³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

It is for Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to govern, plan and resource adult palliative care in their areas, using the delegated budgets under their control, to meet the needs of their local populations.

Evidence gathered to support the development of the draft palliative care strategy shows that, for people living and dying at home, general practitioners (GPs) and district nurses have important and valued roles providing ongoing relationships, care of the whole person and family, broad expertise and coordination of care. These relationships are particularly important in rural and island communities. The actions set out in the draft palliative care strategy seeks to support IJBs ensure equitable access to palliative care in their areas.

There is no definition of, and thus no data collected for, waiting times for community optometry services, whether urban or rural.

However, we are working closely with the three island Health Boards to resolve some local access issues.

The Scottish Government has not received correspondence with regards waiting times in Aberdeenshire.

The Scottish Government continues to support community pharmacies, including rural pharmacies, by delivering the largest ever increase to funding two years in a row. This has delivered a total of £422 million in guaranteed funding for community pharmacies across Scotland in this financial year.

In addition, there is a Guaranteed Minimum Target Income for essential small pharmacies, most of which are rural, and a pharmaceutical needs weighting payment which acknowledges both demographics and deprivation- associated with a patient’s postcode. Both of these measures help support rural pharmacies by ensuring they are not disadvantaged because of their location.

When community pharmacies close or transfer ownership this is a business decision taken by the community pharmacy owner. The Scottish Government has not undertaken an impact assessment on closures. Health Boards are the bodies responsible for ensuring that there is adequate provision of NHS pharmaceutical services within their area.

The First Minister and myself have had – and continue to have – positive discussions with the UK Government on devolved benefits and wider Scottish Government priorities, including where needed the provision of relevant data to support policy development and delivery.

I wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 16 December to set out specific data sharing requirements in relation to mitigation of the two-child cap. While no formal response has yet been received, Scottish Government and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officials are holding ongoing productive discussions.

More widely, we already receive necessary data from the DWP to make payments to eligible people in Scotland for Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Grant and other benefits and to support the ongoing benefit delivery. Other data, including in relation to the number of households in Scotland impacted by reserved benefits and universal credit claimants in Scotland, is publicly available from the DWP.

The Scottish Government is pleased to note that The latest published statistics show that there are higher uptake rates for breast, bowel and cervical screening within health boards which have a higher proportion of rural or island populations. Nonetheless, we recognise the particular challenges people living in those communities may face in accessing preventative health services, and we are working hard to overcome these.

Initiatives supporting access to preventative health services in rural and island areas include:

• a dedicated financial support scheme to cover travel costs for eligible patients and their authorised escorts, which focuses on those on low incomes or living in the highlands and islands. In addition, Health Boards also have the discretion to reimburse patient travel expenses where it is viewed to be an extension of treatment costs and deemed to be clinically necessary. This allows flexibility within the schemes for Boards to provide support to those who need it but would not otherwise qualify.
• Funding for Scottish Ambulance Service mobile vaccination units. These are available to every Health Board across all vaccination programmes and can be used to reach those in rural areas.
• 21 mobile screening units deployed in the breast screening programme across Scotland to minimise travel for all patients.
• Targeted outreach through Detect Cancer Early roadshows, which visited communities right across Scotland, including those in rural areas, in March 2024 to reinforce key preventative messages.

In addition, the National Equity in Screening Strategy, which was published in June 2023, is designed to address inequalities and ensure equitable access for all eligible screening participants. The Scottish Government is also looking to improve our understanding of the experience of people with cancer living in rural and island communities. Examples include an independent evaluation of their access to cancer care services, and a research programme on rural healthcare funded by the Chief Scientist Office.

Please find below, the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) number of social media managers currently employed within the Communications division and the associated cost.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-26921 on 29 April 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access well-coordinated, timely and high-quality palliative care, care around dying and bereavement support regardless of geographical location.

As part of the development of the Scottish Government’s draft strategy, ‘Palliative Care Matters for All’, the Strategy Steering Group and a number of expert working groups carried out surveys to map palliative care delivery across Scotland, including in rural and island communities. This report can be accessed at

This work has been helpful in providing a clearer picture of the delivery and accessibility of palliative care services and support across Scotland and has helped to inform the actions set out in the draft strategy. The final palliative care strategy is due to published later this year.

It is for Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to govern, plan and resource adult palliative care in their areas, using the delegated budgets under their control, to meet the needs of their local populations.

The Scottish Government recognises that whilst public health awareness campaigns in relation to alcohol can be helpful to provide additional information to the public, evidence is clear that the most effective method of reducing alcohol consumption is tackling the affordability, availability and attractiveness of alcohol. This is in line with World Health Organization guidance.

The Scottish Government’s Alcohol Framework set out a commitment to engage in a national social marketing campaign to increase public awareness of the UK CMOs’ guidelines on alcohol consumption. The Count 14 materials and unit calculator continue to be hosted to support members of the public to increase awareness of how to calculate units of alcohol and materials continue to be accessible for health boards and Alcohol and Drug Partnerships locally.

An evaluation of the Count 14 campaign found that: “the campaign has made a positive impact on increasing awareness and understanding of the UK CMOs' low-risk drinking guidelines in Scotland.”

It is for Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to govern, plan and resource adult palliative care in their areas, using the delegated budgets under their control, to meet the needs of their local populations.

Evidence gathered to support the development of the draft palliative care strategy shows that, for people living and dying at home, general practitioners (GPs) and district nurses have important and valued roles providing ongoing relationships, care of the whole person and family, broad expertise and coordination of care. These relationships are particularly important in remote and rural communities. The actions set out in the draft palliative care strategy seeks to support IJBs ensure equitable access to palliative care in their areas.