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A range of new national data collection has been undertaken to inform our response to COVID19. This is addition to a wide range of Health Board level data collection, including some on secondary breast cancer.

There is work ongoing to develop systems for the routine collection of secondary cancer data, including secondary breast cancer. However, validation of these systems would require clinical time that we need to be focussed on seeing patients as we continue to prioritise cancer in the NHS. Any national system would produce results after several years, so is on a longer timeframe than the cancer recovery plan.

This will not affect a range of new actions in the plan, which responds to input we have received from patients, and representatives such as Breast Cancer Now. We will include specific national actions to address concerns raised by people with secondary breast cancer about being able to easily access the NHS again after treatment.

The plan will also include other key actions to improve patients’ experience of and access to cancer services throughout Scotland. We anticipate that many of these will have specific positive impacts for people with secondary breast cancer.

The Scottish Government provides funding for the independent cinema sector though Screen Scotland, the dedicated public sector agency for the film and television industry in Scotland.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scottish Government recognised the impact on independent cinema and provided £3.5 million of support through the Independent Cinema Recovery and Resilience fund, administered and delivered by Screen Scotland. This will provide vital support to 30 fixed venues, 2 touring cinemas in Scotland.

Throughout the year, Screen Scotland operates a number of support schemes for independent cinema. Since August 2019 we have provided £1,310,207 to 46 organisations Most recently on 30 June 2020, Screen Scotland announced £491,285 funding to 24 organisations from the Cinema Equipment Fund. This funding will be used to improve the cinema going experience in rural areas throughout Scotland giving more people access to the cinema, including a travelling yurt cinema group and mobile cinema equipment for 11 Hebridean islands.

For 2018-21 Screen Scotland provided over £12 million of Regularly Funded Organisation (RFO) funding to 9 independent cinemas including the Centre for the Moving Image, Glasgow Film, Regional Screen Scotland and Alchemy Film Festival.

Independent cinemas have also benefited from Film Festivals funding, Distribution and Exhibition funding and Targeted Audience Development funds. These funds have allowed independent cinemas to improve film festivals taking place at their venues, and they recently supported the replacement of the Screen Machine's tractor and the Drive-In cinema initiative delivered by INDY Cinema Group in partnership with local cinemas.

Detail on mental health spending and the NHS budget is made available each year as part of the annual NHS Costs Book publication and the Scottish Budget.

The Scottish Government is determined to work to support the festivals in the face of the 2020 festival cancellations. Since COVID-19 restrictions have been in place, we have worked closely with our festival partners and Creative Scotland to explore ways to strengthen festival resilience, including ensuring that as many existing commitments with artists and freelancers as possible are honoured.

To achieve this, at the start of the pandemic we immediately repurposed £3m from our PLACE and EXPO major festival funding schemes. Since then, all festivals, including the Edinburgh festivals, have been able to apply for the Pivotal Enterprise Recovery Fund, and those that did not apply for Pivotal Enterprise Recovery Fund were able to apply for the Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund. The Edinburgh International Film Festival have also been able to access support via the Independent Cinema Recovery and Resilience Fund.

In addition, the Scottish Government provided a £1m interest-free loan to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society to mitigate the significant losses incurred as a result of this year’s festival not going ahead as planned. Furthermore, the artists and freelancers who rely on festivals for their careers and livelihoods have been able to access funding via: Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund, Grassroots Music Venue Stabilisation Fund, Youth Arts Fund, Bridging Bursaries Fund, Sectoral Hardship Fund, Hardship Fund for Creative Freelancers, and an enhanced Creative Scotland Sustaining Creative Development Open Fund.

The Scottish Government, Creative Scotland and our festival partners continue to work together to provide additional support measures that can be offered to our festivals and artists to ensure that we can continue to enjoy our vibrant and world-class cultural sector once it is safe to do so.

Prior to 2008-09 the grant for flood protection was allocated to approved projects on a project-by-project basis and paid to local authorities as those projects progressed. From 2008-09 a number of ring-fenced grants, including the Flood Prevention and Coast Protection grant, were rolled up into a single General Capital Grant. However, the following flood protection schemes continued to receive funding as the Scottish Government had approved them prior to 2008.

Reporting of data on the implementation of the extension of free personal care to under 65s has been temporarily postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the redirection of Scottish Government and Local Authority resources to the pandemic response. We will recommence collection of returns as soon as resources can be freed up for non-COVID related data returns. We will publish this information once we have been able to capture and verify a full year’s information from Local Authorities. This is unlikely to happen before 2022.

We are continuing to work with Health Boards throughout the COVID19 pandemic and beyond to ensure patients are seen and treated based on their clinical priority. Guidance and direction has been provided to boards to help prioritise cancer, including all breast cancer treatments, throughout the pandemic and the Framework for the Recovery of Cancer Surgery continues to be implemented across Scotland.

NHS Scotland's staffing levels are at a record high, with 16,300 more whole time equivalent staff members working in our NHS under this Government.

To meet projected future requirements, we are creating an estimated 2,600 extra nurse and midwifery training places over this parliament as part of a wider package of measures to accelerate the supply of newly qualified nurses and midwives.

In December, we published the first Integrated National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan in the UK. Developed in partnership with COSLA, the Integrated Plan sets out how health and social care services will meet growing demand to ensure we have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills, across health and social care services.

To support GPs in referring patients on an Urgent Suspicion of Cancer pathway, including Breast, the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer was updated and disseminated in January 2019.

These guidelines are applicable to patients who have already received a diagnosis of breast cancer who may have a recurrence or secondary cancer and a full case history should always be considered.

Patient records also highlight previous cancer diagnoses, for GPs to be alert to potential recurrence.

We will continue to work with our third sector partners to establish whether any further opportunities can be taken to increase GP awareness.