- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that digital skills are regarded as core skills for graduates who are planning to work within health and social care.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14158 on 3 February 2023. 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 .
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done with universities and colleges to prepare students for a digitally-enabled health and care environment.
Answer
The Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council, in partnership with the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI), has been working for a number of years to engage with universities and colleges to shape the future workforce for the digital health and care sector. This includes work with Skills Development Scotland, and the FUTUREquipped project with Scotland's colleges:
We will continue to collaborate with partners to identify opportunities to accelerate new entrants into health and care roles. This will involve planning a programme with schools, colleges and universities to ensure curricula prepares students for a digitally enabled health and care sector.
This complements existing work by education providers to ensure curricula prepares students in higher and further education for a modern working environment and is all part of the wider cross sector ‘Digitally-Enabled Workforce’ Programme managed and run by NHS National Education for Scotland, on behalf of the Scottish Government and partners.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2023
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 9 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress towards the launch of the Deposit Return Scheme.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 9 February 2023
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13514 by Maree Todd on 16 January 2023, when it anticipates the Menopause and Menstrual Health Policy Working Group will have developed a menopause and menstrual health workplace policy for NHS Scotland.
Answer
This is a medium term commitment in the Women’s Health Plan, due for delivery by September 2024 at the latest. We are on track to meet this delivery date. An expert working group has been established and we are in the process of gathering evidence to inform the policy.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on artificial intelligence within health and social care since 2017, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The Scottish Government continues to consider the use of Artificial Intelligence in health and social care through and the forthcoming Data Strategy for Health and Social Care.
As the implementation of Artificial Intelligence technologies often rely on appropriate use of allocated funding to NHS boards, we do not hold information centrally on the amount specifically spent on Artificial Intelligence within health and social care.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13688 by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023, whether it will provide a list of the 35 projects, broken down by (a) the work that each project completed as a result of the funding, (b) how much funding each project was awarded and (c) the area in which each project is based.
Answer
Details of the projects funded through the Neurological Framework can be found on the following page: . As projects reach completion, they are asked to submit a final report which details the outcomes achieved. These reports will be made available on this page in due course.
The Scottish Government, alongside the Neurological Alliance of Scotland, are hosting a series of practice-sharing sessions to help to showcase and promote innovative work undertaken by the funded projects. The first of these sessions were held in December 2022 and recordings of these initial three sessions can be viewed here: . Further sessions are currently being planned, to be held on 01 and 08 March 2023.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent to improve the (a) security capabilities and (b) resilience of its health and social care services’ digital systems.
Answer
The Scottish Government conducts audits of Health Boards considered to be operators of essential services to obtain compliance assurance. From October 2021 – December 2022 we have spent £220,498. The Scottish Government has entered a new agreement for the delivery of audits, with up to £900,000 reserved for a third party to conduct audits over the next six years.
In addition, the Scottish Government has established the Cyber Centre of Excellence to enhance its response to security threats. For 2021-2022 the total spend was £420,000.
For further information on the Cyber Centre of Excellence and the security benefits of Microsoft Office 365, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14138 on 2 February 2023. 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 .
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to further embed Office 365 across the health and care system.
Answer
Office 365 is already widely embedded across health and care with over 160,000 staff enabled to use the latest Microsoft Office software. A key part of this is a single tenancy agreement for NHS Scotland that supports a once for Scotland approach. Use of Office 365 by social care staff is the responsibility of local authorities.
In relation to health and care we have established the M365 Cross-Organisation Collaboration programme which is making it easier for health and social care staff to collaborate and share information. Early benefits from this programme include increased efficiency and improved working experience. The rollout of Phase 1 functionality across Scotland is underway, following successful integrations between NHS and Local Authorities.
We have also been working closely with NHS Education for Scotland to ensure ongoing training on Office 365 is provided to health and care colleagues.
Further information is set out in the annual delivery plan for digital health & care (see ).
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how it is (a) promoting and (b) facilitating appropriate, safe and secure access to (i) clinical, (ii) biomedical, (iii) care and (iv) other data for approved research, development, and innovation in the public interest.
Answer
The Scottish Government and COSLA are developing a Data Strategy for Health and Social Care due for publication this year. In advance of this Strategy, the Scottish Government recently funded and launched ( RDS) to help fulfil this commitment. The launch of RDS is a key step in achieving our goal to support research and innovation as is set out in the forthcoming Data Strategy for Health and Social Care.
The Data Strategy will examine and bring clarity on eight priority areas: Data Access, Ethical Approaches to Data, Protecting and Sharing Data, Supporting Research and Innovation, Creating Insights from Data, Information Standards and Interoperability, Talent and Culture and Technology and Infrastructure.
The Strategy will set out commitments and deliverables for each priority area, this will include:
- facilitating safe and secure access to health and social care data for research, industry and innovation purposes,
- enabling staff to have greater access to and make better use of health and social care data. They will also outline how we can generate better insight from data to improve delivery of services and inform strategic planning,
- developing and supporting staff to have the essential data skills to understand and make better use of data and data driven tools.
- articulating the deliverables which are inextricably linked to infrastructure, architecture and hosting, in addition to the actions set out in the 2022-23 DHAC Delivery Plan.
Through the course of developing the Data Strategy the Scottish Government has undertaken a wide range of engagement with professionals and the public. This includes a formal consultation alongside bespoke public engagement seeking their views on access to data amongst other topics. The can be view on gov.scot. can be view on our website.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it is doing to develop digital services in support of those in receipt of care at home.
Answer
Scottish Government is doing a range of things to support care at home. Delivery is ongoing, as set out in the annual delivery plan for Digital Health & Care (see ). An update will be published later this year with delivery priorities for 2023/24, and will include an overview of progress against existing commitments.
In addition, key work is being taken forward through the digital telecare programme, being led by Local Government Digital Office (LGDO), to safely transition over 180,000 users of telecare in Scotland from analogue to digital telephony connections. This offers significant opportunities to look to further develop this service with more advanced technologies and better use of data. This has, to date, included the development of key resources for local areas through a developed digital telecare playbook.
As well as delivery aims set out in the healthcare framework for care homes - My Health, My Care, My Home - healthcare framework for adults living in care homes - gov.scot ( ), further work is being taken forward through the national Technology Enabled Care (TEC) programme’s digital in social care activity -
