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The Scottish Government regularly holds cross-portfolio meetings to discuss matters related to public health. The overall governance for cross-portfolio engagement on population health and its drivers is the Care and Wellbeing Portfolio. The most recent cross portfolio meeting under this governance was the Place and Wellbeing Programme Board (which sits within the Care and Wellbeing Portfolio) which last met on 7 December. Matters discussed included progress on how health and social care bodies can operate as effective anchor institutions and contribute to improved public health, as part of the wider community wealth building agenda.

The Care and Wellbeing Portfolio Board, which provides oversight of a portfolio of work to improve population health; address inequalities and improve system sustainability, last met on 26 July 2023.

At that meeting the Board considered joint work across Economy/Health and Social Care Portfolios and Public Health Scotland on economic inactivity and the impact it has on Scotland’s economy and population health. The Board also discussed the Verity House Agreement and the shared priorities of tackling poverty, transforming our economy through a just transition to deliver net zero and, delivering sustainable, person-centred public services. 

The Board next meets on the 24 January 2024 and is scheduled to consider long term planning around population health.

Additionally, the Scottish Government has regular cross-portfolio meetings about wider determinants that contribute to improving public health - including the Tackling Child Poverty Programme Board, the Fair Work Oversight Group and the Ministerial Population Taskforce.

We understand there is a role for private healthcare in delivering planned care however, the Scottish Government is absolutely committed to keeping our NHS true to its founding principles and providing the best value for the people in Scotland. We have invested in nursing and midwifery staffing, which already at a record high has increased further by 1.6% from September 2022 to 65,269.8 WTE. The Allied Health Professional workforce (excluding paramedics) has seen similar growth to 11,857.7 WTE in September 2023, representing a 3.6% increase since last year.

The Scottish Government does not hold information about the number of NHS Scotland staff who may have left their position to take up alternative employment in the private healthcare sector.

Text messages have been used routinely and positively for many years in NHS Scotland. Scottish Government’s Information and Risk Assurance Team has been working extensively with Health Boards and other NHS delivery partners in assessing the proportionality of using text messages for different purposes, including appointment reminders, medication adherence, health education, and remote monitoring.

The benefits often identified across different NHS organisations include reduction in non-attendance, improved patient engagement, increased adherence to treatment plans, and cost-effectiveness. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have previously stressed the importance of wording text messages appropriately and advice was given during the COVID-19 pandemic on messages not adding unnecessary confusion and being easy to read. We also recognise that the use of text messages is limited by critical privacy and security requirements and potential for misinterpretation.

The national Connect Me programme has been well received in allowing patients to report information like blood pressure readings via text message to receive feedback based on their condition. Alongside web and mobile app access, this importantly supports public choice in how they engage with NHS services whilst reducing the need for unnecessary appointments.

We are fully committed to taking action to support the recommendations of the Alternative Pathways to Primary care and to our key aim of ensuring people can access the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

In particular, since 2018, we have significantly expanded the multi-disciplinary primary care workforce, with total staff of 4731 WTE working in multi-disciplinary services including physiotherapy, pharmacy and phlebotomy, at March 2023.

There was an increase of 518 WTE staff overall between March 2022 and March 2023, giving the average practice access to more than 5 multi-disciplinary team members.

However, recognising that implementation gaps remain, we are now also introducing an additional ‘phased investment programme’ working with a small number of areas to demonstrate what a model of full multi-disciplinary team implementation can look like in practice, over an initial 18 month period.

The findings from this work will inform a long-term Scottish Government investment for all areas.

There has been no national formal assessment of contraceptive education however the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people across Scotland have timely access to contraception, and to information which allows them to make informed decisions about their own sexual and reproductive health. This is recognised as a priority in our recently published Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus (SHBBV) Action Plan, and we have allocated multi-year funding to a range of projects in both community and NHS settings that will help to deliver this goal. The projects include developing new information resources, such as a national sexual health microsite on NHS Inform, as well as supporting staff training and development around contraception. Details of these projects were published alongside the SHBBV Action Plan on 28 November 2023.

The Scottish Government’s Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) Short Life Working Group meets quarterly and includes representation from midwifery, including the Royal College of Midwives.

We are working with the Scottish Postpartum Contraception Network (SPCN), which is a multidisciplinary group of healthcare professionals including midwifery, obstetrics, sexual health, pharmacy, public health and clinical researchers. Since 2022, the Scottish Government has funded SPCN’s work on expanding access to postpartum contraception (including LARC) across Scotland. An additional £101,000 (over 3 years) has recently been allocated to SPCN to deliver a project focused on developing training and information resources, and improving equity of access to postpartum LARC.

Increasing the availability of long acting reversible contraception (LARC) is identified as a priority in both the Women’s Health Plan (2021) and our recently published Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Action Plan. The Scottish Government is committed to working with Health Boards and the Women's Health Champion to improve access to LARC.

Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS 24 currently hold that information due to the anonymous nature of NHS inform which doesn’t ask for, or collect, any personal information.

However, working with NHS 24 we are in the process of developing a formal review of NHS inform, recognising it as a national asset that is currently visited over 10 million times per month to ensure that it continues to meet future requirements and continues to support improved choice and access to services.

As part of this review work, we will engage with the public and take an evidence-based approach and commence a robust Equality Impact Assessment to ensure the service is inclusive.

Tackling health inequalities and improving population health remain clear, ongoing aims of the Scottish Government, that directly support our cross cutting missions of Equality, Opportunity and Community. We continue to pursue and promote a “health in all policies” approach as we recognise the building blocks of good health require concentrated action across government to maximise income and address socio-economic factors.

We are making progress and have prioritised tackling key drivers for poor health, including poverty and deprivation through a range of measures. This includes investment of £3bn across a range of programmes to support low income households, delivering the Scottish Child Payment, delivering Best Start Bright Futures to tackle child poverty, free school meals and the council tax reduction scheme. We are also delivering Community Link Workers and Welfare Rights Advisors to offer advice on housing, social security and employability issues within GP practices across our rural and deprived communities.

We are also taking forward work to support and encourage positive health behaviours and assuring the impact of our interventions are appropriately considered. This includes conducting Health Inequality Impact Assessments across our Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, our Alcohol Framework and any future policy planning as we implement our Tobacco and Vaping Framework.

The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with its partners, including Public Health Scotland, at a national and local level to explore ways to drive improvements in health and embed health considerations within wider future policy making. Over the coming months, we will be working closely with our partners across the health and social care system, local authorities and wider stakeholders to develop long term planning for population health and integrated health and social care services.

The Scottish Government is aware that the National Supply Disruption Service (NSDR) has been managing a shortage of 10-year copper coils since June, which affected multiple suppliers and was due to a manufacturer running short of copper. Alternative devices are available, including an alternative 10-year and 5- year copper coil. The NSDR advise that production of the 10 year coil has now resumed.

Advice to clinicians was published by the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) and can be found here: