline budget and NHS Boards have the discretion to direct this funding to local priorities including stroke care, although there are separate performance outcomes which must be achieved. NHSScotland’s performance is measured against Local Delivery Plan (LDP) Standards which comprise the priorities that are set and agreed between the Scottish Government and NHS Boards. Performance data is published by the Scottish Government and can be accessed at https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhsscotland-performance-against-ldp-standards/

The section of the minutes of the December 2019 National Advisory Committee for Stroke (NACS) which refers to budget constraints was in the context of a discussion of the development of new guidelines jointly with the Royal College of Physicians of London to update their National Clinical Guideline for Stroke (2016).

As part of the Programme for Government stroke commitments to improve current stroke services, the Chair of the NACS and the Stroke Association met with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) on 10 March 2020 to discuss guidelines. HIS have provisionally agreed to carry out a review of evidence supporting the description of a progressive stroke service in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving services in perinatal and infant mental health across Scotland. The 2019-20 Programme for Government contained a specific focus on the mental health of women, babies and their families accompanied by an investment of £50m over 4 years. The Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board has been established to provide oversight of this investment and to roll out service provision across statutory and third sector services.

Perinatal Mental Health services across Scotland continued throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and were prioritised for access to Near Me, a secure online platform for providing services. To help support parents, we invested £240,000 in providing access to the Solihull Online programme which is aimed at improving parent-child relationships, managing problematic behaviour and promoting positive mental health. This includes a postnatal course on ‘Understanding Your Baby’ as well as a course for the antenatal period. Information regarding mental health and emotional wellbeing was provided through Parent Club throughout the pandemic. Additionally the Inspiring Scotland Perinatal and Infant Mental Health service directory provides signposting for third sector services across Scotland.

The two Mother Baby Units in Scotland (Leverndale and St Johns) are regionally managed but provide support to all mothers across Scotland. Access to these units is based on need and clinical judgement, rather than geography. The Scottish Government expects that where admission to an inpatient unit is required, that women and infants will be admitted appropriately, in line with clinical judgement and the wishes of the patient.

In 2019-20 and 2020-21 we have invested £750,000 across both Mother Baby Units to improve the experience of care for women in need of intensive support. This funding aims to improve services in line with the recommendations based on the Delivering Effective Services report by the Perinatal Mental Health Managed Clinical Network.

We have also invested £30,000 in the new Mother Baby Unit Family Fund which will provide a contribution to the expenses incurred by partners when travelling to visit a mother and baby receiving care. Making it easier for whole family care to be provided.

We are also in the process of providing funding to every health board in Scotland to increase their specialist Community Perinatal Mental Health services. This builds upon initial investment of £80,000 in the North of Scotland in 2019/20 to support the initial development of community services. We are working with Grampian, Highland, Orkney and Shetland and are providing further funding to create services which support the needs of women across these areas.

In addition, funding has also been offered to support Maternity/Neonatal Psychological Interventions services and to develop Infant Mental Health services. We expect these services to be in place by the end of this year.